Clayton Bigsby

Contrail - PM me with your itinerary, I worked for United up until this last week (still have plenty of connections), I'll see if it's REALLY 250. That sounds fishy, it usually goes off of kennel size and two cats are hardly huge.

Nice job glossing over garden spots like Altus, Dover, and McGuire...lol There is a painting from Operation El Dorado Canyon, showing 3 KC-10/KC-10/F-111 chains...kind of funny a KC-10 would still be passing gas to an F-111 while also being a receiver from another KC-10... to the OP - Look, I'm no pilot, but I think it depends on what kind of flying you want to do. Want to fly up at 30k a lot, orbiting for receivers and racking up the hours? Or do you want to land a bunch in all sorts of different places? Look where the mission is - tankers, passing gas inflight, and cargo, well it has to be delivered to whatever place so you'll go almost anywhere. Keep in mind every time I flew, even out of the 'deid on supposed out-and-backs, we dragged ALL our bags with us, everytime, since we might get re-routed somewhere else and then not see what we left behind ever again. Tanker guys can fly with a simple backpack/overnight kit since they're probably coming back, soon...part of the price of being able to go anywhere, right?

Well you're certainly going to do a connection, however doing it all within one airline greatly simplifies things - usually an airline has a monopoly on a certain number of gates within an area, maybe an entire concourse if it's their hub. That means the difference between pets being moved over a couple gates to the connecting flight, to having to go to another concourse clear on the other side of the ramp/airport/whatever since it's an interline (to another airline) connection. Keeping it on one airline also is cheaper - you'd only have to pay that pet fee once instead of twice. No matter which way you cut it you're going to have to pay that most hurtful one - the rotator can't get you everywhere. Which airline is charging you 250 per animal, and on what itinerary? I've heard of and seen 100-ish per animal, more if the kennel is huge, but for 2 cats... I get to pay 100 per animal to go to Hawaii, plus all the quarantine processing fees. Yay.

Do the Brits use ration cards for beers at the Muff?

Anybody ever submit an IDEA form, showing how the AF could save massive money by disbanding them...money that could go to actual war or equipment expenses...?

Probably one of those urban myth/fallacies, like automatic straight A's if your roommate commits suicide in college... In this case it's one that also needs to be curb-checked.

meh, let the nerds have their fun, she's got a sense of humor and you're apparently not in the mood. try to not take yourself so seriously...why so serious?

Pussies!

Thanks sputnik. I'll be going to Hilo. I had looked into the gun stuff, and basically what I saw was the registration and 10-rd mag limit too, although it appears the actual felony part only applies to handgun mags...from what I can see, my AK and AR are legal, the laws didn't seem to ban anything outright like Cali laws do...still, I'm planning to test the waters with my M9 and shotgun first, leaving the AK and AR in the mainland for now. Besides I need to stock up on 10rd mags, they're hard(er) to find right now and I'd feel stupid carrying guns with no mags into the PD - that's asking for extra attention. I'm not too sure what to do with vehicles just yet, I have two older cars that both qualify for the cash for clunkers program, gives me 4500 bucks for either of 'em I turn in plus I don't have to pay to ship 'em...but then I HAVE to buy a new car once I get there, and get a new car payment, instead of driving a practical car until it dies. Moving - how'd you do it, everything arranged through TMO? That doesn't appear to be an option for me, the FAA makes everybody front their first move on their own, you're only eligible for PCS expenses once you're qualified and off probation. Sucks, but it's a better job so I'll take it. Thinking of getting one of those shipping container deals, leave the container in the driveway, load it up, call the company to pick it up and it goes on the boat, repeat for offload. Probably easier/cheaper than a moving company driving from inland to a port, transferring to a container, and vice versa in HI? a "2" on that "So you want to move to Hawaii" book, I bought it and it's been VERY informative. And Sput I think you're right on the loudmouth DBs being the ones who have problems... real quick - what actually gets inspected on the car inspections? All I can see from what I've found online is people bitching about window tinting. Hawaii doesn't have a centralized state DMV so it's confusing. thanks

Well, excited to say I was hired by the FAA as an ATC, and will be re-locating to the Big Island in a couple months after a brief stay in OKC. I was wondering if anyone has any tips, gouge or suggestions on movers, documentation, car inspections, guns, etc - so far the stickiest points seem to be pets (my fiancee and I have two cats) and guns (I have some of those too). Once again I won't be going to Oahu, but it can't be that different... Hawaii's a different place to be sure, and daily local life will certainly be different than RONing a couple nights at Hickam or the Outrigger Luana...but I am extremely happy to be leaving the airlines behind for this. My main goals are to study my ass off so as to not get my ass kicked by ATC, and to not piss off the locals in order to not get my ass kicked by them - I hear they like to fight. The fiancee and I are already on top of the paperwork for the pets, they just had their second rabies booster and microchips implanted, and we have to fire off a blood sample for the quarantine people. The good news is by doing all of this now we can bypass the quarantine process and do either the 5-day program or even a direct airport release...

Wasn't it originally part of the plan to put them on the u-boats? Also, would you fire it forward, or sideways?

I flew him out of Balad when he got to go home - jerk stole my bunk! Actually I didn't really care at all, he needed the sleep worse than I did, and he was a really nice guy to the crew.

M2 - is that 30-rd mag fixed, or is it quick-detach? Basically, to reload, do you remove the mag and slap in another, or feed stripper clips through the top?

Presumably, the feeling is the OV-10s left are old. The only people still flying them actively are the US State dept, Colombia, Venezuela, and the Phillippines. So then with all this new fuss you get weird things like this... https://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2009/...er-23-year.html

I wonder how they get that shuttle tail fairing pod back to Edwards? It looks too big to stuff back in the 747...Super Guppy, perhaps? NASA still uses a Super Guppy, but I believe it's used to move the external fuel tank components around. It came through Altus quite a bit while I was there, during hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

godjesus - cool it with the faggotry! Fucking a - yeah FT was held at Lackland awhile. Fuck I even went to it myself. It was gay. It sucked. But FT has also been held at, what, Ellsworth, Maxwell, Tyndall, McChord, fucking Westover...enough! Lackland is the home of BMT and numerous tech schools and all the gayness that goes with that territory. Being pulled 341s as 'tickets' for infractions is beyond obscene.

The shuttle adds a shitload of drag to the 747, along with all its weight too. I wonder though how much additional lift gets generated thought - it's a massive lifting body attached to the back...

I'd put my money on China moving on Taiwan if the Norks were to lash out. What better time?!?

Yeah no shit. Usually I'd just sell and then buy what I could once I get there (I have to front all moving expenses myself, it's not reimbursed), but I don't think I'd be able to get what I've got now back again.

What was up with all the ancient Hueys? Guess they must be plentiful for film work, because who uses the UH-1H anymore? Really liked the movie though, and '2' on the as good as T-1 call. I liked T-3 also, but this was better...

Alright, here's a new one... So it looks like I'm moving to Hawaii, and not Oahu (Big Island). Have several firearms that I'd like to take with. From what I can see on this, an AK or AR are not specifically banned, nor are any of the features of the gun, just can't have mags with more than 10rd capacity...right? Finding AK mags with less than 20 rd capacity blows goat balls, btw. Neigh fucking impossible. Real restrictive laws on when you can have ammo in your gun - only in the home or at the range/actively hunting - so definitely no day to day carry, even for hiking or whatever. Good news is, while the laws are definitely gun-unfriendly, they're not as bad as, say, New Jersey...so you don't have to flee your residence before you can try deadly force... Also looks like the local smokies have to pick over all my stuff w/in 72 hrs of arrival, to register my crap. Not a total tinfoil-hat guy, but I don't like registering individual firearms, just the user...wondering how legal is it for me to leave some of the higher-end stuff, like the AK, in storage stateside while I live in HI? When I visit on vacation can I buy ammo for them? Can I place online orders for stuff (like ammo or accessories), and legally have the stuff shipped to the storage location and not HI? Really wish I could keep my existant residency, but it's a gov't job and I have to be a normal civvie - so, job's in Hawaii, guess what, Hawaiian resident and all their gay rules.

Count me in for a sub, if possible It'd be nice to see the mag include everything...and not just disintegrate into fighter porn, like Air Forces Monthly and Combat Aircraft have become...

Brick - it's possible he got the gay later on than when he joined @ 22. People do change their mind...

Won't things not be quite as harsh as they were pre-2 EAS, in the small fact that there's a lot more bases with -17s up and running now? Back then, it was CHS and TCM taking up the whole load, with a couple McGuire crews mixed in - Travis and Dover weren't really in the picture quite yet. Also you don't have a bunch of KC-135 squadrons on orders not to refuel, but to fly the pain-train Rotater...

the thing I've never understood about body building, besides the obvious posing thong/singlet and tanning creme... ...is not the hours put in the gym, but the serious timing of meals. A buddy of mine was into this stuff, and it was impossible to go anywhere with him - literally he set a watch alarm to go off every couple hours, to alert him it was time to eat something specific. Going to baseball/football games and movies were impossible, unless he could figure out a way to smuggle the food in. He couldn't go to a restaurant/bar. Etc. I know lots of people go into the AOR and have a surplus of off time, and fill it with being in the gym. But this nonsense definitely stretches that, as it represents MANY hours invested beyond even the gym. And all so some other same-sex person can comment on your body. Pretty if you ask me.