Plane Nerds Thread

[Bildo]

Whats your background and clearance level? In PM if ya want.

[SSBUSDRVR]

Welcome Bildo. Thank you. That program has had to save countless lives.
Nephew teaches robotics at CMU in Pittsburgh He does a lot of research with DARPA developing on the ground robotic technology used in military ops.Hopefully it will save many more lives in the future.

[SteveRS]

Originally Posted by Bildo

Whats your background and clearance level? In PM if ya want.

background.. none...
clearance.... secret...

[Bildo]

Whats your current MOS? I mean have you ever worked on electronics, comms, or linguist. Honestly the Army operators we have only go through a very short training course just a couple weeks. If you have an electronics, or commo background you have a good chance at getting a job. I never touched an aircraft before this job other to fly on 130s and 17s for random travel in to, from, and around theater.

[SteveRS]

im a truck driver... soo no electronics here lol but willing to learn most def.. hate 130s.. but C-17s are fun..

[NavyDood]

Originally Posted by SteveRS

The F-35 is still planning on goin into production?? I keep hearing all this BS about it.. its got all these problems... testing problems.. mechanical problems.. how all branches are supposedly going to swap out their fighters for this sole F-35... Im like what a kick in the balls with these statement.. even when im playing battlefield 3 I hate that plane.. the VTOL model has issues.. I just dont see them replacing the F-15/16/18 A-10 with this 1 plane.. unrealistic.. a superhornet crashed outside of Oceana in VA baexh into an apartment complex recently.. no one got killed thankfuly

Yes, all three versions are being built. A.K.A. Air Force, Navy and STOVL. BAE is the builder of the 6+ foot diameter fan right behind the pilot on the STOVL version. Almost all of the problems have been resolved, but there is currently a major issue with the wing roots being under developed. Now that there are quite a few jets with lots of flight hours and have had heavy flight testing done, they are realizing that the aluminum wing roots are not strong enough and are developing cracks. Tooling has already been changed over to start producing the wing root assemblies out of titanium. This is nothing new in the world of building aircraft from the ground up. Boeing and Grumman went through it back in the day also. Lockheed says they need more money from the Gov't. While that may be partially true in some cases, IMO lockheed needs to get their head out of their butts and stop under estimating their costs. The F-35 program is nowhere close to having the problems that the F-22 program did when the planes where being built in Marietta, GA.

I have seen all versions of the F-35 doing testing and flight testing at NAS PAX. The STOVL version is awesome to watch flying low and slow over the Patuxent river and Chesapeake Bay. It is a ton more impressive than watching a Harrier. Seeing the Navy version do a cat launch from the mock aircraft carrier flight deck and tail hook arrest on the mock aircraft carrier flight deck is very surreal. If I had stayed in MD after retiring, I could have pretty much walked right into the F-35 program at NAS PAX as a maintainer. After 20 years of working on jets, I have had enough. I am tired of line maintenance no matter what the pay is. I would have no issues going back to repairing/overhauling engines only though, specifically the T-56. The T-56 is a love hate relationship, but if you can work on and troubleshoot a T-56 engine you can work on any jet engine.

Every thing I just spoke of is public record BTW.

[SnoopyAce7]

Originally Posted by BullF-16

Here is my background

836 hrs A-10 from 89-92 back when they were green. (Myrtle Beach AFB)

1880 hrs F-16, 93-03, blocks 25, 30, 42, 50 and 52(Spangdahlem AB Germany, Luke AFB AZ, Cannon AFB, NM

1260 hrs AT-38A/C, 03-08 Sheppard AFB, TX

B737 type rating

Currently AT-38C simulator instructor ENJJPT Nato fighter pilot training(talk about a low stress fun job!!!). Retired 3 1/2 years ago and have been doing this since.

I was gonna do the airline thing and had interviews set up with Southwest, hired by United pending face to face interview....decided that lifestyle was not for me. the airlines arent what they used to be! Even the majors. Got lots of buddys doing it and they hate it.

How exactly did you become a pilot in the military? I'm working on my bachelor's right now and will probably be 21 when I'm done. I'm thinking about working on getting my pilot's license on the side. Do you think that would help my odds of becoming a pilot in the military?

[SteveRS]

I feel bad for the future.. since they have dumped soo much money into this F-35 and cut corners on fire safety to forward its production.. and it is no match for modern day russian/chinese fighters... and cant provide close ground support the A-10 can.. I just dont see it going very well.. F-15/16 pilots are gonna be like WTF is shit shit when they get in it..

[yzrider58]

As to be expected, the drama is unfolding as to who's going to own the buried spitfires. Naturally, everyone wants a piece of the pie. I say finders keepers for the guy who did the leg work.

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012/...ntcmp=features

[jeepguy_1980]

Not an airplane, but I fly the MH-60S

[NavyDood]

Originally Posted by jeepguy_1980

Not an airplane, but I fly the MH-60S

Nothing finer than the "xxxxhawk" series of Helo's.

[ShnOmac]

Interesting read....

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/22-fig...2#.T6xakOv-_l4

[jeepguy_1980]

Originally Posted by ShnOmac

Interesting read....

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/22-fig...2#.T6xakOv-_l4

Seems like a rather biased article.

[ShnOmac]

Originally Posted by jeepguy_1980

Seems like a rather biased article.

It does... but when pilots lose faith in their platform something MUST be wrong.