Insubordinate & Churlish

New Belgium Spring Seasonal "Dig" 9/10 Swung by the beer aisle today, just because, and saw that NB has already released their spring seasonal. It's a pale ale called Dig. It's definitely one of my favorite New Belgiums. It's flavor has a lot going on (IMO), which I usually don't like, but this is good stuff.

Wow. Shameful. This is a graduation picture of the newest class of Air Transportation (2T2X1) airman (not loggies, sorry for being a dick Toro). I had my picture taken behind that very same "C-130" four years ago. And I see my instructor in that picture. Again, the "point" is a class graduation photo. You can see their class number in the top left part of the picture. With regards to the casket, I've got no defense for that. Tasteless. I have no clue what the gestures are. With regards to the text, each class is told to come up with something to put at the bottom on the picture. They always seemed to have the common thready of being lazy. My guess: "Da dumpt da dumpt... sucks to be you" strikes me as the sound your bags make as we're slinging them around, and what is subsequently said about those who put expensive crap in soft carry on bags. Big Blue is not repping itself well these days.

I go to school in Illinois aka the only state without concealed carry. I hear students mention not feeling safe if there were people with concealed guns around. It's amazingly simple to shut them up: "Did you feel unsafe when you vacationed in Florida? How about when visiting friends in Michigan, Iowa, Indiana, [insert every other state in the Union here] because there were people carrying there." Might not be flawless logic, but it's worked so far.

I don't pretend to know the full answer, but I know part of it: FAA certification of parts. I worked for a company who produced captive screws. They did pretty well, and are doing good business, even in today's market. The owner said that he had been approached about producing some parts for aircraft, but he declined because the FAA certification process was so long, expensive, and paper-laden.

Never personally owned a plane, but I flew my dad's 140 a lot. His thoughts about aircraft ownership that I learned over time: 1. If you can't afford a hangar, you can't afford the plane. 2. You can't look at the money too hard, because you won't like what you see. He said one night, flying the redeye from LAX to Cincinnati, his mind started to wander and he began calculating the yearly total cost. He said he stopped himself, because from a financial only standpoint, it doesn't make sense to own a plane. To answer your question directly: Radios die, databases need to be updated, tires wear out, and there's always some "other stuff" that you're buying (stuff to clean the windows, a preheater, etc.).

a.) It's 12 months (in the ILANG) before you can draw tuition assistance (called the Illinois Veteran's Grant). b.) "could include a deployment" He's just covering his bases to be safe. I have never met an enlisted guy on my base who has ever been "voluntold" for a deployment. As a matter of fact, the last deployment I went on, we had an alternate list three deep of guys who wanted to go on the trip. We deployed again the next year, same result (a few people on the alternate list). For better or worse, in my experience as a Guard enlisted troop (and not an enlisted aviator), if you don't want to deploy, then you simply don't. And you still get the IVG. And the Select/Reserve GI Bill. These are the facts of my experience.

The Guard unit that I am applying for does not explicitly say "send us TBAS results." Nor do they say anything about a PCSM score. The only numbers they ask for are GPAs, flight hours, and AFOQT scores. Do some units just disregard the TBAS and PCSM?

A year late (to the day) but better late than never... My friend's dad (sitting on L) restored this F-6 (recon variant of the P-51K) "Lil' Margaret" to the condition it was originally flown in by Lt. Col Clyde East (sitting center). You can see the two camera portholes aft of the roundel. Someone in the audience asked him about Olds, and I got this video of his reply. My favorite part of his whole talk went along these lines, when he was talking about flying in the ETO [paraphrased]: East: "Well I was supposed to be doing recon missions, but I got pretty good at dogfights too, and so I became an ace in good time. Well, the squadron commander got kinda mad at me saying that I should be taking pictures, and dogfighting only after the enemy engaged me." [East put on this scheisster smile and then said] "And wouldn't you know it... for the rest of my time in the war, every German I saw attacked me from 6 o'clock high, with the sun at his back..." to the Colonel Oshkosh is a great place...

One of my references today asked me if he should put the letter in a sealed envelope or just give the letter to me. Thoughts?

For those not in the know... SOS Bros Tent at EAA If you don't have a Facebook account, a quick recap: beer and boobs

Not knowing much about said ramp, I googled it. The first return was the Zoo's Wikipedia page. What did someone say about the AF just being a DMV with guns?

Fat Tire 8/10 Because everything the New Belgium Brewing Co. makes is fantastic.

First off, as a fellow Air Transportation airmen, I'm ashamed of SrA. Waite's comments. I don't know of many people in my aerial port with that attitude. We know who hacks the mission and who supports it. Second, his "woe is me attitude" about sucking shit is odd. Fleet servicing is actually a fairly gravy job (poor choice of words) in the aerial port world.

My dad just started building a Waiex. I'm away at college, but hope to help him with the build when I visit home. He went with the Waiex (not sure how he picked between the Sonex and Waiex). He picked the Waiex over the RV-12 simply because the Waiex can do aerobatics. Apparently if you attended the workshop, you can order the tail kit for a discount with free shipping. My dad got a tail kit and figured that, worst comes to worse, if he finishes the tail kit and decides its not for him, he's only $750 in the hole and knows building is for him or not. No doubt, the Waiex isn't much of a looker, especially compared to a RV-12 (the best looking LSA available, IMO). But as mentioned above, Waiex's are relatively affordable and can do some aerobatics, so that sold my dad. First rib completed June 27th:

In Christensen's book "On Combat," he says that soldiers (and police officers) are cut from a different fabric due to their ability to run towards the gun fire while everyone else runs away from it. SSG Peoples is a great example of this.

Amen. Hell, even the Sacramento Kings dancers were fantastic.

To whoever pulled the trigger... :beer: A good commercial made even better:

So there I was... I attended Supervisors Safety Training today, put on by an SNCO from base Safety (at my stateside base). We were talking about PPE, to include reflective belts, so I raise my hand and ask: Me: "Do you know why we need to wear reflective belts in a non-pedestrian area at the Deid? Like around the Bra and transient lodging." Safety SNCO: [deer in headlights look] "Wait.. wha... where?" Me: "The Deid... the U.S. air base in Qatar." Safety SNCO: "Oh, I've never heard of it. Well, the reflective belts are so that cars can see you at night." [so I repeat...] Me: "But transient lodging and the Bra, the socialization area, are open to pedestrians only. There are no cars." Safety SNCO: "Well, in case you go off the someplace else, it'd be easy to forgot to put on your reflective belt." [being a new SSgt., I didn't want to press any more.] What I Learned: -Safety, apparently, knows jack shit about current ops in OIF/OEF. And I'm not talking about an Airman, rather, a SNCO. Safety first, to the extent of forgetting the mission, right boys? -I could not to be trusted to remember to grab a reflective belt when leaving a hypothetical pedestrian-only no reflective belt zone. Fantastic

My worst experience loading an aircraft is: a.) doing EROs on a busy and poorly lit ramp in Iraq? b.) loading at homestation under the supervision of a load on a checkride? c.) blindly spotting myself into AN-12s because the Russians don't give a f***? The correct answer is b. Eval gets those guys very wound up. But that's just my perspective.

"Feel the need for speed?" Top Gun, Digitally Remastered and Rereleased in an AMC theater near you.

Well composed reply. At least ACC 'liked' it!

EAA Website 7 people taken to the hospital for minor injuries. 40-50 planes were damaged Damn Edit:

Appreciate all the info. These are replies to tough questions that many of the applicants like myself have. Hindsight, so if someone were to have a good paying civi job that worked well with the ANG fighter pilot schedule, they would have "fixed" many of the issues you're addressing above? Thus they would be able to focus on not f'ing up in the jet instead of worrying about putting food on the table for their family every month? Just looking for clarification.

I know that there are definitely many advantages to an EFB, but... My knee jerk reaction is that paper charts don't freeze up, have software issues, lose a charge, lose the ability to hold a charge, have dead pixels, etc. How have these issues been overcome in the operational world? (I don't fly enough outside of a civilian flight training program, so I plead ignorance as to how the real world flying is.) Carrying around spare charts as a backup means you have only solved the problem halfway (faster ability to call up a chart, but now you're paying for and carrying around two different methods. It'd be like the paperless Air Force's online 623s. "We log all your training online! But keep filling out your 623 folder manually too just in case.").

Gunfighter has always been my favorite P-51. Now I like it even more! Any more where that came from? And my contribution: