Aviation BS and Photo Thread

I see my friends getting out of North Dakota and going straight to Envoy and Republic which is great, but I'm sitting here thinking "where's the fun in that?" There are so many neat jobs in aviation and to go straight from training to teaching to airline sounds like a drag to me. We (myself and my friends) have over 40 years to fly for an airline before mandatory retirement. What's the rush? Getting some biz jet type ratings and joining the Reserves sound like a much more exciting use of the next several years of my life. Also, the flow from Envoy to American is taking 6-8 years right now. To me, that's 6-8 years I can be doing corporate or military flying and then in theory I could be starting at a mainline at the same time as my buddies.

I hear two votes for FTW and only one "nay"...

Welcome! Start sharing your pics!

 

I would certainly encourage you to pursue the guard/reserve route. Some of those guys are flying as much as their active duty counterparts. Plus, I've never heard anyone regret their military time, but plenty people regret not doing it. My wife is the JAG of the guard base in Ft Smith. They used to have A-10s, but now fly reapers. Kinda cool they can fly combat missions without leaving home, but not as cool as having the A-10s there.

My son is on a flight crew in Afghanistan right now. Flying almost 7 days a week, every week for a 9 month tour. He plans to get out when he comes home and go to Embry Riddle on the GI Bill and go back on active duty as a pilot. We'll see.

 

Heres some over the west coast, operating from Vancouver to Prince Rupert in B.C. Endless views on a blue bird day!

 

Fort Smith is right down the road from me, I'm in Fayetteville for school. What aircraft is your son on?

 

Most days a King Air 350ER, but it wouldn't surprise me if he isn't in a Beechcraft 18 sometimes. He is in the Marines, flies intel missions for SOCOM with contractors.

If you want the Ft Smith recruiters info let me know. He likes to talk to people.

 

Got to take photos with this old C-47 war bird. Turns out the story in this one was extremely exciting. Guy found it rotting in a scrap yard and checked the serials and it was the plane that led the invasion of Normandy! Got to walk through it. Just pure awe and had a presence of Honor and wonder about it. Truly awesome.

Here’s an article about it.

https://www.airspacemag.com/history-of-flight/crowdsourcing-saves-ddays-first-airplane-180955983/

 

Very cool, my cousin flies Super Cobras for the Marines. I appreciate the offer, but I don't think I'm interested in RPA right now.

 

I work on the manufacturing side of aviation. The division of the company that I work for makes flight critical sensors for just about anything that flies. It's quite interesting to see the processes that these parts go through and the testing required to get them approved.

 

It's those processes and tests that makes the simplest of parts so stupid expensive!

 

Sweet... wiseman aviation?

 

Maybe just a mirage from the desert heat at the time when the photo was taken....

 

My grandfather was a Flying MSgt and flew those on a milk run from Ireland to Newfoundland. He'd tell stories about his barhopping adventures in both locations, then "the #%$^ WACS showed up" and "them damn wimmen ruined my good thing!" He was replaced, sent to England, promoted to Flying Officer, and not told why until June 4th. He towed a glider in on the first wave, went back to England, and ran supplies for 100 straight days.

 

No kidding, I've seen nickle castings that are smaller than a deck of cards...and they are over $600.

 

That's because the satellite images are taken over a period of time and layered with lidar images, I believe. So that means that one image may have captured the plane and by the time the next image was taken the plane had moved, leaving that weird image you posted. That is how it was explained to me a couple years ago, but someone correct me if you know better

 

Makes some sense as if you look around you do see many planes that look this way.......

 

Maybe I'll keep your name around for a job in 4 years when I retire from the AF.. AZ is one of the areas we are looking at moving to

 

AZ sucks... move to Idaho

 

Texas is very veteran-friendly. What's your AFSC and/or planned line of work after the USAF?

 

2A676, aircraft electrics. But I was a flying crew chief for 6 years and worked in aircraft test for 4. Now I rank too high, and too broken to do a lot of line work I used to (for the AF anyway). I am finishing my degree in project management. Planned on going for my A&P next so I can try to get into an aircraft firm somewhere or at an airport.

We haven't finalized a place to retire. We just know it isn't the NW and it isn't Kansas.

 

C'mon! Everyone loves McConnell! It's not Minot!