The Next President is...

[Guest]

45 minutes ago, Blue said:

This is likely inappropriate given the gravity of current events at Kabul today.

However, when I sit back here in my comfy office chair and daydream, I think about what could have happened over the past couple of weeks.

There was that brief several days (week?) after Kabul began to crumble, but before they closed the airport to commercial flights.  Folks were getting on whatever they could.  Watching FlightRadar24, a Turkish Airlines 777-300 seemed to be one of the last civi aircraft to get out (16 Aug).

Would have loved to see Trump have his 757 fly to Kabul to pick up a load of evacuees.  The pics and video footage and accompanying chaos in the media would have been entertaining if nothing else.

I'm not an expert in 757-200 ops, but bet it could have done it in two legs from NYC.

While that would have been badass and the optics hilariously good against pedoJoe if successful, I think attempting to fly in would have unfortunately been the most enticing opportunity for the deep state to drop a few crates of Stingers off to the locals with instructions on what to hit in exchange for gold bars. That's probably why it wasn't done.

 

[ViperMan]

43 minutes ago, dogfish78 said:

While that would have been badass and the optics hilariously good against pedoJoe if successful, I think attempting to fly in would have unfortunately been the most enticing opportunity for the deep state to drop a few crates of Stingers off to the locals with instructions on what to hit in exchange for gold bars. That's probably why it wasn't done.

You are officially off the reservation.

[DirkDiggler]

12 hours ago, Blue said:

This is likely inappropriate given the gravity of current events at Kabul today.

However, when I sit back here in my comfy office chair and daydream, I think about what could have happened over the past couple of weeks.

There was that brief several days (week?) after Kabul began to crumble, but before they closed the airport to commercial flights.  Folks were getting on whatever they could.  Watching FlightRadar24, a Turkish Airlines 777-300 seemed to be one of the last civi aircraft to get out (16 Aug).

Would have loved to see Trump have his 757 fly to Kabul to pick up a load of evacuees.  The pics and video footage and accompanying chaos in the media would have been entertaining if nothing else.

I'm not an expert in 757-200 ops, but bet it could have done it in two legs from NYC.

Would be difficult, the plane in question is currently grounded in New Jersey missing an engine.

[hockeydork]

19 minutes ago, DirkDiggler said:

Would be difficult, the plane in question is currently grounded in New Jersey missing an engine.

It sat at SWF forever down the street missing the pod. When did it move to NJ? I haven't looked in awhile, next time I drive by I'll take a peep maybe he finally fixed it. 

[Guest]

11 hours ago, ViperMan said:

You are officially off the reservation.

The Reagan Administration's IC did just that with giving the Mujahideen Stingers. Don't remember?

[hockeydork]

10 minutes ago, dogfish78 said:

The Reagan Administration's IC did just that with giving the Mujahideen Stingers. Don't remember?

 

Lets drop surface to air weapons off in one of the most unstable regions of the world where there's a group of people who would love nothing more than to get their hands on just one them and plink AF1 or a commercial jet at the next available opportunity. 

[Guest]

17 minutes ago, hockeydork said:

Lets drop surface to air weapons off in one of the most unstable regions of the world where there's a group of people who would love nothing more than to get their hands on just one them and plink AF1 or a commercial jet at the next available opportunity. 

Exactly right. Hugely stupid maneuver when one applies common sense to it, but that's not how the IC thinks, because their goals are different from that of the actual patriotic warfighters who make the military function. Which is telling.

[DUNBAR]

I am trying to find some sliver of optimism in all of this catastrophe.  Is this our "Suez moment?"

If I wanted to be an optimist, I guess we can say few things were more humiliating than Saigon, but less than 20 years later, the Soviet Union was dead, Saddaam was spanked, and they had to coin a new phrase since "superpower" didn't seem adequate - "hyperpower."

Similarly, Yorktown must have been pretty humiliating for the Brits back in the 1780s, but they had a helluva good run for the next 170 years or so.

But man, oh man.  I am racking my brains to try and find a more horrific month for American prestige and national security.  I honestly think it's worse than Pearl Harbor, because AFG was so self-inflicted, and Japan was a helluva lot more formidable than goat herders yearning to live in the 7th century.  I guess it doesn't quite rise to the torching of Wash DC during the War of 1812, or the Union incompetence circa 1862, but this is all absolutely unbelievable.

If all this somehow puts the brakes on wokey wokey wokiness/defund the police/COVID tyranny/southern border/$3.5T "infrastructure" bills, as the left's appalling incompetence and callousness becomes obvious and indisputable, and "orange man bad" starts to ring really, really hollow, then at least that's something.

Edited August 27, 2021 by DUNBAR

[fire4effect]

Alright I'll throw another name out there for President. Probably take a lot persuading to get her to run when she finally retires from the AF but I would definitely vote for her. Scary smart and from what I've seen not at all pretentious.

GENERAL JACQUELINE D. VAN OVOST > U.S. Air Force > Biography Display (af.mil)

[Guardian]

Since when does someone put on their Bio aircraft they have rode in but never really flown or been qualified? She’s already lost credibility.

