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tac airlifter

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Posts posted by tac airlifter

  1. I think you make an interesting point, but I don't believe the hyper-realistic artistic style of the sculpture falls within the realm of modernism/post-modernism. In presenting a brutal reality in a larger than life scale, the artist is essentially challenging the viewer to confront the question of whether the institutions of civilization and society have corrupted the viewer's ability to judge a true representation of human form as pleasing/acceptable or uncomfortable/unacceptable, and have we been conditioned to view these things through a lens of popular culture biases. It's also challenging to do as Rainman says, and not think about it, which is really the only way to determine if you can appreciate the work in your purest of mind, free of external influences.

    Me? I'm corrupted.

    Just as tactics and strategy are different, style and substance are also different. The style, mechanics or technique are not the definition of modernism or post-modernism. The substance, or mentality of approaching art and creation fundamentally changed away from classicalism; and it's this schism I refer to. The idea of successful art forcing the viewer to question some aspect of themselves or their own assumptions is inherently a product of modernism. This differs significantly from the classical approach of telling the viewer something and judging it's own success by the ability to convey the artists intent to the viewer visually. At the heart of modernism is the concept that "good art" cannot be quantified whereas the classical artist is judged on his ability to express his thoughts to the viewer. This is why modern artists argue that there is no real definition of art, whereas those schooled classically will respond that art is an image which expresses an emotion (or intellectual idea). Not that modernism and classicalism are the only two schools out there! But the idea of modernism forcing the viewer to question something and thereby become "enlightened" was off putting enough that I had to enter this absurdly off track bitch fest to have my say.

  2. You're not supposed to think anything.

    Therein lies the crux of conflict between classical and modern/post-modern thinking regarding the arts. Feel free to carry on with the drama contest, but I simply can't abide the notion that artistic enlightenment can be attained by asking questions instead of providing answers.

  3. Haha definitely got ninjaed the LOC for not watering my backyard. Yeah, that e-mail threatening people about this? DEFINITELY made it to us AFTER we got the LOCs (this and more went into my rebuttal MFR). And yeah, the general reaction to this is WTF!?

    My front-yard looks nice :)

    You guys were given an LOC for not cutting your grass? Was it that bad, or is this just mistaken leadership priorities?

  4. I'm not one to make a mountain out of a molehill, but this looks exactly like a dry run. If you're a terrorist, how else do you practice? Maybe these guys were simply told what to carry through customs so someone else could gage the responses and timing. Who knows. But chances are high that this was not simply some innocent dudes who happen to tape cell phones together when they travel. I think that is the least likely scenario.

  5. Now, now. If he's humming along while thinking of HER, then no. If he's actually singing the lyrics? Yes.

    Exactly. Who wouldn't be humming along with a hot chick asking someone to fuck her? And Mike Honcho, feel free to PM me if you're ever around Hurlburt and we can continue your conversation in person.

  6. Agreed. JTACs are good at what they do but they're not super men. I can see it now...

    "Oh, so you not only want me to insert by helo at night in the mountains, hump it in for several km, run the stack, give weapons clearances, dodge bullets, and return fire, now I have to strap on this HUD, control a ball/pod, push the fire button, and sit there and lase the weapon on target? YGBSM."

    I can see in some situations where there would be a JTAC on the ground in a relatively calm infil and a UAV overhead loaded out with tons of weapons and you just have him do the target designating instead of having to talk on to coords over sh*tty satcom to some guy back in Vegas, but CAS isn't exactly a walk in the park and to lump in sensor work and weapons release/lasing from the air into the skill set of a dude who's already got a lot going on doesn't make sense to me.

    Yea, what a terrible idea. It's already hard enough for us to do this right, how can anyone expect a guy on the ground facing those additional myraid of difficulties to do a better job? Just because the technological capability exists, doesn't mean it's a good idea in practice.

  7. Just returned from Bagram, and I thought it was the easiest deployment I've ever had in terms of queep. Not one word was said to me about my rolled up sleeves or civilian jacket with my flight suit. I didn't wear AF PT gear the entire time. Sorry to hear about that one guy, but for my boss mission was definitely the number one priority and nothing else mattered.

  8. TF. Touchy Feely about someone else doing something remotely like your job?

    We get it. No one does TF like T2s. But you can still miss rocks by seeing them with the M1 eyeball too.

