Fozzy Bear

What is the runway length for an intersection takeoff from taxiway Charlie?

Right Start, in all its glory, will now be administered in the form of "Right Finish". You do it all over again before redeploying. CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Hmmm, three beers a day, or mojitos flowing like the Amazon - sounds like fun.

Over Iraq in the Tanker, part of the leading edge of our left wing started coming off. Like a three foot section of metal flapping in the wind. After a lot of cussing within the cockpit, and finally convincing two F-16s to get away from my boom, Us to C2: Yeah, we'd like to declare an emergency. We have a structural issue and need direct... C2: OK, understand emergency, can you still refuel Viper 17? Me: Uh, no, we have a structural issue and have cleared them off C2: OK, well, I need you [to go over here] to meet up with Viper 19 Me: What? No, we are an emergency with a structural issue and cannot refuel anyone! C2: You're saying you can't refuel anyone? Me: AFFIRM! C2: OK, I copy. I'm just going to need you to consolidate into a KC-10, OK? I came so close to just saying, "SUURE!"

To all operating in this area: It doesn't matter if you have an airfield diagram, because this place isn't marked correctly - on purpose, actually, but that's another discussion. Don't trust what you have. It's out of date or illegal, pretty much no matter what you have. Unless someone in your jet has been here very recently and you trust them, roll to the end and do not move until you have a follow me (not progressive). We're training locals in the tower, but the troops up there right now are actually good, so use plain English to explain the situation. Saying KC-135 over the air is better than having to be towed out of somewhere you're not supposed to be. Like the dunes around us, this place is always changing, and a lot of it isn't visible from the tower. Ask for the Ops freq for your respective airframe - tower will have it, then you can talk more freely to your kind of people. Al Dhafra doesn't even have legal approach plates. Trying to redo the divert stuff here, I had to just get an email from them and print out "new" plates and diagrams/ no dates. It's not in the FLIP, but you guys knew that already. Manas guys, sorry bros, we're working hard to get better, but yes, we are re-inventing the wheel, one brand new captain after another. It sucks. The waiting for trans, yeah, I do that every day for an entire deployment; sometimes up to an hour.

OK, well, those multi-belt concoctions in the above post, and even the vests, are slowly making there way around the Deid. Some guys I met in the smoke pit (won't get into how funny it is, in the middle of a thousand acre ashtray, to have to seek out a smoke pit) have had the policy in their unit become reflector belts on all backpacks as well. Anywhere in the world, you could make a remark about chopped chicken, and the guys who laugh are the one's that've been here. Well, as of manana, there will be no more chopped chicken served. At all, evidently. No clue why, but the news ruined pasta day. Almost forgot: When in anything other than PT gear - no sock hats allowed - according to our first shirt. So, when I'm waiting for an hour in 40 degrees on the flightline...

Wow, God. Please, try a little harder to get a good deal ruined and a bunch of good people in trouble.

They are mandatory... but you can still get by without them just fine. If you are coming to the Deid soon, bring lots of CASH to avoid finance all together - like 200 bucks for each month you're gonna be here.

Yeah, they said that when I cancelled both, but was fed up with the whole thing.

I signed up at Laughlin during UPT. Not only did the interest rate suck, but they charged the 12 dollars a month in dues to the card as well. Kind of a weird surprise. I was really all for becoming a member to support the O'Club, until I joined the AF and realized there's only like 4 worth going to. What really kills me is when they talk about losing money, but most of the money generated at the bar (which should go back INTO making the bar better) gets siphoned off to dumbass programs that have nothing to do with me. That may be narrow-minded, but I figured I was allowed to be, since we're paying for it. Will never be a member again.

Yeah, I've been bugging classmates who are back at Laughlin instructing. They aren't spilling. I kinda figured it was a CT sortie since there was only two guys onboard. Either that, or a Nav check.

Good selection of clothes. Buy good running shoes from home - crap selection here. Socks too, bring plenty. Buy laptop at home and DO NOT LET COMM TOUCH IT!! Great selection of beef jerky, though!

Yeah, so, I left in Feb and am back here again, and there is no change to the permanent cadillacs - there hasn't been one dude working on them since I git here two weeks ago. On a positive note, the cookies in the chow hall cure cancer.

Gas Man, sounds like you were in an exercise or something, and we've been told in the last couple I did that we weren't eligible if there were MREs available.

Joining you out there this week, on my fourth trip. Anything changed dramatically since a couple months ago? They aren't out of Skoal or anything, are they?

Did I miss it or do we still not know what happened?

You clearly have never flown the T-6. We baby the hell out of her, and she's still gonna fall apart in 10 years.

All buses go to CC, so it's the "OpsTown" bus, but after crews were stranded and being picked up by the people meant to be manning the Ops desk (and a shitton of complaints all around) we've gotten back to 3 buses an hour. Still sucks. I don't mind too bad since I'm outta here in 28 hours! Course, I'll be back here in about a month and a half.

MV is effing huge. I took a nice long trip thru there when I fell asleep on my 1.5 hour bus ride, missed the stop. Without telling anyone, they changed the bus schedules; no posts, no emails sent. They expanded the route to include MV, but decreased the number of buses! Oh, and after midnight, there's only ONE bus running around the complex - to OpsTown (CAOC still has several, to service the three people who work there who don't have their own vehicle.) The bus is supposed to return every 40 minutes; has been taking even longer. This is great considering we rely on the bus to go fly, no personal pickup for tanker guys.

With most personnel remaining in the main part of CC, are they just building a new BX/ Dining Hall, etc. for MV, or are they closing the current ones? They're gutting the bx right now, and it is a temporary building, but there is no way they'd make us go all the way to MV to get more gum and cigs, right?

That was my first thought - Dude, you're being photographed. Look the part as best you can in the accountant's 2 piece, please. BTW, new LT Nav wanted to look sharp for a sq pic and bought a new flightcap, one that really stood out - not til we got outside did someone point out it was a GO's cap.

I'm curious about other jets, but in the 135, I don't HAVE TO put the gusts into the box - I have to account for them. Putting them into the box is the safe bet, but it's rarely a 'steady' gust, so I just enter the steady state winds and on "clear for T/O", I tack on the gusts to all FLYING AIRSPEEDS. I had my annual check a few days after my buddy hooked on that no notice and my EP debriefed me that though I was right, go ahead and stick it in the box on a checkride.

MUD... everywhere. It's cold as hell and rainy. Millenium village opens this Friday. First in are aircrew here for 179 days or more, and others here a long deployment/ PCS. I think Bones are like the first in. I THINK.

Though many of our booms would have caught it, I don't think you [the boom] can be hooked for "pilot" specific stuff. You have to know the clearance, but not all the rules associated. I have to know the "bat" should be out, but if you say it's out and it's actually in... a pilot and co didn't hook when the boom in fact did for that, at McConnell.

Things guys in my recent (in)experience have hooked for in the 135: Running off the runway, hooked by acting sq/cc at deployed location: BIG deal No Notice checkride; he (a copilot) didn't back up the AC by letting him know gusts were added to the winds called by tower as they were taking the active - both he and the AC hooked (EP in the jumpseat). Lack of SA on the AC... another story. The fact the Co heard the winds and didn't do anything pissed the EP off more, I think. Bad on him and he's bounced back and I don't think it will even disrupt his AC upgrade, since he was a young co at the time. As a copilot, I wouldn't be that worried about it. We get a lot of no notices in the 135 - pretty much you treat every ride with an EP as one anyway - we're graded on every ride like it's UPT (depending on the unit) with the new MPD/ first pilot/ PIQ/ dual qualed/ inhouse upgrade system, and since EPs can hook you at any time for anything... Boom hit it on the head, though I don't feel "threatened" by that possibility. Third recent example was a hook for landing on the wrong runway - called out after the fact. Pretty big deal, I think.