Springer

If you have received a European tour you have won the lottery. Think of it as the AF paying for a ### year vacation. I am an old guy and my first assignment out of UPT was a 3 yr Germany tour (RF-4C) and we extended. Close nit squadron with reunions still happening some 30 yrs later. No other stateside squadron came close even though we had great locations ie Austin/Tucson. Have been going back to Europe every year for the last 20 but its been on our nickel.

Bingo, how low can we go? Long haired surfer/sailing dude from Hawaii, 2.3 GPA, 2 yr ROTC program an after thought, UPT DG, Phantom driver, ret DAL. Who would have thought. Ayz33, don't sell short Homstar's remarks about chair flying. I locked myself in a room and chair flew each and every flight for hours while classmates were out playing water volleyball.

I couldn't agree more as I rarely get above 1,000'. Dawn patrol over the WI countryside:

I was dicking around the other day in my RV-8 sending love messages to my bride. Unfortunately with my newly installed ADS-B she can follow me in real time. My track from flightaware:

Everyone likes cockpit pics. RV-4 I owned pre EFIS's and RV-8. As you can see I like simplicity. No desire to fly SE IFR.

Huggy I have at least a checklist but am in MN for the summer and would not be able to send anything till late fall. I gave the Dash 1 to a civilian owner yrs ago. Why the interest? I have 1000 hrs in the Dragonfly and surprisingly it was more fun to fly than the Phantom.

With your new airline career ahead, you will soon put this all behind you. My first day at a major was just as exciting as my first day at UPT. Like someone said, don't get involved, enjoy single life. I div before going to the airlines and unless you are flying boxes, it is a very target rich environment. Stayed single for 28 years then married a wonderful lady going into retirement. The day of my div was one of the happiest days of my life, a huge weight off my shoulders. Best of luck.

Huggy, of all the RVs, the -14 goes together much quicker than any of them according to a guy that gave a presentation to our RV group who first built a -10 then the -14. Every time I get into a -7 or -6 it seems small because your shoulders touch. The -8 feels roomy in comparison. As someone has mentioned, the best flying RV is the -4 when SOLO which I flew 99% of the time. Cockpit is tight when compared to the -8:

Do you really want to sit on a jumpseat for 5.5 hrs especially on a B-737 that many are now flying to HI? Don't get me wrong because I was a commuter for 23 years and did all I could to make jumpseaters feel welcomed, but do you think the cockpit crew wants you on their jumpseat for that long?

Yep but keep it light and simple. Having flown my entire life with either a back seater, student, someone in the right or left seat, wingman etc, it's great to fly solo and reflect. Huggy with his U-2 experience can probably relate.

Purchased

Ummmm, I did a 170kt break this afternoon in my RV which was paid for by my job flying 136kt ILS finals.

Unlike my F-4 pig I would think the thrust to weight is so great that once it lifts off it is going up.

Even in the RF we would tap burner especially when carrying 3 bags. The KC-97's were being phased out when that pic was taken.

I thought the F-4 was pretty cool when I flew it in the Seventies. Baumholder AAR track in Germany at 230 kts: