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Hacker

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Posts posted by Hacker

  1. 2 hours ago, Johntsunami said:

    when you’re the one minority in a class full of white guys, it may be somewhat more difficult to reach out for help when you need it when the people you reach out to aren’t like you. 

    That's exactly the problem -- it is this kind of "begging the question", a statement that is made as fact when it has never been substantiated as being true.

    Immutable characteristics don't define anything about an individual's character, intelligence, skill, attitudes, etc.

    The layer after layer of self-selection that is required in order to find one's self in a UPT class virtually guarantees that there is a huge commonality of humanity, motivation, character, attitudes, etc., between classmates.

    • Upvote 5
  2. 9 hours ago, PilotCandidate said:

    they wanted to see if these class demographics would lead to higher graduation rates for said members.

    Uh...I don't even know how to respond to such a logic-free hypothesis.

    Maybe next they can check to see if different t-shirt colors lead to higher graduation rates.

    • Upvote 3
  3. 1 hour ago, AZwildcat said:

    Did the guys with FDX invites all have an internal rec?

    Only one of the three that I know of.

    The Personal Endorsement continues to be important, but the same things that have always made a strong application apparently continue to be too.

  4. 1 hour ago, Steve Davies said:

    It’s irrelevant as to whether the Russian/Chinese FLANKERS are on an American military unit emblem because of a mistake or because or regulation. What matters is that it makes you look stooopid.

    Surely it’s someone’s job in the Air Force to give a shit about that, even if it does mean having to know your arse from your elbow?

    What is amazing is that, in an Air Force that is massively overly concerned with "how things look", on this one they're mostly concerned with trying desperately to gaslight the people who have identified that there is a problem into thinking that *they* are the problem.

    The AF can't even get their own dysfunctional leadership processes and priorities executed well.

    • Like 7
  5. Had three friends get FedEx interview invitations this week, and one get a job offer at UPS.

    The dudes who got Purple invites:

    - One current active duty pointy-nose TPS grad O-4 with a separation date on file this fall.

    - One former pointy-nose driver, now reserve SUPT IP O-3.

    - One former AD/reserve MC-12 and C-17 O-4, now a couple years into a Legacy (and vulnerable to being furloughed) who didn't previously have a FX app in.

    The UPS guy is a former pointy-nose DO who is freshly-separated.

    • Like 1
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  6. On 8/19/2020 at 11:00 PM, BashiChuni said:

    i wasn't around when it happened but when the air force went "corporate" in the early 90s...man i feel like that really started the down spiral in terms of PC leadership.

    My view in the rearview mirror says that it really took a no-shit turn for the worse right around 9/11.

    • Like 1
  7. 59 minutes ago, brickhistory said:

    As to the rest of your comparison and asking if I'd be ok, there's an Anglo-Saxon phrase that fits.  But I don't think you really meant your question as trying to impugn my respect for our Service's fallen and our Nation's honor.

    No, it was a generic "you", not *you* specifically.  Really I meant "The AF".

    This has been the organizational emblem of USAF Mortuary Affairs Operations since 2014.

    Is 6 years not long enough for the AF to un-fornicate a logo? Is it incompetence or apathy?  Or worse?  Literally a symbol of "what's wrong with the Air Force."

    • Like 2
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  8. 5 hours ago, brickhistory said:

    Most likely, this isn't/wasn't designed with specific silhouttes of a Flanker, just either a bad drawing sent to the manufacturer by the unit originator and/or a bad production of said design.

    Is this really what we have to worry about today in "What's wrong with the Air Force?"

    But it *is* a specific aircraft silhouette -- a Flanker -- and even if it weren't the front-line fighter of our peer-state enemies, it would be in violation of the "rule" in that it *does* depict a specific airframe.  It should have never made it past the initial design review for that to begin with.

    Of course it wasn't intentional, but the fact that the mistake made it through multiple levels of review is what is disturbing.  Even worse, the apathy shown toward fixing the error (and, bizarrely, the doubling down on the mistake and digging in of heels to *not* fix it) is a *real* cultural problem, yes.

    In a culture that is steeped in symbolism -- as in, nearly everything the military does has symbolic meaning -- having an organizational emblem with Flankers overflying the graves of dead American soldiers and a folded American flag is a Russian or Chinese propaganda victory if there ever was one. We should *all* find that disturbing and offensive and massively disrespectful to those who've given the ultimate sacrifice, the very people that organization purports to treat with dignity, honor, and respect.

    Would you be okay if, say, the "mistake" was putting a folded Chinese flag on there instead of an American flag?  Or if a casket came back with a Liberian flag over it by accident?  Ludicrous.  I guess "excellence in all we do" is just as empty a saying as "Dignity, Honor, Respect".

     

    • Like 11
  9. Here's an email that was previously sent back in January to a number of different recipients, both at Dover, the AF Historian and heraldry folks, as well as CSAF.

