billy pilgrim

I am no financial expert - however I was under the impression that real estate was an excellent hedge for market instabilites. The weak to sometimes negative correlation between the two should lead to real estates gains when the market goes down. (From Random Walk Down Wallstreet). The United States is the largest country economy with a GDP that equals 20% or so of the world. If it gets THAT bad, I think you will find yourself better off with firearms vice a stack of gold bricks.

A buddy of mine were BSing in the scheduling shop yesterday about all of this. He has palace chased to the guard at the end of his ADSC after getting TAMMY-21'd and then back to fighters. It's not that guys don't want to be in AD, or that they don't want to serve. His quote was something along the lines of: "It's mind boggling how you can take the coolest job in the world and people want to leave!?!" I don't want to leave AD, but I probably will. I know for sure I won't touch the bonus with a 10' pole. Money motivates some people, but I think those that find themselves in the CAF (I'm sure it's the same in other areas - just speaking for personal experience) have a lot of options that don't really make money a primary motivator. According to Malcolm Gladwell (Blink, Outliers, David and Goliath etc...) the things that make work rewarding are: complexity, autonomy and effort tied to reward. I think for the 11X field the last one suffers. Likewise the three things (according to him) that make effective leadership are fairness, predictability and subordinates feeling like they have a voice. I think the AF fails wholesale at all three of those. It takes a tremendous amount of time and effort for someone to become a proficient active duty 11X. From personal experience and I have less than zero faith that I or the guys I work with won't get royally f'd just to make some power point slide square turn green for some O-6+. It's like if you spent 10 years trying to become a medical doctor and every year or so you may have to go work some menial job (maybe for the rest of your career) that you hate and have little training or desire to do just based on "needs of the hospital". There is certainly a disconnect between the senior leadership and the "drawdown force" that I have been a part of for the past decade. I have been impressed with the majority of guys I've gotten to fly with across all MWS's. The world's most proficient and lethal fighting force has slowly been starving to death and all of you guys have been making it happen despite of it. Good luck. My take on the bonus is that $1k/month is not worth giving up complete control of your life.

I'm sure the 422 and weapons school at Nellis will make it a lethal and tactically relevant platform. But I don't understand how the military made the same F-4 mistake of making an airplane try to do everything well. Flexibility may be the key to airpower, but specialization is the key to performance. I will miss my old fourth gen jet though when big blue retires it. It's like the old 67 Mustang getting replaced with an automatic BMW 3 series.

Sounds good... I can see this creating casualties when the LPA refills the corn mid roll call.

Didn't know where to put this, but for those with the Breitling Airwolf - the battery is CR2320 and the case tool is 35mm (eBay). Obviously use at your own risk. I didn't want to spend $400 for a battery change on my out of warranty watch and have my watch out of pocket for over a month. Took me a while to find the battery info and literally trial and error to find the right case tool.

One of the first incentive flights I ever flew was TDY up in Alaska as an Lt with a young crew cheif who quote "loved rollercoasters", "never gotten airsick" etc... As we line up on RWY 6 at Elmo (towards the mountains) it's an absolutely beautimous Summer day. This was back in the black boot days where single ship incentive rides were authorized and taking the runway tower clears our unrestricted climb. Honestly, I was probably just as excited as bravo as I don't think I had done an unrestricted takeoff since TR-2. So I give the quick brief of "Hey dude, when we hit the end of the runway start our climb, look over at the airfield behind you. It's going to be pretty cool." Run up the power on the runway, release the brakes and throw the jet into MAX. The jet wasn't clean so I think we were somewhere around 390KCAS at the departure end - nothing crazy. At the end of the runway I pull up, call departure and per the brief, look over my shoulder. The jet settles into the climb and I turn in the seat to look at the airfield behind us. As departure is calling me back, I hear that distinctive mask down hiss and see said crewcheif emptying his breakfast into his first sick sack. I think he went through about two more in the airspace. Since, I've had a few others get some active airsickness, but this guy has to have set some sort of record for "time to puke".

That paper is going in our squadron bar on monday... From my experience making corn it was important to drain as much water as possible from the jalapeno's. Also, seven minutes seemed to be the ideal time to fry the peppers before adding corn. Your results may very.

Just finished - Biohazard: The Chilling True Story of the Largest Covert Biological Weapons Program in the World--Told from Inside by the Man Who Ran It by Ken Ablik The author ran a large portion of the USSR Biological Weapons Program and then defected to the States. Genetically modified viruses, to include Variola and Ebola and antibacterial resistant Anthrax etc... Modified SS-18 ICBMs to deliver to the States. Some crazy stuff. The perspective on the internal Soviet politics reminded me a bit of Mig Pilot, but this author is a much better writer than Victor Belenko. Highly recommend.

I can't recall seeing the space station but wearing NVG's above FL400 is almost a constant display of shooting stars.

Can't believe Sony is pulling this because of the threats. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-30528772

Two slightly used (only once!) ejection seats for the 493rd Bar! Glad to hear the pilot is okay.

Second everything above. He was an awesome guy to fly with and work for. He will be missed.

I say we sell the Afghani's a bunch of these: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_air_balloon And they can weaponize them as they see fit. Cheap, portable, low mx, survivable against SAF and advanced SAM threats and relatively little training required.

Wait - are you C2??

Any advice on a .308 semi-auto? I was looking into a Ruger model as well as a Sig ($$). Thanks.

22 Jump Street was much better than 21. A Million Ways to Die in the West - wait to rent...

I saw something very similiar down on that airfield with an approaching thunderstorm about a decade ago. A couple of super-cubs literally took off from a stand still about 50' away. Those pilots are all retired USAF with about a bazillion hours. Cool video.

busdriver - I understand your point, but the reduction in g is a huge deal. It is a symptom of a larger problem. Sustained turn performance is absolutely critical to a fighter and due to the F-35's wing size vs weight it's going to have higher than ideal wingloading which means it will bleed energy significantly under g. (The smaller the wings the more AOA is needed to generate lift and the more AOA generates more drag). A better engine will mitigate this, but why not learn from the F-4 and Boyd and design a fighter with solid aerodynamic performance throughout the envelope. Stealth and sensor fusion and all that is awesome, but I don't think it is the end all be all. Electronic attack can be a cheap stop-gap to make legacy systems more survivable until a viable solution is found. If I were king for a day I'd re-roll the R&D into 4th gen airframes and start from scratch. This, of course, will never happen. The Air Force has gotten the job done with airplanes not ideal for the mission before (F-105 in Veitnam comes to mind) and will hopefully be able to do so again. Lastly, from my perspective a legacy fighter is going to be higher performance, have better visibility and be a lot more fun to fly.

This THIS is what it's like in North Dakota:

At least the Russians have offered us a potential solution: http://www.foxnews.com/science/2014/04/30/us-astronauts-should-use-trampolines-to-get-into-space-russian-official-says/?intcmp=latestnews

Watch out for the MILF! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moro_Islamic_Liberation_Front

You can try this technique if the queep is piling up excessively. 1) Send yourself a GINORMOUS ppt file. Wait until you get a "mailbox is full" warning, you may have to send it a few times. Good work, now your email is inop and if someone really needs something they will either find you in person or call you. 2) Go fly / do something tactically relevant. *3) IF you want to get your email back delete the messages and empty your trash. Don't forget the sent items. *Not recommended

Toro, didn't you get the memo? It's all about winning hearts and minds now. Just think about all the shows the USAF will be able to fund by cutting the best fixed-winged CAS platform ever made. It's a shame, but it's decisions like this that make it no mystery to me why almost every single current and qualified 11F I know has gone immediately to the guard upon completion of their ADSC.

I got to shoot with some Army SOF a bit back and they made a similar comment about the MP5 (which they did not like due to lack of power of the 9mm cartridge). Often in movies the actors run around with the action on the side locked open. On a side note, it was a lot of fun to shoot but I was surprised that the action does not stay locked back after the last round. This means that you have to change mags with a bullet in the chamber or cycle the action to chamber a round after you've changed mags before you can shoot again.

Military related... I liked Riding Rockets by Mike Mullane - a former F-4 WSO. Also reading An Astronauts Guide to Life on Earth by Chris Hadfield - really not a fan due to all the "this is how awesome I am" undertones.