ClearedHot

They don't need an image recognition system... Story time - My first tour in the five-sided wind tunnel was 2005-2006. I was at Quantico for school before that so had three years in the Northern Va area. I was always into RC airplanes and flew at a nice grass strip on the west side of town off Route 50. I was out there was weekday afternoon and there was only one other person out there with me. When I pulled up I noticed he was sitting in a chair and wearing some kind of goggles. Next to him was an antenna system mounted on a tripod. I watch him fly for a bit and noticed he was not looking at his airplane. When he landed I walked over and we had a chat, he was testing a home built system that pushed video from a camera in the plane to his goggles. We talked for a while and told me he posted a few videos of his set up and some of the flying on Youtube. He then gave me his channel on a card. A few days later I looked at his channel and while watching a video noticed an airliner go through his frame...a cold chill ran down my spine when I saw the airliner. The field was a few miles from Dulles and almost all of his videos caught an airliner in the frame making an approach to the airport. I immediately put that together with another project I was working in a small strategy cell I was assigned to in the Pentagon. In short, just the previous two years prior a group of hobbyists flew an RC airplane autonomously across the Atlantic Ocean. I pitched the project to my boss and got some seed money. Long story short I proved an amateur could build an autonomous airplane that could lift a 20 warehead/payload, fly with a GPS auto pilot and hit a target at range or via FPV for under $1000.00. This was 2005...I wrote it up and tried to run it through the system only to be laughed at and ignored.

All of the encounters mentioned above are "mostly" accidents. Imagine when someone TRIES to hit an airliner...

Big increase in drone encounters with commercial aviation. On Monday a Jet Blue flight hit a drone on approach to JFK, a helicopter reported one in the area on the same day, and a United Flight reported a near miss (100'). I personally have had two encounters in the last year: 1. About six months ago I was flying from the PCola area down to Boca in my airplane. Passing just north of Tyndall I encountered a medium-sized drone mostly stationary north of the base at about 5000'. A friend was with me and she saw it first. No ADSB and not talking to anyone. I called approach and they did not have it on radar, a plane in trail of me reported it as well. 2. About 8 months ago departed Charleston Exec Runway 9. Approach turned turned me north then west and climbed me through the Class C. Passing 5000' My passenger and I both saw very large drone 1000' below us and clearly inside the Charleston Class C. It clearly had a gimbal payload. I called and they were not tracking it...they clearly got very worked up. Whether it is hobbyist or something more nefarious, there does seem to be an increase and it seems like a easy asymmetric attack vector towards the airline industry. What are you airline folks seeing out there?

I pilot I have mentored since he was 14 is a TPS grad and stationed there as an IP. As late as Thursday the wreckage was still on the runway. He mentioned they got back to flying and he decided to go to Palmdale rather than do patterns and see the wreckage on every pattern. It's been tough on the entire test and bomber community, I think there legacy will live on because they touched so many lives.

Indeed, I am not bothered by it and see no conspiracy. Was just curious the thoughts of others. I've never seen a Chaplin throw rank around, quite the opposite. Under LOAC they have a different status anyway. Shack! Gulf of Tonkin, Vietnam War, 55,000 dead American and how many other lives lost (MILLIONS). Air Campaign by numbers and sortie count which led to Bros strafing the Paul Doumer Bridge because we sold off all our bombs...the F-111...targeting breakfasts. He disastrously attempted to manage a complex human-terrain war using purely quantitative, statistical data (such as enemy body counts), while ignoring qualitative factors like morale, civilian sentiment, and enemy motivation. A LOT of writing on him in recent years...if you want to read an example of bad...look at project 100,000, his draft expansion program that lowered mental and medical standards to recruit disadvantaged young men who would have otherwise been rejected. Often cruelly referred to as "McNamara’s morons," these soldiers faced disproportionately higher casualties and severe post-war disadvantages.

I missed this when it happened in March, thoughts? Hegseth removes rank insignia from military chaplains

You can't make this stuff up!

All yours brother...all yours.

Parts of the building DID need to be turned upside down. Firing caustic people like Slife and Cat-5 were among the good things, but bro went off his rocker with a Stalinistic purge of anyone who he thinks doesn't conform. That being said, previous administrations were not exactly angels when it came to promotions and pushing certain groups. The shenanigans with the promotion lists for women and minorities are completely unsat and if you scroll some of my others comments you will find I've already pointed that out. I think his damage goes far beyond the purge, the Anthropic deal is unreal.

Unbelievable!

Ahhh California where a local sheriff has decided on his own that he can ban legal concel carry permit holders from carrying the following items: 1. Pistols equipped with red dots. 2. Pistols equipped with tactical lights. 3. Single action weapons to include the 1911. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdQ6q2W9kLU

As we inch closer to the mid-terms the left will continue to bang the "Orange Man Bad" drum while working in the background to dismantle America. The Virginia governor serves as the shinning beacon of that effort and could be in the mix for the next Presidential race. Despite claiming to be a moderate and refusing to condemn her racist Attorney General whose tests included death threats to an opponent's kids. She is off and running with extreme left policies including an attempt to get around SCOTUS with gun control Signed on May 14, this law prohibits the import, sale, manufacture, purchase, or transfer of certain semiautomatic firearms and magazines holding more than 15 rounds. Now she has signed a law designed to kill the Electoral College. Next will be an attempt to tax UNREALIZED Capital Gains.