All Activity

Anyone shot the ATI Alpha Maxx? Door buster cheap AR pistol ($309), on Guns.com, comes with a 60 round mag. Wanted a cheap truck gun and put it in my cart but didn't pull the trigger yet...sts. https://www.guns.com/firearms/p/ati-alpha-maxx?i=465610

Big difference between "losing" and "losing badly," and I am very well aware of how much territory has been lost and the costs on both sides from legitimate intel sources. Putin isn't winning...

I bet they're doing a deep dive on how UPS does the engine mount/dismount.

do you dispute that ukraine is losing? i'd much rather be in Putin's strategic position than zelensky's

that's the russian playbook. to western eyes we think those attrition numbers = losing. that's not how the russians see it at all.

Investigators found: Both forward and aft lugs of the left pylon’s aft mount had fractured The spherical bearing’s outer race had sheared away Multiple fatigue cracks around the lug bores Additional overstress fractures mark the final break In short, fatigue cracks had been growing inside the mount. Under heavy take-off loading, the weakened structure could no longer hold the engine. The right engine’s mounts also fractured—but only on ground impact, not in flight. https://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/Documents/DCA26MA024%20Preliminary%20Report.pdf

Where are you getting your intel? And I'm talking real intel, not the Internet...

Concur, starting a private range will be a lot easier than a public one...

Dibs

I think a snapshot in time...and disappointing in many ways. Electing a communist mayor in NYC...an Attorney General in VA that no only called for KILLING his opponent, but also putting a bullet in the head of his opponents kids...that is the new DNC. I really wonder what will happen in the mid-terms with the DNC slipping so far left they are openly supporting socialism and in some cases communism. Seriously, the new leaders are FAR left lunatics. Nancy just tapped out, Schumer is on the ropes. Who is the leader of the DNC? Is it Jefferies? Pete? Come on... Kamala is talking about another run perhaps linked with AOC ("they" think they will win all 50 states with that combo....ummm yeah). Hating Trump is one thing, but is it enough for the rest of the country to go full retard?

Years ago in a different state I worked on that. The amount of hurdles you face will be very dependent on where you live and the mindset of your state/local gov and their laws. Building an NRA “to code” range is a large and expensive undertaking, do your research on that. We started a 501c3, which helped the tax situation, made donations and tax breaks for donators easier, etc. I’d say finding the location that works for you guys and the gov may be the hardest part with second hardest part being funding the construction of a “legitimate” range. That all said, again, it is very dependent on your location and state/local laws, so really impossible to throw out any universally useful timelines or costs. Other odds and ends you need to sort out: who runs it daily. Is a ranger required or is it self-administered (e.g. members have a code to the gate and follow the rules they’ve signed saying they agree). The answer drives liability discussions with legal/insurance company Who maintains it. Member volunteers, pay someone, etc. You can’t just let thousands of cases pile up, shredded paper targets blowing all over, erosion will happen over time, etc. I found many companies were willing to give nice discounts on their products to help it get going (and of course its advertising for them). Targets, target stands, etc. Best answer: Buy enough land that you can build an awesome personal range and invite friends over!

I attended the funeral this weekend for Richard Wartenberg. In addition to all his Squadron mates attending there was a large UPS pilot presence as well. I was talking to one of the UPS pilots about their MD-11 and plans to replace them and he was saying that UPS has been working on an Airbus/Boeing widebody freighter for years due to the increased MX issues with the MD-11 and scarcity of parts and engineering expertise. One interesting point he said was that UPS elected not get the STC (supplemental type certificate) pylons that the FedEx MD-10/11 fleet have. These are stronger pylons that require less MX and replace the original pylon.

What a bunch of random people on the internet think about you is irrelevant. But I've flown with multiple guys in Kinzinger's squadron, and nobody had anything good to say about him from both before and after his time in Congress. Being perfectly honest, you seem like you would be yet another politician who has no fundamental grasp about how a huge portion of the population thinks or lives. But you've never seemed like the type to seek out power as some sort of extension of narcissism, so that already puts you at an advantage. Good luck, and thanks for participating

I don’t think Ukraine is losing that badly. Russia is getting it pretty bad as well. Yes Russia is very slowly moving the line, but at a cost.

