HuggyU2

Years ago, back in Del Rio, I was there when the infamous Cessna-crash-into-Amistad occured. Along with the T-38 IP and T-38 student, there were two civilians on board. One was a gal, who I met just before that accident, whose last name was Funk. Her dad was Chief of Safety at Laughlin, IIRC. I was just told that Maj Funk was her brother. I'm saddened at this coincidence.

The T-6 is "an unducted fan", I'd say. So, yes, it's a "jet".

I fly the T-38 regularly. But when I fly with a guy in my squadron who is an airshow performer in a Pitts S-2B, I get pretty queesy. He flies his airshow routine while I sit there. It's fun, but the large rates, negative-to-positive G's, and such, will get even a guy who flies 9G's kind of queesy.

I've got a friend who is an absolutely outstanding pilot. He flew over 3000 hours in the A-10, as well as some other airframes,... and never logged a single hour of combat time in a fighter. Timing just didn't work out. But he certainly had a distinguished career,... one that many would envy.

Good luck on your UPT eye exam there, eagle eyes.

Wish I had heard this 3 months ago, as LG Deptula was just here flying the U-2. One of my best buds worked for him in Hawai'i, so I'll see if he knows the answer. He doesn't look gray in this picture.

That is a great story Steve! But I'm thinking the 10% rule applies here: LG Deptula was never a FAIP. He went straight to the Eagle jet out of UPT. He was a couple of years older, having gotten a Masters Degree right after his Batchelors, but that's about it.

I say "good on the General". He was willing to listen to the Flt Lt offer his explanation, and reversed his decision. It's a good guy that will admit his original decision was wrong, and allow it to be changed. How many of you have bosses that would have refused to change their order.

According to the media, the two F-22's are there for the MX guys to practice on, and to get up to speed with. Where the A-model phase will take place is not a big question: it will remain at KHMN for now. The ACC/TRSS stuff moved to Beale last year, though. As for the HO T-38's staying there for a while, the word is that it did not get funded for the incoming F-22 guys (while they wait for their $326M-per-copy-Raptors). However this is what the official public press release said,... if there's something else going on, then there you have it.

5 or 6 of Holloman's jets are going to Beale. They will replace 5 or 6 of Beale's jets that are high time, and approaching a major phase input. One of Beale's old jets is going on static display. Two (I think) are going to be cockpit trainers (Sheppard?), and the other two or three,... well I forgot exactly, but they are not going to AMARC, but will be stripped down for parts. I could speculate on the rest, but you said you don't want that, so I won't. Bottom line: the 14 "HO" jets are going. The "HT" jets are something I'm not sure about.

To answer your question: not really interested in riding on a space ship into space as an "astronaut". God bless those who do it, though. I'm just not interested. Now, if the new Space Shuttle is a taildragger,....well, I'll have to think abou that.

Well, great dollars have airplanes, aviation, and jets on them. After all, that's what it's all about. Just ask the bouncer at the local titty bar whether he'd rather be there,... or flying jets.

Don't know if it was a "douche Republican", but I voted for him/her. I hope that, with all the cool stuff that there is in military aviation, you can find something to put on the dollar, despite the no-porn-on-dollars ban. Good luck. As a FAIP, I was given a few dollars. At the time, we all got a chuckle from the ones with porn on them. But now, a few years later, it's nice to be able to show my kids the non-porn ones. Sure wish they were all of the variety that I could display on a wall in my I Love Me Room. It's a cool tradition, and it's too bad that I have a bunch of them stashed away somewhere, where they'll probably never get looked at again. So give your IP something he'll want to show his kids in 20+ years.

The Navy/Marine F-5's are grounded too, as the part is common to both aircraft.

All Beale T-38A's have been grounded too.

A couple of months ago, some Italian judge grounded the entire AMX fleet. I would assume they are back up and flying again. But this isn't the first time for the AMX fleet. Side note: why is a judge determining if they ground the fleet?

Do you have any visibility on how different Sheppard PIT and Randolph PIT are? Different culture? Unlikely anyone here has been through both, but I'd be curious. When I went through in 2001 at Randolph, it seemed a bit tough on the 2Lt's.

Are all students at MSU required to have a "Wingman" when they go off-campus??

Just curiuos: what was his background? We did have a Navy exchange position at T-38 PIT for a few years, and those guys never had any training background. We also had a few pilots that were T-37 FAIP's, and were able to come be T-38 PIT instructors after their CAF tour.

Unless the policy has changed, you have to have been a former UPT IP.

NAS Sigonella, April 1999. Allied Force. I'm the mobile/backup pilot for the nightly mission over Yugo. The primary pilot flies, and lands about 0600 after a 9-10 hour sortie. After debrief, he and I head to the Navy's greasy-spoon-kitchen on base. It's about 0730. We order up scrambled eggs, pancakes,... the usual. Then we notice "beer" on the menu. So we order a pitcher. As we go walking to our tables with the pitcher in hand, we walk by a table of 4 security forces types who are looking at us with this confused look, since we're in our flightsuits. I look at them, shrug and say, "I gotta do something to calm my nerves before I fly", and then sit down and start drinking. I'm guessing they thought we were on our way TO work, not heading home.

I generally find a number of errors on AF.mil "fact sheets". I don't know how the USAF does their "statistics", but when I divide $44B by 21, I get a little more than $2B. But I'm no math major. I guess that's why the AF says the F-22 costs ~$140M, but it seems to cost more like $325M each. Plenty of good B-2 budgetary documentation. Here's two: https://www.fas.org/man/gao/nsiad97181.htm If you don't want to read the whole thing, go to appendix I, near the bottom. https://www.cdi.org/issues/aviation/B296.html Yet another of the dozens of sources out there.

Try $2.2B.

Seems to me y'all are more worried about looking like a "douche nozzle", or trying to be "a cool dude, bro". Get over it. You're in the military now, and there are some great traditions,... some are called "customs and courtesies". They are not designed to demean or "put you down, braa". If you can walk toward someone, and say "hey, how are you today", and wave your hand,.... well, instead of waving, just try saluting. It doesn't hurt. Is this some sort of "millenium generation" mentality? No, 'cause someone will chime in how Uncle Albert, who was in the Korean War said he never saluted a fellow Lieutenant,... blah, blah. Go ahead, pounce on me, since I'm probably in the minority on this thread. But I had no issue saluting when I was a 2Lt (should I have?). And, no, I never said a word if a 2Lt didn't salute me when I was a 1Lt,... oddly enough, I can't remember that ever happening. But don't go making excuses as to why YOU feel it's all about YOUR interpretation of what military customs are about and YOU don't think this applies to you. Salute a senior ranking commissioned officer. Just do it and move one.

Fun debate. I'm not reading all the posts thoroughly, but I agree with that_guy's logic. Going with what I know: a T-38's L/Dmax is 230+fuel. So,.. If I plan to do 250KIAS and the jet has 2000# of fuel, I'm right at L/Dmax. If I'm out of gas and doing 250, I'm flying 20 KIAS above L/Dmax,... hence, more total drag,... so I'd descend faster, right??