    FF

    I'm not a T2 guy or even a 130 guy now. But if you don't understand exactly what the language means then you lack the overall understanding of what asset brings what capability to the fight. If you want to be taken seriously when talking to other communities, expecially in joint ops, then you need to use the right language.

  9. Terrain Following is WHAT you'r doing with the airplane. The radar is HOW you'r doing it.

    See the difference?

    I don't mean to be rude, but how much LL experience do you have? You can't fly a route aggressively enough visually to do the same thing with an aircraft that a T2 guy with TF does. Modified contour is what you're describing.

  10. You guys might be using the language differently. You certainly do need a TF radar to do true TF. If you don't have the actual radar then you're just doing what slicks do: modified contour. You can "follow the terrain" visually and calculate your own start climb points/turning radius on a chart, etc. and the actual flight profile will follow the terrain. But that isn't the same as what the T2 guys do.

  11. I had thought it was the 53d, since they've only got that one (or is it two now) airplane on the ramp.

    The 53rd uses everyone elses aircraft, so the number of tails with "53" written on them is irrelevant. The 61, 50, and 53 are all dual H3/E qual'd and use each others birds. The 53rd was not replaced by the 41st, the 41st was deactivated at pope and stood up at LRF as a J squadron, whereas the 53rd was deactivated as an AETC squadron and stood up immediately after as an AMC squadron with initial cadre from the 61/50th.

  12. Your little rant here makes you sound like the ugly girl at the prom talking about what "bitches" the pretty girls are...don't stop, though - it's entertaining. Anywho, I imagine there are plenty of post-1950 airplanes out there whose newfangled "computers" and "avionics" are MEL items. But hey, I get it...you're the Herk guy.

    Great retort, but you lose cool points when it takes three years for your comeback.

    • Upvote 2
  13. Has anyone used the Trijicon RMR sight? I'm looking at getting it (or something like it if there's a better or cheaper option) for my M4 style rifle and was just curious if anyone had any experience with it compared to the traditional Aimpoint style red dot.

    I haven't used that particular sight but I've used the reflex and I'm currently running the trijicon tripower on my LMT piston MRP. It's a good sight and trijicon makes a good product, but were I to do it over again I'd spend the extra couple hundred for a good aimpoint (have one on another gun, love it). These style sights (fiberoptic lit) are great in theory but have a few problems in execution. The reticle is really bright when outside, even under cover; however, if you are looking at something really bright and shooting from cover (think every covered range you've ever used) the washout starts to be a problem. The tripower is great at night though, because you can turn it on and it will be as bright as any aimpoint. The reflex (and this is similar) is pretty useless at night. These sights are designed as a supplement to iron sights, not a replacement the way Aimpoint/EOtech are.

    Bottom line, I'd pass on this product. For a little more you'll get an aimpoint or similar lit optic and be happier (I also have both an aimpoint and EOtech). Battery life is very long for quality optics and washout won't be an issue. You won't have to worry about how bright the reticle will be on various objects.

    FWIW, I'd also pass on the dr optic/ACOG combo above. I'd love the ACOG if I were shot down in OEF because engaging targets at 300m would be a realistic possibility, in fact that's what is on my issue M4 (minus dr. optic). But for plinking or home defense or competition in the states I don't really use magnification. Just my preference, but it's a very expensive set up. Still cool though, just not worth the price to me personally.

  14. you don't chase shoplifters in retail... i've worked for a big box electronics store. Try and prevent them from getting out the door anyway shape or form, but then be ready to file a report, the police do a damn good job of getting them if you did your part to get a description. Probably can even tackle them inside the store, but once they are out the door, file a good report and let it go. These companies are prepared to deal with shoplifting losses. It happens at least once a week at most stores, you try to minimize it, and awards are given to stores that lower the amount they have stolen, but the corporate headquarters knows there will be losses due to theft. Not worth an employee getting hurt over the merchandise. It's just merchandise.

    Don't you find that logic inconsistant? It's ok to tackle a guy in the store but you'll get fired if you chase him out the door? Employees have the potential to be hurt over merchandise inside and outside. Also, in their off time at another store? Seems like Sprint is reaching for authority it shouldn't have. These guys are private citizens and shouldn't be beholden to corporate policy when they aren't on the clock. Something is fundamentally broken with any system that rewards and encourages people to be pussies and punishes them when they take a risk to help others.

