ah the SR71 - probably the last plane it made sense to have an Air Force for. The sooner taxpayers wake up and demand the elimination of that branch of service, the better. Fucking trailer jockeys and cargo hauling wastes of space.

5/10/2014 10:18:59 PM

That might be the dumbest thing I've ever read in The Lounge.

5/10/2014 11:23:11 PM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InBXu-iY7cw

Can i get an embed.

[Edited on May 11, 2014 at 2:24 AM. Reason : help a brother out.]

5/11/2014 2:23:40 AM

^^

5/11/2014 12:58:37 PM

http://vimeo.com/89526883

Cool compilation of airplane stuff from the director that does a lot of the aviation related Breitling watch commercials...P-51 and F4U are so gorgeous.

6/14/2014 7:46:20 AM

Wife flew commercial yesterday for the first time when we went to Vegas. She was super nervous when they gunned the engines and started rolling down the runway. She finally eased up around the time we got to cruising altitude and by the end of the flight was enjoying it. Glad we did it though and finally got her in the air for real.

6/14/2014 6:58:15 PM

^^ awesome! Thanks for sharing

Duke/JCASHFAN, either of you guys know anyone who's had to eject?

6/14/2014 10:59:51 PM

Yes

6/15/2014 10:42:02 AM

Pierre Sprey explains why the F-35 is a lemon
http://youtu.be/mxDSiwqM2nw

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Sprey

6/16/2014 4:07:33 PM

Didn't watch the video yet, and he probably makes some valid points. I'll say that the F-35 has been a boondoggle and a case study in how fucked up our acquisitions process is. I'll agree that we probably should take a step in the direction of the Boyd school of fighter design, too.

I'll agree that a pure Boyd-style fighter (maybe with thrust vectoring) would be a beast in the WVR arena, especially in a guns-kill sort of fight. It would also get shot BVR way before it ever got there in most cases. Even WVR, modern dogfight missiles like Archer and AIM-9X are a game changer. I just don't see WVR fights persisting terribly long.

Aside from the fact that the F-35 isn't nearly as much as a dog as people make it out to be (according to a former Harrier pilot friend who flies it), I also think that the Boyd-types are ideologues who aren't firmly grounded in reality. They have been for decades, and have therefore never fully gotten their way, even with the F-16. A real-world fighter on a real-world battlefield needs to be a little more well-rounded and fully developed than a Boyd-school wet dream.

Now maybe the F-35 is too compromised. That's a valid contention, especially if you're the Air Force. The Navy and Marine Corps probably are better off overall with one, good jack of all trades, master of none fighter.

In short, I'm not saying that the arguments against the F-35 are bullshit. I'm saying that this argument comes up every time a new fighter is developed, and the people putting it forth are sort of ideologues who represent an extreme. The F-35 as it sits is probably closer to the other extreme (though maybe not as much as, say, the F-111 was). The truth is probably somewhere in the middle.

[Edited on June 21, 2014 at 6:13 PM. Reason : ]

6/21/2014 6:10:27 PM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRNVSngbgRY

USMC aviator Capt. William Mahoney from VMM-263 conducts no gear landing of AV-8B onboard USS Bataan (LHD 5) using stool. This happened on June 7, 2014

6/27/2014 12:19:24 PM

^ Badass.

6/27/2014 11:40:53 PM

Microburst at USAF Academy Airfield

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_WmjWAGkLI

[Edited on June 28, 2014 at 8:13 AM. Reason : ]

6/28/2014 8:11:55 AM

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/faa-will-miss-deadline-to-integrate-drones-in-us-skies-report-says/2014/06/30/fd58e8e2-007f-11e4-b8ff-89afd3fad6bd_story.html?hpid=z4

FAA saying they will miss the congress-mandated deadline to incorporate drones in U.S. Airspace

6/30/2014 7:15:29 PM

Malaysian Airlines 777 shot down over Ukraine, supposedly by SAM.

Flight tracker:

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/MAS17/history/20140717/1000Z/EHAM/WMKK/tracklog

7/17/2014 11:48:46 AM

http://www.manufacturingglobal.com/technology/152/First-solarelectric-aircraft-makes-waves-in-the-aerospace-manufacturing-sector

This thing looks awesome. Too bad it would cost crazy amounts of money but maintenance costs would be so low without any fuel or oil systems to worry about.

