FUSEPLUG

Ouch. Looks like there was more than just grass in that aimpoint.

Correction... WE are so ######ed! One person shits his pants, blah blah blah. Prepare for more CBTs/Wingman Days/Flying Down Days etc.

Even if the opportunity to bail out presented itself, I'd still ride it in. My landings are better than my PLFs.

Ouch... Ouch...

Name and pictures all over FB. Unfortunate.

My condolences to the families of the crew. Is anyone else bothered by the fact that Facebook is where we learn of such a loss?

Not sure what you're getting at. I saw a lot of fighting and winning going on in those pics.

I've got yet another glowing report on NBOKC. I just closed today on a VA purchase with Dave Devine. There's really not much to add to what has been said above. It was an absolutely outstanding experience from the very beginning. Dave was always there to answer the phone or e-mail me back when I had questions - always within 24 hours. Our realtor even commented on how NBOKC was the best lender she's worked with in years. I got 3.25% with zero due at closing thanks to credit provided by the lender in conjunction with seller-paid closing costs. I'll end up getting a $1000 check for the return on the earnest money put on the home and the mortgage. Dave was very up front about NBOKC selling the loan to another bank (Wells Fargo, Citi, etc) within the next month. I expect it to be transparent on my end... as long as I can auto-draft from USAA. Feel free to PM if you have any specific questions about the process. I'm still amazed I bought a home from 1200 miles away with only a string of e-mails and some overnighted documents.

I'll second Gleim. I've used them since 2004 and never had an issue. Yeah, it's not a lifetime subscription like American Flyers, but the material is straight forward and serves as a good review every two years. Their ACR service makes issuance of the renewed certificate a breeze.

"...the base earned very low marks for standards during its 2011 unit compliance inspection, focusing on examples such as rolled-up sleeves, hands in pockets and walking while using a cellphone 'showed an apparent lack of regard for Air Force standards'" Ahhh, 2011... the good old days when we could afford to worry about sleeves and pockets.

Sad news...

Ahhhh... the good old days.

What's the word on the street for the FTU? Any chance it won't go to Altus?

It's been 7 years, but I seem to recall sitting in the corner of a small room crying myself to sleep. If you want to chair fly that, go find the nearest closet and cry yourself to sleep.

Altus is up $174! Turns out it's still Altus.

Sure as shit it will. Despite the loss of life, thankfully it ended well for those just trying to do the right thing. The after-effects this will have on our airdrop community are unfortunate. Our TTP's will suffer because of this series of unfortunate events.

I hear the young copilots at McChord are starting to feel the same way now more than ever.

^ That's fukced up right there...

According to one news report, http://www.stjollysart.com was this guy's website. Some pretty funny captions to some pretty crappy art. Looks like he drew 4 different pictures then just slapped them together in different scenarios and planned to sell them on t-shirts and coffee cups. Be sure to checkout the alternate realities section... wow.

Just found this on Netflix streaming! I've been waiting for this one for a while.

Is "got him on the fish-finder" military-based as well?

I have to wonder if Mattis would have even really cared. I flew him into the desert last summer and had to WX divert and wait out a sandstorm at his planned location. Of course his handlers were pinging the whole time, but he was nothing but chill. He spent the 2 hours so so wandering around the cargo compartment chewing the fat with everyone on board. We ended up getting him to where he needed to be and he came upstairs and thanked us for the hard work. I have to imagine he chuckled a little as he got into his vehicle for the 20 minute ride back to MacDill.

Uncontrolled field, no clearance required. As for the weight bearing issue, the original post said 20K was for a single wheel figure. The C-17 falls under the TRT (Triple Tandem) category. IF O. Knight even had a pavement evaluation for a TRT configured aircraft the number would be somewhat higher, though probably nowhere near the basic empty weight of a 17.

A few of the news reports listed 19 crewmembers. Pretty ridiculous, I know. Based on who they are saying was onboard, I assume there were a lot of Mission Essential Personnel, but still...

I pray they release the CVR tapes after the investigation. We've seen some serious collapses in CRM in the 17 over the last year that have led to some very close calls. I think this could be classified as a close call. AMC really needs to look at the number of highly experienced guys they are shoving out the door to go fly other MWS's. The community as a whole is hemorrhaging experience and backfilling with guys fresh out of Altus. Additionally, we see a lot of guys who are slammed into upgrades (especially IP school) primarily for career progression when he or she may not otherwise be sent. This mix is obviously not working out too well for us. I know nothing bout the experience level of this crew (all 19 of them), but perhaps this, and a few of the other recent mishaps, could have been mitigated though a slightly more seasoned pool from which we are building crews. It's only going to get worse.