snoopyeast

Godspeed

I use Vodafone in the UK and it is fine for the rest of the EU. I pay a small fee for service/mo on a prepaid sim card ($13). The stated rate for travel in the EU zone is something like £3 a day, but in reality I've spent about £5 for a week on the continent. Plus, anywhere you go, hotels, restaurants are going to have free WiFi. One thing to look at is downloading an offline map program. You can download the maps of where you are going ahead of time and save a lot of data.

Very interesting times. I've heard this being compared to the biggest thing to happen in Europe since the fall of the wall in 89, especially when considering the after effects. If the UK leaving has resulted in this much turmoil, to me it means a few things. One, the EU was very dependent on the UK. Two, the UK is a strong country and economic power. Trade deals will be renegotiated, measures will be made for those UK citizens working in the EU and vise versa. There will not be mass deportations of working people across the EU. The EU has a lot to lose and very little to gain by 'punishing' the UK. If Scotland decides to leave the UK, they will become another Greece in the EU.

POTUS coming to the UK to tell the Brits how to vote pissed a lot of them off. Rather hilarious.

Soon after the last rounds of RIF/VSP mass exodus, some people came from the NAF to ask those of us still in what our thoughts were on the current state of the AF. Someone from the squadron told the NAF folks that the AF missed a golden opportunity by not asking the VSPers why they wanted to get out. This was met with the deer in the headlights look from the visitors. Probably because of the reasons listed above. Quitters!

https://www.afforums.com/index.php?threads/rex-the-engineer.15323/ This stuff is pure gold. Here's a sample: THE ADVENTURES OF REX THE WONDER ENGINEER: REX and the BREAKAWAY It's a bold, bright sunny day out on AR 8A-B. The KC-10 and crew are finishing up their 3rd hour of straight receiver AR, hurtling around the two short tracks like it's a ing NASCAR oval, with no passing allowed. Rex, the Wonder Engineer, is on his 7th local in two weeks, and his nineteenth hour of receiver AR this month. Leading this perverted race is a wore-out E model, with the pride of the Raggedy-Ass Militia as crew. Rex stirs slowly from a sound sleep as Joe, the infamous numb-nuts boomer, former hero of SAC, pokes him with greasy, tobacco stained finger. Rex's eyes bolt open as he hears the IP, Capt Bank, yelling at him from the right seat. "Engineer! We don't have a ready light here, is there a problem?" "in' A right, there's a problem", blurts old Joe, "in' old wore out engineer boy is a-sleepin' on the goddamn job again." Rex stares blankly at the FE panel. Then he turns to Joe and pokes him in the upper layer of gut-fat, hard, with his 0.5 MM lead pencil. "OOOWWW!!, goddamn, Rex, you mother-er, I'll kick yer old wore out flow-bar ass, you......." "TIME OUT!!" Yells the PUP idiot in the left seat. "What are you guys doing back there?" The PUP, a typical jerk-off professional copilot with an attitude, thinks he's in charge, now that he's playing AC. His name is Capt Corn. Rex calls him the Great Cornholio. When Rex is awake. Like he is now, with two goddamn finger-pilots barking at him; he quickly assesses the situation, and takes the appropriate action. "HEY!, What the is all this yelling about?", Screams Rex, "Time-the- OUT!!" Rex violently punches the AR reset button and a "Ready" light appears magically on the windshield post. "There!, Goddammit, anyway, Jesus ing Christ! I been back here strapped into this ing seat for 3 mother-ing hours. Ain't even had a chance to PISS, and you bastards are yelling at me! What the , OVER??" Joe looks amused, kind of like a cow looks as it's shitting all over itself. Capt Bank, who a year ago was a new banked copilot, who's now the squadron's senior IP, is looking for his sunglasses. The Great Cornholio is unaware that he has established a rather high rate of closure with the wood-burning tanker, and Rex is unstrapping. "Hold everything, you sky warriors, I gotta go drop off a message to TACC." Rex jumps out of the seat and disappears into the cabin. Capt Corn sort of stabilizes the Extender in a position somewhere within a hundred feet of pre-contact, and then starts babbling like the idiot he is. "Dammit. This is ed. I've had with Rex's shit. When we get back, I'm going to bring up that bastard on charges. Insubordination. Dereliction of Duty. Sleeping on duty. Failure to shit prior to flight!......." Joe hocks up a tobacco glob into his paper cup, ejecting a little spittle over the rim to land on Capt Corn's helmet back, right onto his stupid ATC class patch. He speaks. "Cap'n, you ain't a-gonna do shit to Rex. The new Commander and him are best buddies, whiskey partners, see, and Rex saved the OG Commander's ass back in the 141, and the Wing Commander, well, him and Rex were runnin' partners back at Clark, and Rex got him treatment for the clap back in '82 afore the general's wife found out...and that ain't all...In fact,...." "OK, Joe, shut up! I got it. I'll get that bastard somehow......" Capt Corn is spitting all over his microphone..Capt Bank is looking for the sandwich that his dear wife made for him that morning, and once again the two aircraft are closing. Fast. As Joe searches his greasy helmet bag for more chew, and Capt Cornholio is blinded by tears of rage, whilst the mildly retarded Capt Bank is reading the sweet note his wife put in his Darth Vader character lunch-box, the KC-135 Boomer, who has just gotten done with his cigarette, and is stubbing out on the ashtray he's kept for 35 years of flying, sees approaching doom, and keys his mike: "HOLY SHIT BREAKAWAYBREAKAWAYBREAKAWAY!!!!" The Great Cornolio looks up from the INS and sees the words : HIGH SPEED BOOM less than a foot from the windscreen. And the boom is up as far as it will fly. Then comes the push. Capt Corn shoves the yoke eight inches forward in a half second, resulting, you might guess, in a less than text-book separation. A full negative 1G world now awaits them. Joe screams and pisses himself, and everything not tied town in the airplane, including Rex, is slammed against the ceiling. In an instant, the now-bent Extender shoots through the bottom of the block at 17,000 FPM, 18 degrees nose low. Panic ensues while the IP wastes time turning on the flight director switches, and farting around with the vert-speed wheel. He also remembers the beacon lights. Good monkey boy! As the abused and twisted wide-body slashes through 18,000 feet, Joe dutifully calls "Thousand to transition!" Capt Bank finally sees his sorry life flash before his eyes and realizes that they are over the Mt Shasta area, calls "I got the airplane" and loads the poor Douglas up like a shit-stained Saudi in his dad's new F-15. The Boeing Boomer later claims to have seen vapor trails from the wing and horizontal stabilizer tips. Fighter pilots are conditioned and accustomed to pulling multiple G loads on a daily basis. They are proud of their physical strength and ability to operate effectively under conditions of extreme loads. Too bad they're are such assholes. But no fighter pilot anywhere, ever, has pulled 5 Gs on plastic shitter seat. Rex did it, and survived. Aerospace Medical geeks from all over the world have studied his case, and all agreed that only an iron-ass engineer like Rex possessed the physical strength of ass, and the sheer power with the straining maneuver, to survive such an event. Rex's ass is permanently stained with blue shitter-water, not from the push-over, but the high-G pull, which caused his ass to actually stretch out all the way into the metal bowl, which naturally, was coated in blue water and shit. The following is the actual radio transmission between Travis Command Post and the ill-fated local, Spazz 61: Travis Command Post = TCP Spazz 61=61 61: Travis Command Post, Spazz 61 TCP: Go ahead, Spazz 61 61: We are inbound your station. Code 2, requesting ambulance and latrine service upon landing. TCP: State reason for ambulance, and pass on maintenance writeups, over. 61: Well, uh, we got an engineer that's all covered in latrine water, and....uh...stand by fer writeups......uh, we might should have a fire hose standing by....to wash off this here engineer, he's all covered in....uh...excrement and piss, over. TCP: Spazz 61, say again......did not copy...did not understand....Say again over...please pass writeups..... 61: Dang it! ain't anyone listening down there? Like I told ya afore, my engineer's all covered in shit, godammit, and if you want to know the in' whole story right here on the goddamn air, well, my gosh dang pilot boys are sittin' in bags of shit, and I done pissed in my dang drawers, too.....how copy command post..... TCP: Spazz 61 please pass writeups and any DVs on Board? Over.......... This was the last transmission. The airplane landed without incident after 16 touch and goes. The Great Cornholio did not bring up charges on Rex. Capt Bank found his sunglasses imbedded in his fat ass when he got home. Joe went to Crusty's, still in his pissed-stained coveralls, and awaited Rex, who was released from DGMC after ingesting 4 valiums and undergoing a thorough probing by the hobbyists at the flight surgeon's office. Rex did not utter a single word for over 6 days after the flight. NEXT: REX GOES TO THE FLIGHT SURGEON TO GET OFF DNIF.

