FunBobby

Not necessarily - in fact, I doubt it. His flight path may have taken his jet into the dirt, but vapors on the wings don't necessarily mean he's in a stall - high AOA, max performance pull, yes. Jets over the carrier routinely flash vapors in the break, and they're not stalling. Here, he didn't have the room to finish the Split S or the maneuvering authority to save the aircraft once he realized that. Stall? Nah. FunBobby

Ding Ding Ding Ding Ding Ding Ding Ding Ding Ding. Was it the "S3" in the web address or the reflection of the "S-3 Viking" patch in the mirror that did it? FunBobby

O U C H Nothin like kicking a man between the legs, eh Michael? Bobby

Oh man, don't the tandem passengers get skeered when you put your jet so close to 'em? Uh oh. Well, I guess those words would elicit that sort of response from skydivers. Actually, the drogues I hit are meant to engaged, and when I hit em, it looks something like this. I fly the WarHoover, by the way. Any guesses as to what that is? FunBobby

So there's this pretty good story that gets retold over and over again at Whiting Field in Milton FL, where the Navy has 3 primary flight training squadrons. Years ago, from his perch in the rear seat of a T-34C trainer, a Marine Captain flight instructor is doing his best to berate a young Navy Ensign in flight training. A huge buzzard hits the aircraft and goes right through the prop (somewhat intact but starting to come apart) and the front windscreen. The student sees it just before impact and ducks (no pun intended) almost quickly enough to avoid being hit - almost. The remnants of the bird, still a very large mass, but less recognizable as a bird and more as a huge pile of bloody, feathery flesh, smacks him in the head and knocks him unconscious; the students slumps forward. The bird - okay, bloody, disgusting mass of bird flesh, still travelling aft at maybe 150 knots or so, strikes the Marine Captain in the face, knocking him silly, but not unconscious. The instructor realizes they've hit something but doesn't know what, because the impact of the bird has temporarily partially blinded him. The instructor keys the ICS and yells at his student to make sure he's okay and that he's still got control of the plane. No response. He tries again. No response again. And oh, there's an unfamiliar and very strong airblast in the cockpit now. The instructor grabs the control stick, hoping to just keep the plane upright for now with what little vision he has left. The stick doesn't budge because the student up front is slumped far forward enough to jam the controls. The instructor tries again to raise the student on the ICS with no success; he's not even sure if the student is alive. The blood and guts all around him lead him to believe that the student is either dead or halfway to being there. Deciding that the aircraft is uncontrollable, the instructor actuates the canopy emergency opening system and bails out. The student, moments later, comes to, and after his initial fit of panic as he realizes he is alone in the airplane (and he hasn't been certified "Safe for Solo" yet!) he gathers his wits and safely lands the stricken aircraft at home field. Hero! Instructor - goat! There's a priceless commercial waiting to be written about that one. FunBobby P.S. A great story - a true one, too. I met the instructor. Years later, he was the C.O. of the squadron in which I completed my primary flight training, the "Red Knights" of VT-3.

Dropzone dot com. Thanks so much to the folks who assembled and maintain this website. I bought 2 great rigs using the classifieds. Each time, I bought the container and then the reserve together, and then a separate main, all off the classifieds. I was smart when I shopped, and dealed and everyone - buyers and sellers alike - is happy. FunBobby

Sorry - not soon. No occasion to head that way right now or any time in the near future. Cheers - FunBobby

S Q U I D ?????? Hey! I resemble that remark! Haha. Ummmm, sorry about your eyes. But you get to have a beer after you're done flying for the day. Sometimes I don't get a beer for months! FunBobby

HAHAHAHAHA! Okay, I wasn't going to tell this, but . . . because of much stronger than anticipated headwinds, I once landed in Dallas with 2 very bright lights on . . . "L Fuel Low" "R Fuel Low." I almost asked for a high base a "practice" simulated flameout approach . . . The nice gentleman from the flight line services, after he had refueled the aircraft, kindly asked me "This is a standard X-X, right? The tanks hold X gallons, right?" "Yep." He pointed to the fuel receipt, looked at me and disapprovingly shook his head. I just sheepishly thanked him and went away hoping he didn't say anything. I'm sure you have many similar tales.... FunBobby

Hmmmmmmmm. You know, I shouldn't be so hard on our friends in our sister service. Hell, in flight refueling is so commonplace these days . . . I can hit a drogue better than I can fly the ball. But I just like to take jabs at my Air Farce brethren whenever I can. FunBobby P.S. I grow weary of my work conditions. Your company hiring?

