kaputt

The First Order style red and dark background was an interesting aesthetic choice.

Martin Luther King is rolling in his fucking grave.

Bill and Nance - Des Moines, Iowa, probably…

This gem from Harris: "And any so-called leader who engages in rhetoric that in any way suggests that law enforcement should be exposed to that kind of danger is irresponsible and results in dangerous activities. You know, our law enforcement. Professionals. And in this case, we're talking about our federal law enforcement agencies. They do very important work. And from the moment they walk out the door of their home, until they go back in, their families, pray for their safety and well-being. And I think it's just highly irresponsible of anyone who calls themselves a leader and certainly anyone who represents the United States of America to engage in rhetoric for the sake of some political objective that can result in harm to law enforcement officers and agents," Vice President Harris said. —————- Well apparently the left cares about law enforcement again. https://www.bizpacreview.com/2022/08/13/kamala-harris-offers-her-take-on-doj-after-raid-and-now-she-thinks-its-bad-to-doubt-law-enforcement-1272905/ This is the kind of bullshit that pisses me off. Shit on law enforcement for all of 2020 (and beyond), but as soon as federal agents are investigating something or someone that might be beneficial to your side, “They deserve our full support.” And this has nothing to do with defending Trump or not defending Trump. It’s just an utter disgrace how stupid these people think we are when they go back and forth on crap like this. Tell me Kamala, where is your support for Border Patrol and CBP agents trying to protect a border you’re in charge of that you’ve completely ignored? Because I seem to remember you jumping to vilify agents just doing their job as “whipping migrants”. What a sad time we live in.

Who knew?

That had to be Germany

"Inflation Reduction Act"

Genuine question here, is the Air Force planning some sort of tailwheel transition for this before dudes take a swing at the Air Tractor? Not that you couldn’t jump into an Air Tractor right off the bat, but as someone with a tailwheel endorsement, it seems some Citabria or similar time might be helpful. Tailwheel isn’t some unattainable skill, but there is a certain finesse to it that even 10 hours in something with less horsepower might help. Granted I’ve never flown an Air Tractor, so maybe it’s an absolute sweetheart to land?

"The Congressional Baseball Game is one of my favorite events of the year. It’s a great cause and brings both sides of the aisle together for a night off from partisan politics," the statement read. "That is why it really struck a nerve when I heard an offensive and misogynistic comment from the Republican side on my way back to the dugout." Imagine that… If they did say something misogynistic, say what it was. Call the asshole out. But I’m pretty sure you’re probably just a bitch.

I don't think this program will even exist long enough to get one of these kids to the line teaching UPT.

Not defending the overall actions of the group of officers, but some of the situation probably does deserve context. The guy with the punisher logo on the phone was checking it because he was just called by his wife who was in one of the rooms getting shot up. She didn’t survive and he was removed from the scene shortly after by other officers.

It’s also possibly illegal. Of course nothing will happen.

Exactly. It was border patrol agents that actually finished the job.

I would say the lack of having any disposable income is a pretty big barrier to the poor investing.

Not only do they not hire someone with aviation experience, they hired someone that comes from the worst transportation area in the entire country.

This is exactly what I was talking about in my last post when it comes to the absolute vacuum of leadership ability in the current administration. The lefty advisors sitting around thinking of their next move can't even help themselves when it comes to their hatred of the oil industry. So they draft up a letter from Biden that simply attacks the oil industry vs trying to be part of a solution. Like I had said before, the administration could stick to their public goal of trying to move away from fossil fuels while also actually working to help the American public today. There is absolutely no reason the President's letter couldn't have been an olive branch reaching out to the oil industry seeing how the federal government could work with and help the oil industry to increase supply and production. "To the American people, today I sent a letter to America's oil executives expressing my office's desire to sit down and come to real solutions on how to increase oil supply in this country. Make no mistake, my administration is still committed to furthering America's movement towards green energy, a process I feel the oil industry can be a part of as well; but this is a long process that will take time. American's are hurting now though, I feel that pain, and we are going to work together with America's oil and gas industry to make things better." But instead we get more of the "oil is evil talk". This administration is just simply inept.

