Posted on 01/26/2011 8:50:49 PM PST by ErnstStavroBlofeld
You don't fly the plane for a family outing. You fly the plane. It's your job. You land. You go off the clock. You go to the family outing.
You get back in the plane. You go on the clock. You fly it back to home base. It is called "training." You have filed a proper flight plan. You comply with all the rules and regulations governing training flights. All your paperwork is in order. People become ANG pilots because one gets paid for this.
Flying from one base, to one, two, or three bases, and back again is the way military pilots train. When officers are not flying, they are people who do other things. It's OK.
I think I have seen them at other private airfields but I always love taxiing past the ones in Palm Springs and wishing I could take one for a joyride.
They are just plain cool.
I’ve seen B-52s on the ground at Phoenix Sky Harbor and DFW over the years, too - and in the case of DFW, they were definitely not from the local unit.
Yep.
Do we make Pelosi fly her airplane to Cleveland three times instead of San Francisco once?
The other charges were related to the mix of his government "technician" job and his Guard job. The Guard hires lots of pilots to work full time as instructors with GS positions. They where their rank and fill spots in their Guard unit. As a GS employee he would qualify for compensatory time for some unpaid travel time. Somehow he converted that comp time into paid military drills.
That is what got him in trouble. He probably brow beat some admin person to pay those drills and somebody dropped a dime on him. The other possibility is that he is a total tool and somebody waited for him to make a mistake and dropped the dime on him. He had several IG investigations going so it might have been the latter.
Cross countries are a mainstay of Naval aviation training. I don’t know about Air Force, though.
Of course, if a pilot is going to take a training cross country, it’s usually to somewhere he wants to go.
My husband used the aircraft computer for training on a cross country one time. He was able to accurately pin-point his destination 3,000 miles away using the onboard computer.
Of course, that was a long time ago before computers were the norm. ;o)
I wish that this were the extent of government corruption!
You can’t do this stuff unless you’re Speaker of the House.
Col. Smiley takes command of 187th Fighter Wing
I know the guy. Not personally but part of official business. Can't say he's a bad officer or not based on meetings I've been to with him there.
Colonel Smiley entered the Air Force in 1980 as a graduate of the Reserve Officer Training Corps program from Texas A&M University. He has extensive military experience including US Army Airborne School, USMC Officer Candidate School, a Navy Carrier Air Wing and strike fighter squadron, four active duty Air Force fighter wings, four Air National Guard fighter wings and an Air Force Reserve fighter wing. The Colonel has served as a Fighter Squadron Director of Operations, a Deputy Operations Group Commander, an Operations Group Commander and a Vice Wing Commander. He has world wide operational flying experience throughout the United States, Canada, Alaska, Pacific, Far East, Australia, Philippines, Atlantic, Europe, Scandinavia, Mediterranean, Southwest Asia (Iraq and Afghanistan), Red Sea, Indian Ocean, and Persian Gulf. Colonel Smiley is a graduate of the USAF F-16 Fighter Weapons Instructor Course and he was a pilot member on three USAF Gunsmoke worldwide fighter gunnery teams. He was a member of the 9th Air Force Top Team, the 9th Air Force overall Topgun and an individual event winner during Gunpowder 83 and twice he was a Gunsmoke individual event USAF world champion. He has participated in six combat deployments to include Operations IRAQI FREEDOM, ENDURING FREEDOM, NORTHERN WATCH and SOUTHERN WATCH flying a total of 66 combat missions. As a USAF/US Navy exchange pilot, he carrier qualified on the USS Theodore Roosevelt and deployed on two six and half month cruises aboard the USS Dwight Eisenhower making a total of 244 carrier landings including 74 at night. He earned awards for his day / night carrier landing grades on three separate line periods and he was a nominee for the Association of Naval Aviation Aviator of the Year Award in 1990. Colonel Smiley has authored six articles published in various military publications and delivered over 50 speeches throughout Texas and Alabama communities about the Air Force Reserve and Air National Guard participation in the Global War on Terrorism. The Colonel has logged over 5500 hours of military jet flying time with over 5300 hours in jet fighters. This includes over 4600 hours in the F-16 Fighting Falcon of which 281 hours are in combat, and over 700 hours in the FA-18 Hornet. He is the tenth person in the world to go over 4000 flight hours in the F-16 Fighting Falcon.
I didn't know he served on a carrier!
Back in my day, Cross country flights were the norm in my F-100 squadron/wing, especially when Oktoberfest in Germany was going on. Pilots used the trips to build their flying time.
Laz, I think this guy may be stealing your lines.
I was National Guard, sue me! :0)
“I am going to write about his swim up the Mekong River on that long-ago Christmas Eve.”
Don’t forget to include Kerry’s death defying battle with the giant catfish in the Mekong River. He had to chew his way out through the side of that beast’s body after it dragged him under.
He’ll never forgive you if you leave out that feat.
;-)
We were not invaded on your watch, so you must have done your duty. Come out to Idaho and we’ll fix you up some snake. You earned it.
“Pilots used the trips to build their flying time.”
That’s interesting, and is very plausible...but to Germany?
That’s a new one for me!
My husband did his requisite time on a xcountry only a couple of times, and never to a foreign country...
unless you count Thailand when his plane broke. lol
LOL at me! Thank you for the explanation!
And here I thought my husband had been left out. lol
His xcountries were much further away than from Spain to Germany. ;o)
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