ClearedHot

I flew gliders for many years both before and after UPT. One very hot summer my Mom and Step Father came for a visit and hung out for a week where we drank and BBQ's to excess almost every night. At some point during the week my Step Father said he wanted to go for a ride and do some aerobatics. If for no other reason than to put it on record, let me state that my Step Father is the hardest working man I've ever known, a proud farmer, and a damn good man. He treated me as his own from the time I was 13 and if he wanted to do aerobatics, I was gonna make it happen. That Friday night we stayed up until the wee hours of the morning playing poker and drinking...apfelkorn. By noon the next day we were feeling somewhat human and decided to head for the airport. On the way My Step Father insisted we stop at Burger king where he bought and ate a Double Whooper meal. The glider crew was already set up and launching so we were airborne in minimal time. A quick tow to 2000' and I quickly found a thermal up that took us up to 8,000'. I started off gentle with a few loops and rolls, then moved on to a cloverleaf, he seemed to be handling it well so coming out of the cloverleaf I got a ton of smash and pulled straight to the vertical and held it there...As we slowed to a stop I kicked in full rudder and held the stick full aft and right at which point we departed into a very healthy spin. After the recovery I asked him how he was feeling to which he replied "I'm ok, but got damn its hot!" I looked up at the mirror and in the back seat I could see he was covered in sweat. I didn't want to get him sick so I rolled out straight and level and started heading back to the field. He was really quiet for a few minutes...then all of a sudden he yelled out "LAND THIS FUCKING CRATE!!!" .69 seconds later I heard him let go with a thunderous BURRRAHHHHHHH! Followed by another and a "GOT DAMN!!!!" The smell was overpowering and for a minute I thought I was going to puke. The glider has a solid plexiglass canopy with small squares cut in the side for airflow. I put my left hand out the vent on the left side and bent down with my face to get fresh air. I also dropped the nose and flew back to the field at maximum warp...or as much warp as you can have in a glider. I came screaming in over the trees, popped the spoilers and landed in the grass. We had no even stopped moving and I had the canopy open as I unstrapped and jumped out of the glider. I took a few steps and looked back and he was just sitting there covered in puke and laughing. In one hand he was holding my wife's camera and flicked his hand..."Here, Take a picture!" When he made that movement a chunk of hamburger came flying off his hand and almost landed on my leg. He got out and unstrapped and started to clean himself off...the worst part was when he knew he was going to get sick he was afraid he was going to throw up on the back of my head and somehow make us crash, so when he actually started to get sick he puked down his shirt...it was truly disgusting. We walked over to the hanger where he proceeded to take an outdoor shower with the garden hose. My Mom and wife jumped in the car and drove over to Walmart to get him some clothes. As he is stripping down and washing himself off he tells me he has lettuce in the crack of his ass...later we would learn he puked into the battery compartment of my wife's camera...we laughed so hard we cried.

Sounds like he is banged up but alive. A PT-22 perhaps? Engine failure on takeoff, tried to turn back to the runway but could not make, crash landed on a golfcourse.

Again you are COMPLETELY wrong and I will be sure to pass your moronic regards to the two dudes who work for me that lost their pay. Seriously, choke yourself.

Sadly, your statement is true. Regardless of what some well meaning senior officers will say, you are just a number in the endless machine. YOU can change that at an individual level by leading, teaching, and mentoring. After 24 years those interactions at a personal level are the thing I am most proud of. At this point in my life I have one simple litmus test to grade my career, can I look at myself in the mirror, thank god the answer is yes. I was FAR from perfect, but I did my best to lead, teach, and mentor and I hope I made a difference in a few lives. Good luck with the next chapter.

From what I have seen there is a gaping whole in the RPA incentive pay program. Under the current rule set 18's who go to the staff lose their flight pay, EVEN if they were prior rated. What Einstein came up with that idea when you are trying to develop a professional community of well-developed RPA operators?

At the risk of changing the topic from the Chang Show back to original intent... Some clear messages out of this board and the O-6 board...when other things are masked...strats matter, being an IP made zero difference, AFSOC's run is OVER.

There has to be a big markup because the stock 747 does not come with the escape pod standard.

