contraildash

I recently finished "Stuka Pilot" by Hans Ulrich Rudel. It was the version with the preface by Douglas Bader. Safe to say that while I don't agree with his ideology, his story is pretty epic. Stats alone: 2,530 combat missions claiming a total of 2,000 targets destroyed; including 800 vehicles, 519 tanks, 150 artillery pieces, a destroyer, two cruisers, one Soviet battleship, 70 landing craft, 4 armored trains, several bridges and nine aircraft which he shot down. What suprised me was how often Stuka crews landed and picked up their downed squadron mates, how he got stuck in the mud on one attempt and the ensuing escape from the Russians. He also flew FW-190s a lot towards the end of the war. Anyways, very interesting read. My list of books read recently: We Die Alone - story about a failed mission by Norwegian agents in WW2 and the sole survivor's escape. Lions of Kandahar - Battle for Sperwan Ghar Outlaw Platoon - great account of action in eastern Afghanistan Vulcan Test Pilot - very dry read (British test pilot) but neat insight on production/test flying back in the early years of jets Hauling Checks - life of a frieght dog Squawk 7700 - nothing like working your ass off to become a regional airline pilot then realizing it sucks. good book Fighting the Flying Circus - Rickenbacker's WW1 story. Low Level Hell - Loaches at treetop level + huge f'n balls The Rogue Aviator: In the Back Alleys of Aviation - dude leaves the AF and works for some sketchy airline operations American Sniper - seems everyone has read this one recently Sniper on the Easter Front - About an Austrian kid becoming a sniper by accident, I found the Axis' perspective on the retreat from the Russians intreguing. To Kingdom Come - B-17 raid on Stuttgart goes waaaaaay bad. If You Survive - 1Lt in the infantry's story. Starts soon after D-Day, up through Hurtgen forrest. O Face mentioned "By Any Means Necessary" I suggest anyone that's read that also check out two books by Col. Wolfgang Samuel "German Boy" and "Coming to Colorado". Both are about his story of fleeing the Russians in 1945, surviving and escaping eastern Germany, moving to Colorado, and eventually becoming one of the first Ravens to fly in the RB-47s. He has written several other books that I haven't read yet.

Next year for me, never been, always wanted to go. Missed out on my chance to hit up Flying Legends at Duxford a week ago. Anyone ever been to that?

aspec, I've been experiencing some lower back issues recently that sound like yours. About once a year, and it's bad enough to hit the emergency room. Mine are directly related to dehydration and tight hamstrings (happens when you run/bike alot). I've had to get into a very regular stretching regime including some yoga. It's helped wonders. My flight doc explained the anatomy of the lower back muscles, but it was beyond me. In short, everything is connected, needs to be stretched. Have a strong core (abs, ect). If you slack off and the lower back pain occurs more often, then you can end up with slipped dics, ect. That's just my experience.

I had a few close calls with USAF RPAs in the AOR....but far more close calls with Navy F-18s in a stack/transiting/ect.

Talk louder. Use your man voice.

Anyone around here recently been through CV-22 training? TDY enroute? PCS to Kirtland? Or PCS to Cannon/Hurby w/ TDY to training. Just curious. PM me.

I always thought "Rainbow Six" would have made a great movie. Maybe someday. Heck there's a whole slew of books I've read recently that would be great flicks....if done properly. And that's the usual problem with movies. Take a great story and put some gay hollywood twist on it and thus ruin it.

Drinking beer, ordering dinner at a Stübe near the German/Austrian border....our drindl clad waitress comes up and wishes us a Happy 4th of July. "huete is your independence day, no?" F-yeah! And on that note 'noch ein weizen bitte!'

My brother and his wife watched their friend's house burn on the news. My aunt's house was in the heart of that flare up yesterday....doesn't look good. Tough times back home.

The French out there don't forget.

I have family and friends up in the Flying-W ranch area. They punched out a few days back, looks like that area is on fire now. My email has been inundated with pictures from everyone back home, crazy shit.

My wife had asthma as a kid and occasionally had attacks up a couple years back. Had to get a medical clearance to move to Germany. Not a big deal. But since that clearance is in her records, we have to get another clearance to move back to the states for the same condition. Go figure.

I've recently seen two guys go from 'heavy/AMC' aircraft to the B-2. I've also seen guys with the same background as those two dudes get into AFSOC. This in the past few months. Word of advice though, if you want to do it, make an educated choice. Get out there and make some contacts within whatever AFSOC community you want. Don't just throw AFSOC on your ADP and hope for the best. Make your own luck. And from my understanding, just because you flew '38s in UPT doesn't make you fighter qual'd. Maybe someone currently working AETC '38s can confirm that.

I just got back from there, was out the 4th through 7th, amazing. If you are going to visit Normandy, go on D-Day. The French really put on a good show for everyone out there. I'll post some pics in a bit.

General Shelton brought some common sense into Space Command: Story Here highlights:

I second this. This thread has become asinine.

So rolling the MC-12W loaded with a metric shit ton of mission equipment and a bunch of other shit in the back of the plane that may or may not be secured in a fashion as to ensure that when a crew tries to roll a MC-12W and doesn't do it just right and now your 1G maneuver becomes a negative G maneuver...just for a second...and now you have multiple projectiles inside the aircraft + 4 not all that hard nuggets just sitting there....how is that unsafe? Really?

From the B300/300C POH Page 2-16: "The Model B300 and B300C are Commuter Category Airplanes. Acrobatic (yes that's what it says) maneuvers, including spins, are prohibited." If you are of the opinion that rolling the MC-12 is not unsafe and this whole thing is being blown out of proportion, I will never get in an aircraft with you.

Try this one on for size: getting cheifed while stepping to the jet (it's a bit of a walk) because you are sanitized and have no hat...

Obviously you missed the whole point of that story, Brian

Historical comprehension. Operations in the Falklands didn't require STOVL. RN ops in the Falklands required carriers. The only carriers in the RN were the short decks w/ Harriers. As far as the Ark Royal, I was just stating that had it still been operational it probably would have been down there to fufill the operational requirement.

I have. It's a great read. The Falklands campaign is a bad counter example. The entire reason the British used Harriers: they were the only carrier fighter they had. And even then they didn't have enough. They supplemented the Sea Harrier squadrons with RAF Harriers / pilots. The British used two container ships to bring in extra Harriers to replace attrition losses. They didn't operate off them, but were in fact transported from Ascension Island along with a dozen or so helicopters. Once close enough, the Harriers were flown to the two carriers. Not sure if any were lost when the Atlantic Conveyor was sunk by Exocets. I'm pretty sure that if the RN still had the Ark Royal, they would have had a SQ or two of F-4s wreckin' havoc on the Argentinians. If anything, Surely's point is a more valid argument for retaining a VSTOL fighter capability within the USMC.

THIS Other than flying off the LHDs, when have AV-8Bs actually needed to use STOVL in a combat role? From what I've found, they've mostly operated from long runways (as they do now). I say scrap the F-35B, give them the F-35C, fly off CVNs / long runways. Save money.

How many of us, when we sit down to eat a meal while wearing bags, or any long sleeved top for that matter, push up our sleeves? Hell I do it every time. Why? I don't want my sleeves to get into my g-damn food. Apparently pushing up your sleeves whilst eating, is good enough reason for my previously mentioned chief to interrupt meals. UFB ....still waiting for this doucher to say something.

After hearing some of our enlisted aircrew were getting harassed by a Chief, in the middle of eating, I've been having my crews eat together. We've seen said chief, but he hasn't come over to play while us O's are around. We anxiously await.....