JeremiahWeed

I think one of the best periods would have been Korean War - F-86. Gun only jets with a willing adversary who came up and tangled on a pretty regular basis and lots of Aces. Fighter pilot heaven.

Ok, you asked. Fedex 777. Mission is to make the company billions and for me grab some of the crumbs to the tune of $250K a year as a co-pilot(First Officer). Typically work 12-14 days per month either all at once with the rest of the month off or week-on, week-off. Much of that work time is soft time (i.e. not actual flying hours). Typically, I'm paid for 80-90 flight hours each month, but it's rare for me to actually have air under my ass for more than 50 hours each month. Since I'm an FO, many trip are as a relief pilot which involves deadheading around the planet in business or first class to various locations where I will meet up with the crew and act as the "free agent" third or fourth pilot on a long haul flight and then part ways. For the last 10 years straight, I've made the highest level in American Airline's frequent flyer program annually and have 1.5 million miles to use for family leisure travel. I can choose how I orchestrate my passenger deadhead flights using the company money available and any extra $$ is available for various travel expenses incurred in conjunction with any trip. Next month, I will be picked up at my house by a limo (paid for by Fedex) and driven to O'hare to begin my journey to Tokyo. My trip is due to start on a Thursday but since I'm not going to follow the deadhead schedule, I will stay home on day one getting paid. Friday, I will fly from O'hare to Tokyo in a lay flat business class seat sipping single malt and maybe catch a movie. From there, I'll take the bullet train to Osaka and have about 48 hours off before I have to work. My only flight on this trip is a 4-hour leg from Osaka to Guangzhou, China. Once I arrive in China, I'm done. I have a quick 12-hour layover and then I'm scheduled for 3 day deadhead sequence to get back to Memphis. Since I don't want to go to Memphis, I'm going to stick with the original plan of a private car driving me to Hong Kong which will get me to my first flight out. Thanks to my frequent flyer status, American has upgraded me from business to first class on my HKG to DFW flight. Once at DFW, I'll hang in the lounge until my flight back to O'hare. Once back to Chicago, another limo will take me home, dropping me off on Wednesday, 5 days after I was picked up. Since I shaved some time off my trip home by deviating, I'll be on the clock for almost 24 hours after I get home. For my trouble, I'll have about 30K more frequent flyer miles and my paycheck will be about $10K fatter (before taxes). Now the rest of the story........ About the time I'm landing in China after the 4.0 from Osaka, my family will be doing the Christmas morning routine. Being an almost empty nester, that's okay and gives someone with little ones a shot at being home. Hardly as noble as it sounds. I'm just a lazy MFer. Getting paid 10-grand to deadhead in style back and forth from Asia so that I can fly a single 4 hour flight is a fair trade off. That trip plus another for the first 6 days of Dec make up my month. So, that's one snap-shot of the Fedex 777 thing. Believe it or not, I've had better months, but this will definitely be a good one. The bad ones can be tough but with a little seniority, the good far outweighs the bad. Our bad doesn't hold a candle to the long days those of you still doing the job for big blue deal with. So, when you decide to bail, come on over - the water's fine. I usually get a paid commute via private car and first class international deadhead every month. There's lots of "Q" in the QOL and I definitely recommend it. Also, WTF is a "stewardess"?

"The MP failed to recognize an impending collision while reading his formation flying line-up card....................."

One other thing about boldface. Learning them with all the punctuation and spelling, being able to regurgitate them at will, dream them in your sleep, etc. are obviously a requirement. At some point prior to actually hitting the flight line, I recommend being able to actually accomplish them. Perhaps that sounds obvious, but trust me... there is a very big difference between being able to write them or recite them verbally while at attention in a stand up brace and actually putting in control inputs and actuating switches. Paper trainer, cockpit mock-up, sim.... whatever is available. Drill them as hard as you do learning to write them properly. Nothing has to be done at lightning speed. Slower (and correct) is usually 'mo better. It's okay to walk down the hill and fck them all. But, when you need to do them in the sim or the aircraft for real, you will be far more effective if you've actually reached in the right part of the cockpit and actuated the appropriate controls as often as you write them out.

ATAC adversary pilot?

I think you're kind of making my point for me. I'm not necessarily talking about USAF A/A assets or turning it into a big "thing" if the threat potential isn't there. Aren't their enough Hornets in a CAW to put a couple of bubbas up in an A/A config to mind the store? Something? I've been party to more than one slowly growing cluster in that general vicinity of the world and it's easy to become the frog in the boiling water. Operators adapt and deal with it. I'm just make some observations on the outside looking in.

