FourFans

Preach. I've heard too many new balance wearing, iphone holster toting, cheapskate airline left seaters try to explain how I can dodge taxes through creative residency, airbnb'ing my own house, or other such interstate tax nonsense. I'm not buying. Don't mess with IRS...especially not with those extra 87,000 agents who are specifically targeted at exactly our demographic. Post year-one airline pilots make a metric ton of money. Pay your taxes, or give it to charity to lower your tax bill. If you're having a hard time living within your means, go visit Dave Ramsey.

These days over Ukraine, I'll bet it is.

Any bets on how many races get put into the "they cheated" category after the election for the next two years until complaining can resume about cheating in the presidential election again? My guess is about 5.

dude that chase drone was either really lucky, or part of the strike team. In any case, that's a LOT of effort put into taking down a drone.

where's my explosive expert? To my untrained eye that looks like a small shaped charge that was actioned upon detention of a target, igniting it's warhead in front of the target (left center of image)...the ignition point being indicated by the thin smoke trail which plumes into a full detonation on, and actually slightly behind (from the shaped charge's approach aspect) the target. That leaves a debris cloud projecting aft (image left) of the explosion. Something liking...oh i dunno...a modern manpad might do something like this. If that's the case, the vehicle recording this video got VERY lucky, or the engagement vehicle is significantly advanced...like, a lot...notice the complete lack of launch, acceleration, or tracking smoke trail. This was no SA-7 shot. Hmmmmm. From a completely different angle and timing, this could look like an explosively formed penetrator igniting while being carried by the 'target' drone. In that case the ignition imaged is actually the forming explosion and the whisp of trail leading left is the shaped penetrator departing the explosion from image from right to left. I'm less inclined to believe that, as the size of the drone does not indicate that it's carrying such a munition. But I'm just a herk dude.

The glint off something at the tree road intersection, a firing spot with 3 escape routes, seems a logical launching point for whatever smoked this thing. What's interesting is that whatever hit it was smokeless until engagement...similar to a shaped charge. Yeah, no western influence to see here. Move along. I'm just a drone, tracking drone killed by another drone...

Quoted for posterity. Having absorbed rounds (which I was later told didn't hit my airplane) over that continent and put wheels down in places we "have no presence", certain places can decimate the US military, in it's present set-up, if we keep pretending there is no fight there. I was by no means even close to the tip of the spear. The "just the tip" concept we're employing there right now will do nothing more than get American's killed in yet another local civil war. Either we roll heavy, or we shouldn't roll at all. I'm tired of America's hairy chested bearded men coming back home in body bags because weak dick 'men' in charge aren't sure how to make a decision. It didn't appear to do so. It DIRECTLY did so. With people, and equipment, and tactics, and will power... Instructional Fix: In every presidential debate and senate confirmation hearing: A significantly sized character, with timing unknown to the candidate, full force open hand slaps the candidate so the whole world gets to see how they respond to be humiliated on a world stage. Because that's what certain parts of africa...and china...and the south pacific...and eastern europe... can do to America if they organize themselves correctly. Can we please have man in charge of our country again? Please? Where is a Reagan when you need him?!

Reading this, I realized I was one of 'those' who would have stayed for an eternity, or generalship, or until big blue spit me out. In hindsight...I'm so glad I got a 'USAF appreciation tour' in NATO...after which I chose the Reserves...where I will happily finish my career. Big Blue is VERY tarnished in my view...rightly and justly so. In the same right, I fully understand the source, and the reason for the "puppy mill" of the academies...because the logic is sound. No logic can ignore a university who's sole purpose is to create a man who is dedicated to that university's founding principles. Literally EVERY university sits on that basic logic. The military academies make absolutely complete and logical sense. It has unfortunately and inexorably been twisted by 'the state' that we currently experience. When you poison a state, the first symptoms appear in that state's premier presentation of itself: It's institutions. I'm both saddened and not at all shocked. In the real world of men who abide by, and strive to, a moral life...a moral reality upon which our country was founded and ideally strives towards...a university experience where the elite study and strive against each other for excellence and achievement makes perfect sense. No wonder our modern generation is confused by it. Doing hard things because they are difficult makes no sense to a generation who was raised by a generation who sought comfort that they earned...thanks boomers. "You can be whatever you want" made sense to both the generation who fought to make it happen, and the generation who grew up hearing it. It does. That's what I would offer to my kids if I'd earned it on the beaches of Omaha and Utah...but I didn't. Unfortunately our current millennial *not Z* generation didn't simply hear those words, they internalized them. The world we have today is what happens when you expect the world to be given to you with no price tag. The "millennial" attitude is obvious. (I know many millennials that are not 'millennial'...and I thank them for their wisdom). Can I give thanks to Gen X? or the Millennials who were wise? Yes. We have a Gen Z that is good. Gen Z is tired of the entitlement. They want to know the answer to a simple question: "Why". I am sincerely hopeful that we have a Gen Z (and beyond) that will turn into the newest version of the the Iron Ass Reagan Babies...while skipping the need for a greatest generation. ****the historian in me dreadfully hopes I am right, but the realist in me sincerely knows that they will have to be the next 'greatest generation...but let's be optimistic**** They can. Unfortunately, it is now up to some significant hard times, and the stiff upper lip of older men to make sure our country survives to be inherited by these Gen Z's. It's also up to us to vote in those who will lead them into that capacity. We must be the crusty NCOs and Lt Cols that survive the shit times and train these young men to carry our nation into success. None of that can happen if we vote ourselves out of existence. ****Listen up MFers. If we don't vote right, we become the EXACT same as the generation that created WWI and WWII. We can do better. Biden is our Chamberlain AND FDR. Stop this shit****

I know the current version of the bonus was established in the 90's at 25k...but I don't know the exact date. I used the 1995 for the CPI calculator for an average... $48,277 is what it gave me for current dollars... Is a post WWGulfWarOne pilot during draw-down somehow worth more than a current get-ready-for-china pilot?

Dude. That's awesome...and terrifying...

I just dropped the newest class of Airborne at Benning (#stillbenning #hashtagging) thing week, including USAF and USMC in the class. How is this different?

Pretty sure you owe beer for posting that ass-hat's name.

Yes. Mint connects and updates just fine with it. What threeholer said: it collects all your financial into one place and allows for broad based analysis. This is my one worry. I'm still debating if I should move out of it for this reason, but the fact that Intuit is a legit major company, I'm not overly worried. I have no doubt that all those other major companies (credit cards/mortgage/banking etc) that have my financial data are already sharing that info, Mint just lets me actually see it too.

Rainman just rolled over in his grave, hand reaching for a blunt object to throw...

I've been using Mint for a while, and it connects to Fidelity, Vanguard, and TSP no problem

shhhhhhhh. If you keep posting facts, people will notice the 12,xxx numbers that started as 9,xxx numbers during Trump's term. edit: I identify as a someone who never voted for trump

...which means this is the perfect solution by AMC standards.

...or rather your perspective is an overhead panel that's a train wreck...

So, your investment advice is to buy now?

Yuuuuup!

Lots to unpack there, but I'll give it a shot. One conservative Christian man to another...in front of everyone. A: The covid shot requirement does not take military aviation off the table for you. It might right now, but not forever. Eventually either the military will withdraw the requirement, or there will be another option of non-stem cell based vaccination (like an actually researched and studied non-emergency-use vaccine should be). It all depends on your basis for rejection. I, for one, had no defensible basis, as I happily and ignorantly received 8 rounds of the anthrax vaccine without asking twice, as I was young and stupid. That proved to be 100% risk/0% reward. Long story short, make sure you sincerely understand your basis for refusal, and that it's not just under the "I will not comply" category just because you don't like it. That's a childish defense based on ignorant emotion. If you have a sincere objection based on logic, stand firm on it, and find another way to your dream. If you say "it was my dream..." and hold that with the same hand as "I won't get the shot because..." and expect sympathy, you'll get none...at all...especially here. No one is stepping on your dream. You are holding a personal belief higher than your dream, and that's no one's choice but yours. Pick one. 2: Decide now what precisely that 'itch' is. If it's to fly, there are absolutely no all-denying barriers to you. Serious obstacles? Yes, but nothing completely stopping you. Life will suck. Pay will be low. Hours will blow. For a while. Make up your mind that you want to fly, then find a way. There. Are. Many. Even from a military background, I've yet to meet two guys with the same exact path. From the civil side, there are innumerable ways to end up in an airplane. It will heavily depend on where you're willing to live and what lifestyle you're willing to accept to get to your desired end state. Even then, the end state will change by the time you get there. Accept that as fact and your life will be easier. If you are a family man, and you want to be a pilot, your family life will suffer to some degree or another. Schedules suck. You will be away from home. You will miss birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, etc. But you were wanting a military life...so you should have been ok with that, right? Because military life is like that, only worse: you're gone longer, to worse places, for less money, while leaving your family is bad locations away from family, and oh yeah, people may be actively trying to kill you. Decide WITH YOUR FAMILY what level of life style you're willing to accept, then get to grinding. (If you exclude your bride from that decision, you will end up divorced) D: A 'standard' civilian track can take as little as 3 years to be in the right seat of a big jet. One track: earn your CFI, teach your ass off in little airplanes, get hired by a regional/cargo feeder, then get hired by a lower tier ACMI...OR go to an aviation academy like what United is starting...OR go fly a sky tractor crop dusting...OR go fly king-airs for CBP...OR work to get hired by a fractional...OR...fly bush cargo in Anchorage...OR...the list goes on. Get to studying. As much of a dumpster fire as AirlinePilotCenter forums are, the other side of that website is pretty informational, and you can find some pretty good data in the forums if you're willing to wade through the BS. Decide that no job is beneath you, and you'll be fine. If you choose the millennial attitude that some jobs are just too hard or too underpaid or too dirty, then yeah, your 'itch' will never be scratched, and you will be forever limited. If you choose that road, that's no one's fault but your own. If they say you need a vaccine to get the job, and you quit looking, that's your fault, not theirs. In short: Nut up or Shut up. There is no better time to get into aviation. Decide what you will or won't do, then get to work. P.S. I dis-recommend SE Asia. That results in a different kind of 'itch' that I've heard never goes away.

...until a failing PEA gets you kicked out of the institution...as it should.