SocialD

Yes take a look at the pots of money concept. Also, mil construction regs need gutted....being forced to make an alert facility ADA compliant is beyond ridiculous. Also, taking the vastly more expensive option for remodeling a building because the cheaper option is funded from a pot of money you don't have is insane. So many anecdotes we all have seen that, by themselves aren't big $$$, but would probably equal big money if applied across the entire DOD and Federal government.

Love it! However, you missed a great opportunity to not have to fly another painful NVG sortie. Signed, night train guy for half my deployments and ORIs.

In our case, it's a Thursday and Sat of drill shirt lol. I'm sure they were thankful for your top cover....they might need it again lol.

As always, visual lookout, especially at night during a circling maneuver in tight airspace to a short(er) runway, isn't foolproof. Sure, we're all still responsible for vis lookout. But at this point in the game, I'd have expected some type of backup from tower that they wouldn't let a helicopter get that close to me. However, this is one of the reasons I would not have accepted that runway change. It's kinda like flyovers, at best, you did your job... Before someone gets their panties in a wad. I'm not blaming these pilots for what happened. I'm sure they've done this circling approach many times and it's no sweat to them. I have not doubt they can fly their jet better than I could fly mine in that environment, because I just never do it. I'm just saying that I won't accept it because I don't see any good reason to do so.

How long until we hear cries about shutting down the base?

This isn't the first time they've tried to take Friday shirts away. The last two times I remember them trying that, we just kept wearing them. It drove the Chiefs (outside of ops) nuts. Eventually the winds shifted and Friday shirts came back. If you're off station, instead of wearing your ACC/AMC patch, wear the ANG patch...people generally leave you alone. You just have to get your own, off-base establishment. Our state doesn't allow alcohol on base, so we found a building just off base, rented it and turned it into a bar. Way, it is easier to have shenanigans off base anyway.

That's mostly an Eagle problem.

Of course they are all in on, it's a survival instinct. I remember back in UPT a crusty reservist talking about how you see pilots get into whatever the new boss is into. If he's a big church person, everyone finds Jesus. If they're into biking, everyone gets bikes, etc.... At our UPT base, the WG/CC loved biking, so there were lots of bikers. When I showed up to Luke, the WG/CC was into crossfit (or his wife was) and so suddenly crossfit was the thing to do. He even made the studs do it during academics.

What a dumbass and a stupid reason for dumping the duty tabs. I thought they were a great call, made it easier to figure out who I was talking to. So are they stopping AFSC badges as well? Not my problem anymore, haven't missed it a bit.

It's like the FB thread for my company where the TDS folks are saying unions are going away because they fired someone on the NLRB.

I think helo is right, it's more about downsizing than anything. Unfortunately a few some good ones may get caught up in the cross fire, but cost of doing business I suppose. They good ones will end up on their feet for sure, they always do.

Therein lies the issue. It will likely become very hard to maintain that good LTD program if the age increases. Here's hoping it never becomes an issue.

Wonder how many of the AFPC folks were in office and then moved away when they went remote. Pretty hard to move back right now with prices/interest rates where they are currently sitting. To 17D's point, another Guard unit in the state found that many of their office workers became MORE productive when they went remote. While I'm sure plenty need to be back in the office, this once size fits all mandate is hard to back. Lots of examples of people being more productive than in the office, where they have many distractions and people bogarting their time. My GF WFH for a company that is a contractor for the FAA. They've found their workers are much more productive with WFH. She'll hop on the computer an hour prior to normal work day, because that's when the dogs wake us up, and she'll knock out a bunch of stuff. She'll also jump on the computer after work hours, if I get called out on a trip, just to get ahead. Many of these things would not happen if she was required to go into office. Nevermind she'd have to quite because that office is 9 hours away. She already quit one job because they tried to make her go in office, which was over 3 hours away. I'm with Brabus in that there are plenty who need to go away. I fear that all the ones that do go away are the ones we want to keep. The ones who are a drain on their offices will never leave, because they'd have to actually produce out in the civilian market.

Ours is worded that it continue to "mandatory retirement age." While I agree with the sentiment, I don't think that would be legal, though I'm certainly no lawyer.

