Rocker

Chris Stricklin, yup he did. Every time I see it, I'm amazed by the perfect timing and composition of that photo (given the event). I wonder if Stricklin has if framed on his bathroom wall or anything.

Die, topic!! Die!!!

Nice, HD. My thought exactly when I read hybrid. Those are some wicked photoshop skillz you have there by the way. Also, I don't know if CH would be caught dead driving U-Boats.

What a beast. I absolutely love it.

"What also floats?" "Churches!" "Very small rocks!" ... "A duck!" "A duck! Who are you, so wise in the ways of science?" "I am Arthur, King of the Britons!" "So if she floats, she must be made of wood...and if she's made of wood.........a WITCH!!! BURN THE WITCH!!!"

See? Damn right, that's what I'm talking about. Back in Gulf 1 we used to do low passes over "charlie" dumping fuel all over entire regiments, then would come back around and spit out a LUU-2 and watch the bastards go up in flames. Yeah, and a solid effort it is. The beer has never been colder or more plentiful in the Desert Knights bar!

Hey, how come nobody ever pretends to be an HC-130P pilot? That's bullshit. They don't even know.

Or assistant chief of scheduling, depending on how many people your squadron has in it. The fewer people, the more weight everyone has to carry and the more ground responsibility you'll likely have. And if you're in a squadron with only three or four working aircraft, you won't feel like a pilot at all for 27 or so days out of every month. Sometimes, even as an LT, and depending where you are, it doesn't take long at all for the ground job to completely overshadow your wings. But hey, at least we're getting paid.

Good shit, thanks for the info.

Thanks for all the answers. I may press my luck a little with the model I linked to above, but it sounds like it might be a little beyond my current abilities. We'll see, but I promise to 'fess up if I do buy it and plow it right into the terrain. If I go to Nellis soon, we'll see how the blackjack tables treat me and go from there. The only thing I'm not sure about is if I want gas right off the bat here. I just want a little cheap entertainment for the most part right now, but something well beyond the capabilities of a $50 Toys R Us plane. That and the Cox EZ Bee (that was gas) that I had as a kid make up my experience level.

Anybody on here ever mess with a remote controlled plane? I can see the witty responses now (because I've got about five quick ones I could fire off), but really, what's a decent plane for a semi-beginner? I can learn quickly and have a little experience with these things. I was thinking of this airplane ( https://h1069956.hobbyshopnow.com/products/...sp?prod=PKZ1500 - or the Focke-Wulf 190). I don't feel like I need to get into a whole project of building one from the ground up just yet - just something I can get a little instant gratification from that performs well for around $200 or so. I do know one "senior leader" on this board who is a fairly avid R/C plane buff. Any advice?

Why do I get the feeling her family life is going to implode, if it hasn't already? "Except for that time when she got knocked up by some other dude overseas, and then went to an underground abortion clinic in Kyrgyzstan to cover it up, and then lied about getting abducted for three days when the abortion went bad, she's been a very faithful wife."

Does it not say which squadron you're going to on your orders? You do have orders, right? You could just call McConnell's operator and ask for that squadron's ops desk - they might already have a sponsor assigned to you getting ready to call you. And if you end up talking to the OSS, that's at least a step in the right direction and a great way to find stuff out on your own instead of spazzing out here and asking 25 questions.

But the prospect of Cannon for the F-16s was only about a one in seven or eight chance, with that being about the only raw deal for them (not including Korea, which I've heard a lot of people enjoy). Versus a 50% (or so) chance of going to Cannon for the gunships. In my case, however, it would be more than worth it to me.

All hail the -60 mafia! Kind of rough as one of the newer guys to see the "#1 HC-130 pilot in the wing" only get a "P" to Lt Col. But I'm just coloring away, blooming where I'm planted, keeping my trap shut, and always looking for an out. Rescue can be a great career path if you're a -60 dude. On the other hand, the soon-to-be 550 SOS/CC is an OUTSTANDING leader and pilot. I wish he was going to an CAF ops squadron. Rainman, what do I know, but I would guess (as you might also), that 23 WG/CCs will be Hog drivers hereafter, possibly with a Pavehawk guy once every so often.

My guess is that those flights were notional. Look at their bios...f-in' helo guys...I may be way off, but I seriously doubt they flew from the left seat in this airplane, and if they somehow did, I seriously doubt they fired guns. And if they had any AC-130 formal training (which I also kind of doubt in this case), I bet it would have been the most gentlemanly gentlemen's course possible that wasn't intended to produce an AC-130 pilot. Again, someone more informed than myself will hopefully correct me if I'm wrong, but two stars (or one stars, or colonels) don't get fully qualified in the aircraft (goes for HCs as well) or go through the full FTU. They just fly it once in a while because they're the boss (and have to fly with an IP). f-in' helo guys... Just kidding, f-in helo guys!

BADFNZ: Don't bother with flying formation or taking any more of those T-28 rides. Bad idea. Instead, tell me when and where I need to be to fly them for you, so that way, you won't have to bother with it. I would much rather it be me dealing with the hassle of taking those flights instead of you - I doubt it's even worth your time. In return, I'll scrape together all the somewhat semi not non-current T-6 gouge I still have somewhere and just give it to you totally free of charge! This is a win-win for you, no question. So yeah, let me know.

That's an old one. My dad used to say that all the time. https://bits.westhost.com/idioms/id609.htm

Tex.

I started dry-heaving after reading that. If that's all true, daddy Metzger needs a roundhouse kick to the face. Jill Metzger needs some justice delivered to her. Anybody know who this colonel is?

Everything Rotorhead and JorryFright said is correct. These are some of the most highly trained people in the military, and like any career field, there are good dudes, and there are tools. I'd say the caliber of person overall is pretty high though. They also try to pull some crazy stuff sometimes that's not always "within the regulations." But they are not pretty much considered aircrew - they technically are aircrew and have aircrew wings. But honestly, I don't think anyone really considers them as aircrew in the sense of being an actual crew member and performing crew duties. They are a user and they jump out of our planes. In theater, the standard crew complement includes three PJs and they'll actually work as scanners sometimes, so that's a little different. But they have their own squadron (as do the -60s and the HCs) and pretty much keep to themselves until brief time.

This thread is just stupid. Enough already.

The sound track to "Les Miserables." Seriously, that's some good stuff if you know the story and can get past the Frenchiness. Dope - Life. An incredible album if you like heavy metal, which includes the song "Die Motherf*cker" - an extremely motivating song that I interpret to mean killing islamic extremists. They dedicated the album to the NYPD, NYFD, and the military after 9/11. Every Metallica album prior to Load. Pantera Ozzy Most classic rock Just about all Texas country Most classical - one of the most powerful songs of all time: Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor. Bela Fleck and the Flecktones if you like blue grass - some of the best musicians I've ever seen live. Too many to list.

Not always true. Very good point and easy to forget. That might be the best take on things in the thread so far. But if you want to be a pilot - then go be a pilot. Just make sure that if you do stick with where you're at that you take pride in your work and don't be bitter about what could have been. No one likes navigators who act bitter or regretful about being navigators instead of pilots.

One from this weekend that made me chuckle, I think it was ABQ center. There were lots of storms and associated turbulence this past weekend in the SW USA, and we were flying to Nellis from Barksdale. We'd been on whatever center freq for a while, hearing all the airliners talking about all the turbulence and asking for higher and the controller sounded a little frazzled with the non-stop chatter and requests. Then a new aircraft checks in, from the east where I guess it'd been smooth. Airline: "Albuquerque, American 123, flight level 380, good ride." And the controller responds (as if he's happy to report), "American 123, Albuquerque Center, roger, expect moderate turbulence for the next couple hundred miles." American's only response was an annoyed, "Oh, thanks!" I know some of the Herk drivers on here must have some funnier ones than that since the only difference between intercom and transmitting on the selected radio is the difference between pushing or pulling the same switch. I'm sure most aircraft are similar. And if you're getting a little complacent at high level, you can end up saying some horrible and funny stuff to the world, depending on what you and the crew are talking about right then...