gearhog
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Posts posted by gearhog
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6 hours ago, jazzdude said:
And yet pretty much no one volunteers for AFPAK Hands... Which is focused on building up those 2 countries for the long term so we don't have to be there.
Talk is cheap. Someone eventually has to pay the bill.Exactly. You've paid more than your fair share of the bill and I've paid mine, as well as most of the people on this forum. When I read "we" should be staying continuously engaged in Syria, it seems "you" is implied. Some people are tired of being threatened with the worst possible outcome being realized if we suddenly end our 18+ year subscription to the Middle East Clusterf^&* Vacation Club. There's war when we're present, there will be war when we're absent. If Russia and Turkey want to wear that anchor around their neck for a change, good.
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Edited by torqued
34 minutes ago, raimius said:Well, the SDF's PR campaign has definitely started:
He seems like a reasonable guy concerned about the welfare of people and families.
Perhaps he could start building the refugee camp for the 3.5 million Syrian refugees Turkey is about to move back into Syria.
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There was an article on Drudge yesterday (not seeing it today) interviewing one of the ship based radar dudes involved in this incident and others. He says after upgrading the ships' radars with a new technology/capability, they're seeing these things often. 80K feet down to the surface in a matter of seconds and back up. At first, they thought it was a glitch in the new tech, but what they're seeing on radar is corroborated by pilots.
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Edited by torqued
Yeah, I know... (eyeroll).
I don't believe, I don't not believe, I've never seen anything. I just don't know and don't spend much time thinking about it.
However, I watched the latest JRE podcast this morning and I had never heard of this guy.
If I want to hear a UFO story, I want to hear it from a pilot. Cmdr. David Fravor tells an amazing one.
EDIT: This is just the first part of the podcast. The full podcast is pretty good if you have almost 2 hours.
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5 hours ago, propflux said:
His attorney, Jeremiah “Jake” Denton IV, declined to comment.
Anyone else notice this? Grandson?
Need to watch the trial to see if he blinks Morse Code for "G-U-I-L-T-Y".
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Another tanker seized. We're clearly being provoked. My guess is they're hoping to trigger a political/economic crisis in the West and are willing to risk conflict to achieve it.
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10 hours ago, Stoker said:
The issue in question isn't really about the President or the resort (though, of course, that's all anyone cares about). My wild guess as to the hustle going on is that the airport is paying for the rooms/hospitality at Turnberry in the hopes of attracting big-ticket fuel purchases. If the fuel cost an extra $.50 a gallon over what DoD would have paid at a different airport, a good deal for the aircrew turns into a $25,000 hit to the taxpayers. It's kind of similar to the Fat Leonard scandal the Navy just put a bunch of folks in prison for (but likely a lot harder to prove any wrongdoing on the Air Force's part, because we can just say "operational necessity").
That is a wild guess, and wildly inaccurate. As I've said, I've been visiting Prestwick Aviation for 17 years and those folks are on the up and up. Contract fuel prices are set. Lodging and perdiem rates are set. The Turnberry was only offered when it was the only accommodation available. Do you know of an alternative airport that meets all the requirements of transiting military aircraft, crew, and pax with fuel prices 50 cents less? I challenge you to find it. There's quite a bit more to RON planning than the price of fuel. If you've ever been deployed and are looking to save $25K of taxpayer money in Scotland, you're looking in the wrong place.
If an FBO/hotel provides a great experience while conducting business within the government rules and government rates, how is that a hustle? That's just good business. This is no Fat Leonard, just another instance of politicians throwing shit against the White House walls hoping something sticks.
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9 hours ago, Standby said:
Resistance is futile, the future is here. I'm not senior enough to have an aid (AIDS is different, recently got educated on that through green dot training) but if someone wants to log 69+ ORM cuts a day for the remainder of my time in the seat, I'll give you like...a couple bucks or something. I have done that in the past, but performing a manual input and parsing that amount of data isn't feasible.
For the haters...I guess be glad you have your current system and don't need to endure the shittiness that will be inflicted upon the squadron.
Not hating, I know you're just doing you're supposed to. I'm just fatigued with leadership's fascination with and addiction to electronic data collection, be it ORM, MICT, GTIMS, PEX, ASIMS, surveys, etc, etc, etc. All so they can walk over to HQ and present it to more senior leadership in hopes of an "Attaboy!" from people who pretend to be interested in it for 30 sec during a staff meeting. Let's face facts, none of this changes anything for the flyers. We've never cancelled for an ORM score at step time, we're just told to be "extra safe."
