Life hurts! I'm in South Carolina, the new electronic road signs that I'm sure we paid billions for are reporting over 500 highway deaths so far this year, in South Carolina. Every year around 40,000 persons die in traffic accidents. Hundreds of thousands of people fall off roofs, ladders, crash while skiing, surfing, biking, mountain climbing, or falling on ice and meet serious injury and sometimes death. No one seems to think much about these things, but, but, but an airplane crash leads to endless handwringing, consternation and demands that something be done about it! Somewhere less than 500 fatalities occurred in all of general aviation in 2017. Many years there are zero fatalities in commercial air travel. Flying remains one of the safest activities in the world...and yet, airplane crashes bring out the legions of ambulance chasers, journalists, and officials. Safety is important but its not an absolute. We can't take all the risk out of flying unless we stop flying. Unf

(Written on 2018年 07月 27日)(Permalink)

"more than likely more talented." Right, there has been selective hiring based on diversity rather than competence for many decades now. So, I will have to disagree with your assessment... Back in the 90s, the word on the street was white guys need not apply at United. I met a retired United Captain years ago who fumed about incompetent pilots who were paid to "not" fly. The company wouldn't fire them for fear of a lawsuit. His words not mine. An Admiral in the Naval Air Training Command told the instructors in Corpus Christi that minorities would get their wings, period! This was in the early nineties. By the late nineties four woman were sent home from one Carrier Air wing. The CAG said they didn't meet standards required for shipboard operations. These jobs are too important to let PC come before competence and merit. Political correctness in hiring has tainted the accomplishments of minorities. These two pilots may be the best in the business, but who really knows as st

(Written on 2018年 05月 25日)(Permalink)

Dr. King asked for a color-blind society 50 years ago. We will never get there as long as the government and the media promote the stratification you mention. Unfortunately, the DNC gets tens of millions of votes "promoting" race and gender stratification.

(Written on 2018年 05月 25日)(Permalink)

What authorities? Putin?

(Written on 2017年 12月 29日)(Permalink)

Putin is a dyed in the wool Soviet...I see nothing different with Russia under Putin than what I saw in the 1980s when the Soviets were in power. He partitioned Georgia, stole the Crimea, and is working on partitioning Eastern Ukraine. Nothing new...all so predictable. He would do more if not for fear of sanctions.

(Written on 2017年 12月 15日)(Permalink)

A year's long investigation to find out LTG Flynn was doing his job communicating with Russian counterparts as part of the transition team for a "future" administration. Bombshell of the century for liberals, I know...yeah, some collusion.

(Written on 2017年 12月 15日)(Permalink)

The military has ab initio training programs...yes. Unless things have changed the Navy soloes a student in a high performance turbine airplane after twelve training flights. Prior flight experience is not required/expected. More, the Navy student pilot is trained/evaluated over 200 flights in day, night, IFR, formation, navigation, gun pattern, air combat maneuvering, and carrier qualification. I'm probably leaving out some stuff as my information is dated. Not trying to pick a nit here but I don't think the civilian training route compares at all.

(Written on 2017年 11月 10日)(Permalink)

Agreed...sitting through lectures and writing papers does not make one a better pilot. The entire Federal government has a bias toward traditional degrees. Much of government is run by those with advanced degrees who can't write a complete sentence or solve a simple algebraic problem but that's another story.

(Written on 2017年 11月 10日)(Permalink)

"Facebook and Instagram personality." Show me a self-promoter and I'll show you a hack.

(Written on 2017年 08月 04日)(Permalink)

Mike, you can't overlook morale as a key factor in why pilots leave the military. Pay is probably the least of their concerns. Operational tempo is a big one. Our services are too damn busy fighting wars in third world dumps. We are over-committed plain and simple. Collateral duties is another. I can't tell you how much time I spent doing all things other than flying as a Marine Aviator except to say that 90% of my time was involved in non-flying duties. Really really stupid to take highly trained pilots and over-burden them with collateral duties. I was at various times a logistics officer, maintenance officer, admin officer, safety officer, training officer etc., in addition to my flying duties. Throw in ground training requirements like marksmanship training, gas chamber, physical fitness tests and its far more than a full time job. Finally, I would say that the relentless assault on our troops with sensitivity training for gays, females, blacks, Hispanics, transsexuals and o

(Written on 2017年 06月 23日)(Permalink)