General Discussion

This is a little old, but I thought it was cool that out there was an actual tracker available to the general public by NASA. Check it out.

https://www.alaskasnewssource.com/2024/03/23/air-force-honors-fallen-jber-service-member-with-flyover/ R.I.P. SSgt Charles Crumlett.

The War ZoneC-17 Will Fly Until 80 Years Old Under New USAF Airlifter...The Air Force does not expect to have fully transitioned to its Next-Generation Airlift aircraft until 2075.Family of systems, new engines for C-17s, etc… lotta ideas in the article. Family of systems is a buzz phrase but probably the best COA. Crewed / Unmanned fleet

CBM folks, I caught wind of a recent incident where Ex-Lax was put into the donuts/cookies at the Ops Desk by some pilot... with expected results. YGBSM. What's the rest of the story? Pretty shitty situation!!

So I saw an article about the latest shadow tanker being seized, this time by France in the Med. I did some quick Gemini searching, and that puts the seizure count at 8 in the last month, with European plans to ramp up this type of thing, and the Russian Navy beginning escorting tankers. The fleet size is substantially larger than I realized (estimates vary, but around 1000) so the overall impact is still small on a numbers basis, but military escort of tankers sounds like the portion of this story that matters. Lots of opportunity for a spark here. ReutersFrance intercepts suspected Russian shadow fleet tanker i...The French navy intercepted a Russian tanker on Thursd…

The movers showed up without wardrobe boxes that I requested weeks, if not a month in advance of my move date. JPPSO was like they didn't bring wardrobe boxes, that's a pretty standard thing! After calling JPPSO, they made them deliver wardrobe boxes to my house. The young lady overseeing the movers tried to tell me that they were going to stand up my Tempurpedic Breeze mattress in the crate. I let everyone know well in advance that I have a HIGH VALUE Tempurpedic Breeze mattress. It must ALWAYS be shipped flat (laying down). In fact, I've never had to explain this to any moving company contracted by the military. After I tell them I have a Tempurpedic Breeze, they …

For those of you using an Insta360 X5 camera (or similar) in the cockpit, what are you using as a mount? I'm also interested if your mounting setup is good enough for aerobatics.

An AFSOC C-146A Wolfhound struck a concrete barrier while taking off in the Philippines causing substantial damage to the aircraft and some injuries to the crew. When this appeared on my feed my first question was what the hell is a C-146A? It's a Dornier Do 328 twin turboprop aircraft that's part of the eclectic coterie of Key West Agreement sized aircraft that the Air Force operates with a diaspora of aircrew in far-flung corners of the world. When I worked at ATA years ago I used to jumpseat on these all the time, I cannot remember which airline operated them but they had a fairly modern glass cockpit layout at the time and had a unique navigation system. Instead of IN…

Happy birthday to the 1st Reconnaissance Squadron at Beale AFB 113 years old today. In 1916, the 1st invaded Mexico to try to capture or kill Pancho Villa. Probably didn't get much per diem.

Apparently this happened two days ago but got overshadowed by current events. A Bolivian C-130 crashed into a crowded street, killing numerous people. It was also transporting cash for their National Bank and riot police had to be called in to subdue looters.

https://www.stripes.com/branches/air_force/2026-03-31/nellis-afb-pilot-ejects-21241994.html