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Trigger Warning: Unpopular old-guy opinion ahead. 😁
Our ORM sheet is the last remaining untechnologified step in the administrivia process before we head out the door to the aircraft. 5 people can pick up a pencil and scribble a completely subjective number in about 30 seconds without requiring 5 individual logins with certificate-less CACs, computers attempting to connect, and a slow, if not stopped, network.
Please don't take that from us.
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Edited by torqued
I stayed at the Turnberry last year. I've been stopping in Prestwick to/from deployments since 2002. We just tell the FBO when and how many people, and they make the arrangements. Last year we arrived right after a snow/ice storm that shut most of the major freeways for days. All of the hotels in Ayre (our usual location) and Glasgow were booked. The Turnberry, an hour drive away, had enthusiastically agreed to give us the government rate. The hotel itself was absolutely incredible and the staff thanked us profusely for our service. The bartender let us sample some of the local Scotch whiskeys. It was too cold for golf, but we toured the course which was an old WWII pilot training base, and some of the old runways/taxiways still exist on the course. The hotel called in a bagpiper to play us out the door as we departed for the sandbox at 5am. It was one of the best deployment sendoffs ever. There was nothing to it other than it was the only place with rooms available at the government rate, and the FBO was proud to have found a place that they thought we would enjoy. The media and politicians are idiots.
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Edited by torqued
5 hours ago, pawnman said:That's why I refuse to use EFBs and only carry paper TOs everywhere. Kids today are so spoiled...🙄
LOL. I knew that would get a response.
The less inflammatory thought I opted not to post was that the cognitive processes required to visualize whatever you're trying to study yield better overall results than if the visuals are instead simulated for you, in front of you.
I think the VR stuff is a great addition to training, but it seems a few might believe it is meant as a substitute, a la downloading Kung Fu directly to your brain via the matrix. Maybe entire training programs should not be built around it, but who cares, technology is neat-O.
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7 hours ago, Springer said:
Ayz33, don't sell short Homstar's remarks about chair flying. I locked myself in a room and chair flew each and every flight for hours while classmates were out playing water volleyball.
Some are always looking for a way to shortcut the process. It takes far more effort, discipline, focus, and time to put yourself through the visual learning process inside your mind than it does to rely on the visuals generated by a piece of technology in front of your face.
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Edited by torqued
17 hours ago, Bender said:- Perhaps the disconnect is to think PTN (with its low pilot production) is intended to be a pilot training syllabus.
- While FTUs and operational units will see and “have to deal” with a handful of pilots trained their way, it was, is, and will continue to be nothing much more than an experimental ground for innovation (built ala the framework of the Innovator’s Dilemma).
- PTN has never been exportable to UPT as a whole and has not, is not, and does not plan to try to make itself wholesale exportable...goes against the point what what is going on there in a lot of ways.
- There isn’t any mystery that VR (in its current form) cannot replace the aircraft...in fact some of the UPT innovation flights have seemingly set out to prove it. In some cases, the position straight to the top of AETC is quite the opposite...more experience is needed to compensate for observed deficiencies.
- Personally, my experience shows VR provides negative physical flying training (in its current state), which must be overcome by exposure to the aircraft.
- I feel quite the opposite about the tool from the mental perspective, although that is also grossly tarnished by the huge limitations in the tools control input/response and avionics interface(s).
What exactly is it you're defending?
Because you're doing a way better job criticizing PTN than anyone else.
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6 hours ago, SocialD said:
That was some downright scary reading... Too many gems in there to copy and past, here are a few that stuck out.
Let the record show
W. SHANE COHEN, Colonel, USAF539 Military Judge
...is a badass.
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3 hours ago, TreeA10 said:
Claimed an Art 15 kill on a Captain class SRO for cheating on one of my tests.
Back in my day, IPs used to give test answers to the hot female students to claim a kill.
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7 minutes ago, herkbum said:
This one needed a little fire fighting of its own.
Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile appDamn. Google says it’s a 1957ish model. It’s had a good run.
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45 minutes ago, Walkerdubs said:
Why is that? I get they aren’t mission critical per se but the history of a wing or squadron would be the center of its morale wouldn’t it?
Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile appNot if the current AF policies stand in direct contradiction to the history, traditions, and culture of the past.
Reference: the PC witch hunt a few years back/removal of anything deemed offensive.
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4 hours ago, Orbit said:
So you are saying that we need to change the rules so the queep stops crushing good things that people enjoy. Might make a small difference with the upward trend in suicides.
There's a quote that goes something like "A life without risk is no life at all." How many Air Force programs and policies that are aimed at reducing risk are making us miserable?
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B-17 crash at Bradley Intl
in General Discussion
Yes, it does. Very sad.