Lots is happening on the gov't side as related to cybersecurity and IMO none of it is good. I can't speak to DoD anymore, so I won't focus on that. On the civ side the overall focus from the administration seems to be that cyber not a national strategy concern. They've de-funded or cancelled many of the coordination groups (ISAC's) between gov't, business and local leaders. ISACs now require a fee to participate, if they're continued at all. The FCC just rolled back the cybersecurity standards that were proposed in the wake of the Salt Typhoon hack that popped a ton of US telco's (and those around the world). The rule required - Create and implement cybersecurity risk-management plans Submit annual FCC certifications proving they were doing so Treat general network cybersecurity as a legal obligation Since retiring I have done Incident Response for everything from a local school board, city governments, state agencies, and businesses from non-profits to multi-billion dollar, world wide critical manufacturing organizations. I wish I could completely articulate the complete shit show that most of these organizations are when it comes to cybersecurity, especially the bigger ones. They only care about 2 things - what is the minimum amount of security to show legally (customer lawsuit) we did due diligence and what does the gov't require us to do? The fines are not high enough and counted as "the cost of doing business" (re: Facebook fines) and they lobby actively to have a "self evaluation" standard for regulations. We all know how that goes. The fact that these companies successfully said making a risk management plan is "too hard" really tells me all I need to know. Step one of incident response (and I'd assume anything critical) is "have a plan." The telco's said, "no." Big business basically says no, unless they're a bank. Don't even ask me about the health care sector, you'd think $10K HIPPA fines per instance would be a forcing function. It's not.

Kinda random, but has anyone started a gun club in their local area? I'm looking to get one going where I'm at and would love some pointers/warnings.

McPeak was not everybody’s favorite CSAF but I agree with his point here from the AFA’s magazine: America’s Air Force today is smaller and older than it or age is just how ready we are to fly, fight, and win in a future war. I graduated from flying school and got my wings in January 1959. From then until I left Vietnam in November 1969, I logged 3,138.4flying hours in the two principal types of aircraft I flew, the F-100 and F-104—an average of 23.9 hours per month. It is true that this 131-month period included a two-year tour with the Thunderbirds and 11 months in combat, both high-in-tensity flying jobs. But it also included 16 months on the staff of the Third Air Force, the momentum lost in transitioning back-and-forth between the two aircraft types four times, downtime associated with six PCS moves, and time spent in various schools—jump school, half a dozen survival schools, forward air controller school—as well as leave and so forth. In those days, we aimed to get 20 hours a month, and I was able to beat that average. For me, the end result was remarkable. For one thing, I loved the life; I decided to make the Air Force a career. More importantly, you could say I felt quite at home in the air. There is a certain attitude that goes with being a combat pilot. The fight starts at the bottom of the ladder. From then until the forms are filled out, nobody is better than you—no team is better than you and your wingman. It’s the other guy—the whole other side—that’s in trouble. In my opinion, this is a winning attitude. The seed for it is planted during checkout, in academics, and daily briefings. It can be cultivated in the simulator, watered at beer call, and nourished during time spent hanging around the ops desk hoping someone else will cancel. But the combat pilot attitude matures into a way of life in the cockpit—flying real hours in a real airplane, face-to-face, with real things that happen in real air. I am worried about today’s force. We’re not flying enough. Increasing flying hours for combat pilots should be a top priority. Maybe today’s fighter jock is better than my generation and no longer needs 20 hours in the cockpit every month. Maybe. But I don’t think single-digit flying hours per month is the right answer for anybody.We used to ridicule our Soviet-era opposition when they were flying at about our present rate. Grapes, waiting to be plucked.In my view, increasing flying hours for combat pilots should be a top priority. I can’t say it’s number one, or number two, or number six, or whatever, because we need to fix some other very urgent problems, particularly air base hardening and defense. But the flying hour program must surely be among the handful of highest priority matters our Air Force should fix quickly. If all else fails, we can use our imaginations to help solve the problem. If the F-22 or the F-35 simply cannot produce enough hours, buy and assign gliders or train ers like the T-6 to each fighter squadron. Do aerobatics, do spin training, hooded takeoffs, and landings. Timespent in the air flying anything builds airmanship and confidence. Better still, it’s fun. It glues people to the organization, as it did me.I’m all for increasing the number of pilots coming out of flying school. But this is an example of how competing priorities should be ranked: First, produce a flying hour program that ensures the excellence of the existing force. Then let’s talk about increasing pilot production. Better a small Air Force that can be relied on than a big one that cannot. Gen. Merrill A. “Tony” McPeak There are affordable platforms, programs and COAs out there, just prioritize flying vs queep for at least O1 to O3s.

