The people downvoting this comment apparently don't understand what (I think) JMARTINSON was getting at. Pilots don't "get ejected from" aircraft, as the story says. Getting XYZ'd from something implies that the action happened to them involuntarily, ie... a person getting thrown ("ejected") from a vehicle in an accident because they weren't belted in. Pilots "eject from" a disabled aircraft because THEY are the ones initiating the sequence. It doesn't happen to them accidentally. As Forrest says, people may think this is a small point, but it isn't. The English language matters, and semantics matter because the misuse of even a word or two can dramatically change the context of a story. There are few places in which this is more important than amongst the media, who sadly often seem to be amongst the worst offenders.

(Written on 2021/09/27)(Permalink)

I was about to post the exact same observation. "Journalism" at its finest. Never mind how many BASIC details about the incident that she didn't bother to include in the story. I would imagine her "research" into the story amounted to about 3 minutes worth of Google searching.

(Written on 2021/06/18)(Permalink)

We fly single-engine fighters over the open ocean ALL THE TIME.

(Written on 2021/06/18)(Permalink)

The F-35s are in Alaska, in Utah, in Arizona, in Florida, in Japan... to name a few places. But not in Hawaii. So, hence, you scramble the F-22s that ARE in Hawaii, to respond to a "threat" near... Hawaii.

(Written on 2021/06/18)(Permalink)

iais513 is spot on. Again, the OVERWHELMING amount of "Red Air" that we train against are 4th Generation, US built fighters. With the fall of the Iron Curtain...??? That was THIRTY TWO years ago now. Yeah, there are probably plenty of 35+ year old 2nd and 3rd generation Soviet fighters we could buy. Utterly worthless. Maybe a fair number of 4th Gen MiG-29s, but they would still be of limited training value. We definitely could never acquire enough (or ANY) Flankers, J-10s, J-20s, or Su-57s to put together an actual adversary squadron to train against. So the best you could possibly realistically hope to do is take a good quality 4th Gen platform (like an F-16) and then do your absolute best to replicate the tactics and capabilities of the adversary as best you can with what you can ACTUALLY procure and operate.

(Written on 2021/02/14)(Permalink)

I know. I don't know why Russia and China don't just sell us their best fighter planes so we can get better practice learning to defeat them! Seriously!?! Do you instead think the CIA can secretly just acquire like a few hundred enemy aircraft instead? You obviously don't have any idea how "Red Air" actually works, or how threat replication is done. With a few VERY limited (and covert) exceptions, it is pretty much ALWAYS done with "friendly" aircraft because those are pretty much the only kind of aircraft you can procure.

(Written on 2021/02/09)(Permalink)

Ray, I apologize. I would MOST CERTAINLY include your likes amongst the aviation fraternity. Typical pilot response on my part, thinking the world revolves around us! I should have said something more to the effect of "pilots, professionals in the aviation industry, or actual aviation enthusiasts..." Unfortunately now a lot of people here think that because they have once RIDDEN on an airplane, that somehow makes them experts on all things aviation.

(Written on 2021/01/15)(Permalink)

It used to be that almost the only people on this forum were pilots, ranging from PPL up to ATP, with a shared love of aviation, and the discussion was mostly aviation related. Now, it seems that an overwhelming number of respondents are non-aviators, who are simply looking for yet ANOTHER online forum to troll and spout their ignorance. It's sad. Mike, you clearly weren't implying that you use the terminal monitors to do your actual flight planning. I think all of those who actually ARE pilots can attest that even when we're just riding along as passengers, you can't completely put the pilot mindset to rest. And many of us crave having that SA about what is going on and how our flight(s) might be affected. I'm right there with you... I would find that way more informative than the drivel that spews out of the CNN monitors.

(Written on 2021/01/15)(Permalink)

Well those military "drones" don't operate autonomously. Every single one of them has a human operator(s) "flying" them. Sometimes they're essentially just programming them, and sometimes they're full-blown flying them, but there are always human operators involved. On top of that, the military loses literally DOZENS of drones a year to a myriad of issues from lost data links, to basic mechanical or weather issues that an onboard pilot might be able to recognize in time to correct or overcome. And lastly, the cost and complexity of all the additional systems that have to be put on board the UAVs in order to replace the pilot usually adds up to millions of dollars per aircraft. UAVs that were originally marketed to the Air Force as "not putting a human pilot at risk" have become so expensive that the military is just as risk averse to sending the unnamed aircraft into harms way as they are to sending in the manned aircraft.

(Written on 2020/07/31)(Permalink)

Well that FLIGHT you referred to out of Frankfurt was a different aircraft. But, the problem aircraft in question, after finally making it from NRT to SFO to ORD to FCO (Rome) had to air abort and return back to Rome almost immediately after takeoff on the 7th. As of early afternoon on July 10th, it made it across the pond and is about an hour out from landing at Newark.

(Written on 2020/07/10)(Permalink)