brabus

I know several guys who do this in some form. Yes it’ll offset cost via rental/instruction income and tax breaks (don’t forget to depreciate the plane). Smart to do no solo rental and keep the pool of CFIs who can fly small. The downside will be the plane will take some more abuse by virtue of TW learning and hamfisting aerobatics, it won’t necessarily always be available at the drop of a hat for your personal use. Insurance will also be more, so have to factor that into rental rate. But, overall the guys I know haven’t had massive issues and see more pros than cons.

He probably insisted on not wrecking someone’s career over a currently unsubstantiated allegation, following the idea of innocent until proven guilty through the legal process. What a piece of shit leader...burn him!

He really might be the worst CC I’ve personally heard of. Godspeed Spang bros. Don’t let the young guys give up, make sure they know this will pass and there is light at the end of the tunnel. Help reinforce this with awesome no-bob parties and max emphasis on tactical badassery at work. Edit: It goes without saying we don’t have the whole picture, and something likely happened as a precursor. But, this is a clear example of epically failing to deal with the problem appropriately. I don’t care if someone wore a Jerk MeHoff name tag TDY or the boss was gone when they named someone Eat a bag of dicks. Those are things that should be dealt with in ways other than full scorched earth on morale and traditions (of which are entirely clean in nature).

@Royal I love flying the decathlon. Full aerobatics with good handling and performance, while also a nice VFR cruiser to go grab some lunch. I found it to be a good TW to learn in as well. My buddy also jumped out of it (STC for door off flight)...lots of fun to be had in that airplane. For reference, this is a ‘91 8KCAB. Hoping by summer of 22 to also have a Stearman. I rent 4 place airplanes when I want to take the whole family somewhere; not a lot of rental opportunity for the 2 seat “non-standard fun” airplanes. That was primary driver for why I’ve gone this route in GA vs. the traditional 4-place Cessna/Piper direction.

180 sounds severely overkill for what you’re looking to do (and I love 180s). S21 looks cool, but do you have 690 hrs of time to build one? How about a Super Decathlon? Aerobatic TW with overall great performance. 10 gph doing aerobatics, 8-9 gph cruising only a few knots slower than a 180 (which is burning about 13-14 gph). If you don’t care about aerobatics and just want to cruise around, how about a cub? I think either of those would far better fit your mission, and at a significant cost savings (purchase, operating, Mx). Also less headaches in a simpler plane (as a general statement). Edit: Forgot about RV-7/8...I don’t have personal experience, but they seem like a fantastic airplane that meets everything you’re looking for with the added benefit of full IFR capability and experimental.

As always, what’s the 90% of the time mission? 2 or 4 people, lots of hauling weight (or not)? Go places requiring IFR a lot, or looking for primarily VFR fun flying?

Units differ. At least for us, local guys get an interview regardless of package (that’s the one perk they get). Off the street guys’ apps and face time get them the interview. Now everyone is at the interview as equals - interview performance is what gets the job. Our local guys performed extremely well at last year’s board, so we hired 3 of them. We’ve also passed on many local guys over the years, including some who have tried multiple times. While this doesn’t apply to every unit, there is not some secret huge leg up for the local guy.

Wow dude, that is all unbelievable. Hope Spang gets an awesome FS/CC in the summer who undoes all this bullshit. Also hope Lt Col Kennedy retires and is summarily blackballed by every airline. Also, go guard.

No shit. And honestly, 95% of callsigns in my experience are not even offensive in any way...usually a funny story behind them and that’s about it. Wonder if I should celebrate my millionth RF this summer with a Ben Dover or Mike Hunt name tag.

Oh I’ve seen plenty of that. But these two individuals are hard to believe, even in today’s AF. Regardless, sounds like this is most likely a sq/cc thing; my hope is the OG sits him down and tells him to rethink his dumbassery.

Also strip that dude of his call sign...everyone forever more refer to him as rank and last name, even when talking about him in a conversation. His call sign should cease to exist and never be spoken by another individual again. He doesn’t deserve it.

Copy, three future washouts.

Unbelievable. I don’t know Phats, but if this is solely his plan, then it needs to be crushed by Smirk and/or Fuge. If it’s their idea, then they have sold their souls and are no longer the men I knew. But, that’s very hard to believe...sounds like it’s fairly plausible this is SQ/CC level dumbassery. I hope that’s true, and he’s shortly about to get his dicked kicked in by his bosses.

No way, has to be trolling. The wing and OG were solid fighter pilots/leaders as SQ/CCs at least...if this is true, they have lost their minds and the respect of any fighter pilot who has worked with/for them (except for those who decided to castrate themselves with the blue koolaid snips of course).

Dammit, now you’ve made me regret selling my stingray all over again! They’ll always be my favorite car.

Probably not. But neither should any other state who suffers from the effects of poor policy/financial decisions. But, we like to shovel federal money on every problem, when in Rome...

I haven’t read much specifics on the Texas situation, but two thoughts: - It was a once in a century weather event for that region...should their power grid be built to withstand something that might happen in 100 years from now? Is that extra money and effort worth it? Put it this way, 5 years from now Texans see a bond on their ballot for billions to “winterize” their power grid to withstand blizzard conditions. It’s going to cost those taxpayers a sizable increase in tax...how many will say “fuck that, this is Texas, I’ll take my chances with some 100 year storm!” Probably enough to kill that bond, and I wouldn’t really blame them. I also don’t buy warranties on every item I buy at Lowe’s. - SocialD brings up a great point about self reliance. I live in the north, have lost power for a week (along with everyone else). Everyone helped themselves and their neighbors. Nobody sued the state or sat there crying for gov to save them. Frustrating sure, but utilities were destroyed by a string of storms, and it took a ton of time/effort to fix, while those dudes worked in severe conditions. We accepted it as an annoyance, thankful people were working to fix it, and we took care of ourselves. Gov is not the answer, not being whiny pussies and having a willingness to put some elbow grease in is the answer. Edit: Not a spear at Texans, I’m guessing most are taking care of themselves/neighbors and not being whiny pussies. Comment above is addressing this general topic, agnostic of specific location in the U.S.

A friend’s kid was told no by an AF recruiter, citing hand tattoo. Sure enough, reg does not permit tattoos on hands. Anyone have experience with waivers for this? Is it a reasonable Pk for a waiver and this recruiter is being lazy?

We live in a “very good” school system, ranked highly nationally. My kids are now in a private school, initially because of the remote bullshit (by the way, 5 days in person Preschool through 8th, since Aug...one case). Now we’ve seen the other side, and compared to same age kids of friends who are still in the “real good” public schools, the difference is startling. My kids are immensely ahead of their public school peers; the curriculum and expectations makes the public school a total joke. And this is comparing against a “really good, nationally ranked” public school system...we won’t go back. I cannot imagine how shitty the public system is outside of the “highly ranked” areas. Pay attention to what your kids are/are not learning, I was fat dumb and happy until the remote catalyst, now I shudder to think about the shit education they would have received had I kept not really paying attention/seen the other side. Significant reform is needed in the public school system.

Exactly, haven’t met a single cop or heard a single cop (on podcasts, etc.) blindly defend Floyd, for example. They’ve all cringed at what happened. The point of my sarcastic post was to highlight how stupid it is to paint entire communities, organizations, etc. with a broad brush. Terms like “systemic” are wildly overreaching and only contribute to extremely misleading “10% true” narratives. This isn’t roll call, it’s real life...wildly embellished bullshit has no place here, yet that’s what the media, govt, and the masses love.

Exactly. But on the other hand, did you know the B-1 community has a systemic problem with child porn. https://www.argusleader.com/story/news/crime/2015/05/12/ellsworth-pilot-sentenced-child-pornography/27166693/

Happens a ton. I have several friends who have quit because that specific problem (spineless leadership) was overpowering. They know many who have done the same. The analogy I can think of us relative to us is being in a wing where every debrief is preceded by the wing/cc saying you are a shit pilot and fucked this sortie away royally and will be held accountable via Q3, qual pulling, etc. Now commence tapes that show you actually executed the TTP quite well...doesn’t matter, the whole base already thinks you’re the world’s worst pilot. Tomorrow it happens to one of your bros. Still want to be a pilot in that wing?

Oct 2019 from what I found in a .69 sec google search. My general thought (not directed at Pawnman): Police do need to be held accountable, but they should be helped with better/more consistent training and their leadership needs to have their backs. I don’t mean cover up crimes, but stop throwing them under the bus the second some zero-context video hits the news. Let’s gather the facts before demonizing an officer; stop letting the media get away with ramming unchecked narratives down the public’s throats. To this specific incident: The video sure doesn’t look good, but what’s the context, what happened in the preceding minutes or hours to this situation? Had the guy been getting in the police’s faces, touching them, ignoring commands for a long time? Had he threatened them verbally? Had they given him numerous warnings to disperse/get back? Many of us have been in numerous situations killing people where some fucking dipshit who wasn’t there starts their virtuous armchair quarterbacking - how about said dipshit has the full picture before questioning or accusing those present in the moment. Again, the 10 sec clip doesn’t look great, but I will not judge this officer or any others until the full picture is determined. I wasn’t there, we’re any of you spear chuckers?

It’s amazing how many WB guys I’ve talked to who haven’t been to work in 60-90 days, only flew 6 days in a month (and went to somewhere awesome), all while getting paid great money. I can’t wait...please don’t fuck this up for us Rona!