  15. Yes, that was a serious question.

    I ask because the answer is not at all obvious to me and instead of ripping the herbivore community I thought I'd get me some edumacation on why it is so important to practice landing and flying instrument approaches to "strange" fields." It just doesn't seem like it should be a big deal.

    Cool with me if you don't want to answer.

    Great question, as someone who has led OST trainers to about 100 different fields (in addition to operational missions) I feel I can provide a good answer. First let me say that I totally understand why the hardship of going many places seems like a non-issue to those who haven't done it. But once you start dealing with every variable you may have on a single flight the amount of knowledge and skills to master becomes apparent. What are the variables? In no particular order: climb gradient, obstacles (including low close in that need to be visually identified) runway markings (including asphalt/pavement combo's producing visual illusions), and as for visual illusions there's also slope and even runways that turn a little (although admittedly I've only seen this on dirt strips), a vast array of different approach types and markings (more on this later) and then PA, weather anomalies, weight and balance variations (PCN) local restrictions (in GIANT report) and localisms like traffic (trust me, locals in the backwoods of Utah can get weird). If this doesn't sound like any big deal, let me tell you that every single pilot who I instructed that cross flowed from another platform has at some point become completely overwhelmed by the mass of variables one must account for and master to do the air land mission successfully.

    Spoo, you mentioned you've never flown a full PT for real. Well, it's common for airlift dudes to need that skill on short notice. First Jeppsen approach I'd ever seen was a NDB full PT into Jordan without radar and down to min's (NDB being the only approach available). Mission can't stop or slow so the pilot can take their time examining the approach; you get handed a pile of shit you weren't expecting and have to be good enough to make it work right now. Conceptually, that's true for every type of mission (I don't fly airlift anymore, so I have another perspective now) but I really think it's under appreciated by people outside airlift.

    Also, let's talk about PA. Landing a heavyweight aircraft at sea level and 8000' is very different and when time is critical, one must be prepared to quickly and accurately examine TOLD and account for complexities. I've done both (sea level and 8k' PA) in training and operationally on the same mission. I did a lot of OST's in the -130 world and pushed us hard because when the time comes downrange I want myself and my students to perform like rock stars no questions asked no matter what weird shit is thrown our way. A lot of guys don't appreciate the many wind and cloud variables that a pilot can run afoul of until they've done a lot of LL's in the mountains. I don't want someone f'n up a mission into Salerno when they can practice at Gunnison.

    I mentioned visual illusions; they really can get pretty bad. When your mind is concentrating on keeping track of a lot of stuff, including 8 different ICAO approaches and controllers who may or may not be proficient in English, suddenly guys find themselves on final and it doesn't look like what they expect so they carry some power and land a little long. Except this runway is only 5000' so they're screwed. I know, I know, guys reading this will laugh at how dumb air lifters can be. All I can say is that good pilots have burned the brakes and the plane trying to make the impossible work because they were saturated with difficulties of the "new." Think of all the fighters that have crashed into each other doing complex air-to-air. Dudes are focused and easy things become hard, it happens to us all. That's why we practice.

    As for instrument procedures and what makes one harder than the other; man, just pull out a FLIP and ask yourself if you can fly 5 random approaches with no prep time, full PT and no radar in mountainous terrain to short fields at minimums with all the additional complexities of crew and mission and timeline on top of it (not to mention an enemy that knows airlift is a soft target); and in the -130 you've got about a 10% chance you'll be IFE at the same time for one reason or another. If you can do it no sweat, then I applaud you. But from experience I think it's a difficult task for any aviator to handle and only guys who practice and train to a high standard do it well.

    It's interesting for me now in a squadron with fighter and bomber and airlift and tanker guys. The truth is none of us are better than the others as a community, and each of our (old) missions have hard things that outsiders don't understand to be hard. The discriminator between good pilots and bad ones is not what they tracked out of UPT, the discriminator is who really tries hard to be good and works tirelessly to be good and holds themselves to a high personal standard.

    Airlift guys practice OST's at different sites because it really is a hard skill to go into vastly different circumstances multiple times in a single mission. You can only think so fast and process so much at a given moment; sometimes I'd do missions where I was at cruise at 20,000' for 3 hours and had time. Mostly I'd hit 7k' on climb out and immediatly be in the descent for some random spot with half the runway closed, a sandstorm blowing in, radios being jammed, something leaking out of the #2 and dudes barfing in the back. Hope this answers the questions, cheers to all.

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