amcflyboy

I'm a Guardsman, have been one my entire career and I love it! But with that said, if you're single and enjoying life, go to the crazy locations...anywhere OCONUS or at locations where you know there will be one hell of a social life! Get it out of your system and then at some point hunker down, get married, get wall-to-wall and the white picket fence, have kids (like I just did recently), and enjoy that new chapter in your life! Do you see where all the above posts have been hinting at???

My goal is to bore the evaluator to death. If he's struggling to stay awake(like what happened on my last Qual check)not to mention my Engineer, than some would say you're doing something right. This was also because the entire ride was in IMC. But in any case, you're not highlighting yourself in a negative sense. Some of you may disagree and call me a pussy. Well I don't give a shit. I typically try to have fun on normal rides. On checkrides, I'm all business because this is not the time to be smokin' and jokin'.

Ah fuck him! Perhaps that's the plan all along!

I grew up in the Antelope Valley, near Edwards AFB, CA in the late 80's. My dad was a Marine Corps veteran himself who left AD for a job as a civilian working for Rockwell International. He was a test conductor for the B-1B, and later went to Northrop working on the B-2 production line in Palmdale. While he was working at Edwards, I had the privilege attending many airshows at Edwards and saw the mighty Blackbird in a roped off hangar. A couple of times they had aerial fly-by's of the SR. There would also be days of when the SR was out flying and would fly over my school during broad daylight with 2 T-38 chase planes. What a spectacular plane that was! After reading that story, I was pleased to hear about what it actually did because growing up during that time, you didn't hear about what missions it did (for obvious reasons). I remember when they retired it in the early 90's. Every now and then, I would ask myself what missions that plane flew during it's days. I also remember when I was introduced to the U-2. Whenever that plane flew over my house, man what a mighty roar that thing had! Thanks for posting that story.

Giggity! Alright! Long live Bond!

Yeah, it's just too bad that none of them resembled the broad from your Avatar BDA!!

Oh snap! That's a good laugh right there!

When was this?? I was there last June...fvcking place rocked!

Gotcha..well in that case you don't have to worry about the North Atlantic Tracks and using SLOP. Agree on what everybody has said about studying the MNPS, good stuff to know. Also, with the new AMC Fuel Saving measures in effect, you'll be carrying more gas due to "increased Reserve Gas" you are now required to calculate. Fuel required for CAT 1 routing has changed, as well as enroute reserves. Get with a Navigator on that, or the Fuel planning chapter in the Vol.3. Oh yeah, go to the Cotton Club in St John's!!

You guys have J-models right? If I'm not mistaking, you guys are RVSM and RNP certified, right? If you don't know what that is, look it up in your Vol. 3. Being an IRC guy, big thing is to review the Oceanic crossing guide provided by Baseops.net. Develop a good technique on waypoint crosschecking, and develop good cockpit management. Study up on Strategic Lateral Offset Procedures, or SLOP. The Hercs don't necessarily fly it, unless you guys find yourselves flying the North Atlantic Tracks. You can get that information off of the North Atlantic Track button on the NOTAMS website that all us military pilots use to check NOTAMS. Anything else specific, PM me! Have fun.

Damnit Jarhead...ya beat me to it!!!

Definitely agree with you on the "tick marks" stacking up against her. The last set of nails in the coften. By the way, she does look like a leprachaun!!

Somebody said there was more to this, well there is: "WASHINGTON A Navy captain was demoted because she berated and assaulted her crew, not because she led her guided missile cruiser on a drag-race with another U.S. warship in the Pacific, an investigation shows. Capt. Holly Graf was relieved of her command of the cruiser USS Cowpens after an investigation substantiated crew allegations that she was abusive and used her position for personal gain, naval officials said Thursday on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the record. Graf did not immediately answer an e-mail. A message on her phone said the number had been changed, disconnected or was not in service. A Navy inspector general report said investigators had substantiated that Graf assaulted subordinates (pushing one, grabbing another and once throwing wadded up paper at another sailor) and that she regularly verbally abused subordinates by publicly berating them, belittling them and using profane language. The allegations were called in to a Navy hotline and covered March 2008 to July 2009. The report was issued in December, she was relieved of her command on Jan. 19 and on Thursday was awaiting new orders, one official said. Graf once ordered a subordinate to stand in a "timeout" in a corner in front of the full watch team, which he complained to investigators was demeaning to him, according to the report. The report also found she used her office for personal gain that is, asked junior officers to play piano at her private Christmas party and to walk her dogs. Among allegations not substantiated was one that she endangered the ship while allowing a drag-race between the Cowpens and the destroyer USS John S. McCain in February 2009. Four witnesses described the 2009 race off of Okinawa, but they differed on how close the two vessels came to each other before the race was halted. One sailor said that during the race, aimed at boosting morale, the McCain got ahead of the Cowpens and began drifting to the left into the path of the Cowpens. Though the report did not question that the race took place, it said the allegation of "hazarding a vessel" was unsubstantiated. "In order to show that (she) improperly hazarded the USS Cowpens, the evidence must show that an actual event occurred in which the ship was lost or damaged, or that there was a situation in which the ship was placed in imminent danger of loss or serious damage" and that she did it willfully, the inspector general said. One of the officials, who has many years of sea duty, said races on the open seas are not uncommon and are done to bolster morale or as a kind of maneuver drill." Above it states she was relieved of command because of her harshness, and not the fact that she decided to race another boat and put her crews lives in danger for this. I say bullshit...yeah it claims that the reports of the race were unsubstantiated, but I believe this did have some sort of a factor in the IG's report. My opinion only...

Cody...you walked right into that one!!!

Just so you know, that website has viruses built into it. Got prompted twice by my anti-virus software to remove the the trojan virus!

Dude, that's awesome right there!!! I fly the LC-130. Right now I'm upgrading to Ski A/C, and I can't even begin to describe how fun it is to land on skiis and on groomed skiways, as well as conducting open snow landings and takeoffs. The kind of flying we do definitely requires you to keep up on your knowledge and to really think outside of the box, especially when the weather goes to hell at the drop of a hat, and your fuel is getting low. Landing in locations where 98% of the world's population wouldn't even dream of going is mind boggling. When we're not in Antarctica, we're in Greenland where we do a lot of our training, and some operational missions. We land at remote radar stations that were opened during the cold war, but have long since been closed. There is a lot of history up in Greenland which gives me the motivation to go back every year!

I guess the big picture here is: There's a time and a place for us to mind our own business, and then when we should speak up. I'm just saying....

Dude, there are no words that can explain the "awesome" in that one!

I especially like it when the chick in the red grabs the girl in the white's hair and pulls her to the ground. Talk about your smackdown!

When I was there, it was Tate, Inc.

Dude, I fell out of my seat laughing on that one! Ya think she's advertising (in more ways than one)???

'flyboy's in!

Yup, got it up to 270 while doing a Pen-D to Kandahar.

Dude, I just spit beer out through my nose due to total laughter on that one!!!

Here's a little something something to add to this conversation: I agree that a break in service is BAD. Believe it or not, when you join a Guard/Reserve unit, the paperwork takes FOREVER to process. We had a guy just come to us from the Navy flying P-3's up in Washington. It took one freaking year for his paperwork to go through, and for him to get sworn in. If you're all about taking time off with the wife and family, then get the paperwork rolling, and then take your time off. Guard units typically understand about taking time off, and not coming to UTA's because you're waiting for paperwork and getting caught up with lost time with the family. Keep the break in service to the shortest amount of time as possible. As for the above example of a pilot completely changing services, that might be the reason for the long delay. But then again what do I know? Just my .02, take it for what it's worth. Good luck!