    Apparently none of those folks are concerned about the symbolism of Flankers flying over our military dead and our folded flag enough to fix it.

     

     

     

    117435722_576219616380780_2049250079982066081_n.jpg

    • Upvote 3
  10. As Ernie Gann wrote back in the 60s:

    “All airline pilots are subject to the high cock-o-lorum of seniority, whether they like it or not. The system was established to banish favoritism and to provide some basis for assignment of bases, routes, flights, and pay. Its great fault, as in any seniority system, is the absolutely necessary premise that all men are equal in ability. The dullard and the genius must both live with the ostrich philosophy that one man can fly as skillfully as another. No one, of course, maintains this to be a truth. But the seniority system must ever persist if only because it is a protection of the weak, who are everywhere in the greatest number.”

    • Like 2
    • Thanks 1
    • Upvote 1
  11. 50 minutes ago, Hawg15 said:

    IFF isn’t the filter that it was back in the day

    What's sad is that UPT used to be a filter in and of itself.  It was a mistake to push that responsibility off on IFF so that UPT Wing Commanders could get themselves promoted based on their percentage of successful student graduation.

    Thus IFF became both a choke point and a single point of failure...and it sounds like IFF has succumbed to a similar cancer as UPT.

    Someone has to hold the line at some point.  If they don't, then we're going to have smoking holes and flag-draped caskets.

    Oh, surprise, surprise.

    • Upvote 3
  12. On 7/25/2020 at 5:16 AM, brabus said:

    It amazes me how much some professional pilots (mil and civ) can lack humility/scoff at other types of flying or specific training. I have a couple thousand hours in fighters, but landing a tail wheel the first couple flights felt like I might as well be back in UPT. It’s been fun as hell learning TW/GA aerobatics, and it has absolutely made me a better pilot overall. Every pilot should do it as soon as they can afford to. 

    Most pointy-nosed guys I take out for an hour in this thing find it one of the most humbling (and most fun!) stick-and-rudder experiences of their flying career.

    Image may contain: airplane

    • Like 1
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  13. 11 hours ago, HuggyU2 said:

    It's been a big eye-opener to see the lack of proficiency (mainly due to having never trained to it) of many commercial pilots when it comes to unusual attitudes.  

    Just think of all the fellas you and I fly with who have *never* been upside-down in an aircraft.

    When I fly with someone who is in that category, I usually encourage them to go buy an hour or two of aerobatic instruction for their own airmanship development. I have been surprised to hear many folks respond with either,

    "...if I needed to know that, the company would train me to do it."

    or

    "...being upside-down in a Pitts doesn't teach me anything about what to do if it happens in a 767."

    So, literally, these individuals are not concerned about their first time being inverted in an airplane being in a transport-category aircraft and it occurring at an unplanned/unexpected time. SMH.

    • Like 1
    • Upvote 6
  14. On 7/23/2020 at 10:22 AM, brawnie said:

    Am I in a never ending semantics argument? Is this about can vs may? The courts ruled your first amendment rights don’t apply when there is a “clear and present danger.”

    The most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man in falsely shouting fire in a theatre and causing a panic. [...] The question in every case is whether the words used are used in such circumstances and are of such a nature as to create a clear and present danger that they will bring about the substantive evils that Congress has a right to prevent.”

    Yeah, you have proved my point precisely.

    You said, " you can't say fire in a crowded movie theater," and that quote clearly shows that you can. In order for it to not be protected speech,

    1) It has to be "false"

    2) It has to cause a panic

    3) It has to cause a clear and present danger.

    So, can I "say fire in a crowded movie theater" if it is actually on fire?  Yep.

    Can I "say fire in a crowded movie theater" if it neither creates a panic, or creates a clear and present danger?  Yep.

    You may call it semantics, but if you're going to make an argument like that, being specific matters.

    • Like 1
  15. 23 hours ago, ImNotARobot said:

    There are ample opportunities for 1.5x pay trips. FedEx pilots could work virtually every day they are legal if the company was choosing.

    Unfortunately that's fleet dependent.  I've been actively fishing for AVA, Volunteer, Draft, vacation buyback, etc, for the last 3 months on the A300 and haven't gotten a single credit hour of 1.5 pay.

  16. 8 hours ago, hindsight2020 said:

    full AD retiree falcons who happen to be management pilots and thus have (or perceive themselves to have) a bigger say/stick on these matters

    Got it, I didn't get the full picture of what you were saying with respect to the retired dudes being management pilots at the airlines.

  17. 18 hours ago, hindsight2020 said:

    hate from full-AD retired pilots against their dual hatted ARC/airline peers

    For what reason?

    Maybe I had a different experience, but since retiring my attitude is:

    the-big-lebowski-white-russian1.jpg

    What's there to hate on bros about?  Hell, I don't even really hate on Navy pilots anymore either, despite their known shortcomings as both men and aviators.

    • Haha 3
    • Upvote 1
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