Oh, I wasn't trying to slam our intrepid driver. I feel for him - I do. Ya' out there, Rick? Who among us hasn't run out of gas or been with someone when they pushed the limit a little too much and muttered when the engine sputtered? And ya' know what, it's a good thing that Rick can pull over and call Time out if that happens... which I'm guessing it won't, at least not for a long, long time. FunBobby

Would you believe the folks in the blue bus driver uniforms have found a way to thumb their noses at this rule? I firmly believe in it, but some of their aircraft can't get off the ground with a full bag o' gas and a full payload, so they take off with a partial fuel load and top off with a tanker at altitude. Heaven forbid that either the tanker or receiver's fuel transfer system fail. FunBobby

Hehehehe. Ya know, I landed to take on fuel in Cape G. years ago on my way to St. Louis and then Quantum leap. Did it again later on my way to the WFFC. Nice pork sandwiches they have at that FBO. FunBobby

Not that those of us who fly for a living have the answers to anything, but I thought this might apply. One of the sayings we have goes like this: The three most useless things to you as a pilot are the altitude above you, the runway behind you, and the fuel you didn't bring with you. FunBobby

Roger that. If you're comfortable and proficient with a single action auto, awesome. I've put a lot of rounds downrange, but I don't regularly carry. And I haven't had to draw or handle my weapon under serious duress. I'm not sure that most people in general would have the skills to regularly handle a single action auto completely safely. If you're comfortable with a SA auto, good on ya'. No "crunch tick" or "crunch crunch" for you. Me? I'm happy with a double action auto in condition 2. FunBobby

Lots of good advice here, and everyone seems to have their favorite weapons and rounds… Here’s my 2 cents for what they’re worth: I’m not a police officer, but I’ve shot and trained with all sorts of different handguns for years; I’ve read extensively on handguns and their ammo and own four handguns (+3 shotguns and a rifle) in .32 ACP, .38 Special, 9mm PB, and .357 Magnum. Of course, cost of the weapon and ammo figure into your buying decision, but if you’re buying a 9mm or .45 (or anything in between), you probably want some very good stopping power. The 9mm, while the smallest of what most knowledgeable folks will call a “full power” round, is also the cheapest; being smaller than the .45, though, it lacks stopping power, but there are some very technologically advanced rounds that give even the 9mm some awesome stopping power. Stopping power: There are some great studies on this. The Strasbourg tests, done just over ten years ago (in France – no one could ever get away with doing such a thing in the U.S.) used live goats to measure the effectiveness of different handgun rounds by measuring the average time to incapacitation when shot by each different bullet. There have been all sorts of tests done using ballistic gelatin, which simulates the human body cavity, to show how different bullets would create wound channels and how badly a the person shot would be hurt. One of the best indicators, though, is history: Evan Marshall and Ed Sanow have maintained a database of police shootings over the years, and that database shows the percentage of one shot stops in actual shootings. Here is a link to a pretty good compilation of all those studies and a really good discussion: Some of the different types of ammo that you might look at: Frangible rounds – MagSafe, Glaser, QuikShok (sic) – these rounds are hollow bullet jackets filled with different sizes of lead shot. Because they’re lighter, they move and impact at higher velocities. And on impact, they burst. Not explode, mind you – they just shatter into lots of little tiny pieces that go every which way and maximize the spread of energy, kind of like the effect of firing a small shotgun shell at close range. They are generally very effective, but with smaller rounds, if the target is wearing a heavy jacket, these rounds can be slightly less effective because they may dissipate their energy quickly through the jacket layers. JHPs, or Jacketed Hollowpoints – Federal Hydra Shok, Winchester Silver Tip, Remington Golden Saber, etc. I believe that most of the police use these. These bullets will expand on impact, creating a larger wound and making for better stopping power than full metal jacketed ammo. You might look at CorBon, which makes some very high velocity JHP ammo – their rounds have great stopping percentages. My thoughts: 9mm – Not the largest round, but plenty of stopping power when I load my magazines with a combination of some of the frangible rounds and JHPs. I have a Beretta 92FS with 3 high capacity (pre ban) magazines; those 15 round magazines will also fit in the new Beretta 92 Vertec, so I may be in the market for one of those. I like having lots of ammo. .45 ACP – Much more stopping power, but the sheer size of the round makes finding a good-sized handgun (serviceable, but not so large as to be unwieldy) difficult. Sure, there’s the 10 round limit on mags now, but in general, a 9mm handgun with 10 rounds is still less bulky than a comparable .45 with 10 rounds. And statistics show that you can get just as much stopping power as the best .45 ACP round in smaller calibers. By the way, I was at the range last week here on base when a gentleman from Glock showed me a new handgun they were trying out in .45GAP (.45 Glock Automatic Pistol), a new round they are developing. The size of the bullet itself is same, but the casing is shorter; the powder and primer are engineered for more a more efficient burn on firing, and even with the smaller casing (and less powder), the .45 GAP generates as much energy as the old .45 ACP. The guy said that the smaller casing size will allow for smaller magazines and grips, and that SIG and H&K are already developing their own handguns to fire the new .45GAP. I don’t know if a .45ACP will be able to fire the .45GAP. In betweens: .40S&W – Awesome round. In between the 9mm and .45 with great stopping power. Lots of folks have already mentioned it. .357SIG – This is a 9mm bullet that has been put into a .40S&W casing that was necked down to fit the 9mm. Get that? The name comes from SIG Sauer, who wanted an auto pistol bullet that would have the same ballistics (and hopefully, stopping power) of the .357 magnum, which historically has been the hands down best stopper out of all the handgun bullets. Believe it or not, bigger is not always better - .44 magnums, while very powerful, travel at such high velocities that they cannot always impart all of their energy to the target, and sometimes pass right through without doing as much damage as a smaller round would. The .357 magnum just seemed to have the correct balance of muzzle velocity and bullet weight. Guns: Sure, I like most of ‘em. In .45, colt government models (1911s, the classics) and their clones are great. Para Ordnance pistols are awesome, too, and have larger magazines. But most those are single action handguns (I believe Para Ordnance makes some double action models now). If you had one, would you be comfortable keeping it cocked and locked at all times? And to lower the hammer, you have to pull the trigger and thumb the hammer down. I’d rather have a double action with a decocker and / or safety. Lots o’ folks like Glocks. So do lots of police agencies. They’re great guns – highly accurate, and tough as nails. They can take lots and lots of abuse and keep firing. They’re simple to operate, too. Personally, I just couldn’t get used to the way they point, and I was never a fan of the feel of the “safe action” trigger. If I had to get something today in .40S&W, .357Sig, or 9mm, I would go for a SIG. That’s what lots of the SEALs carry, and that’s what most of our pilots carry on combat missions. SIGs are wonderfully accurate, and just very well made weapons. H&Ks are great. Even Berettas. Go to some gun stores, shows, ask around. Go to a range and test fire the weapons and see how they feel in your hands. Consider stopping power, handling, safety, desired features, caliber, and price when choosing your weapon. I know that’s more than an earful; I could spend an hour talking about this. That’s probably more than enough for now. Good luck. FunBobby