I'm not fluent in "Navyspeak" but I know enough to get by. I've been retired for almost 8 years but I think I can extrapolate what I knew back then to have a reasonable idea of the environment. I also freely acknowledge my limited exposure to CAS and A/G in general. So, with that all said.... interesting video, but from what I can tell it seems like it was kind of a cluster. What I got from their story was this: They launch on a CAS mission and plan to stack up over the troops and drop when needed and it's their turn. Mob has an issue with FLIR and by pure happenstance ends up sort of "swinging" to A/A and is the only one with his radar/master mode setup for A/A since everyone else is trying to drop iron. In spite of the presence of AWACS and probably a Navy E-2 (apparently on different freqs than the CAS guys) he ends up being the one to find this lone SU-22. With all the 21st century capes in theater, no one helps with the ID (YGBSM) and he ends up having to do it visually, followed by THREE warning passes (how long did he spend in the Fitter's WEZ doing that?). It's difficult to believe that we're "thumping" all-aspect capable red air threats while dropping flares in their face in an effort to defend our ground troops and local airborne assets. Heater (failed or defeated?) with -120 follow up... good results. Then there's the egress which involves selective jettison of the rest of his A/G ordnance...... not before the A/A engagement???? (But, maybe I'm missing something there? Surface threat post engagement dictated it? Can't land with it?...... Don't know, just seems weird.) I also spent a few brain cells trying to figure out why there were 5 guys talking mission specifics on the stage. Apparently another 2-ship and maybe a single joined them on the egress? I get the tactical environment is challenging there. It sounds like ROE isn't easy to apply and the presence of "grey" players complicates things further. It sounds like the air threat is minimal but obviously has the potential to escalate at any time. So, that begs the question: Why isn't there at least a small amount of dedicated A/A assets. Are we stretched that thin there that everyone has to be ready to pull double duty while stacked up trying to support troops on the ground? No option to put a DCA CAP or two up with one J.O.B. so the CAS assets can focus on that critical (and difficult) mission? It kind of needs to be black or white. It's either a completely permissive A/A threat environment or it's not. If it's not, then expecting guys to just audible the occasional red-air encounter is a recipe for a lucky red kill or worse... frat. What if Mob had been full up FLIR and had his master mode in the soda straw like everyone else? What if the Fitter driver had more of a clue and wanted him some Hornet during the "thumping"? It kind of reminds me of the last F-18 kills almost 30 years ago in 1991. Two guys in A/G mode trying to drop bombs get a short notice threat call. They scramble to "swing" to A/A..... one gets a lucky snap lock and the other digs his lock out of the scope after a couple of sweeps. They stroke a couple of MiG-21s at visual range head on and go back to dropping iron....kind of a close call. But is that as far as we've progressed almost 3 decades later? I don't know. Maybe I'm totally off base and someone can set me straight. I'm happy for these guys and it seems like they executed well overall. Killing MiGs is good sport, believe me. But, this seems like there are some gaping holes in the plan, IMO.

IMDB for Top Gun under "goofs": https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092099/trivia?tab=gf&ref_=tt_trv_gf When turning in his wings at the beginning of the film, Cougar talks about 'almost orphaning' his new baby. If he'd died he would still have a mother.

????Orphan???? 'Cuz the guy's wife is in the pit working the radar when they auger?

That hasn't made into our dispatcher's cross check yet. We still have to ask via ACARS when we want it. I'm ok with that. Between the ETOPS stuff, re-dispatch ops and occasional updates on enroute SIGMETs, I hear from them enough as it is. On another ATIS note..... anyone got any good zingers for the guy who gets ATIS via ACARS at the top of climb, 20 minutes after takeoff on a 12+ hour flight?

