BFM this

I'm hoping, for what little faith I have left in my fellow officers' common sense, that noone expected this process to actually be productive or useful. That it (the process) would in any way be able to separate the wheat from the chaff, the turds from the punch, the weak swimmers from strong performers, the tools from the...whatever. I lost all hope when they said FY 02 and 03. I was OTS class 04-01. That's right: my senior class was three weeks inside the threat ring, and my class missed it by 4. I know in my heart of hearts that there were some awesome peeps in 03-14 that got the axe and some in my own class whose names I would gladly see submitted to the board and whom I'm sure to meet as a Capt or beyond someday. There was no way that this was going to be equitible or even, in pessimistic terms, in the best interest of the Air Force. No F'in way. Our best hope would have been to have the Office Space Bobs visit every base and pose the question to every LT: "So what is it, exactly, that ya do here?"

The oft asked question: What would happen if we did our job to their standards? Wouldn't be a pretty day for military aviation.

Sigh... Yep, might be...

WTF is it with the french airplane designers and their computer-love? Is it that the old simple gear lever is to prone to error from the monkey in the seat?

Great article, HDude. After reading that, I find a little pride for the decs that I was put in for that were not approved.

We called that the "firewatch ribbon" in boot camp (they still had the switch "on" at the time for DS) because that's all you had done to deserve it.

Often times, helmets do not last an entire flying career. Shortly after the individual gets fitted for their new helmet and its ready to fly, I've seen the old helmet perched atop thier locker, put there by the life support folks so that they can take it home.

two inches of electrical tape works better than any silencer I've run across. As far as wearing them, that habit was beaten into me long ago. So much so that I don't bother looking up regs, I just wear them. I figure it serves it's purpose: they'll be able to more readily identify my remains among all of the other cr...oh, wait, never mind.

Wow. That analogy just works so well...on so many levels.

No comments from the 'Died...

Probably so. Motorcycles statistically are on par with or just slightly more dangerous than light GA. Unless of course you're talking about a couple of UPT studs and their girlfriends out shining their asses at Lake Amistad. Then all bets are off. I was in the middle of digging up stats when it hit me that I really don't care that much. I just was wondering how draconian a commander can get before reg's or higher authority says BS. A commander could say: -no motorcycles, -no hard liquor, -noone outside a 25 mile radius unless on leave -and noone off base overnight. These are all legal orders and seems to me that they would all be in line with improving readiness and keeping airmen safe, right?

Again the question: then how far in trail is CC's prohibiting motorcycles? Nothing illegal with that order, right? I'm not advocating disobedience, I just think there's something else here.

I'd be interested to know the legalities either way on this one. Seems to me, if they could, most CC's would forbid all sorts of things, starting with motorcycles. There's a reason that they don't, and I'd be surprised if said commander wasn't just beating his chest about civil flying knowing that anyone who asked would be permitted. I'm really interested in this one...

AFTTP definition of C-17 formation: Same Way Same Day.

Behold SKYNET:

It depends. With a full-up HUD like the T-38C, I'd be as likely as not to forget to turn the MFD on during a given sortie. In the A-10, the HUD is still pretty damn useful, till you start flying instruments. Then you realize why it's not a primary reference: all the nav data is down on the panel. I had to break my HUD habit like the crack addict that I was. The most useful thing I've found about a HUD (aside from weapons delivery) is that you can nail level flight or desent angles (IE 3 degrees for a precision approach). Flying around VMC, I'll snap my scan to my HUD to get the vector back on the horizon--beats the hell out of scanning your VSI (lags), altimeter (also lags), etc... Oh, yeah, always recover on the round dials. (foot stomp) Esp at night. Y'know, incase they don't get that beaten into your cranium from the start. Life might suck for the moment or two that it takes for you to dig that nugget out of your clue bag. I'm just sayin...

HD, do you have one of these? GtG? I looked at it this morning but the auction's been closed out since then.

"To borrow from Winston Churchill, never have so many argued so long and so hard over so little. "-Rick Durden, similar AVWEB artical about debate over flaps

For all those that insist that this airplane cannot overcome the awesome force that this treadmill puts on an airplane, riddle me this: If the airplane isn't moving (hasn't achieved any forward vector), how fast is the conveyor moving? Airplane speed = 0 Conveyor speed = 0 Airplane speed = rotation speed in one direction Conveyor speed = rotation speed in the other direction. Wheels = rotation speed times 2 [ 29. November 2005, 21:10: Message edited by: BFM this ]

But that depends on my feet (thrust) interacting with said walkway (conveyor). If we separate those two conflicts of interest, say by putting on roller blades and strapping a rotax engine and prop to my back, I could run up and down those moving walkways all day. The only difference being that in one direction , I'd be moving at 10 mph, while my wheels would be spinning 8 mph, and in the other direction I'd move 10 mph while my rollerblade wheels spun at 12 mph.

More too the point: those that regularly use the parking brake in a Cessna 172 know that yes, it will keep the plane from rolling all over the parking ramp, but plenty of embarrased pilots out there can attest that said parking brake will not prevent taxi and even take off. Take the parking brake off, and you could get that hypothetical conveyor moving at mach-snot with a tailwind and a running start, you're still not going to prevent that plane from achieving takeoff velocity. At least until the rubber separates from the wheels, the rims disintegrate and it all comes cartwheeling to an end.

The author of the above question has either come up with a very debatable riddle or has a mental model of airplane thrust that is the same as automobile thrust. A conveyor could not keep a thrust producing craft from achieving a forward vector. Only tie down chains anchored behind the conveyor could do that. (Unless it was an AIR conveyor (windtunnel)) USMCAW has it there. The conveyor control is moving a speed, not as a function of friction (not mentioned). The only thing that a conveyor could accomplish would be to make the rotational velocity of the wheels twice that of the airplane's velocity. Makes me wonder if the author wasn't writing a riddle a la "which way would a rooster's egg roll off the farmhouse roof?": IE that a pilot should know that takeoff speed is achieved independent of wheel rotation (watch your nosewheel limiting speed during a SEGo with a tailwind). [ 29. November 2005, 08:18: Message edited by: BFM this ]

I don't even want to go there. The best you can do is tie that record. Gives me the willies just talking about it... Although I'll admit, I have a "friend" that used to "fly skydivers" and I have a pic of him doing a "go-around" if anyone has web space for "upload". DISREGARD: see my profile. (Edited for hypocrisy) (edited for photobucket) [ 22. November 2005, 11:42: Message edited by: BFM this ]

Holy $#!+ This is awesome. I've only gotten through the first dozen. The title of this thread should be "Grab your depends" (I think I'm ripping that off of someone on this board) "When will I just give up and accept the fact that I'm just not funny?" MAJ (JS) That one's my take-away...

Strap me in an airplane/glider/ram-air-parachute, I'm golden. Get me up on the second rung of a ladder, and I shake like 14 year old boy flashed his first set of knockers.