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You clearly don't know what it takes to fly precision loops to Van Halen, while taking all the 60 series.

Hopefully someone kicked some rudder because lead got lucky with having enough space to eject. Since everyone made it and are OK: Rejoin to the piggyback position? Is that a new Ace and Gary maneuver?

So 19AF can now solely focus on continuing to gut the UPT enterprise

We've been down this road, and similar paths, constantly and consistently since the 1970s. I'll believe that Big Blue is serious about CSAR (and CAS) beyond the A-10 when the following things occur: 1. SPECIFICALLY, in-writing, designate a MINIMUM of FIVE squadrons (of the MDS of their choosing) that will take CSAR as a PRIMARY mission. These squadrons will take dedicated, three week (or longer) TDYs to Moody AFB to learn, refine, and become proficient in the CSAR mission so that when the last Hog flies West, the mission is so deeply ingrained in the PRIMARY focus that no stress or strain can erase it. Why 5? I'd argue that's the absolute minimum number for a somewhat regular AFFORGEN deployment rhythm. Welcome to the world of low-density, high-demand. Who's going to want to go into no-kidding combat without Sandys? They will also publish the recurring training events that will prove to the entire CAF that the commitment of NEVER leaving a comrade behind on the field of battle is alive, well, and preserved in the United States Air Force. This won't happen, because it hasn't happened. In order to do this, those five squadrons will have to give up other missions in order to focus on CSAR. It isn't a pickup game, and if we relegate it as such, we're breaking faith with our own. Period, dot, full-stop. So, what can we ask that F-16, F-15E, or F-35 squadron to give up in exchange for keeping CSAR alive at such a pace that our own don't lose faith in our ability to come snatch them from the Valley of the Shadow of Death on the worst day of their lives? Draw the line in the sand. Demonstrate the commitment. Spoken words are hollow. Write it. Sign your name to it and accept the accountability for the decision. If we're not willing to do that, to that level, then we have to get serious in another way. Alternative COA: Give the mission in its entirety to the US Navy. Carriers are near the fight and are mobile. Sign it all over if we're not willing to do what it takes and maintain the mission at the standard that was forged in the skies over Vietnam. The mission has been tinkered with and tossed around a few times, and every time that's happened, it hasn't been good. We had to relearn the TTPs in Desert Storm, and that only happened because enough A-1 vets were retained in the young Hog community to keep the idea alive. Draw the line and go big, or punt on fourth down. Doctrinally, the USN is the closest to the USAF CSARTF in terms of composition, so push it all over there. Zero's perfect solution because I have the pens: Get serious about what war has really been over the last forty years, and the elements that will endure REGARDLESS of the war we want to fight. Our track record on predicting future conflict is pretty terrible, so (as they love to say at Air University) use the past as prologue and keep the things that you've always somehow needed, even if you didn't want them. Get serious about the USAF commitment that's existed in this manner since the original Sandys made it clear that they would walk through Hell in a gasoline suit to bring a comrade home. That means extending the A-10 until 2035, with all that's needed for such sustainment-- depot, WIC, FTU, test, and spare parts. That timeline gives the service time to develop a proper follow-on A-10X. You can even bolt-on some after-market add-ons to make it a VERY formidable F/A-10X and take the low-end counterair vs the low-slow toys so that the super expensive machines can focus on their high-end fights. Better yet, call it the ATTACK-MULTI-role FIGHTER, or AMF. You could field it in no time since you've got a foundation that you know works-- put some new versions of the -34 on there that get 15K lbs of thrust or more, add on every means of plug-and-play munition, EW, and comm suite that already exists, and of course, keep the gun. Done. On the ramp by 2035 so that the last of the c-models can take their place in the boneyard. We need the pickup truck in an era where everyone just wants the sports cars. EVERY conflict since Desert Storm has proven that. Bottom line at the bottom is that there is a numbers game that we're losing and will continue to lose so long as we don't accept the harsh reality before us. Budgets aren't big enough to field an entire fleet of exquisite and VERY expensive fighters. You can't field an NFL team with all quarterbacks, but it's also damn near impossible to field a winning team without those high-speed, highly paid leaders who pass and carry the pigskin. You need linemen. You need knuckle-dragging brawlers. There's already not enough to go around, and the trend is continuing downward. If you're going to transfer the mission, DO IT RIGHT, and START DOING IT NOW so that the new guys can learn from the experts. If you think it's a pickup game and that you can re-learn it on the fly after your one upgrade ride four years ago, you'll be joining Jack in the Esfahan Hilton. We're already late.

Buddy my job is literally to travel around the country and stay in different cities. Just because it happens sometimes in other cities doesn't mean there's a comparison. California has been orders of magnitude worse since the pandemic. And it's not even close.

