fire4effect

I've always thought the RV-8s were a sweet looking aircraft and their performance was pretty good too. Can anyone here speak to how these taildraggers handle during landing?

This is supposed to represent the new LRSO under development but to paraphrase a comedian "all the thrill of being a kamikaze without the commitment"

That mishap was a tough one to figure out. Nothing really obvious at first and the locals had picked over the wreckage before the site was secured. Co pilot had just come off maternity leave as I recall. Kid would be just starting school now.

Not long ago our local security manager said we are responsible for making sure that we regularly verify our credit score is accurate. The whole continuous evaluation thing. Not a bad idea but put another way if our credit score takes a hit due to identity theft we're on the hook to prove it's not our fault. You know the kind of identity theft that can result from a data breach at OPM😬Really love how a government screw up is our responsibility to fix. Wouldn't surprise me at all that the Chinese are continuously and actively promoting identity theft all they can just to screw with those who hold clearances.

I'll risk it and wade a little into this and say money as is often the case a big difference. Uncle Sugar has very deep pockets to fund its training compared to a civilian operation (whole up company or individual student) that has to watch the bottom line all the time. Also many instructors in the civilian world (whether they are good at teaching or not) are just barely past students themselves and just building hours to move up. Often their only realistic way of doing so. Absolutely nothing to force them to come back and teach down the road after they get a few thousand hours and a lot of good real world lessons under their belt to pass it on. Fortunately a few do exactly that. Is what it is. Military as we've all know can simply order anyone under its purview who it thinks is a good fit to be an instructor to do so and I'm including FAIPs. As some have alluded to a willingness to set aside ego and learn can go along way no matter what realm you are coming from.

Since Florida has been the scene of much buffoonery in this thread and I try to post actually useful information once in a while I'll add it here. Recently a young married couple I know well down in Florida ran into this issue a few weeks ago. Young husband goes out for milk one evening and cop pulls him over. I think cop had automatic license plate reader and that was the reason. Car had Florida registration and husband and wife were both listed on vehicle. More importantly both on the same auto insurance policy. Cop tells husband that wife's license has been suspended because DMV doesn't have her listed on policy. Fortunately she was at home and not driving at the time. They had moved about 3 months earlier so no notice was received from the DMV. Long story short is if you your name is on a Florida registered vehicle you must have Florida insurance and not an out of state carrier. DMV website is very specific about that. Fortunately there's a place on the state DMV website https://services.flhsmv.gov/DLCheck/ where you can check the status of your Florida license with you DL number. If you do in fact have Florida insurance it's relatively simple on the same website to find your Florida carrier in a drop down menu and submit an update and reinstate the license. At least in this case it was relatively simple after some online searching. Fortunately in this case no penalty was assessed as those start at $150 and go up for other infractions.

The advances he saw in aviation in his lifetime

Yep at this point in their career they are only about protecting their retirement check and post retirement employment. The only correct answer is the politically correct one. Not to mention thankful no social media/youtube was around when they were younger.

I was reading an article and realized in a little less than 2 weeks (24/25 March) will be the 75th anniversary of The Great Escape. To The Fifty

I had a good friend in Florida who went through this with his BS Crazy ex a couple years ago. She pulled the victim card and he was taking out the trash one day when 4 deputies showed up and after they patted him down they took all his guns. Fortunately they didn't haul him in and a few months later he got all of them back minus the ammo they took when the system figured out she was off her rocker. She still took him for ton of cash😖 Sounds like your guns are taken care of however. If you do have a concealed carry permit in Florida be careful. An accusation can get it suspended and just because you are found to have not done anything wrong it doesn't automatically get reinstated. Buddy found that out not all that long ago when he saw it was expiring and went to renew it and found out he didn't really have it anymore. All his moving meant he never got any notice. Good Luck

Sound like an evening I may or may not have experienced at a certain VFW Post in Texas a few years back. Cougars came down out of the mountains to take advantage of an unattended flock of military types/get drunk and I mean the 2 legged kind. I may still need therapy 😮

Actually saw another article on the same subject recently. When a lot of these things start getting fielded by different countries (depending on cost) I see the sea based leg of the triad in for a tougher time. Though I hope they don't overly rely on GPS for navigation as that's a whole lot of systems weak link. Persistent dwell will be their strength, just like RPAs are now.

Enlightening debate. For my understatement of the day the devil is in the details. There are some really smart PHDs at GE/Boeing and other OEMs etc that do inlet design for aircraft and engines and if you get it wrong you really can impact stall margin. Looking at the Scorpion's inlet placement for example I can only imagine the penalty in weight, complexity and maintainability to design inlets to prevent FOD. As for the undercarriage I'm trying to picture the Scorpion with tundra tires. I admit the Scorpion appears to have some incredible capabilities just tied to a too large infrastructure/log train but with that still would be a great fit for some countries. I just recalled the fatal T-38 mishap at Sheppard in 2008 where they touched down in the overrun and gravel shelled an engine which contributed to the mishap. Granted not exactly the same but a stark reminder of what can happen. Going back to cost we can barely keep our legacy systems going with the current funding and that's the real issue. The fight usually ends up where you least expect it and are prepared to go. Certainly been my personal experience and we have to maintain an expeditionary capability IMHO. One final point in favor of prop platforms in the ability to reverse the prop(s) and stop in some pretty short distances.

Interesting that this thread is pushing the 10 year mark in a few months. The answer may be buried somewhere in here but how important is the ability for an LAA to operate from unimproved fields? I see the current money says Boeing will be arming the new jet trainer. A few years back I also recall Boeing proposed the OV-10X as a Bronco on steroids as a LAA. I can see training is simplified going from a T-X to the armed version and I'm not at all saying we didn't NEED a T-38 replacement but how will it do on the same FOD ridden short runway? Sounds like it will need a fair amount of support infrastructure as some have alluded to. What do the military guys and gals on the ground and the taxpayer that keeps us all gainfully employed actually gain from an attack version of the T-X for the money (outside the congressional district where its built)? Consolation prize for losing out on the B-21? I just don't see it.

In deference to those more knowledgeable, I say let's not forget the LRSO either and its still under debate whether it will even get funded long term. However the ALCM is getting up there in years and certainly something that IMHO we can't do without some version. Yes LRSO supposed to be nuclear from the outset and I don't know how it will work with respect to current treaties or whether it will ever be given a conventional capability. There's also the re-engine of the B-52 in the works so it can make it long enough for the B-52 to be replaced. Just isn't enough cash to go around.