Bender, Just my opinion, but airline flying doesn't make anyone a "vastly superior aviator"(VSA). There are certainly good and bad airline pilots and if they're the latter, chances are they've never been a VSA. However, there are plenty of good airline pilots, both mil and civilian that still aren't what I would call vastly superior. They get the job done and that's enough. If a civilian pilot is a VSA in someone's opinion, they got that way before they came to the airlines. Who knows what that even means. Great hands because they flew practically everything with wings from a Stearman to an Extra300 with some DC-6 and P-51 thrown in for good measure? Just a natural? I know those types from both paths. Maybe they've got all that and can recite the FARs chapter and verse and they're a CRM machine. There's lots of metrics someone could use to call a guy a great aviator. I guarantee what we call great in the military may not be the same. Some of the traits might be similar but the two environments are different enough that it's apples and oranges. Could a civilian VSA excel in the military? Sure.. some but not all. The same goes for moving in the other direction. My point though is that the airline environment isn't a test for any VSA, no matter how he got that way and what his background is. There's stuff to study and stay up on procedurally like any aviation job, mission prep possibly if you've never been somewhere you're going, but unless you're just a total slug, it just takes a little discipline now and then. The nice thing is, most of that can be accomplished at cruise or on a layover while you're on company time and not your own. I'd say it's worthwhile to put this whole airline thing into perspective. It's admin. STTO, Climb, Cruise, Descent, Approach and Landing. There are some different rules and procedures, aircraft systems, etc. to learn but it's pretty basic. There may be some new territory for some guys who've never taken a transport category aircraft from FL350 to landing, flown a jet via keystroke or knob all while having the throttles magically hold your airspeed without anyone touching them. But it ain't close to most guy's bread and butter in the military, an airshow guy like Sean Tucker, bush pilots in AK or the guys humping around the pylons at Reno. The airline thing is great for some but it's not for everyone. The end result is money and the free time to use it. That's what it's all about.

Dafuq you need ATIS for if you're already on the ILS? Seriously, all the shit dudes have said here rings true. The only thing I'll add is that one's success in making the transition if you choose that path in the future isn't a given. It takes some work and a simple but crucial understanding that you're entering a completely different environment. Harder? Hell no, not by a country mile. Apply yourself maybe half as much as you did to get through UPT and you'll be fine. But thinking that being a SH Viper, Hornet, Raptor, -17, whatever guy is going to carry you through on its own is a mistake. Your mil status is also not a guaranteed job offer. The airlines don't start beating your door down when they find out you're available though, at the current hiring rate it may seem like that for some guys. Expect to put in some time prepping for interviews and realize you're breaking very new ground. There's lots of gouge from the bros out their and several well run companies that'll relieve you of a small, but worthwhile investment to make sure you're ready to sell yourself when the time comes. It's a multi-million dollar career that many mil guys have missed out on because they decided to wing it and figured WIC, a 1000 hours of IP time in the Viper or some other feather in their cap was going to make it a breeze. Not hard.....just different......way different. Oh and while I gocha here......The shit some mil guys do and say (the famous 5% we've all met) when they finally start their new careers would make you cringe. The tools who have come before you leave a lasting legacy. When you hear the stereotypes assigned to us all thanks to those clowns, you'll maybe have a slightly understanding of what it's been like being an Eagle driver since that fateful day at Kadena 30+ years ago . So, try to play nice with the civilians. Taking every opportunity to attempt to impress them with combat stories or "there I was" BS, making them feel inferior in general or lecturing them on how things were back in your old life isn't generally the best option. There will be plenty of bros in the other seat to swap stories with but not always. Also, accepting that airline X is paying your a shit-ton of money to fly their jet the way they want you to and not how you think it should be flown is also extremely helpful. Adjust accordingly and be one of the 95%. Good luck with whatever path you choose.

UFB... What amazes me is that out of 30 people there wasn't one with some even basic physics knowledge that might have said, "Uh.....wait just a sec......." At least there's one therapist on the planet with a job for life when the 3-year old gets older.

I ran across Dan a few times during my career. AFROTC field training, a few of the same strike package during Desert Storm out of the 'Lik and at least one Flag. All I'll say is that not everyone shares as high opinion of him as he does. That's been a trend since ROTC. To proclaims one's self the "most lethal pilot" in the USAF or whatever he said when I leafed through the book in an airport bookstore is a bit of a stretch, considering the company he keeps in aviation history. A good driver with some good stories? No doubt. At least his books are selling. In my final comment below, I realize I may be somewhat biased considering my background. However, I think it's still extremely valid. The one question I have for him, should we cross paths again would be this: Considering the success of the fighter version of the F-15 over the history of it's four-plus decades of operations, how can someone write a history of the fighter pilot and fail to even mention that aircraft once? I get the whole Eagle-Falcon rivalry.......but considering the F-15 was probably the last US aircraft designed purely to fulfill the role of a true fighter (not a pound for air-to-ground) and has a pretty enviable kill ratio in combat (ya know..... the actual job of a "fighter pilot"), you'd think it might have at least made it into the index.