I used to think that, but I don't think that's the case for many of them. They want to be able to keep working their cush gig now that they're on top. Sadly, what will probably happen is our generous LTD will likely be targeted in future negotiations and we'll lose some of it as it becomes to expensive (in negotiating capital) to keep. Of course, by then, many of the pro-67 crowd will be gone, so it's not their problem.

Just delete my browser history!

I never prefer the visual, give me vectors to ILS final every time. The visual is a just ATC's way of being lazy or trying to shove 10 pounds into 5 pound sock. Never understood the desire to "get on the ground quicker." At best you get to the gate a minute or two prior. This job should be boring. I once had an FO who was super geeked about wanting to do a side-step. He's senior to me and has been on this plane for 12 years (9 years longer than me), so he knows what he's doing, so I said ok, lets do it. Everything goes fine, we show up to the gate about 3 minutes earlier than if we hadn't sidestepped...then we waited 10 minutes for a park crew lol.

There is no straw these guys won't grasp at to get 2 more years. I will say that I have a former student from college who is an CW3 AD Apache guy. His FB page is filled with this type of hate toward Army Aviation leadership about what's going on with Army helo aviation. I've never talked to him about it, but he seems to be pointing out the lack of hours, lack of training and prioritization of everything other than being steely eyed killers in the air. Sounds familiar.

The Pro age 67 FB group had a post this morning with the following quote. This accident on short final at DCA has inexperience written all over it. Please get out there and push for an EXECUTIVE ORDER to RAISE THE AGE IMMEDIATELY. We, the airline industry, are directly responsible for these deaths. There is no depth too low for which these guys will stoop, all in the name of getting theirs. Sadly he's one of us at DAL but is scheduled to retire in March. It can't get here soon enough. WTF is wrong with some people.

Terrible. Here is the audio/radar feed of the situation. Couple things from an airline pilot perspective. - I'm still thankful that my aircraft doesn't go into DCA (and LGA/JFK). Not only does it make life easier, but I get to avoid the mess that is DCA. - Not saying this couldn't happen on the other runway. But no way, I'm accepting a circle to land that late in the game, especially at night. Could I do it, sure, but no thanks. Airline flying is boring and should always be boring. Unable is one of the best words in our flying vocabulary. - I know they may not have VHF capes, but if they do, why not use it in this area? Many moons ago the F-16 got VHF capability but noone wanted to use it. We're on a joint use field and one day we had a runway incursion (ATCs fault), but easily could have been noticed by us if we were on UHF. I brought up why not switch to VHF for gnd/twr/app/dep and naturally, the old fucks told the young punk to STFU. A few years later, we had nearly the same event happen and being more senior, I was able to get the change instituted. HUGE increase in SA when you hear both sides of the ATC conversation with all the bug smashers and other airliners. - Based on that track and the aircraft and lots of NVG time, I know I could have easily mistaken the light behind the CRJ as the traffic they called out. - ADS-B is great and can be a life saver, but it often lags or just doesn't work great. I'd like to have the extra SA though. I actually used it once as number 3 during a flyby in the local area when I saw a buddy flying his Husky right toward the path of our flyby. Jumped over on CTAF and asked him to turn south for a minute. Worked great and he sent me a nice video of the flyby (missing man).

Yup. It's also funny (not funny) that he is doing this because he fear the weaponization of the judicial system. Wow...

No surprise there...

Ah yes, this ole' trope. If you put your hands in your pockets, you will screw up the TO and a plane will crash for sure!

Awesome! I just lost an hour looking at all the other photos that thing has taken. When people ask, can the government really see that from space, I'll refer them to this site. Then let them know that this is just what a civilian company has access to lol.

Absolutely perfect revitalization of an older post. I went single and had a good time, but would have been just as happy if I had been married. The wives were like mother hens to the single guys and some were great wingmen at the bar by sending girls your way lol. If you stay single, just remember that when she's walking out and stops to do a double take of your flight suit hanging on the door...she's probably enlisted. This is why you never ask what they do at the bar. Whether she gets invited back depends on how good it was and how dangerously you like to live. Wisdom from uncle Sociald. 🤣