Aviation BS and Photo Thread

Yes. A cub crafter rebuild with a climb prop. Slow but man does it climb.

 

Have only flown an O360 cub once but man that was biggest thing I noticed right away, it just ripped off the ground and climbed hard!!

 

This is also a cub crafter rebuild 180 with a cruise prop. Not a huge difference but I don’t point the nose as high on takeoff.

 

Always something about a yellow cub! That's a nice airplane

 

The cubs are definitely fun to fly. Used to fly a PPonk'd 182 with VGs and Sportsman cuffs that would fly at 23kts indicated. It was a real workhorse but just not fun to fly like an open window cub.

 

No, here is the link to this bombers demise in 2019.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_Boeing_B-17_Flying_Fortress_crash

 

Oh. Christ.

 

...and the Blue Angels have arrived...


...or wait leaving? WTF that was last weekend.

Solo bird doing an aggressive departure maneuver over the capital mall, he gone. Perhaps it was grounded during the show.

 

P-8 - 737NG
KC-46 / KC767 - 767-200

That said, random FOD in places isn't a design problem, it's a QC problem. Or a corporate culture one.

Be prepared to wait, dependents and retirees are the lowest priority users. That said, it's fun when you can get a ride.

 

Used it a couple times. My suggestion, research and be flexible.

C-17 that took my family and I to Iceland last year.

 

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Were you on active duty or retired ? Just curious how difficult it was to get on board.

Did you being in the USAF help any and give you a better chance ?

 

I’ve done it active and retired. Active helps because it makes you Cat III. which is a higher priority. Retired is pretty much last in priority seat allocation. But honestly, it comes down to availability, time of year (summer and holidays as expected are busier) and location. There are dozens of flights that no one competes for because of where they are flying. A flight from Dover to Kansas probably won’t be difficult to get a seat on. A flight from Travis to Hickman is going to normally be full.

But it really comes down to planning and flexibility. Last year I just wanted to get the family to Europe. So we kept an eye on all the north east bases (Dover, Andrews, McGuire, BWI, and Norfolk). When the flight to Iceland popped up, for me it was a no brainer, as I’ve wanted to visit for years! My family were the only ones on board. On the way back from Ramstein our initial flight was cancelled, and the 2nd day not enough seats available, so I started looking at commercial flights. Thankfully we were able to catch the Rotator back to the states. One rental car later we got back to our starting point.

 

As a retiree the only thing that you have in your favor is time. Seats are picked by priority first (I - VI) then time on the waiting list second. Your branch of service and rank don’t matter for space-A selection. Retirees are going to be in Cat VI (last place) for priority, but I believe you can be on the waitlist for upto 60 days. So get your name on the list for any destinations that you are interested in asap. But as OP8 said, be flexible and have some money available in case you get stuck somewhere and need to use commercial travel or for lodging. Some terminals are not open 24hrs, meaning you’d have to find other lodging at night. There are also non-USAF terminals, the Navy has several, Norfolk is good one. I once caught a flight from the Navy side of Okinawa to Osan AB via a Marine C-130. I was working at the AMC Pax terminal in Anchorage when a retiree traveling with an infant got stuck there for a week ran out of money, and diapers, that SNAFU was rough on everyone.


Some good info here
https://www.amc.af.mil/AMC-Travel-Site/AMC-Space-Available-Travel-Page/

 

Two popular Space-A sites, they also have FB pages. Along with a multitude of other Space-A travel group pages on FB.

https://www.spacea.net/?
https://www.poppinsmoke.com/?

 

It’s a terrible photo because all I had on me was my crappy iPhone 12, but we had an impromptu 4-ship flyover this morning on Hatteras Island in NC.

Pretty cool to wander out onto the deck this morning and look up to see this:



(They were lower and closer than the photo makes it seem)

 

A four ship of what? They’re just dots in the photo.

 

Looks like Canadian Geese to me.

 

Might be flying in the wrong direction…

 

Canadians are easily confused.

 

lol they were F-18’s. I need a better camera