I’m an equal opportunity hater - fuck em both!

Whoever made this is next level!

Pretty impressive landing roll. Actually a no roll. T/O is incredible as well. I’m not sure the tires even rotated fully.

We had a rental van in Germany year ago. We were flying down the autobahn when the dude in the passenger's seat rolled down the window....the combination of speed, airlfow and age on the van was just enough to tear the headliner loose.....BOOM....we were all suddenly sitting there covered in a cloud of insulation, it looked like a scene out of a movie, all we could do was laugh. Took us a while to get all the insulation out of our hair, teeth and flightsuits. The next day one of the guys super-glued the headliner back into place. We turned the van in a few days later and never heard a word.

I’ve returned a car OCONUS missing a door. Said “have a nice day” and left. Never heard about it ever again. Seen many GTC rentals returned all kinds of screwed up over my career, never seen or heard of anyone getting screwed (questioned by the CC is a different story).

I'm glad they didn't have a radar gun on the Destin bridge 40ish years ago.

Nope. Do it. What's the magic number? 4? Because I've been to 4 different CA cities and witnessed the horror show with my own eyes. None were SF.

Blancolirio said their airshow flying was an additional duty. Well, that should just about take care of the airshow demos in the Growler. Glad they all got out, but why a colossal waste of money and not a good look for Naval Aviation.

Look at the picture again. Dude shit in the street, not on the sidewalk. It's the little things....

Two has some spalining to do...parroting other holy cow lucky they all got out and didn't get tangled up. I thought it was AI at first...they were stuck together after first contact.

Blast from the past!

It’s the Navy way.

...and not a single pilot died. Worth it.

LGA > JFK

I think this sounds like a solution in search of a problem.

Have the F-16/15/35 doing the Sandy mission? Sandy 1 is a never ending helmet fire centered on finding the survivor, authenticating the survivor, protecting the survivor, and making the final go/no-go call. Sandy 2 has to manage comms to keep track of all the players while executing the FAC gig to defend the survivor. Sandy 3 needs to find a way in and out for Pedro/Jolly and troll the route for threats as the helo transits. All Sandys need to be down up close and personal doing "Hover Cover" with eyeballs on the pickup ready to deliver ordnance quickly on pop up threats to the helo or survivor. Doing that at 400+ knots up in the Bozosphere is not going to work. Doing that at low altitude at 400+ knots won't be any easier and certainly not an improvement over the A-10.

Believe Moose has previously identified himself on this board (view post history). Although the change in tone from ~10 years ago and this kind of writing below make me wonder if his account was hijacked, or maybe he wasn't who he said he was initially.

There are always USAFE AND PACAF jobs popping up that don’t require SDE or IDE in res. If you’re after multiple years of adventure OCONUS (and adding to your TAFMS), no need to do school to make that happen. Also, only have had one guard wg/cc who did in res school, the rest did SDE in correspondence.

In a just world, lawyers wouldn't exist, and they certainly wouldn't be involved in combat. Combat is supposed to be brutal beyond the pale to the point that anywhere a combatant hides is a valid target until there are no more targets or until the enemy gives up. America seemed to have forgotten that fact somewhere right around 1946. Somewhere along the line we decided to be "nice" when we use military force, which is how you end up with a military doing 'nation building'...the complete opposite of it's function.

We need about 300% more Growlers…but yeah, let’s burn some on airshows for no good reason. Dumbasses. Glad they’re all alive.

Shifting back to a more tactical discussion it appears the Saudis and UAE are VERY upset by the latest attacks from Iran. Pakistan has now joined the Saudis and there is talk of a ground incursion into Iraq to target the threat vector directed at the Kingdom. Saudi has recalled 50,000 reservists. Pakistan has deployed a squadron of fighters and thousands of troops to the Kingdom...next few days are going to be interesting.

Timing and spacing was good. Two, your PLF was a little off. I saw feet, butt, head. Remember to roll on your side next time.

I can’t explain that, because I don’t know. What I do know is as follows: 1) We have an artificially higher gas tax, by a significant amount. I don’t know why because our roads are terrible and they’re turning them into bike lanes. 2) My electricity rates are increased at a rate that is greater than the advertised rate of inflation (but are likely what actual inflation rates are.) 3) Trash fees, which were previously apart of property tax, just became an additional fee of $600/year. 4) $19,000 a year in state income tax at roughly $300k a year. 5) 1% property tax on a $1m home (median) is a lot. Plus community taxes. 6) We’ve created the fastest high speed rail… That doesn’t exist. 7) Probably lots of “Learing” Centers.

