Leaderboard

I think a DA-20 flying up initial at Pueblo moves about as quick as that animation of the UPS MD-11 going around, so, yeah, I’m gonna say that animation is just a bit off on the timing…

So, on 1 March, I think, Col George Gray directed the aircraft under his control to begin looking for Spirit 03. On 4 March Myself and a couple of other guys were selected to go up on two H-3s belonging to the 71st SOS out of AZ. We weren't having much luck until an HC-130P called and said they saw something orange in the water just off shore, it was a 20 man life raft. They vectored us to the area and we found the crash site in shallow water. I identified the 105mm gun along with some other pieces of the airplane. When we got back to KFIA I drew a sketch of the debris that I could make out. The next day I'm on an H-3 headed back to the site along with a Pave Low carrying CCT and PJ divers. We landed on the beach adjacent to the crash site. The Navy had a small pontoon type vessel there waiting for us. They ferried our divers out over the wreckage. Meanwhile I was walking the beach and found a flight jacket and a helmet belonging to two of the crewmembers. Finding those two items and knowing the dudes they belonged to was surreal. I carried them back to the helicopter and put them in my bag. I later turned them over to the investigation team. Back at the chopper I'm sitting on the ramp having a smoke when the CCT dude on the radio said the divers found "software". I didn't know what that meant until he told me, human remains. It hit me who those remains had to be. It was cold that day and the divers were shivering when they came back to shore. But they kept going back out to pick up as much as they could. They filled three body bags. The first two went back on the H-3. An hour later we're leaving on the Pave with the last bag. An hour flight back to KFIA smelling that bag of guts that were my brothers.

That's fair enough. I will point out that past failures are neither acceptable nor an excuse for future incompetence. We need competence in the FAA and in transportation right now. An administrative leader with some vague experience would definitely help with prioritizing some things in that realm. I'll agree that mastery is not a necessity for administration. However a basic familiarization is probably a good idea. When's the last time an AMC guy led ACC, for example. Your point is fair, and open to opinion. Not mandatory, but again, familiarity is probably good. So, I'm assuming you're ok with this: Reminder, Phil Washington has managed two major airports. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Washington#:~:text=Phillip A. Washington (born 1958,Joe Biden's transportation transition team. Should he be able to answer all those questions? Absolutely not. Should he be able to answer at least one of those questions? DEFINITELY. Any pilot, dispatcher, or certified airfield manager would have gotten at least two of those questions. This guy's been a CEO of Denver and LA Metro, and can't even talk about at least ONE of these topics...especially considering the most recent history of air traffic close calls? That's not lack of expertise, that's just doing your homework before getting interviewed by Senate of the United State. It's simply lazy. We don't need any more lazy. But by your logic, that's ok. The predecessors were ignorant of the specifics, so the next guy can be ignorant. Experience entirely gained by OJT for a federal administrator is cool. But bear in mind that a Senator, who's job is even more general than this guy's would be at the FAA, did some homework and was able to talk with even a fake level of expertise. Again. Lazy. FFS, this guy was an Army CSM. He should know better. This kind of political appointee laziness needs to stop. I don't give a shit how bad they were in the past. I am very concerned about our future. Considering the fact that you have adamantly reinforced that you agree with this administration and all it's been doing: the disastrous and treacherous withdrawal from Afghanistan, our completely opaque and apparently open ended involvement in Ukraine, the suppression of a free investigation into hunter biden's dealing, dismissal of President Biden's own mishandling of classified documents while vilifying Trump doing the same exact thing, a suppression of fossil fuels production in the US for no obvious reason...except...the uplifting of green renewables despite overwhelming science to counter their sustainability, the affirmation of providing gender transition surgeries to minors without parental consent, and in general endorsing an agenda over and over that gender and skin color make a difference in one's ability to do their job, the intentional increase of inflation through endless spending of money we don't have, and on, and on, and on...I'm not surprised.

Looking at those videos it seems to me that both are the result of buffoonery on the pilots part. Assuming the animation and radio call timing is accurate (big assumption), UPS 2992 was cleared onto the runway to line up and wait before UPS 2974 is 6 NM away over POWLZ. They’re given a takeoff clearance with instructions, they read them back and are told the aircraft is on 2 mile final aka “move your slow ass” by ATC. After the go around, 2992 is given taxi instructions back to try again and doesn’t read back clearance to cross a runway and 2974 asks what the delayed departure was about. Once again, who knows how accurate the timing is and animations but for a UPS crew, I don’t see how that couldn’t have worked. And the Boston one, the biz jet just takes off with zero comms and clearance (at least that made it in the video) so that’s just extreme buffoonery. I think he was given departure instructions but not takeoff clearance in a call that was omitted from video because he checks in 3.5 climbing 5.0 on a SID. Maybe he just was executing his clearance with zero other calls. I find the animations on this one suspect because it would lead you to believe Jet Blue would’ve straight up landed on the biz jet and went around at 75-100 feet because of ATC direction. I find it hard to believe the deck angle on the 737 is that severe that they couldn’t see that. Additionally, with the weather shown they easily could have seen the runway and the whole airport from FAF. Regardless, buffoonery for sure happened. On the DEI comments, thankfully one diversity hire female made it up to Boston to prevent that crash since the white male pilots couldn’t see it or be bothered to wait to take off when told /s.

