General Discussion

As requested, a separate thread...

https://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/28/world/mi...cairo.html?_r=1

Edited for expired info

BREAKING NEWS — North Korea announced Monday that it successfully carried out an underground nuclear test, weeks after threatening to restart its rogue atomic program. FOX News

Why? Am I alone in thinking it has to do with a stretched to the max military and an unsustainable ops tempo that have whittled some sharp points dull? I have always been the guy that says The Man is out to A$$ F#@ you and Im sure the aircrews will get blamed somehow. I just hope something gets done besides blaming the broken aircrews. Shits just not falling out of the sky for no reason. Either the airframe or the crew is breaking.

Air Force jet crashes north of Edwards AFB CALIFORNIA CITY, Calif. (AP) — A military jet has crashed north of Edwards Air Force base in Southern California. Kern County fire spokesman Sean Collins says the Talon T-38 went down about 1:30 p.m. Thursday in the Mojave Desert. Collins says he has no immediate information on the crew. A T-38 can carry two people. Lets hope they got out.

A Lt Col and F-15E pilot has been kicked out of the Air Force after 18 years of service because he is gay: https://www.military.com/news/article/af-bo...-being-gay.html I know it is the law, but couldn't they have at least given him early retirement or something? It's likely they will have to give him retirement benefits/reinstatement anyway after the law is changed sometime between now and the midterm elections. ETA: Anyone else get a creepy feeling about the OSI spending time, money, and manpower looking into people's sex lives?

Scores die in Indonesian plane crash At least 97 killed after military aircraft carrying more than 100 people crashes into East Java village At least 97 people were killed today after an Indonesian military plane carrying more than 100 people crashed into a village in East Java province. Officials at the scene said dozens of others had been injured, while the death toll is expected rise as more victims are discovered inside the wreckage and on the ground. According to local reports, the C-130 Hercules came down at about 6:30am local time on Wednesday, ploughing through several homes in Geplak village, 325 miles east of the capital, Jakarta, before bursting int…

Hey All, Just a heads up for everyone here that in September we are launching a brand new military aviation industry publication. Wont give away too much other than to say we will be giving away a bunch of freebie subs to members of BaseOps :D Have attached below the launch issue cover and would welcome your input on what you think we should include in each issue. Remember it covers ALL areas of military aviation from fighters, to maritime, to transport, UAVs etc so feel free to comment away. Thanks for your feedback. Ned

Oops. That's not going to be expensive to fix, now is it?

Just got a RIP today. Looking for some ideas for a morale patch. <poster now sits back and watches the creative wheels of BaseOps start spinning...in a sophomoric sort of way...> EDIT - Sorry, that would be the 69th Bomb Squadron.

Search function yielded no results... I'm blowing my wad (twss) and taking the whole family to the Hale Koa in Honolulu for a week this summer. Anybody stayed there before? For the first time (that I know of) they are waiving the two room limit per sponsor. I've got six rooms on the books...damn in-laws. Anyways, I'd like to take the clan to visit the USS Arizona memorial one day. I've heard there are special tours available for the AD military type. Can anybody confirm this or point me in the right direction? Also, any other advice on what to do, where to eat, which activities to book in advance, etc. would be much appreciated. Mahalo.

What function does the vertical fin inside the intake of a viper have? I've asked a few dudes what it is to no avail. Something to do with going supersonic? High AOA? I know it doesn't move back and forth in there (sts) so what does it do? Any AE dudes around? Cheers! - Stuck

https://www.examiner.com/x-5411-Military-an...road-less-taken

Comforting, isn't it?

Anyone ever been stationed at Robins? Any advice on where to live/avoid, schools, or any other general info? Thanks

Criticizing maintenance got airman ousted By all accounts, Adam Lucero was a hard-charging airman. When he didn’t make it into a summer camp for the Air Force Academy, he enlisted at age 17 through the Delayed Entry Program and had his staff sergeant rocker by the time he was 21. But Lucero, now 24, dreamed of going to Officer Training School and earning his pilot wings, so he poured himself into his work and studies, hoping he could one day fly the fighter jets he maintained at Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska. That same passion, drive and singleness of purpose may have led to his downfall. When he discovered what he considered to be unsafe maintenance practices by …

I'm SURE there was a legit reason for the VC-25 and 2 F-16s to be flying around NYC, but a PA phone call to a few news stations might have been a smart move considering past events in the city... https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/F-16s...ty-on-Edge.html

In order to not derail a classic thread, but continue a rather good discussion, I'll pose this question here. What is so "dangerous" about a high speed abort on a long runway? I hear people brief over and over that they would rather continue the takeoff for "x" than do a high speed abort. Here is my take on it (keep in mind, all my experience is in the C-130 and we routinely take off and land with about 8,000' more than we actually need.) Say you're taking off full length on Runway 25 at LRF. You have 12,000' of runway in front of you. Say you get an abort call just before rotating, we'll call it 110 KIAS. Definitely a high speed abort. But you also have about…

https://www.globenewswire.com/news.html?d=162962 The 50th anniversary of the first flight of the T-38 occurred earlier this month. Before any of you non-fighter dudes jump on this little statistic from the article, I'll go ugly early on it: Obviously this factoid neglects training under SUPT and everyone who has tracked to a TONE, UH-1, or T-44 since 1993.

The queep trickles further downstream and further into the AO. Not downplaying the importance of a Change of Command ceremony, but when you pull away from the war effort to put up three separate static displays of combat aircraft and form up your wing in the AOR for a simple commander swap, maybe we should stop wondering why the other services laugh at us and our "priorities". I'm sure that there were even quiet hours put into effect for this... https://www.bagram.afcent.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123145035

https://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2009/...ion-damage.html Apparently it doesn't take much to hit $1 Million with this bird. How long ago was the classification system created and with the cost of production and repair would it be time for reclassification?

Discuss- Chinese Spies May Have Put Chips in US Planes

A simulator? Ugh. Not a fighter guy, but this doesn't seem like a good idea, unless sims can simulate 9gs and I just haven't heard about it...

Got grief from Tampa approach today for following a TCAS resolution advisory even though we had the traffic in sight. Vol 3 talks about it being "imperative" to follow any resolution advisories, but there is no must/shall wording I could find. My feeling is that we did the right thing, especially considering the RA could have been for some other airplane we might not of had in sight. (ie. we could have had eyeballs on the wrong plane) Third RA for me in 2 weeks...should be done with them for now I guess. Anyway, you guys have any thoughts? Edit...looking further 202-v3 pretty much says you have to follow an RA. The more my gears spin on this one the more I think t…