[uhhello]

2 minutes ago, Guardian said:

Since when does someone put on their Bio aircraft they have rode in but never really flown or been qualified? She’s already lost credibility.

Yeah, never seen that.  

[Muscle2002]

55 minutes ago, Guardian said:

Since when does someone put on their Bio aircraft they have rode in but never really flown or been qualified? She’s already lost credibility.

She’s a TPS graduate, which explains the difference. She may not have been Form 8 qualified, but test pilots periodically fly front or left seat in aircraft where they are doing all of the flying, to include ground ops. These flights are called qualitative evaluations. The IP, if there is even space for one, is only a safety observer, nothing more. Moreover, test pilots are allowed to log primary time on qualitative evaluations as they are performing the role of pilot-in-command and experimental test pilot, gathering data on handling, flying qualities, systems performance, etc. for later tests and evaluations.

I do not take umbrage with her doing so as much as seeing a "run-of-the-mill" pilot turned general stating they flew aircraft in which they were really a passenger while in their commander role. Take, for instance many of the Nellis Wg/CCs. I doubt any of them have actually flown all of the aircraft listed or were qualified given their typical CAF background.

Is it okay to state you flew the T-37, T-38, T-1, etc. while in UPT even though you lacked a Form 8 or had an IP onboard? 

Edited to add: The fighter-type aircraft she listed were syllabus aircraft at the TPS.

Edited August 29, 2021 by Muscle2002
Additional info:

[fire4effect]

46 minutes ago, Guardian said:

Since when does someone put on their Bio aircraft they have rode in but never really flown or been qualified? She’s already lost credibility.

Yep posting in this thread can be hazardous. Truth in advertising I've actually met her and clearly my personal opinion. Like most I would like to see competence at the top.

[HeloDude]

2 hours ago, Muscle2002 said:

Is it okay to state you flew the T-37, T-38, T-1, etc. while in UPT even though you lacked a Form 8 or had an IP onboard? 

Well if you solo an aircraft and/or get a “checkride” (that the FAA recognizes), then I think it’s safe to say you flew that aircraft even if no Form 8.

[Guardian]

I’m going to start claiming that I flew all the airliner models I ride in.

Hard time believing that a traditionally AMC pilot going to TPS has an IP along in a fighter just in case. So if something is done that is Q3’able then the IP doesn’t get in trouble?

That logic doesn’t make any sense.

So you just cut someone loose with an afterburner which isn’t experienced in it?

Are they allowed to log primary because there is an IP on board providing instruction?

[Guardian]

No one is questioning that she flew it. Just what sense it makes to say that you flew it on your bio? It doesn’t. We flew 200 hours in UPT in aircraft and solo’d in them. I doubt she did that at TPS but I am wrong on a regular basis.

[kaputt]

What a shame 13 dead Americans cut into the President’s busy day….

[Scooter14]

No one is questioning that she flew it. Just what sense it makes to say that you flew it on your bio? It doesn’t. We flew 200 hours in UPT in aircraft and solo’d in them. I doubt she did that at TPS but I am wrong on a regular basis.

https://www.edwards.af.mil/Portals/50/documents/AFD-131008-020.pdf?ver

In my humble opinion, if you get accepted to Test Pilot School as a pilot you can log every airplane you flew there because…it’s Test Pilot School.

[Muscle2002]

41 minutes ago, Guardian said:

So you just cut someone loose with an afterburner which isn’t experienced in it?

 

Yes

[Muscle2002]

39 minutes ago, Guardian said:

No one is questioning that she flew it. Just what sense it makes to say that you flew it on your bio? It doesn’t. We flew 200 hours in UPT in aircraft and solo’d in them. I doubt she did that at TPS but I am wrong on a regular basis.

I flew the A-10 as a TPS student and employed the gun and dropped BDUs (I know, cool story, right?). Am I not supposed to say I flew it? Or in another instance, I flew just 10 hours in a prototype but never had a Form 8. Does that count?

[Guardian]

You were solo. Of course. Did you have prior fighter experience? Betting so.

[FlyingWolf]

15 minutes ago, Guardian said:

You were solo. Of course. Did you have prior fighter experience? Betting so.

Its okay man. Heavy background folks turned TPS grads still don't typically call themselves "fighter pilots", if that makes you feel better.

Edited August 29, 2021 by FlyingWolf

[skybert]

6 hours ago, uhhello said:

Yeah, never seen that.  

I threw up in a -141 once, should put it on my resume?

[Guardian]

Its okay man. Heavy background folks turned TPS grads still don't typically call themselves "fighter pilots", if that makes you feel better.

Why would that make me feel worse or better? That doesn’t matter.

[FlyingWolf]

12 minutes ago, Guardian said:

 

Why would that make me feel worse or better? That doesn’t matter.

 

Indeed. Neither does the F-15 listed in her bio.

 

To move the thread back on topic... I can't help but wonder if the admin is partially relieved for Hurricane Ida to distract from Afghanistan.  I imagine we will see a huge national relief response with lots of media coverage.  Good for the folks dealing with yet another hit, but I hope we still see some accountability on the the Afghanistan debacle.