HuggyU2

Good times in Havasu. One BO.net person who I never met decided to come down and join us for the party. Thanks for making the effort to join us, Bobsan. It was great to meet you.

I haven't had that one. But I go to their Redlands AirFest every year and have tried most of what they create. No surprise they have grown in popularity so fast. Their AirFest is 20 May this year.

Aluminum Overcast. Im pretty sure they will be selling rides. Unfortunately, a different aviation experience is also this weekend, and I'll miss Havasu.

For those going cross-country westbound this weekend, Hangar 24 Brewery is having the grand opening of their new Lake Havasu, AZ location. B17 should be there, plus a number of airshow performers hanging out. Good times... especially if you show up in a military aircraft in your flight suit. If you're military and will be there, drop me a note. The beers are aviation-themed, and the artwork on the labels is classic. Even better... the beer is outstanding. https://www.facebook.com/Hangar24Havasu/ https://hangar24brewery.com/index.htm

A 737-800 crashes with 180 people onboard. It was being flown single-pilot. The NTSB determines that having a second pilot onboard would have probably prevented the crash. How many hundreds of millions of dollars will this cost the company in lawsuits, settlements, insurance payouts, stock value, loss of the airframe, etc...? ------ A 99.99% safety rate means Delta Airlines (mainline only) crashes a plane every 4-5 days. If airlines are going to change to single- or no-pilot cockpits, the safety factor will need to be perfect. Not "as good as a Global Hawk".

Whoa!... slow down, Trigger. Not every airline is allowed to have wifi enabled in the cockpit. Let's not get too crazy here.

If they want retirees back in uniform for this, they will need to find a way to do it without taking away their retiree pay. Otherwise, make them contractors. Otherwise, the financial penalty is just too high for most former military pilots.

Dream. On.

Or why a T-SCIF had a commercial-grade cockpit voice recorder in that that was never downloaded, erased, or whatever. Not that it mattered on my flights since I pulled the circuit breaker on every mission I was the A/C on. Bashi, you're spot-on about the IP involved. HE should have been the next squadron commander there. Yes, for those of you that read it, I deleted the rest of my post. Probably better that I don't go there. Suffice to say, I'm overjoyed the MC-12 program is a distant memory.

This post is suitable for work.. but WTF???? Can CNN do a shittier job of reporting on a non-event? And getting a faceless, non-pilot to discuss his harrowing adventure? The transcript, the "alarm from the collision warning system",... holy shit, folks. Even the National Enquirer is more credible. No wonder CNN doesn't leave a "comments section" on their site. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/...ane/vi-AA8OwRK

Marco, I had a chance to go to Botswana 3 years ago and do some teaching in those CF-5's. I was sure tempted. But my looming retirement, and the complications of teaching foreign military while still on active duty was just more than I was willing to tackle. You're right though. The Canadians did a nice job on them.

30,000 hours... Better look at retiring the fleet soon, since we are getting close to the halfway point of our 75,000 hour airframe limit.

As many of y'all know, I'm involved in the airshow industry. This photo is the hangar of the Texas Flying Legends, which has a great collection of flying aircraft: Mustang, Spitfire, Warhawk, Mitchell, Zero, and more. The collection's owner, Bruce is a great American, and the pilots and mechanics are just top-shelf folks. Their customized hangar is also one of the coolest places on any flightline. If you've been cross-country to Ellington (KEFD), maybe you've seen it. It seems a lot of the NFL teams, staff, bigwigs, and others will be using KEFD for the Super Bowl, and Texas Flying Legends wanted to make sure those players, owners, and NFL employees knew where TFL "stands" on the issue of Kaepernick and others.

There is a lot of discussion on this mishap on the Cirrus owners forum. My sincerest condolences to his friends and colleagues Nickel on the grass...

This is true. It's pretty senior there.

Will his successor institute "Cross Dressing Day" for field grade and above, to better understand our military members that serve under a different gender?

Now Obama is just giving us the middle finger. https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/01/17/us/politics/obama-commutes-bulk-of-chelsea-mannings-sentence.html

I hope the AC flew a good approach. Wouldn't want to have to invoke the "7-engine go-around". "Hey crew! Everyone grab a throttle... we need to go missed!" Scary shit.

Ah.. ye of little faith.

The pilot of that Luscombe was my good friend. I'd known him 19 years and had flown that Luscombe with him. We took a T-38 to Oshkosh a few years back. Aviation... all facets... was his passion. You always hear about guys that will do anything for you; guys that are always the bright spot in your day; guys with an eternally optimistic attitude. Spanky really was that guy. He was an amazing pilot. And an even better father and person. He always cared about his fellow man. After being a T-38 FAIP, a tour in the B-52, and a staff tour, Spanky applied for the SR-71 in 1997: they were hiring one... only one... pilot that year, from the hundreds of applicants. Spanky beat out everyone and was hired. He showed up at Edwards to start training, but four days later, Pres Clinton killed the SR program. Three days later, Spanky is at Beale to fly the U-2 interview flights. Five days later, he is hired to the U-2 Program and has to get a SecAF waiver for two PCS' in 2 weeks. He became my neighbor on base. When I first met him, I knew he was about 35, but he looked barely 21. I gave him his T-38 checkride on 23 Dec 1997. Friends ever since. He was the deployed U-2 squadron commander in Saudi before the war kicked off in 2003. I replaced him at the end of his tour. He elected not to go the professional pilot route after retirement, but was always super active in GA, EAA, and teaching his kids about aviation. The fact that Tim perished too is just crushing. So very tragic. He was loved by all that ever met him. God bless you, Spanky.

I just saw a segment on The Five about this, and googled it: https://dailycaller.com/2016/12/30/dc...s-racist-pigs/You have GOT to be shitting me. THIS is hanging in the US Capitol??Apparently, the congressman behind this is Lacy Clay: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lacy_Clay

Looks like a Rorschach Test to me.

You mean like Iran's deadly Qaher 313? That thing is amazing.

https://www.foxnews.com/auto/2016/12/15/taiwan-authorities-crush-illegal-lamborghini.html