Aviation BS and Photo Thread

I haven't personally, but would get civilians flying through (no approaches) at Lemoore NAS all the time. I was a controller there. As long as you're talking to them, you can fly through all day.

 

As long as I didn't land, the tower controller was happy to entertain approaches all day long.

 

I believe it. When I was living in Florida, we used to do approaches at the NASA Shuttle Landing facility (KTTS). That controller has the easiest job ever, I don't know why it is even staffed.

 

A lot depends on what military airspace. Eglin uses one of its runway for the Okaloosa county airport.

Try overflying the drone strip on the NASA Goldstone site on Ft Irwin it’s a different story.

 

KTTS low approach

 

Vandenberg was an alternate shuttle landing site so the runway is something crazy like 3 miles long. Probably pretty interesting for the tower to have any traffic albeit a C152 or C172.

 

Vandenberg...

 

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...^^^... Great pics and beautiful aircraft ... but ...

I have never been a big fan of this 22 ... especially for it's cost of development, production and maintenance.

I have always wondered how such a complex aircraft would hold up to small arms and small caliber AAA fire ... especially with those very large blades.

IIRC ... the military has been somewhat ... "mission protective" ... of the aircraft so far .... not sure if its' been really tested in this area yet.

 

I haven't spent too much time playing with those things but have had a few discussions with people smarter than me on the tactics and usage. The ability to go 60% faster and 90% farther while carrying similar troop loads or 55% of the cargo load versus a CH-53K means you spend less time getting shot at. No helicopter is fond of getting it's spinny bits shot at and going faster helps you not be where bullets are. Also these days combat missions aren't going in alone, they operate in tandem with another like airframe or something with a sharper sting.

 

There were CV-22's in Afganistan while I was there, so I'm certain they have seen their share of testing under fire. They have their advantages over traditional helos. I kind of agree with you about the development and cost. Of course, I also thought the same thing about the C-17 development and cost, but my experience moving cargo on them for 15 years changed my mind and I think they are worth the cost.

 

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...^^^... Maybe I am too old school ... ha ha

 

...^^^... I used to live in Marietta, GA ... home of the original Dobbins AFB - Naval AS - Lockheed Facility and the C-5 & C-130 (and F-22 before it was moved to TX) when they were fighting the C-17.
MAG 42 also had its' Cobras there (got to go to all of their parties too ).
I knew several sub-contractors who had machine shops and made lots of goodies for Lockheed.

But ... I actually worked with McDonnell Douglas in St Louis and Long Beach on some projects ... so I saw both sides of that coin.

Maybe I am living in a time warp bubble on helicopters and bi-planes ... lol

 

Yeah, I'm sure they only talk to 1-2 people a day. I was through the firewall the entire time, still took me like 4 minutes to fly the whole runway lol

 

Nice pics. That OV-10 is one of my favorite's.

 

They are putting in a lot of work these days, good for coordinating air drops

 

Awesome sunset in Eagle, CO while we were waiting for the temperature to drop so we could depart. We had a beautiful dusk takeoff

 

I would love to have an OV-10. I got to walk around one of the OV-10G+ models that SOCOM was playing with for a while and they looked like a hoot to fly!

 

could always buy one
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zo...-that-took-on-isis-in-iraq-are-being-sold-off

 

Republic airways is crazy short-staffed right now. Sounds like other regionals are in the same boat.
I WOULD NOT become a pilot and “expect” to make a living right away. It’s just too volatile of an industry. I like to think about the aviation field as the stock market..if you’re in it for a long time you can AVERAGE a good profit. But if you want to jump in right away and expect to immediately make a profit then you’re playing a dangerous game. So if you depend on this job to meet your immediate needs, I’d reconsider. If you have enough of a nest egg, however, to ride through any downturns then it could be an OK career.