Getting deja vu.......I feel like I've seen this picture in another thread. Oh yeah, I think it was this one............ I'm over 50, so she's still a "One". But man, emerson breedin' hips.

Yeah, I'm with VFMA-187 on this. Big difference between combat ready and capable. Can't speak to heavy units, but from a fighter perspective, I think you're off base. Before I retired from the guard, with the exception of three guard babies, low time guy in my squadron had 2000+ hours. I don't know if every guy "cracked 3-1 or 3-3" buy they could all fly the shit out of the jet. Unless I chose to go light in a month, I usually flew as much if not more as a traditional than I did on AD. But, the thing to remember is the guard isn't supposed to provide a combat ready pilot tomorrow. It's a pool of mostly high time guys who have the experience base to be away from the jet for a few weeks or fly limited sorties. It's never been expected that an ANG unit would be the equivalent of a AD unit for day to day ops. If they're needed for combat ops, they're going to spin up quickly and be both combat ready and capable.

Another green bagger, doing their job like all the rest.....so........... On that day, throughout all the land..............

I think it's good to avoid jumping to ANY conclusions. Since neither the SIB or AIB reports are anywhere near complete, aren't you sort of doing just that? Isn't it possible that the unique mission of the T-clones doesn't really allow the option for a knee-jerk grounding for 30 days while the investigations proceed. Maybe the powers that be are assuming innocence until guilt is proven (as it should be) and allowing the squadron to get their season back on track. While I truly hope you're correct, assuming all is now well simply because they're flying again seems a bit premature, IMO.

Adam, Your military service is something you can be proud of and is far more than many Americans have been willing to offer. However, be straight about it and don’t try to turn it into something it isn’t. I think that might be what’s bugging a few of us as we look at your web site and consider what you posted here. No one likes feeling like they’re being given a line of BS, even if they can’t prove it for certain. You’re also using certain pictures, words and inferences to create an image that’s not completely accurate. You can’t remember what kind of airplane you were on? Really? Is that because you watched airdrops on a C-17 and others on a C-130 because your bud was dual qualified, you did so many they all ran together or you simply can’t tell the difference? Airdrops with the back door open, pallets or maybe troops going out, airplanes on the ramp, generally cool military ops and hardware and you go find a meadow with a rock to sit on for your photo? Can you see why this explanation is a little hard to buy? When we called you on it, you went down the “it was so long ago, I can’t remember all the details” path. At least you’ve got that part of politics figured out. Oh, and the “I’m too busy with the budget deficit to defend the picture I CHOSE to put on my website”. Nice try…Don’t you need to get elected first before you can “sort through the budget deficit”? Right now, you’re trying to get elected – and like it or not, you’re getting some blow back from your website. Speaking of that, here’s some feedback on the web site: You’re not a “Captain” any more. It appears a bit desperate. You separated. If you retired and you really felt like it was important, you could refer to yourself with your former rank and put a USAF (ret.) after it. But…. You didn’t. Lose the wings on your lapel. Those are about as subtle as a Rolls owner wearing his hood ornament on a necklace. There’s a reason you couldn’t find a little, classy set of ABM wings to use as a tie tack or lapel pin and had to use the ones from your mess dress. No one is going to mass produce ABM wing pins because no one wears them. But, wings = pilot and if no one looks close enough or understands what they’re looking at, why spoil the image with those pesky details. Same thing with the flight suit/helmet shot. Flight suit + helmet equals another image you’re trying to imply that’s not reality. You wore a flight suit on duty. If a picture of you in that uniform gets you a little mileage with the voting public, great. Add in the helmet (which you never wore on duty) and you’re flirting with creating a false image, hoping the general public will take it on face value. The fact that you didn’t own a camera or get any accurate pictures of yourself during your military service doesn’t make it okay to post one that clearly attempts to imply duties you didn’t have.

