Danger41

If any of you guys decide to start the Second Volunteer Group and get your Chennault on, do yourselves a favor and adopt some medium altitude tactics. These Stinger/MANPADS videos are pretty gnarly.

Now you know the rest of the story…I’m Danger41. Good day!

Brought me back to the IP days with that Chinese water torture blinking there and me needing every fiber of self-control to not yell at the CP about not seeing that.

No point in going Point by point because this doesn’t matter. I’ll be Mulder, you can be Scully, and we’ll drink 10 beers about it someday. But speaking of gullibility, I gotta dip out for a bit to extend my car’s warranty on my way to a guided Bigfoot sighting expedition. Great deal!

Source is a pilot in the sister squadron flying missions in the Ukrainian AF. I don’t have the inside scoop but asking a few other sources, I don’t doubt the veracity of the source. You got some other info? Or are you one of those fighter pilots that just has all knowing ever present SA on all topics at all times?

Posted on Instagram, former Thunderbird Pilot/Eagle guy Dozen Aldridge says that he has reliable first hand sources that say the “Ghost of Kyiv” was Colonel Olaksanser “Grey Wolf” Oksanchenko. Retired former Ukrainian SU-27 demo pilot that came out of retirement for the war. Unknown veracity of any of that and I haven’t personally reviewed the HUD tapes or 781’s so scoff away.

I was discussing this at work the other day and one of our intel guys who is super sharp was blown away at the feasibility of the “Ghost of Kyiv” based on capes of a Ukrainian Fulcrum vs Russian jets (radars, weapons, etc). All valid points but it truly goes to show that weapons and all of that are important, but the people using them are what truly matter. Kind of like John Boyd using the E-M theory and stating that an F-4 could never beat a MiG in a dogfight because the charts showed it performed worse. I doubt that story (Ghost) is true, but I know for certain that the Ukrainian military/people have shown one hell of a fighting spirit. It makes the Afghan military really look like shit bags with all of that tech and training they got over 2 decades just fold.

Isn’t this process where you take pills for a bit to increase stem cell production and they do something similar to dialysis to get it out? How was that process? Affect flying or any other part of life?

Anyone ever attend any of the aviation conferences for meet and greets? I’m the 9 millionth generic white man in aviation but if I was a woman (WAI), black person (OBAP), or gay person (NGPA), and all these folks show up purely to meet somebody from an airline and not at all to support the purpose of the conference, I’d be pretty annoyed by that.

That’s a good question. 3rd generation (WW2 Merchant Marine, Vietnam 2 x DFC aviator, my bitch ass) and I’ve got 3 kids. I don’t think I would actively dissuade service because I love this country and I think military service has many benefits but there’s definitely some serious rot in the force. And it ain’t with the Joe’s.

“It’s just theater”… unlike the thousands of people who suddenly had a Paul on the road to Damascus moment with this vaccine. Quite the religious awakening. I think this whole vaccination thing is BS but people trying the religious route when it’s total crap really pisses me off. Totally undermines folks that have legitimate religious beliefs.

Can we get involved because all this non-deploying, at home shit is super boring.

SD doesn’t have state income tax either.

No! *cries and eats tub of ice cream*

So here goes a massive thread derail…are you all planning on disability upon separation/retirement? I’m more or less healthy and any issues I’ve got now are from getting older and fatter trying to keep up with my kids and work schedule. I would think that’s 0% disabled?

I love the concept but realistically why do this from a fighter sized aircraft? The main argument is due to fighter type speeds so why not use something with more legs but also higher Mach number capable speeds? Put a Gulfstream out there and control this swarm and not have to worry about the handoffs as often. My $0.02. I liked the part about how there’s not a cognitive difference between RPA aircrew and fighter pilots. I believe that but cognitive abilities aren’t why some people are more gifted in airplanes (not saying all fighter pilots are better pilots than other types of pilots but you get my point). I’m sure we’ve all flown with 140 IQ types that suck and knuckle draggers that couldn’t spell cat with two lifelines but are brilliant pilots. It’s just way beyond brain power (even though that is important). If this is a creative attempt to go from a RPA to a fighter, then I wish these dudes luck.

