EXACTLY!

(Written on 2021年 07月 09日)(Permalink)

Sounds like John Kerry, who thinks that,"A private jet is really the only option for a person like me."

(Written on 2021年 07月 09日)(Permalink)

When you're a copilot you have to (sort of) please the captain regardless of what he or she flew before the airline. It makes for a more pleasant trip.

(Written on 2021年 06月 16日)(Permalink)

Don't know what caliber it was - the tracers looked fairly large, could have been 20mm, but it was up about 1,000 on the mountainside - could have been a .51 Russian AA gun. The gun was directly in line with the runway, so there was no "leading" the target. They were simply firing directly at the F-4's as they were cleaning up in their initial climb before turning to the right to avoid the mountain and proceeding out over the water. It was a clear day about 1300 or so. I wasn't hit because I was weaving back and forth to avoid the tracers.

(Written on 2021年 06月 16日)(Permalink)

Patriotism? I hauled a load of caskets back to the U.S. one afternoon and one of them contained the body of a friend of mine who'd been reassigned from my C-141 squadron to rescue helicopters. The next day, I volunteered for Viet Nam. After five years, I would have been happy to stay in the USAF. I did a lot of interesting stuff while I was in the test wing at Eglin. I got to fly some of the first test missions out over the Atlantic in support of Bendix when they were testing the first TCAS system in the early 70's - flying head on passes against a C-135 with 1,000' separation. But after Viet Nam the Air Force was getting rid of pilots as fast as they could during the downsizing to a peacetime force. A buddy of mine who was a card-carrying test pilot got riffed, as well. What did you do in the military?

(Written on 2021年 06月 11日)(Permalink)

I've got three Air Medals, and a DFC for volunteering to get shot at by a AA gun for nearly an hour, so that an 0-1 FAC could pinpoint the location of the gun that had already shot down two F-4's just north of Phu Cat. I'd troll for the fire, but as soon as I'd break off they'd pull the gun back into a cave. The FAC ended up running the F-4's in directly under me. The concussions blew me past 90 degrees to the left, but I recovered and the gun was silenced. The citation is on the internet. In my 40-yr flying career, private, military, corporate, and airline, I never put a scratch on a passenger or an airplane (except for a few holes in RVN... but I didn't put 'em there). How 'bout you Bill?

(Written on 2021年 06月 11日)(Permalink)

Sounds like this guy should have made a career of the Air Force. Glad I never had to fly with him as my copilot - bitch, bitch, bitch. I put in five years in the AF flying C-141's and getting shot at in O-2's in Vietnam. But my 25 subsequent years at a major carrier out-paid the AF handsomely and I never bitched about it.

(Written on 2021年 06月 11日)(Permalink)

Ah, So

(Written on 2021年 06月 05日)(Permalink)

What's going on is that Trump is no longer President. Despots only understand and respect strength. Hope Biden can contain the Bear.

(Written on 2021年 06月 04日)(Permalink)

So, why did this happen NOW? Your theory doesn't hold water. This didn't happen during Trump's term. Using your logic, Biden must be encouraging Putin. The answer is, this had nothing to do with U.S. politics. But I DO hope that Pres. Biden can stand up to the Russian bear. Putin is going to test Biden, for sure.

(Written on 2021年 06月 04日)(Permalink)