Open source reporting that they did not bother to interview most of the major players including the lead Air Force Doctor who lead part of the program. The purposely distorted his qualifications and IGNORED that fact that he helped design AF SERE program. He worked in this field for 30+ years and until recently was prohibited from speaking publicly because of a non-disclosure agreement that he actually honored (unlike the partisan hacks who skew everything). In a recent interview he discussed the tactics and the fact that the repeated waterboarding and intense interrogation of KSM was based on intelligence that led investigators to believe AQAM had smuggled a dirty bomb onto U.S. soil and they were very close to using it. I hear and respect the debate...there is no easy answer when extremists find an asymmetric to challenge all the freedoms we enjoy in this country and we try to balance that against the basic freedoms we given by the Constitution...the major difference in my mind (and a simplistic point of view), they were not Americans so they don't get those protections. Regardless, the debate becomes somewhat jaded when viewed in 2014 without the context of events and public opinion in 2001.

For my area O-6 with dependents went down 8.6%....O-6 without dependents went UP 7.3%...WTF, am I supposed to ditch the wife?

Way to completely AVOID the question like a puss....they have your kids, you know you have the guy, what do you do?

Probably none, but we will never know. This discussion was not meant to suggest we actually stopped a nuke attack it was meant to stretch the limits of the argument. I don't condone or condemn the interrogation program, the report was EXTREMELY partisan and simply ignores or lies about some of the intel that was retrieved. Furthermore, it was a reflection of the time period right after 9/11 when we did not know if more attacks were coming and the majority on both sides of the aisle were in favor of doing whatever needed to be done. To suddenly judge one side based on a lack of context and a partisan report is a bit shallow. As has been pointed out above it is odd that folks object to waterboarding and sleep deprivation but are ok with jamming a Hellfire into a car full of people including American citizens. I thought the more interesting argument was what would you do if you captured the person who kidnapped your kids. I guess all you pacifists would get him some tea and discuss his mommy issues while your kids twist in the wind.

Excellent discussion on Hannity tonight (I don't watch often but happened to be flipping through). The discussion included a taped radio segment with Justice Antonie Scalia (had the opportunity to debate him 1v1 in an academic environment...discussion for another day but a wicked smart dude), in this segment Scalia posits an extreme case where you capture a person who you know for sure has information about a nuclear weapon in Los Angeles that WILL kill millions of people in a short period of time...he wonders then if people would still say torture is terrible. Immediately afterwards Ken Roth from human Rights Watch chimes in and says that is a straw man argument. Roth then goes on to classify the Scalia scenario as a "hypothetical", "I live in the real world." Hannity then hits Roth with a scenario about his children being kidnapped and he catches the person that has his kids, "What would you do to get the information about where your kids are"....Roth answers, "well as a prosecutor I've found it effective to establish rapport with the person I was interrogating." UFB!

Champ Kind!?! How far we've fallen. Welcome aboard.

He was absolutely NOT washed out of WIC for writing this paper or contacting the AFSOC/CC. To preserve what little dignity this chucklehead has, I will leave it at that.

Supposedly he did this stunt himself.

She didn't handle it very well? She is a U.S. citizen who is NOT sick, has NOT committed a crime and was forced to live in a tent in New Jersey. I would think a few of you might be upset given the same circumstances. The question then becomes where do we draw the line? Influenza is airborne and a far bigger threat in the U.S., on average the "flu kills 36,000 people in the U.S. each year, why are you not quarantining everyone who gets the flu?

Oh brother...like when the Talons tried not to fly into ORBI at night...then the shame when they found out the slicks were going in during the day.

Military Med care can be both extremes...these days it is a huge pain in the ball (no Doc I don't have a tumor), to get a routine appt. It has gotten so bad that I am moving my wife and kid over to Tricare Standard. That being said, some truly outstanding military doctors saved my wife's life in 2005. Approaching 48 hours without an answer since I sent a Micare request for Viagra....errr Motrin to the doc.

Gunships have always been and will always be a high demand low density asset. As a result the Ops tempo can be higher than most, especially in times of conflict (always). That being said, there are other platforms that have a higher ops tempo. Gunship squadrons tend to be very tight and the families have a strong social structure that provides balance and support when you are gone. Having done this gig for a long time, if she is a reasonable woman, she will be just fine. If you've put all this work into becoming a pilot, I would suggest you follow your dreams.

NOTHING is perfect...well Pappy Van Winkle is pretty close, but sometimes you just hope there is more good than bad. This forum has helped many people for many years (myself included), and I hope it continues to do so.

Could be in the Russia or Ukraine threads but worthy of separate discussion, the genie is out of the bottle, I hope you can fight without GPS. https://www.gpsdaily.com/reports/Satellite_Navigation_Failure_Confirms_Urgent_Need_for_Backup_999.html

His wife sent a Mass Facebook note to all friends a little while ago.