HuggyU2

And it should. The enemy mocks us. What will be our response?

On one hand, we have American military shoot and kill two threats inside the Kabul airport during the massive crowd rush. Situation controlled, it's a combat zone, move on. On the other hand, four people die from their own actions that put a $300,000,000 military/national asset at significant risk... and we have flag officers, their staff, "safety" offices and OSI all spending time and taxpayer dollars trying to figure out what happened?

“The Afghan Security Forces have the capacity to sufficiently fight and defend their country…” - Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, July 21, 2021.

Those morons can't maintain a treadmill in the gym. As soon as that helo goes Code 3, it will be a static display.

I'll never go back to that shit hole. But I might make a brief exception for this.

Eddie's death made a pretty big impact on the airshow community, and the safety standards for airshows. There are even a few groups that you can hire for your show that are a rapid response team dedicated to getting to the crash site very fast.

Yep. I posted that a little after midnight on 29 March (a Saturday). Later that day, the new-hires that were in the class starting 3 March (one is a friend of mine) got the notification that their class was cancelled... and that's when the music stopped. Waited for 14 months to start... but at least it didn't affect his line number!

I've spent a fair amount of time around the airshow circuit, with pilots that perform with what many of us would consider "reduced margins". When things don't seem right... when you're not "on your game"... when you don't feel you have the ability to safely perform a demanding routine and the consequences are significant... you step back and say "today, I will stand down.". I've done it myself in the airshow industry... and I (and many of us here) have done it in our day-to-day operations with extremely expensive tax-payer-bought gov't aircraft. If someone at Red Flag exceeds RM tolerances and says "not today, folks", are they ridiculed? I really don't know much about Biles, gymnastics, Olympics sports... and I really don't care. But having watched the stuff she does, it is highly dangerous/risky. If she isn't on her game, she would be foolish to continue and risk a serious injury. Most of us here have impressed on our kids that they must "complete what they start". They don't want to play soccer one weekend when they would prefer to go to the zoo... well, you made a commitment. Instilling in them a sense of responsibility to the team is a far cry from insisting that they push through something extreme/dangerous when they KNOW they cannot succeed. If Ms Biles says she isn't up to performing the crazy shit she does... that less than 100 people out of 7,000,000,000 on the Earth can do... then, she should walk. And give the middle finger to anyone who objects.

Love watching her hair react to Toro going 'sonic.

Click on the picture to open the link.

Yes, it's a single flight with a drop in. I think it is roughly a 9 hour sortie. Night show was Rolex'd to tonight because of WX, but the SOS Tent and Acee Deucey ended up being a lot of fun. You can't go long without running into someone you know. The Oshkosh locals are great hosts.

Should be a great time. The people at Oshkosh generally aren't the woke, virtual signaling part of the American public. Looking forward to getting back after being gone for a few years.

Yes. Snort died in his L-1019 up in Lewiston. Got the word from my warbird / airshow buds. He was heading back to Ft Snort when he crashed. Quite the character, and there are a lot of opinions about him. But Snort was part of the dying breed of old school fighter pilots that the current military really doesn't want around much anymore. My Tomcat buds that flew with him and worked for him think the world of him. Even the ones that didn't care for him! The fact he flew the way he did, and was able to live as long as he did... well, that's quite a feat. Snort was a Brother in Arms, and I raise a glass for him tonight. edit: for those not aware, Snort was the pilot of the famous knife-edge Tomcat pass. https://theaviationgeekclub.com/the-story-and-video-behind-dale-snort-snodgrass-legendary-super-low-banana-pass/

I've met a number of Navs... and even one Flight Surgeon... that would have made excellent SQ/CC's had the AF decided to actually let them command a single-seat flying squadron.

Fired? Barely. He became Director of Current Ops for the Depity CoS for Ops.

Good opinion piece on The Article. https://dragonladytoday.com/2021/07/11/u-2-retirement-here-we-go-again/

And he was flown to space by a U-2 Pilot who had already been to space.

I was at Bagram in 2011-2012 for my 13-month sentence to the MC-12 (a mess of a program that was mismanaged, with poor leadership, poor training, and a huge range of pilot abilities: incredibly shitty, to some of the best tactical minds and pilots I've ever met). Do y'all remember the Afghan guy that served ice cream in the chow hall? That guy looked like he had seen some violence, and the hatred in his eyes was intense. I always thought he would find a way to grab someone's weapon and open fire. I looked him in the eyes every time I left, if he was working. I've ram-dumped nearly all of the time I spent at Bagram. It's like a hazy dream now. What a mess.

I never considered the govt of Afghanistan our "allies". AMF's.

Anything you can link to? Or just stern words flowing down from "leadership"?

In the 11 week window of 11 May - 27 July, United will bring in 451 new pilots.

Speaking of "WTF"... Is there any legitimacy to the "Drag Queen show" at Nellis AFB a few days ago?

Your Weekend U-2 History & Triva... 20 June 1956 was the date of U-2 Mission 2003... the very first U-2 operational flight. Nine days earlier, Det A was opened at Wiesbaden Air Base near Frankfurt. Although the West Germans approved a Soviet overflight, Eisenhower wouldn't approve it because the USAF Chief of Staff was visiting Russia at the time. That would have been a bit rude... and pretty balsy. But, U-2 pilot Carl Overstreet, the 13th pilot to fly the jet, was allowed to enter East German and Czechoslovakian airspace, right where the borders of East German, West Germany, and Czechoslovakia came together, in thehops that the commie radars wouldn't pass off anything they saw. It worked! Overstreet then turned north and flew over every major city in Poland before backtracking via Prague. Success! The mission used wet film and SIGINT. The film was immediately flown back to the US and developed by Eastman Kodak in Rochester NY and the results of the new A-2 camera were impressive. It used three 24" focal length lenses to get a 36 mile wide swath of earth. Iron men, wooden ships. It was a different era, for sure.

I'm probably the only person that will state this... but of the 737, 757, 767, and 777, I found the 757 the least enjoyable to fly.

Good luck. That's not going to be an easy task. March ARB just closed their Aero Club. It had been in existence for 67 years.