HuggyU2

This is NOT the case in the U-2.

I've posted this before but my last PT test was a month before I turned 49 or 50. One of my best friends was in the group and he was 47. There was a Captain around 31 and 6 enlisted from around 20-28. I figured I'd get crushed since I'm not Joe Workout. As it turns out, I ran the 1.5 in about 10:20, with my bud about a 10:40. The last 2-3 were simply pathetic. Of course, being the sensitive guys we are (you U-2 guys know the other person... Dingle), we heckled everyone with jeers of "Old guys rule!!". Frankly, though, it was sad to see. Our youth are not in really good shape. (epilogue: after we were done, we went to the bar and drank. Old guys do rule...)

Beale was named after a Navy Lieutenant that died 10 years before the Wright Brothers historic flight. He even graduated from the precursor to Annapolis. I will be surprised if the Beale name sticks.

True or not, that's pretty much been USAF lore since at least the early 80's (when I first heard it).

Are you in Northern CA?

Anyone care to wager how long it takes for a proposal to rename Beale to Yeager AFB to hit Congress?

Too bad it is during the Covid ridiculousness. It will certainly impact the magnitude of the ceremonies and memorials to him.

I am amazed she had the cajones to give a "pep talk" to the team. Had she been a military brat, maybe she would have known about never passing up the opportunity to keep your cake hole shut until you've been around the squadron for a while.

Unbelievably shocking and unexpected. How dare they!! https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20201207-iran-centrifuge-plan-alarms-european-trio What should be done????

Yes, looking forward to it. The pilot doing the first flight is a former Beale U-2 Driver. Great guy, great pilot.

NASA has been doing a lot of interesting sonic boom research... all leading to this demonstrator. It looks like it might be flying in 2021. https://www.lockheedmartin.com/en-us/products/quesst.html https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/lowboom/team The pilot doing the first flight says you cannot see out of cockpit: you land it watching a camera image on an MFD.

I recall a great Eagle HUD video taken by Nick Kehoe (later retired as a 3-star) when he got disoriented over the Atlantic and pull 12 G's to avoid hitting the water. When you see someone literally pull for their life, it makes a point. I remember it well.

When did USAF fighter/attack quit flying night overheads?

I have! Many times. But Beale has a 12,000 runway so no factor, even in the T-38. That said, the F-16 mishap doesn't appear to be a duckunder, but rather a misinterpretation of the lighting that he saw. And as stated elsewhere, the F-35 Class A seems to be more a function of poor decision making in that he didn't go around on final when he had problems, long before he crossed the runway threshold (although the Board President didn't address that issue... shockingly, IMO). "Thing on the thing on the thing"... my gut feeling tells me that letting UPT students land the T-38 30% of the time without the HUD might have some benefits. But what the fuck do I know? I had a pretty long post planned about "admin" and such during the briefing. Having edited it down, I'll tell you this: one of my two best friends in UPT died 7 months after we got our wings in a landing accident. In my 34 years since that date, it seems an inordinate number of pilots have Class A'd aircraft on approaches and landings. Fighters, bombers, heavies, trainers... none are immune. "Admin" or not, if you fuck it up, it will allow the ChiCom's to chalk up a kill

I'm sure it was an article written by Kit Darby,... ...the eternal optimist when it comes to pilot hiring.

Hacker, I know you well enough to know that's a rhetorical question... and you know the answer better than most. I feel your frustration. I wish more people like you were still in charge. I heard an amazing story today... albeit no life-threatening consequences... of the former CoS (Welsh) and the Commandant of Air War College arguing in front of everyone in attendance... completely unable to take responsibility for an issue they decided to push on to the Majors in attendance to solve.

The C-21 pilots used to do that regularly. A great deal if you can pull it off.

You have a valid point. I'll pay up when I'm in the bar on Monday.

Better timing control than some jets I've seen. Prozac, are you saying that's Doc Fogelsong?

Thank you! You've made my point. "These are different", and the mission planning can bring in other factors that you won't encounter in Afghanistan. To include not having GPS coordinates for a flyover. Even if you're a shit-hot bomb dropper, you'll probably never drop a bomb in LAX's Class B Airspace... but you will need to account for some other things during the multitude of phone calls you'll have with SoCal approach if you're going to do a flyover without getting violated.

As an airshow announcer, I've got a fool-proof method for ensuring the flyovers are on time at my airshows. It's so easy, even a fighter pilot can hit the TOT.

Sure they are. Here's an easy flyover by some of your Hornet buddies using GPS, INS, and all sorts of cool fighter shit... and still over 10 seconds late. But at least they get style points for going slower than I can do in a Cirrus. OBTW, they both got FENAB'd (FEB, in AF speak) and never flew Navy jets again. The guy I know fortunately landed on his feet and has a great flying gig. The other guy got a seriously bad deal, and I don't know what happened to him after the Navy.

It certainly can be. One of the more difficult flyovers I led was for 2008 Air Force Week in LA. We held over the Rose Bowl. Because of LAX airspace, our initial inbound heading was roughly south, with a pylon turn to the west around downtown IVO East Los Angeles, for a westerly run in. Although the video looks like it is bright, it wasn't. In fact it was post sunset (we had a waiver). The downtown lights were very bright, and the Coliseum lights are pointed down and in, and don't show up until the last portion of the run in. Staying below LA's Class B with the huge amount of lighting in the area added to the difficulty. This was 12 years ago, and yes, GPS existed. But due to the non-linear IP-to-target run, the intricacies of SoCal approach and the potential flex of the Anthem, it was quite dynamic. And we are flying the A-model, not the C-model with whatever bells, whistles and HUD it has. We did extensive route study, timing contingencies, etc... and we trained like it was a "GPS-degraded environment". I suppose we could have laid down 99 waypoints on the curvilinear route we flew... but we didn't. We used a Sectional, LA TAC chart, and some aerial photos. Once the flyover was done, due to LAX congestion, we managed to get sequenced into the LAX traffic flow, did 2 night wing landings, well after sunset, in black jets, to 25L. Everybody involved in the evolution, including an F-16 pilot, TPS graduate, and a lot of high-time instructors, felt a good sense of accomplishment. The intricacies of completing the flyover included getting the formation to EDW, and getting the jets safely on the ground at LAX's FBO. We knew we were going to break a number of rules to get it done, and we got the waivers from HQ so we could do it. ALL OF THAT COORDINATION is part of making it successful... not just the last 10 miles of the run-in. Anyone can scoff doing flyovers if you want. And maybe my geekery combined with the fact I don't drop bombs gives me no "real world relevance". But I've done shitloads over the years and found ways to challenge myself on all of them. And I'm a better pilot for it.

To be clear, they must all be on the SAF/PA approved list. I've seen very few flyovers "directed from above". Normally, they are put on the SAF/PA list and units volunteer. If no one volunteers, they usually don't get flown. Yes, there are exceptions.

I'll pass. I didn't know the World Series was ongoing until they had played Game 3. I simply do not give two shits. When does the NFL season start?