FAA Ramp check

[Larry Lyons]

Re: FAA Ramp check

No ramp check but your mention of bullets reminds me of standing guard duty in Wash. DC back in 67 when DC burned for about a week straight. I was stationed at Andrews airforce base and they locked the base down, put us on 24 hr guard duty with 45 auto sidearms, no bullets! LOL
Larry

[crispy critter]

Re: FAA Ramp check

a gun without bullits is about as much use as an airplane without sky.

[Ed O'Brien]

Re: FAA Ramp check

Crispy;
Regarding flying with guns and bullets while in the service.
We kept guns on our flight vests, they were assigned at the base by the Officer/SGT. who checked our O-2 and chutes... but bullets were kept in the plane's armory locker. The feeling was... no reason to have one of those pistols go off accidentally. I recall losing our load-Master... (I was a load tech and not trusted with bullets... kinda like Mayberry's Barney Fife) the old load master had the combination to our C-130s armory locker. We flew around for months until he remembered it and sent it to us... no one on the plane had any idea of the combination on the locker. AND, since it wasn't a check-off item... nobody caught it. Of course, we weren't flying any place dodgy at the time... just around the states. That said, in case of war... I could stab the enemy with my shroud knife... then beat them over the head with a .45... then I'd have to surrender. That's life in the Guard. This wasn't that long after Kent State so Guardsmen with bullets wasn't neccesarily a highly appreciated thing.
With regards; ED OBRIEN

[Ron Coleman]

Re: FAA Ramp check

I was in the Air Force in the early 50"s and stationed at Rhein Main air base at Frankfurt, Germany. I was in supply in a communications squadron and I maintained the arms. We had 30 cal carbines, a couple of Colt 45's and a couple of bootleg Thompson Sub Machine guns.

One day the base went on red alert because the Russians shot down one of our guys ( Lt. Brown). We were running around getting ready to dig fox holes in the lawn to protect the base. I asked the the C.O. what was the point?, we had all those rifles but there was no ammunition. That was news to him. In addition to that, I was the only one who knew where the keys to the armory were located and no one knew that except our old 1st Sg. who had rotated back to the states.

RonC

[Larry Lyons]

Re: FAA Ramp check

I know this has gotten off topic but I remember my dad (WW2 bomber pilot) saying "and their going to protect us"! Referring to my generation.
Larry

[crispy critter]

Re: FAA Ramp check

My dad,who spent 2 years in vietnam,said it best a while back......he was fed up after hearing about a prisoner in a military jail who was attempting to sue our goverenment blaming them for his actions that landed him in prison. Anyway...my dad made the comment about the younger generation and the way they handle things.He is surprised we went to war in the first place.He figured lawers would have just slapped Osama with a multi-billion dollar lawsuit. He also stated,and I agree with this comment,that there shouldn't be so much mercy during such a time of crisis. All of the country's people were cheering for Osoma during his 9-11 attacts and we turn around and start dropping food to them while we bomb specific targets of interest and digging through caves trying to find a man we never found. My father said they should have went in with a fleet of bombers and straffed everything from north to south and east to west(in short....exterminate everything).If that didn't do it then simply finish up with one big BANG. