pawnman

I'm going to jump on the rare and beautiful XB-70 Valkyrie. A Bit of a sad story, it was a research craft designed to fly high and fast (over Mach 3 at 70,000 feet). Only two were built, and one was lost when the F-104 chase plane rolled over the vertical stabs and snapped them off. You can read the whole story here. The last one is at WPAFB, in the USAF Museum. It is quite a sight to behold in person.

Tell your buddy tough luck. You're only trying to protect yourself. If he's that against it, and he's really a good friend, get his input on writing up the lease.

You could talk to legal. I would just type up a lease agreement in Word, print it out, and have everyone sign it, just in case. It probably won't be a problem, but you never know. As for a dude going helos, you wouldn't hold him to the agreement if he's moving out, right? Just find yourself a new roommate. Happens all the time.

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Helzberg carries them, and you can find a Helzberg at any mall. I love my Skyhawk with the Eco-Drive.

Low scores for mission planning. Excellent trying to avoid the public eye through the use of "pay-at-the-pump" and diapers, but when you get to your intended victim's house, don't pepper-spray her through a cracked window...wait quietly in the bedroom closet, take her by suprise and overpower her. Jeez, don't they teach these astronauts anything? We all thought this story was quite hilarious when it was first reported. I'm at Pensacola NAS, and Nowack was a VT-10 "Wildcat" back in the day. The instructors went so far as to type a grade sheet for this "event".

Definitely wear the flight suit, take extra socks, and pack the minimum amount you can. You'll already be hauling all the stuff they issue you, don't make it more difficult by adding weight. The thick blousing straps with velcro are super useful, and take some extra 550 cord, you can use it for everything.

Very carefully.

KMart also has the 10% discount, make sure you ask. T-Mobile has a very small discount...but be prepared to jump through some hoops, they put you down as a "corporate customer" and you can't go to a T-Mobile store for support anymore, you have to do it all over the phone with their corporate help desk.

Here's a dumb question: These medals are based on number of missions, not number of hours? So if you have, say, a BUFF or BONE crew that burns circles in the sky 10 hours at a go, you'd have 200 hours to get a medal. If you have something else that only goes up for, say, and hour at a time, he'd have 20 hours for the same medal. Is there any adjustment for the length of mission is what I'm asking, I guess. Not that it really matters, just curious.

You'd still need to do a full commissioning program, like OTS or ROTC. We had a guy in my OTS class who flew Blackhawks for the Army. Still had to do all of OTS, still had to go to UPT. It might give you a leg up having been through Army pilot training, but there's no shortcuts there.

Looking to be a terminal 1Lt, are we?

Christian Bale is a great actor, and so is Steve Zahn (often overlooked because he takes so many zany side-kick roles). The movie is based on DIETER DENGLER. What would be really cool is a movie about Bravo-20, the British SAS team that walked into Iraq from Syria...it would be pretty depressing though, only had one survivor after they were compromised by a kid herding goats.

By all means. I don't have a lot of experience, but in flight school, the folks that were the least helpful to the rest of the class were the Academy guys. They were consistently the whiners, the hoarders of knowledge, the guys who wouldn't pitch in and help out. And it was only the USAFA dudes, guys from the Naval Academy were some of the best guys to have in the class.

Joint credit cards or loans, yes. Credit cards or loans that apply ONLY to your spouse, no.

There it is again...the sensitive, new-age stuff. So tell me, had you been a 2Lt and had a TSgt ask if you were a cadet, what phrasing would you have used?

You call him sir, it's like a demotion.

"No, actually I'm an officer in the Air Force" is smart ass? Is there a term for SNAP enlisted aircrew?

We had the JOPA, the "junior officer protection association". Except that on a Navy base, junior officer includes O-3.

That's how it works in the Navy. In Pensacola we don't havy any FAIP-types for navs, so all the instructors are O-3 and up. Obviously, if you're a student, you salute the O-3 instructors. But since I've gotten my wings, more than one Navy LT has told me not to salute..."We're both JO's, man."

Why the hell isn't the guy who made this in charge of ALL the recruiting videos? WAY better than the "we've been waiting for you" stuff. Awesome video.

FOD is FOD. Whether it's a bird or a 172, taking something through the intake makes the jet handle very poorly. As for calling and bitching out your friend, I agree with you...he should have moved up the chain and bitched out the owner/manager for the FBO...or perhaps you personally.

I haven't been operational yet, but... I think the 172 is probably more stealthy that you realize. It's tiny, not a whole lot of metal, and it's speed is very low, so a notch filter could dimsiss it as "noise". Not only that, but I imagine the B-1 guys felt a little differently about "extra practice" if it means cutting of the target leg of their low-level to avoid you. I don't know why it's legal to fly through a hot MOA. I think it's pretty dumb, myself. I wouldn't do it, and I think you should probably exercise some caution instead of doing it again.

When AF guys get back, we should wear our reflective belts and PT gear on the plane...What a great recruiting tool that will be!

Lord forbid the AF take volunteers instead of non-voling other people. Hopefully this will all be done by the time I get out of the RTU.