Leaderboard

That's how you know SERE is an Air Force course: you had to do it both in-residence and correspondence.

WTF is the Air Force going to do with essentially a -15C? I kid. But seriously... We could have light attack aircraft for a fraction of the price while still pumping out Raptors for the A/A roll. We've gotten so far away from building mission specific aircraft that we've created one that doesn't fit any niche. It's like trying to design a block that is round and square and triangle all at the same time so you can just use one block to fill all the holes. (sts?) Turns out it doesn't fit any. It's a neat looking block, though. Everything is joint to the point of breakdown. The entire -35 program has been one compromise after another in order to build a joint platform. It's not an expert at anything. It's too expensive to buy in meaningful numbers. The order is too small to replace any of the airframes it's designed to replace. If you think the -35 is going to deploy to remote locations where STOVL is needed then I think you're diluted. $200M airframes aren't sent to play in the dirt. What we have is an unbelievably expensive airframe that doesn't deliver to any of the services, missions, or original goals of the program. Reminds me of The Homer Car.

The real root problem with "Chiefs" is the O-6s they work for who empower them to act that way. Every time I have seen an officer do anything but kotow to a Chief over his asinine 'correction', it has resulted in a direct ass-chewing from an O-6. It's to the point where the Chiefs believe they are carrying all the rank of the guy with the Eagles whom they work for - and the Colonels are not only allowing it, but they're ENCOURAGING it by their actions. The Chief knows he can confront ANY officer he sees, because he knows that if he is rebuked, he'll be able to go tattle to daddy Colonel, who will then show that officer who's the boss. It's sickening...it's like the Commander's wife who thinks she is the "commander" of all the spouses, or that she wears her husband's rank around base. We can complain about Chiefs until the sun burns out, but the REAL issue is the O-6s they work for. Until they decide to stop allowing E-9s to go on these rampages, and put their feet down about policy, there will never be a fix.

Indeed. I bought a C-150 a while back and sold it within two years. It was a great exercise in convincing myself it wasn't worth it to me. The utilization rate was low, the maintenance, though the cheapest in the inventory of certified airplanes, still came out silly expensive when amortized by utilization hour. It simply was not worth it carrying all the burden of maintaining a 40 year old spam can to not have that much in the way of capabilities. And the bottom line was that it was all I could afford at the time, financing just seemed lunatic for something that saw much less utilization than a primary driver car, which I wasn't financing either! Somebody mentioned LSA (Light Sport Acft). Here's the skinny on the unintended consequences of that aircraft category. It was ADVERTISED as the solution to this very thread; hoardes of Joe working stiff finally able to afford some very restricting kind of flying, which was better than envying rich people outside the airport fence right? Well, here's the reality of that category... Well off people can afford airplanes. We all know there's a generational gap in terms of affluence, old people have money, young people are increasingly broke as a joke. As a consequence the GA owner demographic is OLD by societal standards. As such, their health is failing and they can't continue to hold FAA medicals. The intent of LSA was NEVER to open the market to young broke people. Wanna know why? Because they included as part of the requirements to fly sport category the lack of a medical..you only need a driver's license. Presto!! The demographic that COULD afford to throw stupid money after silly money to keep that Bonanza flying 45 hours a year in the air conditioned hangar now get to continue flying under LSA rules. They let their medical expire, full knowing they couldn't pass a renewal, and so they take their buckets of money and throw it into a shiny new LSA. LSAs can't fly at night, can carry only one passenger, can't fly IFR, yet they cost six figures!!! What part of six figure acquisition cost for a day VFR two seater than can't exceed 120KIAS sounds palatable to the young stagnant waging masses (I'm such a populist, I love class warfare) ?!?!? It was never intended for them. Frankly it offends me to have to read the garbage blurb on those online CFI renewals I gotta do every 24 months, with old 1990s archive pictures of Suzie the college student and her dream to fly on a budget. GMAFB. I digress. If I could get an LSA (day VFR, non-IFR equipped, under 120KIAS) for the acquisiton cost of a rat trap 150, then we're talking. The avionics alone in that LSA cost more than the -150, forget the manufacturing cost of the thing. It's a non-starter and just like California equity refugees were swelling up the housing costs in Southeastern cities at the middle of the last decade, so are old rich people with failing health, artificially sustaining a ridonculous price for a glorified kite that you can't even tow past dusk. Sure, you could equip an LSA for night VFR and even IFR, but in order to fly outside those LSA rules you have to have a medical. People who can get a medical will go back to their Bo and fly 4 people in comfort at 140kts (burning silly fuel flow but I digress). LSAs are non-starters for the guy looking to "afford" GA. When this last batch of old folks (boomers in particular) dies off, there'll be a fire sale of aircraft, but no buyer's to pick up the inventory. The operating costs are going up and up and up. Even now 30+ yo spam cans are sitting idle waiting for suckers to pick them up and nobody will touch them; everybody knows the operating and mx costs of these relics are prohibitive when amortized for the kind of flight hours the median GA pilot does in a year. You're better off boating to be frank. GA will about cease to exist in 30 years they way this thing is going. The FAA and some of the airline/military crowd couldn't be happier about it.