Hacker

Junior Short was a good fighter pilot and a good Squadron CC back when I flew with him. Yet another lost to the General Officer lobotomy.

Just like two years of Trump-Russia conspiracy theory tv coverage pumping out more smoke than a Saturn V rocket launch.

I agree -- under-rated flick, partly because of the ridiculous political-pop culture "controversy" about the lack of a flag-planting scene. Well researched and well filmed, sort of reminds me of The Right Stuff in feel, but obviously much smaller in scope and more intimate. My problem with First Man is that Gosling plays Armstrong like a robot in an attempt to show him as intellectual and introverted (both of which were undoubtedly true). Does Gosling even smile once in the movie? I think that really portrays him a bit unfairly, as he is emotive and funny in the public appearances I've seen. Period interviews -- and even ones from later in life -- show him differently.

Although the "regional airline flying on a major airline pay scale" thing isn't really my cup o' tea, I have a neighbor who has been at SWA for about 8 years now and he loves it. Lives in base (Vegas), bids reserve, and at least during the non-summer months, doesn't appear to do much work at all. Every time I go running past his house, he is out in his garage restoring a late 60s Mustang. He loves it and makes fun of me for (apparently) only flying nights and working too much, at that. Different strokes.

The AF has long since become not just a "One Mistake Air Force", but actually a "One Perception Of One Mistake Air Force." You'd be surprised how frequently a CDI, conducted by someone basically untrained and containing evidence and information unconstrained by any functional legal standard, is used for quite severe administrative actions under the authority of the Commander -- actions which, too, have such a low legal standard for evidence and justice so as they may effectively be given based on the whims of that Commander.

It was 200 & 1/2 in USAFE for an experienced pilot when I was there.

No, there is no such nuanced definition in the AF.

Huggy never goes through dry.

Just like when the internal combustion engine but the entire horse-transportation industry, the entire steam engine industry, and others out of work forever...the world was never able to recover.

Yang’s plan is dead in the water being funded by a 10% VAT, without removing any other tax burdens. Think about your monthly discretionary spending and how close to $1000 a 10% cut of that would be. Even worse he admits that $12,000/year wouldn’t actually fix anyone’s financial woes, but it might make them “feel better”.

What do you think the things to consider for someone looking at finding a career flying job are? For some reason, a lot of people seem to equate the entrant of a new competitor into an industry to damage/destruction of the other competitors. 40 years after Southwest disrupted the passenger airline industry, (and deregulation opened the door to endless start-up airlines) there have and will continue to be fruitful careers in the legacy airlines.

Well, this must be the first time that someone who reads Baseops.net has been the subject of a roiling speculative discussion about some publicly embarrassing, scandalous event that happened to them, and that person has had to just sit back and watch the spears get baselessly thrown around. I don't know anyone who has had that experience.

Nuthugging fanboy, more correctly.

The AF has always had bros doing funny stuff that leadership disliked: What The Captain Means

Which media source aside from the military aviation fanboy sites even cares?

Copy of it on a filesharing site: https://k2s.cc/file/c173df3841b24/Golden_Breath Mint For My Balls.mp4

As someone who had this happen to me personally, I approve of this message.

Trust me, good folks who have careers maimed by stupid Big Blue tricks will be just fine when it comes time to go to the airlines.

Must something good, naturally. Here, she says, "the story that I *can* share about the callsign....", so she's clearly repeating a family-friendly cover story rather than what it really means. Meet Capt. Zoe "Sis" Kotnik - F-16 Viper Demo Team Pilot-Commander

I would hope that Maestro, having been on the receiving end of a bullshit punishment from leaders who had their sense of humor removed when they made O-6, would approach such a high-profile firing (for whatever the reason) with a sense of sanity rather than the kneejerky bullshit we have seen all too frequently out of leadership. But, I also unfortunately know more than one bro who totally lost their sense of SA when they put those birds on their uniform.

I have a copy of it, and I got a nastygram from Maestro back a long time ago when I posted it. This is truly a funny Gordian Knot of USAF PC culture.

No, you didn't misunderstand. What you did do, however, is talk around my point rather than to it. Yes, there is a contractual limit to how much open time can be picked up per month (which is what I was referring to originally), and that is 6 hours per month. Yes, there is also a "but", and that is if you have makeup bank that you can use, in which case you can pick up as much open time as you have makeup bank to spend. And, yes, there are ways to play the system (like swapping the new 6 hour trip for something larger), but these still do not equate to "there is no limit". It is an important distinction to make, because not everyone is in a position to put hours into their makeup bank, especially as a new guy who doesn't have the seniority to conflict bid or as someone who doesn't have an ANG/reserve gig to take military leave for.

Yes, exactly what I was saying.

I'll counter and say that commuting is a manageable hassle that allows you to live wherever makes the family happy, rather than forcing a square peg into a round hole. For most of us, we are only going to spend about 50% of our nights sleeping in our own bed. Our spouses and kids sleep in those beds, in that house, in that town, basically 100% of the time. For my family, who followed me all over the world for 20 years in my AF career, it was time to let them decide where it would make them happy to live. All this with the full knowledge of what time is lost commuting...and that was an acceptable tradeoff for my family. Personally, I look at the ability to commute as a gift rather than a hassle.

That's all great, but don't hang your career on a particular base. Bases open, close, and change fleets regularly. Yes, if we're talking about SWA/AA and Dallas, or Delta and Atlanta, or United and ORD, you're probably okay...but just about anything else is fair game, especially over a 20+ year career. I jumpseat often between MEM and ATL with Delta pilots who thought that Memphis was going to be a major NWA/Delta hub forever. I grew up in Seattle around a bunch of United pilots who thought that was going to be their base for the rest of their career, too.