No kidding. Ever see those bumper stickers that read "My child is an honor student at Lakeside Middle School" ? Then there are the ones that say "My kid beat up your honor roll student at Lakeside Middle School." FunBobby

Thank you. And for all those who are quick to jump on the President bashing bandwagon, I'd like to point out that members of Congress, one them a particularly high profile member of the Senate, urged the current administration to take action.... Here's the link, by the way. Bobby (Edited for a stupid typo)

Dude . . . unfair! You could just as easily say, Bush (41) and Desert Storm. Ummm, no. The objective of Operation Desert Storm was to remove SH's invading forces from Kuwait. Once that goal was reached, we were obliged to cease that operation. Bobby

Not that I like feeding the trolls, but I thought I'd throw this out.... Hmmmm. I seem to remember a great number of Democrats, one of them very high profile, making a very strong case for military action in Iraq with no mention of WMD's or UN Resolutions..... Here's the link, by the way. Comparing the recent military action in Iraq with that in Kosovo is almost pointless, as the two arenas were tactically very different. In Kosovo, ground forces were already engaged in fighting when US air power was brought to bear. The presence of ground forces already in place made a ground invasion by UN and American forces unnecessary. Bobby

Awesome! That should also come in handy when sales clerks ask for your phone number and say "It's just a demographic study so we know where our customers are coming from..." Haha! FunBobby

Someone had to go there. FunBobby

Thank ya! Blue skies 2u - FunBobby

(From a similar thread): In my line of work, I do a lot of risk analysis, which sometimes becomes a rather lengthy and involved process. 2 elements that define how risky an event is are the probability and severity of that event happening. In skydiving, statistically speaking, the probability of having a really, really bad malfunction may be pretty low, but the severity of the outcome of having that really bad malfunction is awful. There's a saying about aviation... it's not necessarily dangerous, but it is terribly unforgiving. The same might be said for skydiving. With all of the safety measures and practices in place, the chance of having a really, really bad incident are pretty low, but the consequence of that incident - death or serious injury - is pretty severe. Here is that thread, if anyone cares FunBobby

Right on. Finding out what people honestly think is fine, but the choices listed in this poll are rather slanted and betray that honest curiosity. As for other missing options, how about one about backing up and following through on U.N. Resolutions? Bobby