Clayton Bigsby

Probably a good example of why most non-Hollywood warbird/antique guys hang out at Chino. Then again, the flies, cow shit smell and commute there aren't very convenient for the Hollywood crowd.

^ Northrop-owned Scaled Composites at Mojave Airport.

It's surprising, but yeah you still gotta pay extra for the floormats in that fancy new car. I guess what's surprising about all this weapons stuff is I thought we'd learned from the Euros...Eurofighter Typhoon didn't get A/G capability until Tranche 2 or 3, right? Same with the Frenchies and Rafale? So why are we paying this much for an airplane with limited capability at delivery?

I think it's pretty clear that the White House saw Petraeus as a potential adversary to President Obama during the re-election campaign and did the right investigating that took him down. Sad that he lacked the self-discipline to resist the feminine wiles of Maj Paula McFunbags.

With the Ruble crashing, the Russians can stop being dicks anytime now... Karma, baby!

Are you suggesting that the SERE guys are a little weird? Naaaaaaaaaw.

Seems like an awful lot. Are they 24hrs? That jacks the staffing requirements up. I think larger towers are in the 30 to 40-ish range. Edit, come to think of it, I think the AFB runs the approach control for the area, and the civil airport at GFK is extremely busy with UND having a major flying school there. UND rivals Embry-Riddle, but all consolidated to one location. GFK is one of the busiest tower-only fields in the country. That would explain the high numbers.

I wonder how not-wild the Turks are of us potentially arming the Kurds in Iraq. Figure equipment would end up pointed at them with the PKK...

And Walsh is out. Current guesses are fmr Gov Brian Schweitzer and John Bohlinger to replace him. Bohlinger was Schweitzer's Lt Gov, and while appearing a bit unconventional is a pretty sharp guy, and Schweitzer is an immensely popular former Governor who unfortunately has become one of the MSNBC commentary blowhards for the last year. Personally I had misgivings to Sen Walsh as the nominee to become Sen Baucus' replacement, due to a prior IG finding against him that ruled he'd abused his authority by ordering subordinates to pay and join a Nat'l Guard Association to further his personal political career.

I've met Sen Walsh, and without any editorializing on his behavior or political stances it was pretty amazing to see a person tasked to do opposition research following him intently, recording everything with a video camera. Even at a 4th of July parade in his hometown. They had one of his staffers trying to stand between the cameraman and the Sen, as best as he could anyway. Amazing what's done for opposition research. Anything to win, right? I just don't see how any sane person runs for major elected office anymore, you have to be a monk to not have something noteworthy. My internet browser history alone would disqualify me, I'm sure.

I was here! Loud noises!!!

NOAA has their own aircraft - I worked a Twin Commander of theirs quite a bit recently. Where do they base theirs? Just curious if anybody knows.

So .07 BAC is illegal now? Am I reading that right?

Sweet American-made Humvees being liberated for the jihadists' war in Syria; saw a report that said Iraqi F-16s had been seized as well, but I didn't think any of them had been delivered yet, plus why would they base them in Mosul? Anyway doubt they'd be much more use for ISIS than for spare parts money on the black market.

Finally, a place people actually want to go to.

Wasn't this movie called "Promised Land"?

Russia is being an asshole and annexing neighbording countries again, and building up new nuclear systems, yup sounds like a good time to pull 50 of our ancient ICBMs from their silos.

Exactly. Yeah the picture in the BBC article is clearly a Flanker, but as pointed out, Syria never has operated Flankers before. They do have Fulcrums and Fencers, but that's not in the pic (obviously). This is the image I'd seen screen captured from video... Seems anybody posts whatever photos to their news articles, if you google "Turkey shoots down Syrian" you see pics of MiG-21s, Su-27s, MiG-29s, L-39s, Su-22s, Mi-8s...go figure. Seems the Syrian Fulcrum fleet has gotten more involved...videos have lots of 'Allahu Akhbar' going on as normal, but still impressive imagery. First link is a strafing run pointed right at the camera... https://www.liveleak.com/view?i=b36_1395944414 https://www.liveleak.com/view?i=15e_1396010090

After listening this part was accurate. That wasn't, and I'd been told what I shared. I didn't hear anybody say or do anything. Unless there was some part of the tape that got redacted but it sounds like it's all there. Wonder if there was any question over the approach freq prior to the handoff to tower. Not sure how it could be a deev. Not that it's the transitioning helicopter's fault in any way, but kinda wish he'd said 'why is SWA landing here instead of at Branson?' over the radio. I'm guessing he was focused on his flying. Also wonder why tower didn't visually identify and monitor his incoming aircraft. Kind of hard to believe it's a known area of poor approach control radar service that's also non-radar for the field. Bad combo.

Read it was a MiG-23 that was downed. Curious that a media crew was there to report and show the explosion live.

Spoke to someone in the know about this today - the incident occurred in a known area of poor service/'dead zone' in Springfield Approach's coverage. Apparently the Branson contract tower at the correct intended airport was in fact manned, but had no DBRITE (radar display) in the cab, a non-radar tower-only facility. However the controller on position noticed SWA's going to the wrong airport, was on the tower freq trying to do something about it, and I guess SWA landed where they did anyway...so supposedly the blame went onto the pilot as a pilot deviation. With it being a poor service area maybe it's not so smart to have the tower be non-radar, there are small pattern-only type radars that can be installed to solve thpse issues, but those cost money and at this point I imagine the issue will be fixed with ADS-B or some other NexGen shit.

Wg/CC made GO too.

Went to college with Jason. Awesome.

You mean the ones about to be getting filled with gravel? Those are the efficient ones, and they chose to keep the shitty ones? One thing I've wondered...what went into the decision process to put a missile where. Obviously there were certain parameters/criteria that had to be satisfied, it's just you drive by sites from time to time and wonder "why there?" Example...the one in Monarch, coming back down the hills from Showdown...up in the Little Belts and completely away from much of anything else, next missile (and obvious cluster) is miles away near the Sluice Boxes State Park. Just an odd location. Kind of wonder how the process went too...farmer gets a knock on their door, dudes in suits saying "hey we've surveyed, and we'd like to put this instrument of nuclear death in your field, is that cool?" Just interesting all around.

Huh, well no idea then. Without the tapes I got nothin.