A solid Tiger Team using an outstanding OODA loop can solve anything!

Republican senator replaced by republican senator? It's a red state, but that wasn't the crux of my statement, so fair comment and I'll clarify. In 2024 Trump got ~1% more vote than 2020 in Utah (data here - https://vote.utah.gov/historical-election-results/). All 3 races he's competed in - 2016 - 45.5% 2020 - 58.13% 2024 - 59.39% (+1.25) Look at his gains in other states, All of these states are close culturally with Utah. All data below is from the wiki articles about the elections for these individual states. AZ for example - 2016 - 48.67% 2020 - 49.06% 2024 - 52.25% (+3.19%) Lets look at NV - 2016 - 45.5% 2020 - 47.67% 2024 - 50.59% (+2.92%) Idaho (crazy cousins up north) - 2016 - 59.25% 2020 - 63.84% 2024 - 66.87 (+3.03) NM (he lost every year) - 2016 - 40.04% 2020 - 43.50% 2024 - 45.85% (+2.35%) So, a more correct statement would be (and I'm now remembering it from the "fun" poli-sci presentations I've sat through) we didn't slide right nearly as much, and are an outlier in the Southwest Basin states. When you get into the county and precinct data it's actually very interesting from 2020 forwards. There's a reason the state Leg further gerrymandered State districts after 2020 to solidify the super-majority, just as R's are trying to do now in other red states for Congressional districts. I will also add a confounding variable is the number of D's who register R here to "have a say in the primary process/elections" because we are so gerrymandered and have such a super-majority. After the success of our municipal elections we've seen the following change in a month: registered D's increased by 2,000 people, R's decreased by 400. A drop in the bucket to be sure, not statistically significant and likely not to change the outcome of state-wide an up races...but an interesting change. Do no extrapolate this to changes in other states, heck the past couple elections (municipal included) could be outliers. Registrations could reverse in the new year when people are gearing up for 2026 elections. However, Utah has the youngest, most educated population with a large chunk of women who are politically active (both sides). Who knows, maybe in a few years I'll be the second Congress critter you all hate. LOL.

I guess I'm in the minority on this one. I rather have a WSO than second pilot in the B-21. Even in the long-range strike scenarios the bomber bros are pushing back against. Most are using the B-2 community as the blueprint for B-21 dynamics. That's a mistake (for a couple reasons). I always felt I had more in common with strike WSOs as a B-2 dude. Hell, I even called the "Mission Commander" position the "Pilot-WSO". B-2 employment was weird - at times the MC was a WSO, and at times it was a co-pilot. Further complicated by either the Pilot or MC could be the AC. I say make the B-21 community mirror the F-15E community as far as crew dynamic. I'm for the WSO in the B-21 - it'll make better pilots too. And WSOs don't need some special WSO course to AR and Land. A f-ing pilot can do that - with smart crew dynamics that "unofficially" teaches WSOs to land, AR, etc. Otherwise - Biff was right - go all in with 2x WSOs!

Brabus for CSAF.

17D, "Utah did not slide right with the rest of the country...", dumping Romney was a move to the right...and the right move.

I mean what finally swayed her away from supporting him?

She probably wasn't going to be re-elected after splitting from Trump. She's probably going to run for GA governor.