There are of course multiple issues playing into the cost of gas prices, but the lack of effective leadership on the issue means that people are still going to keep looking back at Biden as prices keep going up. The 9,000 unused permits or whatever is a misleading talking point. Just because there is a permit to drill doesn’t mean that land has enough oil or gas to effectively be drilled. That claim is akin to saying to a prospector in 1849, “you have 2,000 acres of land in California, how are you not finding gold!?” The Department of Interior is already working to increase the royalties the government collects on federal land drilling. The permit process is exceptionally slow and makes it very difficult to get permits approved for drilling that may actually be cost effective. Not to mention the generally hostile position towards fossil fuels from this admin, including cancelling pipelines, etc… All of this is going to impact the market, on top of the Ukraine-Russia problems. Can Biden wave a magic wand and bring gas prices down? No. But just like everything else that happens during this administration, there is a complete vacuum of leadership. This admin obviously wants to eventually move America away completely from fossil fuels. I don’t agree with that position at all, but if I were this admin, here is what effective leadership might look like. “American people: my goal is to continue to move this country towards the green and renewable future of energy. But it’s clear the American people are hurting right now. In response to this I am sitting down with US oil companies to find out what we can do to improve US oil production and supply. In addition, I am working to immediately suspend the DOI’s plan for increased royalties and directing them to streamline and trim the existing permit approval process. It’s my mission to make sure American people are able to fill their tanks today while we continue to work towards an alternative fuel future.” Instead, we get told, “fuck you normal people, these prices are all part of the plan to make you switch to something else for your transportation needs. Boo hoo, you’re going broke right now, not my problem. Oh, and btw, quit your whining, I’m going to go beg to the Saudi’s for more oil.” It’s no wonder people slap “I did that” stickers on gas pumps. Has this admin genuinely faced some tough circumstances? Yes. But effective leadership is marked by how you handle those circumstances. You can’t just keep pointing blame at other things and people, take no action, and then expect the people your leading to not start to look to you for why things are so shitty.

It’s just an “incredible transition” we must all go through!

Good to know. It will be interesting to see if they actually decide to set that option up for T-6s as well. I believe the pilots that fly the CSO T-1s are also GS employees. I’ve also heard that’s a “you better know someone” type deal to actually get hired.

Yep... I think it's how they've structured the program. Its under the federal government's internship program, so I think they're required to get new grads and even be very specific on the major/experience they have. In my active duty life I worked with civ finance people that were under a very similar program and the requirements to get in were very strict. I'm not sure why they went this route, but my guesses are it was either the best way to slap a commitment onto the people that get hired, and/or it's much harder to find budget for stand alone GS positions that are open hires to anyone. If the Air Force really wants to make sure people don't leave, I'd gladly sign a 3 year deal to teach in T-6s as a GS-12. Go teach form, aerobatics, XC, in a bitchin turboprop without the BS of active duty life; sign me up. Much better than commuting to fly Charlotte to Savannah in a clapped out CRJ.

I will add, from my corner of the IFS world, IPs with military experience still tend to do better with instructing and relating to the students than straight civilian experience instructors. The absolute best (besides previous mil pilots) are the former CSOs, WSOs, NFOs, etc... that understand the nuances of briefing and debriefing appropriately, but even the former mil non-rated instructors understand better how formal training works in a military environment. That's not to say the civilians don't do well, but you can see students respond differently when they are dealing with a former mil IP vs civilian only. My one question is why has the Air Force not just made GS-12 or 13 T-6 IP positions that's open to hire anyone? Yeah that's not amazing pay and it would be hard to compete with the airlines, but certainly there are some guys who don't want to do the airlines that would be interested in being a T-6 IP after their time on active duty? Heck, I'm 400 hours short of heading to the regionals right now and I would gladly jump into a GS position T-6 job over going to the regionals. Haven't there been a couple of RFIs put out for contractor T-6's as well? What happened with those?

As a former non-rated officer that jumped into aviation and is actually currently teaching mil students in one of the IFS programs, this sounded like an awesome opportunity. Way better than slinging gear at the regionals, even with the GS-09 starting pay. But I reached out to AFPC and the program is strictly limited to aviation major students who got their degree and flight training at the same time, and you have to have graduated in the last two years. Bummer. It will be interesting to see how this program does. Having spent some decent time in the civilian aviation world now, I'm not sure this program will get all that many takers in the end. Most civ students want the airlines and nothing else, and those with mil flying interest will probably want to be actual military aviators and not T-6 only instructors. It's a pretty niche group of people that would actually look to do this job. Selfishly speaking here of course, but it seems a bit of a missed opportunity to not find a way to include folks like myself that have military experience and at least understand some of the demands the students have beyond just flying. I've found that to be super helpful in my current role. Let's be honest, this is a definitely just a grasp to try and fill IP manning with bodies that cost pennies on the dollar to even a FAIP.

Isn’t there a whole thread for this?

Did anything ever move forward from those RFIs for GO-GO and/or CO-CO multi engine training?