Guns & Outdoors Forum

Just in January, we got a new granddaughter! Oldest granddaughter, now 13, gets her Brown belt at her MMA dojo today!!! And is in line for her second sanctioned bout (she won her first).
And my son had his retirement ceremony yesterday. 21 years ago I watched him at 17 walk into a hotel elevator to head out for Basic training at Lackland AFB. Since then he got a Bachelor and then a Master’s degree, became probably the foremost expert in the country for Ejection Systems for the F-16 and the F-35 and has traveled the world working with friendly governments that fly those planes trouble shooting the ops, training and developing processes for them, and finally finished his career as Section Chief of the Egress shop at Luke AFB in the process building it into the premier shop for F-35 Egress in the country (his boss said that at the ceremony). The event went overtime as his boss listed all his awards and accomplishments including personally figuring out a way to get the entire F-35 fleet that had been grounded back flying in 6 days after they had estimated 6 months of down time because of a critical problem. Need less to say, I’ve never been so proud of my boy.
Two thoughts….

Damn I’m getting old!!!

Life is great!!! Can’t wait to see what the rest of ‘25 brings!

This year is certainly off to a good start for you. Congrats

Diver43 wrote: ↑Sun Jan 26, 2025 3:06 am This year is certainly off to a good start for you. Congrats

It’s almost scary…

Congratulations, hope the year continues just like this for you.

rberg wrote: ↑Sun Jan 26, 2025 3:43 am Congratulations, hope the year continues just like this for you.

Thank you! Off to a good start

Very nice! Well done to all...

Jayhawker wrote: ↑Sun Jan 26, 2025 4:33 am Very nice! Well done to all...

Thanks brother!

That is a mighty good start to a year, congratulations!

Congrats

Excellent start to the year, now to get you hunting this fall….

All kinds of great stuff happening!

Time for one of those nice government contractor jobs! With that kind of resume, the possibilities are endless!!
That F-35 is one impressive aircraft. I was surprised to learn that they still us the Martin-Baker seats, but I'm sure it's not the same seat the F-4 used!!

Congratulations on all counts!

Thank you guys! Truly blessed…

Big Al1 wrote: ↑Sun Jan 26, 2025 2:43 pm All kinds of great stuff happening!

Time for one of those nice government contractor jobs! With that kind of resume, the possibilities are endless!!
That F-35 is one impressive aircraft. I was surprised to learn that they still us the Martin-Baker seats, but I'm sure it's not the same seat the F-4 used!!

He said the seat is pretty straight forward. The canopy explosives on the other hand

The issue that grounded the whole fleet was related to the explosives, crazy stuff…

Chiro1989 wrote: ↑Sun Jan 26, 2025 1:43 pm Excellent start to the year, now to get you hunting this fall….

I know…. I keep jumping states. But I’m done now. NV is it

Bloody hands and autopsy photos……

Chiro1989 wrote: ↑Mon Jan 27, 2025 3:07 am Bloody hands and autopsy photos……

That’s what I want….

Wambli Ska wrote: ↑Mon Jan 27, 2025 2:25 am

Big Al1 wrote: ↑Sun Jan 26, 2025 2:43 pm All kinds of great stuff happening!

Time for one of those nice government contractor jobs! With that kind of resume, the possibilities are endless!!
That F-35 is one impressive aircraft. I was surprised to learn that they still us the Martin-Baker seats, but I'm sure it's not the same seat the F-4 used!!

He said the seat is pretty straight forward. The canopy explosives on the other hand

The issue that grounded the whole fleet was related to the explosives, crazy stuff…

Typical! What the engineers create, the working man makes it right! Grounding the fleet could have been disastrous. I remember in 2008 the entire F-15 fleet was grounded because the nose section, from the cockpit forward, was falling off in flight. Took six months to correct and them all the pilots had to be requalified! Bucket of worms!

It’s crazy that stuff like that happens. The QC failure that grounded the F-35 fleet would have prevented seats from ejecting so we could have lost pilots!!! The application of the explosives to the canopy actually has a success % number. That’s how tough it is to get it perfect

Wambli Ska wrote: ↑Tue Jan 28, 2025 3:35 pm It’s crazy that stuff like that happens. The QC failure that grounded the F-35 fleet would have prevented seats from ejecting so we could have lost pilots!!! The application of the explosives to the canopy actually has a success % number. That’s how tough it is to get it perfect

Remember what happened to Goose when the canopy didn't deploy correctly

Diver43 wrote: ↑Tue Jan 28, 2025 3:42 pm

Wambli Ska wrote: ↑Tue Jan 28, 2025 3:35 pm It’s crazy that stuff like that happens. The QC failure that grounded the F-35 fleet would have prevented seats from ejecting so we could have lost pilots!!! The application of the explosives to the canopy actually has a success % number. That’s how tough it is to get it perfect

Remember what happened to Goose when the canopy didn't deploy correctly

An ejection is a violent affair at best. The canopy is literally blown off and then explosive ROCKETS launch the seat/pilot out of the cockpit!!!

The good news is that it doesn’t happen a lot. During the ceremony they said he had 3 successful ejections attributed to the work him/his shop did. One of them was a jet that had JUST taken off Luke AFB after egress maintenance at his shop to return to his base!!!

Wambli Ska wrote: ↑Mon Jan 27, 2025 3:16 am

Chiro1989 wrote: ↑Mon Jan 27, 2025 3:07 am Bloody hands and autopsy photos……

That’s what I want….

No, you don’t. When I was working tech forensics with the DEA, I had a case where the subject liked to collect autopsy pics of people that died badly. Ick.

Cervids please, not people.

LMLarsen wrote: ↑Wed Jan 29, 2025 1:57 am

Wambli Ska wrote: ↑Mon Jan 27, 2025 3:16 am

Chiro1989 wrote: ↑Mon Jan 27, 2025 3:07 am Bloody hands and autopsy photos……

That’s what I want….

No, you don’t. When I was working tech forensics with the DEA, I had a case where the subject liked to collect autopsy pics of people that died badly. Ick.

Oh boy…. Interesting folks out there!

Chiro1989 wrote: ↑Wed Jan 29, 2025 4:51 am Cervids please, not people.

Sure… no people