The Daily Wire responds to Hershey going woke by introducing their own chocolate bar. The She Her bar is chocolate and the He Him bar is also chocolate but has nuts. The video is pretty darn funny. https://www.dailywire.com/news/jeremys-chocolate-sells-more-than-200000-chocolate-bars-in-under-36-hours

Today, the first and oldest flying squadron in North America turns 110. Happy birthday to the 1st Reconnaissance Squadron. Hail Dragons. Note: 3 years later, the 1st become the first squadron to employ aircraft in a military operation. https://firstaerosquadron.com/articles/the-1st-aero-squadron-a-history/?amp=1

https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/05/politics/biden-student-loan-forgiveness-scotus/index.html I'm laughing at humans "But if you talk to someone who comes from poverty, or someone who’s a person of color, they are going to benefit from the forgiveness program the most because they’re the ones that have to jump through extra financial hoops in order to get where everyone else in the educated country is,” he said -. The people of color will benefit more? Lol. Fuck this guy. I know I'm beating a dead horse but how much more of this racist shit do I have to listen too? "His parents, immigrants from Mexico, couldn’t afford to help him pay for college. Enriquez was wait-listed at a state school that had a meteorology program, so he instead enrolled at a more expensive school out of state. He is now pursuing a master’s degree, which he felt he needed to stand out in a competitive industry." He "felt" he needed.... Well Mr Enriquez, do you know what's funny? I too couldn't afford school (working class parents), but instead of taking out a student loan, I joined the fucking military. I flew in combat, got to invade a country, lost a wife or two, lost some people I considered friends, spent most of my life gone or on alert. Guess what I didn't have to do? Ask uncle Biden for a handout. I have zero sympathy for these clowns. I really do. I have none.

I don't think he's pointing to an organized plan. He's pointing to the fact that there are innumberable military events in the air and on the sea that get largely ignored or suppressed by the country's leadership due to 'national security considerations' ... until it's politically, personally, or militarily useful to highlight them. Consider the Gulf of Tonkin incident. No one would have ever know about it except that it was politically handy to our 'leaders' at the the time to use as an excuse to get involved. Hell, the Navy has events very often in the Persian Gulf that could easily be used as an excuse to engage Iran if, and only if, that were the hot topic of the day for this administration.

John Chapman and the Battle of Robert’s Ridge 21 years ago on 3-5 March.

Classic article attributed to Hanoi Jane? I’m doubtful she penned it, but it might be the only time I’ve even partially agreed with anything she’s said or written. I guess even Hollywood elites have their hot buttons (DEI and bad chocolate). “Hershey, You Owe Us an Apology Jane Fonda March 2, 2023 I know I’m being highly presumptuous in speaking for the women of the world, but I’m old and I can handle the heat. Shame on you Hershey for slapping half of the worlds population in the face with your latest HerShe campaign. Your misguided decision to highlight a man posing as a woman as your symbol of female empowerment on National Woman’s day is offensive to all of us. With approximately 3.5 billion real women roaming this earth, you decided as a company that Herman Munster in drag best represents the incredible strength, empathy, brilliance, grace, and beauty of us women. In all fairness, I’m guessing that 3 or 4 of your recent DEI hires got together and with their academically rigorous gender studies, women’s studies, queer studies, and/or lesbian dance theory majors (for accuracy’s sake I’m hoping they are Bachelor of Science rather than Bachelor of Arts degrees) decided that a man somehow makes a better woman than a true woman. Then, these seriously confused employees, convinced a group of seemingly rational and mentally stable executives into signing off on the insanity. I’m sure they convinced you of the value of the large green check-mark the company would earn on the annual DEI scorecard. The only positive thing this decision to champion a man as a symbol for woman’s empowerment did, was highlight how unnecessary and divisive the DEI influence on companies is. Truthfully, while it allows the aforementioned worthless degree holders to obtain a lucrative job inciting mistrust and division within companies, DEI makes no positive contribution to the workplace. The DEI label might sound good, but the execution results in decisions like this by otherwise intelligent executives. I’m still hoping you’ll do the right thing as a company and apologize to all of the women of the world for insulting us, but I won’t hold my breath. My final advice for you as a company is to focus on making decent chocolate. Your time would be better spent buying Milka’s or UK Cadbury’s chocolate recipe instead of business as usual selling the brown paraffin wax bars you call chocolate. If you can’t obtain a good recipe, at least let Cadburys North America use the recipe from England so we can enjoy good chocolate on this side of the world.”