One thing I will add that is purely one mans opinion and not representing the opinion of the US Government, AFSOC, SOCOM, etc…the tail dragger configuration is different, but I hope that isn’t viewed as a bridge too far. If the 802 isn’t chosen on the basis of other factors, then okay. But if that’s the only reason, I would be very disappointed. Yes, all fixed wing pilots are trained by the AF in tricycle gear aircraft and there are some differences, but that’s nothing that can’t be overcome by training. I view it the same way as training guys to AR, do assault landings, or any of the 100 other skills that are outside what they learned in UPT. One very interesting variable in this program is the single pilot/single CSO configuration out of UPT/UCT. What this airplane is going to be asked to do is going to require some talented aviators that won’t have the benefit of copilot time to season before jumping in the AC seat OR being a wingman and progressing up the FL upgrade ladder. With that, you won’t be able to grab the folks that barely made it across the line to earn wings. You’ll have to get some of the higher performers but then you’ll be competing with big AF for more traditional top graduate assignments. And should the single pilot setup limit you to T-7/T-38 people (absolutely not IMO)? And for CSO’s, I can imagine a similar battle amongst the traditional WSO assignments. Having said all that, I hope AFSOC does a 10000x better job selling this airplane to young assignables than they did with the U-28.

So I’ll doxx myself here to people that know me, but I was the demo pilot for this program. I got trained on all of the offerings and flew them with the exception of the Bronco due to their gear collapse issue* and the 145 due to catching the ‘Vid (alternate flew that one). Each one is good at certain things and not as great with others. I have nothing to do with the selection and don’t have any inside info, but I am excited to see how it shakes out. *This is just a funny story. The AT-6 and Bronco 2 were there for their evaluation and the 5th flight of their evaluation was with the AF guy to evaluate a variety of things. We went to their factory and got trained on how their stuff worked and then a 2 hour refresher the day prior to the flight on how to use HOTAS etc. Before that eval, the Bronco had their issues so I never flew it. Anyway, the next day after flying the AT-6 I land and check my phone and have a bunch of messages, missed calls, etc from my Chain. Somehow that telephone game made it back that I was in the airplane and it went off the runway and cartwheeled due to a gear collapse and no one could get in touch with me (completely false haha). I finally called back and said I was fine and had no issues and (in the most military thing ever) got bitched at for not reporting back or something. Good times at the end of the rumor whip.

The demonstration flights completed last summer and the final decision is getting made in the next couple of months.

I genuinely think we need to get out of the military model of rotating troops home after committed to action. Don’t come home until the war is over. See how hawkish the political elites are to attempt the recent bullshit we’ve seen with that model. And also maybe the Congress could do it’s actual job WRT declaring war and/or preventing presidents from just sending military wherever for however long.

Is there a way to see your time logged as a student in each of the training jets? ARMS summary shows “student time” but all I have is “T-38IFF” and like 2 sorties I sandbagged between UPT grad and IFF start as “T-38”.

This has nothing to do with airline hiring, but the USAF should be doing everything they can do get Tac Airlifter to stay. The dude should be running at least a MAJCOM. No shit heroic stuff as an individual and leader. Phenomenal American.

I have almost identical timing but will be out at 15. I’ve struck out on a bunch of ANG units as “too old”. Thoughts?

Didn’t see that post prior to my writing. I have no reason to not believe it and the multiple documents referenced throughout the story to document failures or quitting. That honestly changes my opinion significantly because I knew there had to be a simple boilerplate document for eliminations in a program that attrites 75% of candidates. If the other assertions are true that she will graduate no matter what, then I agree there should be consequences up the chain of command. It intrigued me that Lt Gen Slife called for an IG investigation into the claims because all these claims lead directly back to him. I know he’s a 40 pound brain playing 4D chess, but that’s interesting.

So here’s a view that will probably get me crucified but I think this letter without no shit proof is a big foul. You know the whole community and all the fan boys are all boned up on the macho culture of being a CCT and think women can’t hack it*. These assertions feed exactly into that and it’s easy to get the masses worked into a froth with a “told you so” attitude. Same with all the “golden child” comments about her being a minority and fitting a woke agenda. I view this as the same view as a innocent until proven guilty type thing, hence the lack of proof. *my personal opinion is that women don’t belong on front line infantry (03xx/11 series) or front line SOF units (SF, SEALs, CCT, PJ, Raiders, Rangers) beyond a support capacity. But Congress didn’t ask me so we’re where we’re at now.