I signed 3 of them. For a few years, the AF had the one I signed in ROTC in the system and that's what showed up as my ADSC expiration. They caught it eventually, but it was fun to dream in the meantime.

Last of the Few: The Battle of Britain in the Words of the Pilots Who Won It Book about RAF pilots during the Battle of Britain. Was $1.99 for kindle, so that deal may come up again. Good read and surreal at times. Guys getting shot down and walking to the closest pub for a pint, things like that.

Any issues with shipping a car back to the US from an OCONUS assignment when you didn't bring one over initially? Didn't see a reference in the JTR and TMO said "sure!", but I'd prefer not to be stuck paying out of pocket. Thanks.

Looks like our Brit planespotter friends may have caught it as well.

Cadillac/port-o-potty art is like the nose art of this generation.

Found it!

Jordan's King was a little harsher in his condemnation than Obama. https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/feb/4/jordans-king-abdullah-quotes-clint-eastwood-to-us-/

My best friend's sister's boyfriend's brother's girlfriend heard from this guy who knows this kid who's going with the girl who saw Ferris pass out at 31 Flavors last night. I guess it's pretty serious.

ETA Disregard. Wrong website.

Is the stunt willingly getting aboard an Airbus?

I toast to the explorers past, present, and future who push the boundaries of flight for the advancement of mankind.

https://theaviationist.com/2014/08/04/russian-bears-at-giuk-gap/ How the U.S. F-15s intercepted Russian Bear bombers in the GIUK Gap: tensions and hilarious moments above Iceland. "Another hilarious moment dates back to the time when one F-15 pilot showed off a Playboy nude centerfold across the expansive side of the Eagle’s canopy, for the Soviet aviators entertainment. Once they saw it, they responded by running the Bear air to air refueling probe (which was encased in a long cylindrical tube extending above the nose and would be run out to clog up into the drogue basket) in and out, and in and out of its protective sleeve."

"2" That guy was/is a piece of work.

#SAPR

Da, GLONASS is on the fritz.