Another good question is going to be why do we have Growlers flying air show profiles? Did you really need an LDHD two ship to do a routine that would probably look exactly the same in slick hornets?

I love California and hate who/how the state is run. I have a beautiful home in San Diego that overlooks the airport, bay, and North Island... And we've had my wife's car broken into once and a homeless man come onto my patio, steal her shoes and a weightlifting belt I had on my squat rack. We also have a really nice property six hours North of San Francisco where the only things you run into are deer, black bears, and mountain lions. I agree that California is probably the most diversely beautiful state. I just wish that it wasn't controlled by the Bay Area and LA populace. I'm hopeful that people are waking up. Spencer Pratt's Mayoral campaign seems to be going quite well. Can he win? I don't know, but I hope that he does.

Is there any rage bait you don't fall for?

Austin was getting close (no surprise), but the state finally intervened and while it's still bad, it's getting better!

Yes, I 100% approve of suing the fed gov, and if they’re found liable in court/settle, pay the affected Americans. Holding the fed gov accountable for its actions is not a controversial point.

Mountain Home yesterday

Gentlemen, if you.will indulge the words of this OFG, I will give you the 121 sec synopsis of available medical data. The term for the problem is : Reptitive CERVICAL strain in Fighter pilots. It is a wide spread problem and the RIVER RAT DOCS (Red River Valley Fighter Pilots Association) is working to have it accepted as a know disability by the VA. Are neck problems likely if you fly a fighter ? Yes. Are likely to create a smoking hole in the ground from G loc? YES. Flying at Mach 1.5 and 9 G is dangerous business but in my opinion as a Doc and Pilot it is worth it. If they offered me a chance to join a squadron of old guys to fly but I had to give up a testicle... . I would ask them which one do you want and when do we start If anyone on this thread wants the studies or bibliography , I can be reached at JavadocF16@gmail.com

I could only play 6-9 seconds of that retard talking. It's like Tucker Carlson and RuPaul had a love child.

Didn't realize we were arguing analogies... I'll restate it another way to not cause confusion. Europe didn't take heed of Germany's actions and allowed a violent, immoral, cult centered regime to gain substantial military strength which resulted in millions of lives lost, all because they were afraid of starting another war. The war that eventually occurred could have been prevented with earlier action. Iranian leadership is immoral, cult centered (at the very least they adhere to a radical view of Islam), and has gained substantial military strength, just not a nuclear weapon as of yet. Oh yeah, and both regimes actively worked toward the slaughter of the Jewish people. Cambridge Dictionary: Not following accepted standards of morally right behavior or thought. Hopefully you agree that a regime that is directly responsible for terrorist attacks including Oct 7th is immoral, unless you're a Khamenei follower. You'll have to ask the Iranian leadership, oh wait the majority of the ones in power have all been smoked. Are they less likely to continue building a nuke so they can destroy Israel per their stated claim? It depends if we kill enough of their leaders who actually thinks its their destiny to do so. Destroying all their toys will help as well. No. None. The premise of the question itself is invalid. The odds for Israel invading Iran would be better than 1 million to 1 if Iranian leaders hadn't funded terrorists to rape and torture Jews for the last 47 years and in general work towards the mass genocide of their population. It also doesn't help when their leaders say things like this ad nauseum: Major General Hossein Salami declared that the destruction of Israel was no longer just a dream, but an "achievable goal". He added that the regime had obtained "the capacity to destroy the impostor Zionist regime." More healthy. Reference the above points regarding the continued neutering of their radical leaders. Additionally, the alternative here to the current action, would be inaction. Which is what we've been doing for the last 47 years. Unless your assessment is the cultist, immoral, and evil leaders of the regime will wake up one day with a nuclear capability and suddenly decide they don't really believe it's their destiny to destroy Israel or launch a nuke at the US. Iran with a handful of nukes. The US Congress and the President still work at the pleasure of their constituents. If you disagree with the rule of law, then by all means exercise your rights. When my parents were younger they didn't fear that the Legislative Branch was ceding too much power to the Executive Branch. They feared a nuclear war from a country that, compared to the Iranian regime, was ran by some very level headed individuals. More dangerous. You mean do I fear politicians that act like politicians? No. Unless they allow Iran to acquire nukes. Then I'll just do my best to fire them, i.e. VOTE. Also, your "Final Question" was 2 questions...

It's crazy....how did they go so far crazy. Great state with SOOO much potential but crapping in the street...