9/30/2014 12:25:03 PM

so...I was flying the Cub a couple of days ago and did a wheel landing on a fairly narrow (maybe 50'?) pavement runway with a ditch not too far off on the left side, and tires & cones spaced periodically down the left side.

I programmed in progressively more forward stick to keep the tail up as the aircraft slowed, until we were down to maybe 35 mph or so. At that point, I lowered the tail and applied the brakes. I still find the transition between flying the tail and steering with the rudder and planting the tailwheel and steering with the heel brakes to be a little uncomfortable, so I tend to brake pretty hard and get the airplane down to taxi speed quickly.

Well, about the time I got the brakes applied all the way, the right heel brake went totally slack and the airplane veered very sharply to the left-sharper than would have been even remotely possible to recover with the rudder. I glanced down for a split second to make sure my heel hadn't just slipped off the brake (it hadn't), and confirmed that the right brake had failed. The resulting immediate lack of right brake while full left brake was still applied caused the sharp veer to the left.

We were too slow to take back off before going into the ditch (and would have had a hard time avoiding the trees on the other side anyway). I seriously doubt we could have straightened it back out enough to avoid the ditch with the rudder (I don't think we could have straightened it out even partially; I'm pretty sure we were going to go around in a ground loop at pretty significant speed, and it was just a matter of how sharply. Taildraggers pretty much naturally want to swap ends on the ground, and once the tail starts coming around too much, there's nothing you can do to stop it. When all you have is rudder, with no differential braking, that limit is even lower).

Both I and my friend in the back stomped our left heel brakes to tighten up the ground loop, and we managed to get it spun around and stopped before going into the ditch. Somehow, we also managed to come just a little short of striking the right wingtip on the ground, too, AND narrowly avoided having a prop strike on any of the cones or tires, so in the end, there was no damage to the airplane.

We taxied back very slowly across the runway and some grass with our one good brake until we were on pavement by the hangar and able to easily push it the rest of the way. When we shut it down and got out, we saw that the right brake hose had separated from its fitting. Oh well, shit happens. That's something I'll check carefully on every preflight from now on, and I probably won't use as much brake pressure from now on unless I really need to. About 95% pure dumb luck that we didn't destroy an airplane.

10/4/2014 3:47:08 PM

Epic recovery. Glad everything ended favorably considering the situation. Next time, bring a gopro and share the fun

10/4/2014 10:29:52 PM

"Recovery" is probably a little charitable; we were along for the ride. We influenced which ride it would be, did what we could to keep it from hitting a wingtip, and mostly were lucky.

Bad time for a brake to fail. If it had been both brakes, it wouldn't be bad, but just one made for a nasty ride.

10/4/2014 11:13:41 PM

HAZREP enroute

10/6/2014 3:46:52 PM

Heard a louder-than-usual prop plane sound in the sky and looked up to see a big silver 4-engine beast cruising by at rather low altitude. Looked like a familiar shape and it looked to have vintage air force markings, so I thought it might be a vintage bomber...confirmed when I got home that it was one of 11 airworthy B-17's that had stopped in the area on its fall tour. 1945 build B-17 named Aluminum Overcast.

Didn't get a photo, but that was a damn cool thing to see literally "out of the blue".
This is the B-17 in question:

10/12/2014 10:59:01 PM

I remember going through one of the b17's at an airshow a few years back. I noticed like 10 gallons of oil containers sitting in the bomber bay and asked the pilot what that was about. He said, "You have to keep an eye on the oil level and fill it up as you fly. This bird will go through about a gallon of oil in an hour." He lol'd.

Went to the Asheboro Aviation Museum this past week. Saw a couple cool things, like a piper J3 and a Stearman PT13D. There was a remote control B-17 bomber in there, an american WWII AA half track, and a cool 4360 cubic inch 28 cylinder motor/engine used in the FG 2 corsair. Thing was a marvel to look at.

[Edited on October 13, 2014 at 12:25 AM. Reason : .]

10/13/2014 12:21:44 AM

On my to see list: [linl] http://youtu.be/h00GHmlFjCs [/link]

10/14/2014 10:19:54 AM

I just wanted to randomly insert this. XB-38 bomber is a B-17 prototype to test the feasibility of using Allison V12s instead of Wright radials.

Beautiful.

10/17/2014 5:50:08 PM

Landing on back country:

https://vimeo.com/99490998

Are the Bose headsets worth it? I've got a Telex and my ears vibrate every time I get out of the plane now.

