Springer

Back off bud....I tried to make it smaller but if it makes you feel better I'll delete it dickhead.

Very sad. Lt. Cmdr. Lyndsay P. Evans, left, and Lt. Serena N. Wileman, right.© Navy photos. The crew of an EA-18G Growler that crashed near Mount Rainier in Washington last week had flown dozens of combat missions in the Red Sea earlier this year as part of the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower’s Carrier Strike Group that faced drones and missiles fired by Houthi rebels in Yemen. The Navy confirmed Monday that Lt. Cmdr. Lyndsay “Miley” Evans and Lt. Serena “Dug” Wileman, both 31, were killed in the Oct. 15 crash on Mount Rainier, about 180 miles from their home base of Naval Air Station Whidbey Island. Rescuers battled bad weather and steep terrain to reach the crash site over the weekend, where they confirmed the aviators had died. The Navy said the Growler was on a “routine training flight” when it went down. No other details about the crash have been released. The Eisenhower’s commander, Capt. Chris “Chowdah” Hill, tweeted that both women had served “heroically” on the ship’s combat deployment. “My heart truly goes out to the families, friends, and shipmates of these two fallen Naval Aviators who were confirmed killed in an EA-18G crash last week in Washington. These warriors of VAQ-130 will forever be part of the Ike family, having served with us heroically on our recent deployment. I loved working with them both — just incredible energy and beautiful souls,” Hill wrote. the jet carrying the two crew members went down during Loaded: 100.00% Pause Current Time 0:18 / Duration 0:28 Quality Settings Captions Fullscreen Straight Arrow News Navy confirms deaths of 2 crew members after jet crashes in Washington Unmute 0 View on Watch During the deployment, Evans was awarded two Single Action Air Medals with Combat “C” devices, an indication of having flown on two particularly difficult or meaningful missions, along with three Strike-Flight Air Medals. Evans was also a graduate of the 12-week HAVOC course at NAS Fallon, the “Top Gun” school of the Growler community. She was named the Growler Tactics Instructor of the Year for fiscal year 2024. Evans’ other awards also include a Combat Action Ribbon. Wileman, a pilot since 2022, earned a Combat Action Ribbon and three Strike-Flight Air Medals on the Red Sea deployment. The commander of the Eisenhower’s air wing said Evans and Wileman will be remembered for their tenacity, contributions to the defense of others, and positive energy they brought to Naval Aviation. “I have personally flown with both of these Great Americans in both training and dynamic combat operations, and they always performed professionally and precisely,” said Capt. Marvin Scott in a release. “As true leaders in the Growler community, VAQ-130, and across my Air Wing, their contributions cannot be overstated; I could not be more proud to have served with each of them. Every member of the CVW-3 Battle Axe Team is heartbroken at the loss of these exceptional warriors; Dug and Miley truly represent the best that Naval Aviation has to offer, and they will absolutely be missed.”

Long forgotten as my goal was to retire early anyway. Stayed single in a target rich environment, no kids, lived well BYM, and retired at 59. Enjoyed the job but have never missed it. Multi millionaire DAL brother in-law recently found out he has cancer two years passed age 65 retirement. Changes everything.

That happened in the 2008 NWA/DAL merger. DAL in 2004 experienced a mass exodus of their senior pilots to capture what they had in their retirement with a looming BK. Their junior pilots advanced ahead of what would have been their normal progression vs NWA pilots hired years earlier when the 2008 integration occurred using career expectations.

I have been through two of them. No one is ever happy. Last one 3 year later hires placed in front of me. Makes for a "fun" flight when flying with the other side.

Huggy, what is the status of the A-37?

Just got back from a week in Bavaria. Countryside is as beautiful as that lady.

Tack the instrument panel to the wall and chair fly the next flight/emergency procedures over and over again in your mind. Do this for every flight. When in the sim or a/c don't accept anything less than pegging airspeed and altitude. In 15K+ hours there isn't a flight I have ever taken including my RV-8, that I didn't review in my mind what I could have done better.

Crap Huggy, wanted to drive over and see ya but crashed and burned on my bicycle and now have a new hip. Since you don't know what I look like was going to give you crap about your little "girly bird" plane, those large "bombs" under the wing and your orange "Test Pilot" flt suit before introducing myself. You did wear the scarf right? I know all the retired Dragonfly dudes are glad you made it and represented them so well. Many thanks!

Can you put this guy on your No Fly List with the Guard like you can with the airlines?

Huggy's A-37 demo at Hill AFB, starts at 1:34. Makes for an excellent flying display.

Well stated. As I have said before, my brother in-law was the A320 CA king of hustle, ie Green Slips and Rolling Thunder at DAL. Can't tell you how many times he missed his wife's Thanksgiving dinners and the crap he was willing to put himself through for a high paying trip. In his last 9 mths (2021) on LTS was pulling in $40K+/mth due to the accumulation effect of the above.

Congrats on a great quality of life add! I f*&king hate DH. It's the small sh*t that makes the difference as I went for quality of life over dollars. We had great A320 trips, Japan to Saipan I wanted to fly but had to DH over on the Whale. Guarantee first class over (per contract >12 hrs) but coming back to US in coach due to tailwinds and always full flights. Sadly, never did them.

