Springer

RF-4C 1. Ops tempo: Outstanding. Best kept secret. Basically a flying club. As a 1Lt it's your airplane with great responsibility; "All we ask is bring it back in one piece." Flying is mostly low level single ship to where ever YOU and your WSO decide to go that day. Not flying, review your film from previous day, do a tour in the RSU, perhaps a little studying in the vault, shelf check at the BX. TDY's and deployments minimal and considered a good deal. AAR training every couple of months. Night AAR is always scheduled with a full moon. If stationed in Germany always save a little fuel for the fur ball with whomever is trolling along the Rhine. 2. LIfestyle/family: Could not be better. Home every day by 5. No working weekends. If stationed in Germany most have a rental Swiss chalet for the winter skiing months. 3. Community morale: Excellent. Surprising amount of fellow pilots UPT DG's. Some turned down fighters to fly Recce. Everyone works and pulls together. 4. Advancement & Future of Airframe: Terrible, once Recce always Recce according to MPC although I managed a 4 yr OA-37 assignment to DM. (another flying club). NO future dedicated manned Recce airframes. 5. Preferred PCS locations: Zweibrucken, Alconbury, Bergstrom. Oh crap, just got up from a nap. Dreaming it was 1977 and not 2017! Sorry guys, you missed a great time in the AF. 10 years AD then off to a legacy airline.

Been away for a while. Hope you all bought the airlines as suggested and made a ton. EXAS is my current trade of choice although I still day trade UAL, AAL, DAL and even GPRO (not for the faint of heart) for lunch money. Cologuard is the product. Approved by the FDA and Medicare in October. Test for colon cancer thru DNA in stool sample. Much better than the FIT test. Great for those that are reluctant to have a colonoscopy. That should not apply to any one here. Do the colonoscopy by age 50 or you may die like my F-4 buddy and sis-in-law. PT of $32 but as it ramps up this year it is thought to go much higher. Do your research.

I used my Congressman. I was flying in a Maple Flag exercise when I got the word....was out the next week.

Was day trading up until DAL earnings today. Very positive and even better year end forecast. AAL and other airlines earnings tomorrow expected to duplicate DAL's. Posible new highs for both in the coming weeks.

:-( If you have the stomach for it day trade the airlines, specifically AAL. Stay away from UAL. Long term, DAL. MU has been a huge money maker for many. Still some life left in it with PT around $40.

If you purchased MU options a year ago you would be a millionaire now. Sold my DAL today.

By the time he was in college I had moved on to doing that with Flt Atts on my layovers.

I went to the University of Hawaii on a sailing scholarship, 2 yr AFROTC, flew fighters for 11 yrs, retired early from a major airline after 24. I always wondered if I #$%* up my life by not going to the Academy.

Here is a 49 ship formation over Kansas from a few days ago. A great percentage were civilians.

Article found on November 1 Drudge Report: http://www.wnd.com/2013/10/top-generals-obama-is-purging-the-military/ “There is no doubt he (Obama) is intent on emasculating the military and will fire anyone who disagrees with him” over such issues as “homosexuals, women in foxholes, the Obama sequester,” Brady told WND.They are purging everyone, and if you want to keep your job, just keep your mouth shut,” one source told WND. Not only are military service members being demoralized and the ranks’ overall readiness being reduced by the Obama administration’s purge of key leaders, colonels – those lined up in rank to replace outgoing generals – are quietly taking their careers in other directions. Retired Army Lt. Gen. William G. “Jerry” Boykin, who was with Delta Force and later Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence under President George W. Bush, says it is worrying that four-star generals are being retired at the rate that has occurred under Obama. “Over the past three years, it is unprecedented for the number of four-star generals to be relieved of duty, and not necessarily relieved for cause,” Boykin said. “I believe there is a purging of the military,” he said. “The problem is worse than we have ever seen.” Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2013/10/top-generals-obama-is-purging-the-military/#2zzumLYvY0j38ieZ.99

+1 for Dan's Toy Shop Whatever you do NOT take it to Brake Masters. Sis got stranded on x-country drive after brakes were replaced. Stripped studs.

Buy one? Get hired by an airline and fly over there free in business class.

F-4 WSO buddy did the same thing which led to a distinguished AF career. Ended up becoming an AF judge and was the chief investigating officer in the AWACS shoot down, Ron Brown's T-43 crash, and the Khobar Towers bombing.

Actually he was an airline pilot until my airline (a US major) fired him for stealing $156,000 of our merger funds...he was the treasurer, go figure. Spent a year in jail, then some heard he was flying for Korean AL but got caught and moved on until he surfaced recently.

Guess I need to get out more. Have lived in Tucson for the last 30 years and have never heard of her.

Cost might be lower with an experimental. I owned an RV-4 for 22 years and although I help build it I was not the builder of record, hence annuals vs condition inspection. I kept it simple, day VFR with a fix pitch prop. At annual time I did the oil/brake/tire changes and removed the access panels. Simple plane kept the annuals under $500. Hanger rent was my largest monthly expense. Insurance was under $1000/yr.

ired I had min time from the hours I acquired thru ROTC. Prior to that I was in a light airplane only once and quite frankly it scared the crap out of me. Add the time I got to peer into a F-4 cockpit and thinking "no f*cking way I could ever do this," I was pretty intimidated about the idea of going to UPT. I was a surfer dude barely making it thru the U of Hawaii. No preconceived notion of what I wanted to fly, just hoping to graduate. I was the most unlikely candidate to be a DG and go on to fly F-4s. As previously stated, it's all about attitude, setting high standards and most important of all, building confidence in yourself.

In the pic of the of the two crew members, the guy in the front is a/c Ed Yeilding. He holds the transcon speed record, LA to Wash DC. I believe he retired from NWA last year.

Guys, whatever you are flying, enjoy it, make the most of it. Never, ever thought I would tire of flying but sold my RV-4 yesterday at age 60+. That after a commercial airline career and a recce/FAC puke before that. First time without a 'ride' in 39 years. I was one of the lucky ones, right time, right place. I know the AF bs is tough to put up with and I left in part because of it, but don't even think about going commercial unless the majors open up hiring in a big way which I predict will not happen for some time. I commuted during the good times and would not even consider it today.

I was stationed at Bergstrom during those trying years. The ops scheduling board bleed red with all the MND's. My Recce wing suffered two Class A accidents resulting in the newly acquired Wing/CC being fired. Including the FAC wing across the street, Bergstrom had the highest DOS rate in the AF...me included.

Years past we drove to Grindelwald/Grund (14 km S of Interlaken) and took the cog train to Kleine Scheidegg, ski down to Brandegg for lunch then take the cog train back to Kleine Scheidegg and do it all over. I was hiking there last month and see new lifts being installed for expanded skiing. In my day, 5 sqd mates would rent a chalet in Wilderwil (2 km S of Interlaken) for the winter skiing season.

A buddy of mine is bringing it to the show. He will be parking it next to his RV-8 at the request of the EAA. Only American test pilot at Airbus. Also retired AF RF-4/F-16 driver.

After going from the AF to the airlines have to say the airline I was with had it all over the AF wrt attitude in training, evaluations, and operations.

A classmate and I moved off base into a great apartment complex (think bikinis, water volleyball, daiquiris) as a way of dealing with the long days, stress if you want to call it that. Sorry for the thread creep. Read the whole thread on "Doc." We all start as equals in UPT; always wonder what makes someone turn into a dickhead.

Actually been there done that some 36 years ago. Had a great time in UPT (Willie). Second best assignment only preceded by my European tour.