Clayton Bigsby

All AMC aircrew members are required to have a knife and a flashlight of some type on their person, as a result of the Dover C-5 crash - in the troop cab, one of the escape slides was triggered and inflated inside the aircraft without the door being opened, pinning some of the passengers. One of the loads had to deflate the slide by stabbing the shit out of it, hence the requirement.

Four Winds Siesta Apartments!!! Seriously, it's a great name!

Stract - when you quote the shit-hook build-up times and time to Mission-Ready, were you talking to regular Army bubbas, or Campbell guys? Those guys have their shit together and don't fvck around. Just curious, because some seem to be the farm teams, and some are definitely the pros.

Because killing and eradicating the Kurds isn't the work we're doing. They're actually our friends. The Turks will be going after the PKK, not Al-Qaeda or Shiite militias or Sunni insurgents.

Are the H-92's engines the exact same as the H-60's? They sure look it...

The hot cup for boiling water is pretty much always there on missions, unless it's broken for some reason, and you can request it from fleet on locals when they bring out your water/box nasties. I would ask that if it's something really important to you as a pilot, maybe help the loads out with that if you can - it's entirely possible they could be busy doing cargo stuff at that time, and fleet showing up to the airplane and bringing all the necessary crap/forms to sign is just another person harassing the loads when they're busy. It's something the loads usually take care of, but like I said sometimes we're in the middle of something. If you coordinate it at One (more) stop, you can get the craptastic coffee containers that plug into the galley, but it costs money and I hear the coffee blows ass.

No, like a real-world simulation tool built into Microsoft Flight Sim and most other 'real' simulators - I know for a fact the Boeing C-17 sims have this feature.

Anybody have a link to that old C-130 puke story out of Al Udeid? You know, the one where ATOC comes out to the airplane and cites the AC for a safety violation, since none of his evacuated pax have disco belts on. It used to be in the old Al Udeid bitching thread at the old message board, but the link to that thread doesn't work anymore.

Sometimes with military aircraft payware add-ons for FS, the instruments don't/can't necessarily line up all the way with reality - it's a sim-ism, the basic issue being Microsoft Flight Sim is a GA simulator. It can simulate the f*ck out of a Cessna 172, but when somebody makes, say, an F-22 add-on, not everything that airplane would have is necessarily supported by the basic software of the sim (such as a HUD, Microsoft didn't build those in for C-172s). So then it's up to the developer to fill in the blank areas and create something that works. The payware developers do the best they can do with what they've got, but sometimes it just won't be 100% maximum fidelity.

I think for "V" to mean staff transpo, it has to come before the basic mission designator - for example, Air Force One is a VC-25, whereas an AV-8B is not a VIP Harrier. Sputnik, what's funny about that navy thing is they, like the Air Force, operate the HH-60 in a rescue role - however the USAF HH-60 is based off of the Army UH-60 platform, and the USN HH-60 comes from the SH-60 Seahawk platform. Yes I know they're pretty much the same thing, but there are some differences - I don't think the SH-60 has windows for door gunners behind the cockpit, and they've got that large two-wheeled underfuselage tail wheel instead of it being way in back. I think politicians or staffers decided that the "M" for "MV-22" means "Marines"...

I assume it denotes a "Cargo" Mission Design Series, along with "V" for "V/STOL" Personally I think it's all mixed up - the Air Force should have the MV-22, and the USMC the CV-22. The Air Force flies MH-53s in a SpecOps mission, and the Marines fly CH-53s in a general utility/transport mission. But hey, I've also had AF instructors tell me with a straight face in tech school that MDS numbers are assigned in numerical program order. So the KC-135 being the 135th Tanker/Transport design procured, and the KC-767 being the 767th...riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight.

I won't claim to know anything about how the T-6 flies (never been to UPT, just a fvckin' LM), however I have purchased several products from IRIS in the past and I've been fairly to mightily impressed. Their F-14A, for example, is fantastic, and their F-15s (both Albino and Mud Hen) are pretty damned good too. I'll definitely be buying the T-6 and giving it a whirl too.

I'd have to go with the 729th out of March...or maybe it was the 730th. Anyway, the nametags - the one with the fading sunset and palm trees on 'em. Anybody who's been to Charlie's at Altus has seen them, and they're awesome!

Good on them, they're finally asking for more money instead of being yes men...it's about time. Interesting article in a recent Aviation Week (I think the one with the C-27J on the cover), about contractors, the GAO, and how contractors are building program decision appeals/protests into their business plans...such as Boeing and Northrop Grumman, who are already planning on filing a protest no matter which way the contract goes, in an effort to bleed their competitors. Interesting in that the CSAR-X was the #1 priority, and is now completely sidelined by contractor shenanigans. Thanks guys!

Google earth also now has a "flight simulator" built in...kind of fun to zoom through terrain and swoop in on the imagery. Here's a guide on how to do it. Kind of fun, and if you don't have a stick handy you can still fly with the mouse.

The AF Times has an interesting story w/ pics for the new place, 'Millenium Village'. Looks decent, although I'm not really sure I understand the rationale of the rooms sharing a kitchenette...I'd rather have my own room/bathroom, thank you. What'll be REALLY nice is now we won't have to stay in the goddam tents whenever we come through as transients...transient aircrew don't get the trailer billets, just a tent w/ a dude working a jackhammer outside. Wonder how much of CC they'll tear down though...

To the LDS and Utards, just out of curiosity, where were the polygamists and extreme LDS conservatives holed up at? I know the media reported southern Utah, but I'm pretty sure they weren't near St George or the environs because I'm pretty sure they'd be run out of town. Were they closer to Colorado, or NV?

Weren't a very large percentage of the LTs axed under force shaping Mx officers? So it could even be said that want employment opportunites, don't go mx. Also a good number of those axed were prior E's with the "E" suffix; ie O-2E...the justification by AFPC was that it costs more to pay them in the long term. However, that directly leads to the aforementioned wet paper bag issue, and yup seen that too. Seen some good, but a fair bit bad.

Having worked both sides of the fence, I agree wholeheartedly. We have enough agencies trying to blame aircrews in the delayed departure game; it might be nice to get Mx back on our side.

Right on. Didn't realize there'd been as much non-LDS growth as there apparently has been! I stand corrected...thanks

No, there's just such a very high concentration of them there that it tends to affect local laws, schools, community etc. Not a hater, but they are a bit different. Ever been to a bar in SLC? Had to pay the club fee or whatever? And SLC is laid back and more diverse... Just southern Utah is a very conservative area.

Are you mormon? That could be a huge issue.

I think I just vomited in my mouth a little So let me get this straight - she'll collect full pay and allowances while on this leave, because of supposed PTSD? What an insult to people who really have it. I mean how many OEF and OIF vets have it, are refused treatment, and are forced back into more deployments and are accused of malingering?

Nope, she's an officer, and a runner. The Air Force LOVES its runners. They'll medically retire her before anything else. PTSD eh? Ain't that a load of FVCKING BULLSHIT! Oh and I wish I could just get away from the Air Force whenever I wanted...