11/10/2014 2:39:12 PM

I've flown maybe 50-100 hours with Bose's A20. It's really, really nice. I've also made a few flights with the Lightspeed Zulu 2. It's great, too. Between the two, I'd get whichever one I found a better deal on (prob the Zulu 2, as LS has now released the PFX model which is even more upmarket).

There are other ANR headsets out there; those are kind of the gold-standard models. I guess it depends on how much you fly and how much disposable income you have. Once I get another job, I plan on getting either a Bose or Lightspeed ANR headset myself. Dave Clark also makes an super-lightweight ANR headset I'd kinda like to try out. It supposedly is slightly less quiet than the other 2, but it's also REALLY light (not that the Bose/LS are heavy).

You could always get the earlier generation Bose set, used, or a more mid-market ANR set from another manufacturer. If you don't fly much, it might not be worth the money to upgrade, but if you fly much at all, I think it's absolutely worth it. They really make a big difference in fatigue and ease of understanding ATC (or ICS).

11/10/2014 5:47:34 PM

Heard about this? http://deadspin.com/double-plane-crash-survivor-austin-hatch-scores-first-c-1657160651

Quote :

"Aviation forums from a few years ago were calling the dad a terrible pilot who essentially killed four innocent people with his incompetence. Reading the NTSB reports, I'm inclined to agree. Both crashes were entirely pilot error. Now this kid has lost 2 siblings, his mom, his stepmom, and his dad due to his dad's insistence on trying to fly his family around."

http://www.ntsb.gov/aviationquery/brief2.aspx?ev_id=20030905X01478&ntsbno=CHI03FA291&akey=1
http://www.ntsb.gov/aviationquery/brief2.aspx?ev_id=20110624X20211&ntsbno=CEN11FA417&akey=1

11/11/2014 4:26:12 PM

So break those accident reports down for me. After reading the first, it sounds like he ran out of fuel? The second report just makes it sound like he was a dumbass? Help me understand.

11/11/2014 4:56:33 PM

1st one, yes. Ran out of fuel. Also flew a shitty instrument approach, which caused him to go MA, further making fuel a factor.

2nd one, it sounds like instead of complying with missed approach procedures, he tried to circle to land. maybe he was gun shy of climbing back out and trying again, due to his previous bad experience with that. at any rate, i don't think he had circling minimums for weather, and my guess is either he went into the weather inadvertently and got disoriented, or tried to pull too hard with too little airspeed to avoid weather and make a play for the runway. at any rate, it sounds like he stalled and lost control.


those are just my takeaways from very quick skims of the reports. i may have missed something big or misunderstood something, and I didn't do all the fuel math to figure out exactly what happened on the first one.

11/11/2014 11:11:27 PM

Dumb question, but is there anything in place from a bureaucratic perspective that would prevent someone like this guy from flying again after his first accident? It seems like "Making sure you have enough gas to fucking get there" is a pretty basic concept not just in aviation, but travel in general. I know we all make mistakes, but this guy made mistakes and killed a bunch of people...

11/12/2014 8:29:28 AM

The FAA can suspend or revoke your pilot certificate. As far as I know, there's no "if A, then B" type approach. I think it's very case-by-case. They can also fine you, and they can have you reexamined. It depends on what you screw up, why, and how they think the deficiency can be corrected, or if it can be.

(I'm not an expert on that stuff; I haven't known anyone to be subject to very much of it. I know a few people who have been flight violated, but that's like getting a speeding ticket or something. I mean, in the aviation world, it's a very big deal, but it can easily be for a minor, honest mistake.

The military has their own processes. The military is more or less subject to the FAA, too, but often the FAA defers to internal processes.)

11/12/2014 3:00:10 PM

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=305068286367241&set=vb.100005922160455&type=2&theater

I think this guy is a friend of a friend. He looks to be the original uploader.

11/12/2014 4:40:57 PM

what a terrible story

11/12/2014 5:08:06 PM

The guy that taught my father and grandfather to fly has had 2-3 crashes and still survived, and as far as I know did not surrender or have his license revoked.

