HuggyU2

They want my knowledge and experience? Then make the compensation enough that I will be enticed FUPM.

Are you and I in the same Air Force?

Still many to be hired. But be realistic. Here's an interesting stat: A U-2 Brother was hired at UAL 3 years ago. He is 5,250 junior to me. And was hired over 21 years after I was. The pilot 5,250 junior to him? Hired about 30 months after him. There is a HUGE wave in front of you at UAL if you decide to work here. I was hired in a similar climate (I'll probably be 23+ years before I can hold WB cappy). It is what it is, however it doesn't mean you cannot have a successful career. But be realistic.

Yeah well I for one am glad to see it slow down. Now, the HR idiots will hopefully be discouraged from hiring bottom-of-the-barrel pilots to "out hire" their competitors.

Do families of those who were drafted years ago get reparations?

LOL, wut??

It was well known when Igor to the UK in '90. I have to believe some enterprising person can buy it for pennies on the pound, and bring it back.

Would be nice. HB is a great show! I'll be there though... in the chalet with a cocktail in my hand.

Update: the A-37 will be flying the Hill AFB Airshow 29-30 June. We are trying to work it so it goes to the static area when it isn't flying. It's a waste to leave it in the non-public Hot Pit. Mark is the other pilot and he does all of the demo flying. I'm hoping to be there to help out and talk to the public. If I'm there, say hi and identify yourself as being from BO.net.

Yes, he was very active until getting hit by the car as a pedestrian. He was at our reunion less than 2 years ago. He was pretty charismatic.

You'll probably rendezvous with a number of U-2 Drivers heading to PIT next summer.

One of the greatest has flown West. Maj Gen Pat Halloran was 95. He had 100 combat missions in the F-84 before being selected for the highly-secretive U-2 Program in the 1957 time frame. Pat went on to be one of only 18 pilots to check out in both the U-2 and SR-71. After retirement, be remained involved in flying experimental aircraft and homebuilts, including some very exotic replica aircraft from the Tom Wathen Collection, like the De Havilland Comet. He was a regular at Oshkosh. Just a fantastic guy and incredible pilot. A toast to the General...

Yeah! I'm glad to hear you say this about the MiG!! It was just recently that got a bunch more negative comments on flying it. I always figured that if poor communist kids could learn to fly it, and fly it hard, then I could probably do a docile checkout. I have no intention of pushing any of these jets to their envelope edge. Maybe see you in St George in October?

I've always wanted to go fly the MiG-15UTI one time... but as I get older and more risk-averse, I'm not sure I will if I get the chance. What a terrible reputation it has.

https://appropriations.house.gov/news/press-releases/committee-releases-fy25-defense-appropriations-bill “Preventing the early retirement of three ships and retaining the U-2 and certain F-15s, rejecting the Biden Administration’s naval and air force divestment plans.” A long way to go to reverse the U-2 divestment. But a start. Only 16 months to go and we've parked about 25% of the fleet.

It is a really neat jet to fly, and a lot of fun. As for range... it's pretty thirsty. For my flight to Idaho, I went at 16,500 with around a 20 knot headwind, and 225 KIAS. I burned about 1.1 gallons per mile. Keep in mind: this variant of the J-85 makes as much thrust in Mil as our Beale T-38's make in MAX. It's a screamin' machine. Yes, I could save gas going to FL240/250... but there are other factors I consider. 280 gallons with the wings and fuselage tank full. 460 gallons if the tips are full. And another 90 gallons in each of the four drop tanks are possible. So... loaded up, it's about 820 gallons. Springer, I'll take you up on the offer to teach me air refueling! I ping'd a couple of guys from my era that flew them in Panama, and they couldn't remember the AR speed. One thinks it was 280 and the other thinks 230-250. This jet went to the Vietnamese Air Force so i never had the cape. One that note, 87921 flew about 2,200 combat hours with the South Vietnam. When the commies overran the South, they captured 95 A-37's... and actually flew them. Eventually they ran out of support and parked them. An Australian businessman saw them on a visit, bought 11, and floated them down the Mekong to a container ship that took them back to Australia. There is another jet from this lot of 11 that will possibly be flying this summer. I've attached a pic of the patch the owner gives everyone that gets a flight in it. Great book too. I just attended the A-37 convention in Galveston back in April. Great stories and the jet was (and is) way underrated. Check this out: By the way, look at the ejection seats in the picture of the YouTube video of aircraft 10779. Pretty non-standard, right? That's because the Australian owner/museum convinced Martin-Baker to retrofit their jet with modern seats. Crazy!

BOI.

Normally, here: https://www.westernskywarbirds.org/home.html It's in Idaho for the summer. I'll bring it back to St George in October.

Took the A-37 out for an FCF and then a cross country flight of 440 nm on Thursday. First flight since Sept and it flew great. Owner put on an additional set of drop tanks.

Nvm. I got the background.

CH, you rock. 🙏

Dash's crash was 15 years ago today. Nickel... https://www.edwards.af.mil/News/Article/395729/t-38-crash-claims-life-of-edwards-pilot/

For those not in the AFSOC-know, can someone break down who is who... where are they going... who and how did they promote from O-7 to O-9... and which ones are the douchebags? I can't keep up.