Yeah, door #3 is we just sit back and let the blockade do it's job / work. In short order, Iran's oil infrastructure will crumble and the crushing reality of actual economic austerity will begin to set in and will take a toll on the people and the regime of Iran. Long term, this will destabilize and delegitimize them. That will increase the likelihood of regime change, and in all honestly, the best kind of regime change since it will happen organically. What we (Trump) likely doesn't have is the balls to wait it out or sell it to the American people in a clean way. I think he tried the other day, but the message fell flat. What I think probably happens is we split the difference. We'll commit enough men and material to opening the straight and denying Iran their ability to project power, whilst simultaneously disallowing Iranian shipments through. I was right about us starting the blockade - because it was obvious. I'm not as certain about this course of action. If I was in charge, that'd be my strategy though.

He is OFF THE CHART, that be no man's land:

“the service said the major command’s operational experience will improve readiness for the training pipeline for fighter and remotely piloted aircraft units.” Obviously those IPs wearing AETC patches who’ve had 1+ operational assignments do not have operational experience like if they’d come to work tomorrow wearing ACC patches. Duh.

The Air Force decision process is much like the pendulum on a clock but without the ability to remember what the pendulums location used to be or predict the future location. So, the AF just repeats history thinking it has found something new and unique.

Another fundamental disagreement. You believe that there is such a thing as a state of peace. I believe that's a fantasy of well-meaning but historically ignorant people. We may create different enemies and different problems. But there was never the possibility, much less the reality, of doing things perfectly such that we have no enemies. Go back a hundred or more years and see that there was never a desire for peace, and that the people complaining now about being displaced from their lands were the displacers not very long ago... They weren't holding hands as peaceful Pearl Farmers before the United States started meddling in the Middle East. They just slaughtered each other. Similar to the many myths told about the noble native Americans before the evil Europeans arrived. Again, and I'm not pointing this specifically at you though you do seem to fall into the category, I just find it childish to have this view where the United States is constantly framed as actually not always the good guy or objectively wrong or all the other ways in which people do gymnastics to avoid the reality that there has never been a country as powerful as we are that has shown the Goodwill or restraint that we have. And many of the countries that are today viewed as paragons of global morality and cooperation (Nordic countries especially) are just the powerless husks of once-ruthless imperialists, fed and watered by the global power of the United States post WWII. The conversation always falls apart when the idealists are forced to identify some country that's better. They can't, because the ideology requires all things to be compared to a hypothetical. Again, everything is short-term with this argument. The jcpoa only afforded 10 years of reduced enrichment. They were allowed to build and maintain all of the facilities required to enrich to weapons grade, and the second that we pulled out the agreement, they did. And it's largely irrelevant because you've already conceded that they want a nuclear bomb. So there's really not much else to talk about. They want it, they can't have it. Everything they've done has justified our refusal, up to and including October 7th. You think it would be better for the US to allow that to happen. I don't. And I think all the hand-wringing about Trump is over-complicating his position, which is basically mine: Iran can't have nukes, and we won't trade terror funding for temporary compliance. The end. Good convo.

Last week I had what I can only describe as a "pure" ending to a flight, I live for those moments. Unfortunately as a ham-fisted pilot I don't get to realize them as often as I would like. The flight started off with weather that was not forecasted. Taxiing out there was a literal wall of fog approaching the field obscuring the trees. I hustled up and got airborne just before the field went below mins. I did not see the ground for the next 300 miles. I had extra gas and was now questioning the TAF at my destination, already planning divert options when 40 miles from home the sky opened up and I could see the coast. At 35 miles I could see the field and asked for lower. Surprisingly they cleared me the visual from 35 miles out. I did some quick pilot math and pulled the throttle back to just above idle and started down. I never touch the throttle again until I touched down. Blind squirrel found a nut, divine intervention or pure luck...It just felt good.

Selling my 1979 A185F if anyone is looking for a great performer with the IO-550 and 88” Prop. STOL kit, Wing Extensions, VGs, etc.

Often flew a friend’s in the late 70s out of Woodring, OK. Wife (pilot) and I flew a two week XC from Enid, OK to OR to NV to AZ to TX and back to OK. Performed well at Hi Density and with full fuel in the Rockies. Climbed comfortably to 14-16k and flew IMC at times. Always felt comfortable in it Anyway, flown many other BOs. But for a couple with two small children it is a great performer.

That's pretty much everything we need to know about your position. This is exactly the Obama/Mandami/Sanders position. Call it power-guilt or whatever, but it takes an absolutely tortured view of morality, statecraft, and human nature to find the Iranian regime (both the old Mullah-led regime and the current IRGC-led regime) somehow deserving of nukes because of the most unintelligent interpretation of US and Israeli histories. It's been fascinating to watch conspiracy-susceptible (and attention whoring) conservatives like Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens fall into this rabbit hole and become indistinguishable from the progressive politicians they became famous by attacking.

I think @EvilEagle owned a Bonanza, not sure if it was an FSSA or an A36, very similar as I understand.