If that's all the ATF wanted, then why aren't they letting people register them under trusts for free?!?

This is the risk you take clearing a heavy aircraft for takeoff while a heavy aircraft is on a 2-mile final. You have a 45 second window to get a jet off the ground and it takes 30+ seconds to get from the hold short line and around the horn to line up on center line before pushing the throttles up. They went around because they knew they were too close. This is a foul on ATC's part, but knowing that this has become a trend, we, the pilots, need to be more cognizant about this stuff. It isn't the tower controller is going to die in a collision.

It absolutely matters, even if they say it doesn’t. If they’re inviting you to interview they are giving you a chance to land your dream job (if that’s what this is to you). Getting a nice bottle is an easy way to show how much it means to you and they do notice it. The extra money you spend will be worth it when you get a “nice bottle, man” comment versus getting roasted for bringing something bottom shelf. If you want the job, put yourself in the best position to land it.

Yet... 😉

Uncle Remus tales. Brer Rabbit, Tar Baby. Checked it out of the school library. Bet it aint there now.

It's about time. Men have spent thousands of years being told how hard it is to be a woman. Now we've only been doing it for a few years and we're already winning awards. Truly inspirational!

8 days a month!?!? How do they even have enough pay days for something like that? Are they forcing them to only log 1 pay card/day...if so, bail asap. I guess they don't understand the "part-time" idea behind the Guard/Reserve. I wouldn't even work in a fighter squadron that required 8 days a month. My squadron (fighters) only requires 4 days/month, but most guys do 5 or so. Most of my heavy brethren are only required to work 2 days/month. I'd recommend he try to get hired at a unit that is actually part-timer friendly, or look at an AOC or IMA gig.

Not as heroic as prior posts, but a night I’ll always remember. It was either Jan or Feb 1991, Desert Storm was raging. Took off in my C-141 from Daharan AB on my millionth flight during that timeframe (over 1000 hrs in 7 months). Anyhow shortly after takeoff, a bright flash explodes off my right side, looked similar to a July 4th firework, the cockpit gets real bright for a second, and as I looked to my right, my Co is ducking down in reaction to the flash. After a few jinks, we hear that the base is under a SCUD attack and the Patriot batteries were responding, hence the explosion, but we’re airborne anyway, so we get outta Dodge ASAP. After the excitement is over, I start teasing my Co about ducking down, and we basically had a good laugh about what happened. The co-pilot was a good squadron Bud, named LeRoy. He looked at me and said “I guess those A-rabs didn’t get ole LeRoy tonight” we just laughed and flew back to Ramstein. Fast forward to 9/11….I’m watching the news, and I read on the bottom news crawl that the crew on flight United 93 that crashed in Shanksville PA included my good Bud..LeRoy Homer (the FO) I still remember the laughs we had after that Scud attack, and his words that night were prophetic. RIP LeRoy

Snapinsta.app_322720005_1539293819927025_677788738499884468_n.mp4

Weird. It's almost as if having your transportation department focused on diversity, equity, inclusion, social sensitivity, skin color, gender, and other such things instead of focusing on proper procedures in the operations of aircraft, trains, trucks, and ships...they end up focusing on diversity, equity, inclusion, social sensitivity, skin color, gender, and other such things instead of focusing on proper procedures in the operations of aircraft, trains, trucks, and ships. There's only so much bandwidth in the human focus. DEI and other wokeness is distracting technicians from focusing on their technical skills, and is further severely cluttering the CRM on flight decks, in ATC centers, and other technical environments. When you're more worried about offending someone's delicate sensibilities than you are about making sure the job is done correctly, safety gets easily compromised. It's a slippery slope, I've experienced it first hand, and it needs to stop. Immediately. Is DEI and woke garbage the root cause in these cases? Nope, in one case it's a tower controller issuing, and the crews accepting, a landing clearance without sufficient spacing (6 miles dude). In the other...without the flight deck tapes, who knows...but obviously distractions. Any professional in technical employment or the heavy machinery industries knows that you don't simply ignore distractions. You actively eliminate as many as possible because there will be more than enough that you can't eliminate. So no, these accidents are not the fault of DEI, but that garbage is definitely a loud background distractor that is being forced into the system by our administrators, and one that is low hanging fruit that could be easily culled. Beyond that, it's an analysis of correlation vs causation. We have administrators who were clearly picked for their political reliability, their diversity, gender, etc...INSTEAD of their expertise. Our current transportation secretary is a political appointee, not an expert in transportation. He is responsible to set the policy and priority for the transportation department...and now we're experiencing lots of mishaps in that department. Correlation? Definitely. Causation? Not easily proven, but not to be ruled out either. Why is he still employed in that job?

Who is this and why is he grabbing the little bitches ass?