11/13/2014 6:35:56 AM

Had to go to San Clemente Island last week for work. Rode in an H-60 out there and a C-2 on the way back. It was great to get a ride in the Greyhound, I've been working on that program for 7+ years now

11/14/2014 10:05:27 PM

http://nmusafvirtualtour.com/media/068/SR-71A%20Front%20Cockpit.html

SR71 virtual cockpit

11/20/2014 2:17:57 PM

Quote :

"Had to go to San Clemente Island last week for work. Rode in an H-60 out there and a C-2 on the way back. It was great to get a ride in the Greyhound, I've been working on that program for 7+ years now "

Have you gotten a cat shot or a trap in a COD?? I had my first one (of each) about 6 months ago and it was an interesting experience.

11/27/2014 7:43:04 AM

Cat shots are one of the most awesome things ever.

at least up until you do a bunch of them in a row during CQ and you have a headache from your brain getting smashed every time you're fired off the deck, hahaha.

11/27/2014 3:40:03 PM

You're welcome! I shot Prowlers on the Bush a few months ago. I saved a Tention bar or two from the EA6-B's last deployment.

Taking a shot from the back of the COD is weird. You can't see anything and suddenly you're pinned to the straps (facing backward) for about 3 seconds... and then you're flying...
The whole time I was thinking "Don't hit the water" over and over.

11/27/2014 4:49:20 PM

3^
I didn't. It was a normal takeoff from San Clemente and flew right into North Island. They did do a carrier break on approach, which was cool. I would like to get a chance to experience a cat/trap. I've been trying to go out when they are doing a work up, but haven't had a chance.

11/27/2014 11:18:25 PM

Quote :

"Are the Bose headsets worth it? I've got a Telex and my ears vibrate every time I get out of the plane now."

Hell yes!

[Edited on November 29, 2014 at 5:43 PM. Reason : .]

11/29/2014 5:43:25 PM

finally got my tailwheel aircraft endorsement last week

12/2/2014 11:49:06 PM

12/19/2014 12:10:29 PM

Got the Bose and they are worth it!

Almost done with PPL finally. The scenery in SoCal has been unreal and lots of good radio work, since I was fucking terrible at it.

12/19/2014 4:44:20 PM

http://sploid.gizmodo.com/the-designer-of-the-f-16-explains-why-the-f-35-is-such-1591828468

1/2/2015 8:29:56 PM

In fairness, the F-16 was driven by the "Fighter Mafia" or "Cult of Boyd". Of course they hate the F-35. Hell, they'd probably hate their own F-16 now that it has all sorts of gadgetry and multirole, all-weather capability, and the extra costs and weight penalties that come with it.

They have some totally valid points, and we probably should move somewhat in their direction, and there is plenty to fault with the F-35, but that the designer of the original-block F-16 doesn't like the F-35 is obvious and not news. The original F-16 was like a super-duper F-5. Shit, we could generally avoid getting shot and successfully run away from an F-5 the great majority of the time in a fucking EA-6. (That said, our odds against an F-16 would have been lower. Actually, they'd be pretty slim, but only because of the modern missile/sensor/radar/techie stuff that Sprey so vehemently opposed, and probably does to this day.)

I can elaborate in nerdy detail if anyone wants, but I maintain that dudes like that are just absurd in the other direction.

1/4/2015 11:39:09 PM

do you agree with this, that the F-35's targeting system is already obsolete and is missing critical features (i.e. no video downlink) make is a poor candidate for CAS missions?

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/12/26/newest-u-s-stealth-fighter-10-years-behind-older-jets.html
http://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/is-the-f-35s-targeting-system-really-10-years-behind-cu-1676442535

1/5/2015 11:31:46 AM

Hagel bitchslap of the day

Quote :

"Q: Secretary, can you talk about the A-2, the degree at which it's becoming obsolete, and how soon we'll see them leave Whiteman? SEC. HAGEL: The B-2? Q: No, the A-10. I'm sorry. SEC. HAGEL: The A-10, as I said in my remarks here with the troops, has been a tremendous and effective platform for our country and for our needs. But like all effective platforms, we need to upgrade and modernize. We went from the B-52, for example, to the B-1, to the B-2. It's the history of our -- of all of our platforms, whether it's aircraft or Navy vessels."

http://www.defense.gov/transcripts/transcript.aspx?source=GovDelivery&transcriptid=5566

1/13/2015 11:28:32 PM

haha what the hell is that video clip from?


^^ I don't really have specific knowledge of that issue.

1/14/2015 2:58:00 PM

^^ http://tn.nova.cz/clanek/zpravy/domaci/rath-slibil-penize-za-facku-charite-zatim-je-nepredal.html

1/14/2015 3:40:34 PM