THIS^^ Could not hold CA until my 13th year. Never holding WB CA was not the end of the world. I cruised along in my career flying decent trips with seniority, lived where I wanted and commuted 1200 miles. Worked in the worst of times pay/BK wise but managed to retire long before 65 after being hired at 35. Don't be like my Deltoid Bro-in-law thinking you have to fly every Green Slip available to age 65. Enjoy the ride and don't make it harder than it has to be.

This is a bummer: American Latest to Halt Pilot Hiring The Fort Worth-based carrier said on Thursday that it would pause pilot hiring through the end of the year. American says it plans to cease pilot hiring for the remainder of 2024. In a memo to conditionally-hired pilots on Thursday, the airline said all new hire classes would be paused through the end of the year as it evaluates ‘commercial and talent needs.’ The carrier joins a growing list of major airlines pumping the brakes on recruitment after a record-setting period of pilot hiring. Both Delta and United have substantially scaled back their pilot hiring outlooks this year. Southwest stopped hiring new aviators altogether. In an April briefing, American’s Vice President of Flight Operations Russ Moore initially said the carrier would only pause hiring during peak summer and winter holiday months. He added that it plans to hire roughly 1,000 fewer new aviators this year. “In fact, we hired and trained more pilots in 2023 than we have in the history of this airline, and we did it efficiently enough that we were actually a bit ahead of where we needed to be for the summer of 2024,” Moore shared during the briefing. “This allowed us to transition from a ‘hire and train as many as you can’ approach to a more traditional approach, which in and of itself reduced our hiring targets for 2024.” Among the reasons for the hiring slowdown are aircraft delivery delays at Boeing, Moore said. American is currently awaiting the delivery of 787-9 Dreamliner and 737 MAX jets from the embattled manufacturer. “As part of our previously announced capacity adjustments, we are temporarily pausing new pilot class start dates for September, October and November. This decision allows us to optimize our capacity and tailor our talent growth plans to best serve the current needs of our airline,” the carrier said in a statement Thursday evening. Last year, American hired around 2,300 pilots, according to data from FAPA. Even with the pause, Moore noted that up to 850 of the airline’s pilots retire annually over the next five years. Editor’s Note: This story was updated on June 20, 2024 at 7:26 p.m. ET to add a statement from American.

Dunno, would fly my Van's RV-4 one day and a DC-10 the next day to Europe.😄

Ditch the orange flight suit, carry a grease pencil and wear the "gay" scarf I sent you. The kids will love it! I should send you my A-37 model sitting in the closet. You could auction it off for gas money.

Thanks Huggy, this is really sad news. I had never heard of him until a few years ago when I ran into him of all places, on a bike trail in Tucson. Saw a guy with a U-2/SR-71 on his cap and stop to chat with him for about 20 minutes. Knew some people I knew, (Ed Yeilding) and he remembered you when I brought your name up. I believe he owned a Lancair 320 and had a recent automobile? accident. Sadly he will be missed.

Missed the date but 4 mths ago sold patio furniture to a former TUS ANG F-16 instructor and said they were underway with the Ukraine students making the transition. First Ukrainian Pilots Graduate US F-16 Training (airandspaceforces.com)

Great photo, mine is in Germany's Baumholder Track. Had to tap burner to hold position with the high AOA. '97 had the best director lights.

I don't remember the airspeed but we did the standard tanker rejoins in the AAR track like the Phantom and had no problems staying with the tanker. I gave all my Dragonfly stuff to Huggy so he might know. All ours had the AAR equipment when we received the planes from the Guard/Reserve (that was a first) and put the O-2A's in the Boneyard. For the younger guys, in the late '70's there were massive AF DOS's as the airlines were hiring...think deregulation. But then almost overnight all the airlines began furloughing ('81) and the AF wanted us back. We could almost write our own orders...I didn't want to go back to Recce and thought the OA-37 at DMAFB would be cool. I was right and after a 4 year commitment, went back to the airlines.

Yes, from both the -135 & KC-10. Only USAF a/c at the time ('80's) that did probe/drogue, fun but challenging. Once plugged you had to offset the a/c left or right to put a "S" bend in the hose to keep from disconnecting. Early on we were getting poor connections with massive hose leaks. On one flt with a student the leak was so bad we went IFR...he pulled back without realigning. When we disconnected the hose aligned with the right intake pouring fuel into the engine, flaming it out. Down we went. Huggy has connections...bet he can get tanker support for his trip to OSH. I can be his IP, no charge. Navy F18 doing the same offset:

Thinking around 690 nm as I flew regularly with WG/CC between DMAFB and Bergstrom (Austin) with 4 drop tanks. Never flew it in any other configuration. Carries more external fuel than internal. Flew non stop New Orleans to Honduras (see pic) but we AAR'd on the way. Huggy is going to love the plane. I felt comfortable in it after one flight. When down to internal fuel it would fly up it's own a$$hole. Closed patterns were basically Immelmanns. UPT grads were getting FAC (OA-37/OV-10) assignments with a guaranteed fighter afterwards. Guy in pic went to F-15's, retired DAL CA now. Good looking guy on the right flew RF-4C's prior. What's an IR/VR route? 🙂 Fun times back then.

Great work Huggy...lookin' like a real A-37 now:

The Sheriff sets the tone for his department. In incidents like this, he should be the first to go. Not unlike in the military, seems at every base I was at when there was an accident, the sq/cc or wg/cc was replaced.