contraildash

Gotta point out that the report says AW offered the AW139. It's substantially larger than the EC135 or 145. It's also substantially more expensive (per the AW webstie) than the UH-60M at around 22 million a pop. I couldn't find information at sikorsky on the UH-60M, but wiki (FWIW) says they are 14 million. Beacuse someone is going to bitch enough (oh it isn't fair...whaaa). Then congress will force us to waste time AND money on a competition and then pick something that doesn't do the job and costs more in the end to build/operate/support/train folks. But some insignificanly small number of jobs will be created in bumfvck nowhere and a foreign defense contractor will be appeased. These people are idiots that don't see the big picture. The UH-60M has been doing good work for the Army. I just read the memoir of a Army blackhawk pilot who flew them and was thuroughly impressed with the increased performance/capability over the older models. As previously stated, here is a proven a/c that we don't have to reinvent the damn wheel to get out on the line. edited for information

Thread revival. I grew up with the understanding that no matter the service, you salute officers of higher rank when in passing, ect. On my base, all services are represeted, and there is a large Army contingent in the region. Recently I've been noticing that when I greet Army officers, they act suprised, indifferent, and in one case pissed. I also can't recall the last time an enlisted soldier or WO has rendered a salute, I can't figure out what's with the attitude. It's not just me either. I've recently been witness to a Major and Captian chewing out some rando enlisted Army guys. I've never experienced this with Navy or Marine folks. It looks pretty pathetic when you have these things going on in front of the KMCC 'bio-dome' for everyone to see. Even more so it's embarrasing when other NATO members are around.

I-25 does close occasionally in the winter. But then what's better than a snow day in a town full of breweries? (Ft Collins)

Come on over...we need PQP folks.

I second Whitman's question: what's your lucky involvement in a SNJ? Is it one of the late models with the steerable tail wheel? Only radial I've flown was a PT-17 on a cool autumn morning in Alabama. Never got above a 1,000 feet. Awesome.

Just got my notification for making Captain....yay

Not just an issue with PA. I got an email from the MSS about re-submitting my SGLI, reason: "Ramstein Air Base" was not the proper nomenclature. ...ahem...yeah about that...

You are a lucky soul my friend. I'm coming up on four years and have seen it both directly and indirectly. Just before I got into the service, I saw it in both my parents careers. I remember one rant by my old man that had me thinking, are these grown men/senior officers? When I was in ROTC, I definetly saw that culture being bred albeit subconsciously. Competition brought out the better part of folks and also the scumbag part of folks: "gotta get that pilot slot!" OTS was different, we all knew what we were going to do in the AF going into it. I didn't feel like there was that same competition to be the best to get that pilot slot. There were still douches, but that was just their personality. The worse shenanigans I saw on this subject were in pilot training. It was just disgusting. But those individuals were still few and far between. I haven't seen it in my current squadron, but some of the stories that my family and friends who are on active duty tell me are just shameful. Some get away with it, others get called out. In the end, I also saw it just as much in the civilian career I had. That's life really. It's up to folks to take the moral high ground and call such douchnozzles out early, or the behavior just grows worse and we end up posting threads on baseops about backstabbing fools.

I wish someone could give me some ammo to deal with the German run housing office. Seems like almost all of the new people coming into my SQ recently have been getting the proverbial F'd in the A. I know I bitched about my issues with them when I got here, but some of the recent shenanigans just blow me away. It's bad.

I understand it's not justification on people just logging more time, however that is the plain English definition of "landing time" according to the reg. I'm not trying to pad my time, I'm just following exactly what the reg says. If I shut down before 5 min, then I'll log it as such. But if I don't, then I log the 5 min and no more. I don't understand where some folks get off logging an extra .2 for taxi. That's BS. I fly C-21s, we do in fact log several different times just as Learjetter has stated. We log the airframe time and also the engine time and they are different. Airframe time is strictly wheels off to wheels on. This is driven by how contract maintenance tracks those hours. We apply the 781 definintion of landing time on the engine time though. Why? We don't own our engines, they are leased from Honeywell and that alone opens up a whole 'nother can of worms on how hours are tracked. It's a shit-show, I know. Just because we do thing's different, doesn't mean they are wrong. But then maybe, back in the 80's when they brought this jet into the fleet they screwed it all up. I dunno, I wasn't there, can't say. My hours to sortie ratio is right about 1.5/flight...so if anyone should be a huge proponent of logging that +5 all the time, every time, it should be a dude like me. But I don't care...the number of sorties is more important to me and a better indicator of getting work done.