You got scolded over on APC for a similar post, so I guess I'll do it here. You got paid to get off active duty early, right? There were a few strings attached to those dollars, but you decided those strings were better for you than staying on active duty and the USAF was happy to oblige. You also knew all the IRR responsibilities and possibilities for future service when you took that money and signed all the paperwork detailing the specifics. Now you have some minor responsibilities to meet and you come on here bitching about losing a little airline pay. YGBSM!! Good grief, it's in May. Bid around it if you can. Trip trade to deconflict or mil drop if you have to. Pick up an extra trip between now and then if you need the coin that badly. Bottom line - suck it up, dude. Plenty of us here mil dropped airline trips worth thousands for drill weekends worth hundreds month after month, for years. Others got activated for extended periods, left their airline and took a serious monetary hit for 6 months. They probably could have come on here and gotten some actual sympathy but they didn't bother. They sacked up and did what they committed to do. Your pu$$y hurts over one IRR muster two months from now? You should be able to figure out how to make that happen with that much warning - don't ya think? You want to get some info about what to expect that day or some "been there" guidance from the bros - that's what we're here for - ask away. Coming on here and whining about losing some money is some real SNAP BS. I hope you're embarrassed - because you should be. Rant over.

https://www.citizenwatch.com/en-us/watches/watch-detail/?model=JY0000-53E I have the watch in the link above and it's the perfect aviation watch, IMO. If you're looking for something to pass on to your kids, wear an aviation icon on your wrist or show off at a cocktail party, then this might not be it. If you want a reasonably priced, good-looking, functional and accurate aviation tool, I highly recommend this watch. It keeps perfect (and I do mean perfect time). Our aircraft clock displays GPS time and it always matches my watch within a second. It updates every night off a radio signal in the US, Japan or Germany, depending on location. Auto update for daylight savings time/standard time in the spring and fall. World-wide time zone selection allows easy call-up of local time wherever you happen to land. Quick two step process allows hands to display any time zone. Zulu is always displayed on dedicated hands or you can have it in the digital window. It has luminous hands and a button activated light that illuminates the digital window and time zone. Eco-drive means no battery replacement - ever. List price is over $600 but it is usually available on-line for somewhere in the mid-300's.

That little "tit" of Turkish territory sticking down into Syria that they violated is barely 3 NM across at it's widest point. Do you really think it would be that difficult to accidentally fly over such a small piece of territory, especially if you're busy with other mission related duties?

I don't disagree. The Russians have chosen to attempt to prop up the existing Syrian government by bombing the rebel Syrian forces (the guy in the jeans, by my guess). That choice also probably means Russia is a de facto supporter of ISIS. By doing that, they've put themselves at odds with the rebels for certain, as well as the rest of NATO and the civilized world battling ISIS. While this situation may fall under the "enemy of my enemy, etc, etc." umbrella, to imply that the Syrian rebels attacking at target of opportunity from the forces that have been bombing them is somehow a coordinated effort with NATO, et al is a pretty big stretch in my opinion.

?? "Also........They got a helo"?? That statement makes it sound like you're saying the guy in the blue jeans setting up the missile and the Air Force of the sovereign nation of Turkey are one and the same.

I've heard that before but it's interesting to revisit it again. The thing that blows my mind (from an F-15C perspective) is the guy doing most of the talking is the backseater(RIO) in the lead aircraft. Thank goodness for single seat fighters. A few observations: "AB" (whoever that is, puts them on weapons hold). The backseater then directs a series of 30 degree offsets to assess the bogies intentions. Bogey heading remains steady at 330-340 through the the intercept. First he goes left and then goes back right across their nose. Any of us who have done any intercepts know how little the geometry of the intercept is going to change out at 50-60 miles after the initial offset of 30 degrees. If he stayed left, it might have worked. Going back right just heated the intercept back up and put the F-14s back on the bogey's nose. Any "jinking back into me" by the bogies that was perceived by the lead RIO was really just a result of the intercept geometry he created and a tendency of the F-14 radar to display erratic heading information on track-while-scan targets under ownship maneuvering. All they did was basically zig-zag across the MiG's noses while they drove on a steady north-northwesterly heading. The lead pilot tries to call AB when they arm hot since they are still under weapons hold. "Uh, wait a minute..... AB from 207". Shortly after that, the lead RIO takes the first AIM-7 shot (can you imagine having weapons coming off your jet without your consent as PIC?). The pilot had no idea the shot was coming until it left the jet, hence his "Aw Jesus" exclamation. Talk about the tail wagging the dog. First AIM-7 doesn't guide due to switch error (I think it was an F model that wasn't tuned properly). They have to follow up with another at close range pre-merge. The second F-14 pilot, who gets the AIM-9 kill, can't get a tone because..... wait for it.... He doesn't have AIM-9 selected. So, big surprise, no tone. When he finally does get the weapon he wants to shoot selected, his 9L works like a charm. Score two for the good guys, but what a cluster. They're lucky the political climate lent itself to bitch slapping Gaddafi at every opportunity.