sherpa

They weren't conducting a training exercise. They call all standard flights "training missions, " because they are. Nothing unusual about this. Cooperation among military and civilian aviation folks is standard and thorough. Nothing secret about any of this.

Si.

Ya, the Reagan area is really congested, but corridors are in place to prevent traffic conflicts. I'm not familiar with what helo operations are in place to de-conflict, but having a helo operating at the same time on the approach path to runway 33 is nuts. Helo ops from the Pentagon and other stuff up and down the river are very normal, but well below departures, . The entire airport is a bit weird. When the Pres leaves the WH on Marine 1 on his way to Andrews or back or wherever, they stop all takeoffs and landings at Reagan. Takes about 20 mins. Landing to the south, because you fly very close to the WH, (that area is called prohibited area 56), you have to do a series of turns over the river and only get the the runway centerline very close to touchdown. Quite sporty in a 757, which is the largest airplane allowed to land there. Taking off to the north, you have to do an immediate left turn to avoid it. The place has other quirks. For instance, the employee parking lot is on the south end of the airport, on the river. To scare away birds, they have an audio of predatory birds and distressed birds, along with shotgun sounds that plays in a loop all day from that parking lot. Know what they have at the north end of the airport? An area which is a bird sanctuary. Does that make sense to anyone not in the Federal Gov?

I have posted in the Off the Wall forum, as this is not political. But one thing absolutely certain, and of political nature about the FAA. They are an immensely quota hiring and promotion organization. They have also spent an incredible amount of time, energy and resources on stupid non productive projects, like de-gendering pronouns in the aviation lexicon and forcing their people to attend all kinds of stupid training regarding social issues.

That post you are referring to pure display of stunning ignorance.

A few initial thoughts. It was not an American Airline flight. It was American Eagle, which is a different company that uses the Eagle name, and is a feeder to AA. The Eagle flight was lining up to land on runway 33 at Reagan. 33 is a short runway, and during good weather, the regional jets, (small), use 33 while the regular airliners use runway 36, which is longer. That means that they were operating the two runways at once, and a single tower controller was handling both. The tower controller would be responsible for ensuring separation. The helo pilot would be responsible to "see and avoid," in this instance. The regional jet crew would not be responsible for someone in the final approach path. That airspace is quite complicated, with lots of military helo activity, but never should they be at any conflicting altitude when on or near the centerline of a runway final. Helicopters are very hard to see at night. They are very slow and look like vehicular traffic in a high density city area. The point is that the helo should never have been there, and is responsible for "see and avoid." The tower controller is responsible for keeping the final approach path clear.

I don't have a "side." The claim of raging alcoholic is idiotic. You still have not defended your idiotic claim that he never did anything "in his life." Does anyone else view this forum and getting more and more useless and stupid?

Seriously? The guy graduated from Princeton, served in special forces in Iraq, earning a bronze star, was an analyst for Bear Stearns, and a few other things. Perhaps your resume should have gotten you the Sect. of Defense job.

Not the one about he and seven (I believe), other progressives had a big discussion at their Thanksgiving dinner. Boy, that would have been fun. I had a meal with my family that day. No politics, just fun. How foolishly non political of us.

You have achieved goof status. Not interested.

Just grossly stupid. Not worth posting what has been posted hundreds of times with his actual quotes. What the hell is going on with you constantly posting on wine? I run a commercial vineyard. Successful for eighteen years, including a silver medal in the VA Gov's cup. Not really germane or even interesting. It's simply how I employ a part of the land I own. I am not interested in your views on this matter, but you seem obsessed. Boring.

Really? I have no interest in commenting on the nonsense of a MAGA accusation, or knowledge of your local area's wine shops, or keep a list of who I think is most qualified to be Sect. of Defense, and that somehow makes me a MAGA guy? Total nonsense. What makes you and a couple others look foolish is that you constantly accuse Trump of things that are not justifiable. I have never voted for the man, but I certainly understand he didn't call Nazis or white supremacists good people, and I will point out this lunacy when it comes up. I will also point out that I think Biden was an absolute idiot his entire career, led a horrible four years, and Harris was worse, with Walz a liar and fool beyond measure bringing up the rear. We have better people than this and we need to allow them to rise to the top of these tickets. As for what you and a few others think about me, I am not interested in the least. I'm quite comfortable here, and doing just fine.

Certainly not MAGA, and I'm not up to speed on wine shops in your area, nor interested. Perhaps if you did head that way, you would have noticed VP JD Vance was there yesterday.

Trump's was previous. and far more justified as the economy was in serious trouble. Biden's was unnecessary and politically motivated. Thankfully, it was reduced by about a trillion, but is was pure print money. The US is not a pure free market. Still, suggesting that the gov intervene to make you happy about about egg prices, instead of solving the bird flu issue and allowing market forces to correct is folly, but not surprising.

I think you are just stupid. The Trump plan is to let the free market operate without senseless gov interference, and letting qualified people run these things, instead of people who are there strictly based on race, sex or sexual preference, which nobody cares about. And I am not "playing." I don't think you have done anything here that indicates you have any idea what you are talking about.

Haven't thought about it. I could certainly criticize the Biden group's appointees. Too obvious.

Ya, because being a granddad to four who visit every weekend, running a commercial vineyard, serving on two councils at my church and serving as the Treasurer of our volunteer fire department allows me to vet candidates for Sect. of Defense. This is last on my list of priorities. Not surprising if you are human.

Not at all. You are simply ignorant. If you let competent people run gov offices that allow the incredible power of the US free market to operate at the efficiency levels that it will revert to, If you interfere, as the Dems always want to do, you will get distortions. If you disagree, visit Venezuela and a hundred other less recent attempts for a gov to run an economy.

I don't think you quite get this. In fact I'm sure of it. Whoever was running the Biden Admin got a massive, and in my view, unnecessary stimulus bill passed. Started out at Build Back Better, which was a 3.5 trillion dollar monstrosity. After Republican legislative jockeying, it ended up a 2.2 trillion dollar monetary print. Way too much money printing, resulting in way too inflation, which is exactly what happened. Groceries, housing, clothing and everything reflected the massive increase in available dollars.

First, it not the job of gov to lower the price of a specific product, especially one that has a "black swan" situation as the bird flu thing is re egg prices. The free market will solve it, and that is always the best course. The gov always screws things up.

Eliminating the idiotic practice of DEI hiring in gov positions.

I don't know, but the concept of hiring a "more qualified" individual was demolished/vaporized during the whomever was running the Biden Admin.

You have no information to engage in a reasonable debate. Your's is a completely US political view. I don't do "assignments." I saw this first hand for years, and it was far more moderate then.

Or perhaps years and years of actually witnessing it, and achieving a level of understanding on the industry and how it works.

Great place. Great people. Love it.