According to the AFI11-401, yes that is SOP. I don't think there's any ambiguity or room for interpretation there. I have yet to shut down my engines within 5 minutes of landing. So I'll take that +5...per the regs.

Aren't those few and far between?

Butters, sorry for the confusion. I have no idea what the status of the AIB is, nor should I. The SIB is complete and if you have access or get ahold of your safety guys, you can give it a look over. Chalk it up to my poor reading comprehension. I really think people can learn things from just about any accident no matter your airframe. And FWIW a direct quote from my AMIC insturctor: "you want nothing to do with an AIB, I'd rather deal with a crash in the deepest swamp than serve on an AIB"

It is released. I second what CHS17 said about priviledged stuff.

I think I found some current pics of those strippers...

Two stories. One awesome, one sad. Awesome: My stepmom was a young 2Lt at Luke back in the early 80's and told us the club was awesome. Said they brought in strippers. 'nough said. Sad: At my UPT base, Vance, I sat casual for 6 months in the MSG. I can say with certainty that the club (at that time, and no doubt now) was a financial Titanic. The only thing keeping it afloat were the drops every three weeks. If they didn't make purchase of beer/food through them mandatory, they would fold. The two big reasons no one wants party there: sausage-fest and folks were more afraid of drinking on base than off base. Sounds like a common theme these days. Solutions (it's been said before): Import local talent Cheap booze/food Get some entertainment, local bands, ect. Allow taxi/shuttle service on base (this varies from what I've seen from gate service to anywhere on base)

Thread revival... Curious if anyone is using a stand alone (i.e. not online) electronic log book. I have a spreadsheet I made up, rather simplistic but it's been a pain. I rather download somthing and just enter stuff if that makes sense. Free/Cheap/I don't really care, just curious on folks opinions.

Don't forget Seahawks and Jayhawks. I even think the Marines in HMX-1 call their 60's something else too. The H-60/70 line is rather diverse.

I can see it now.... un-informed news expert: "well as you can see, the wings are not attached to the main body and must have failed in flight"

And off the right wing you can see the approach lighting system........

Got to my SQ and the bar was litterally the kids playpen. New SQ/CC and the bar is being rebuilt from the ground up.

I like McGuire's style... note: Lajes can be 'sporty'

I like the disclaimer.

Still better than TIB...

With airshow crashes relatively infrequent in the overall grand scheme of things (especially in the US and even more so with USAF aircraft), there are bigger issues at hand to deal with when it comes to aviation safety. I think we do a fairly good job at mitigating the risks, but accidents will still occur as long as we keep flying. Even with all the oversight, training, ect involved with the demo teams they still have accidents. You can only mitigate the human factor so much, we still make mistakes. So unless we stop flying, there will be airshow accidents. On the subject of airshows and display teams.. I love airshows. Yes fighter displays are cool/loud/filled with impressive maneuvering but they are fairly standard and there isn't really anything new to them. There are exceptions of course, such as the weird/pointless stuff the Russians do (it looks good) and of course the F-22 display that is all the rave right now. Many other non-fighter displays are much more unique and interesting. Ever seen the RAF Chinook display? The Dutch Apache display? The C-27 Spartan? It's much more exciting to see aircraft do things that most people don't think possible. Personally, one of the best airshows I ever attended was at El Toro as a kid. The Marines essentially put on a war and showcased the capabilities of every a/c in their inventory. It was awesome. edit: spell'n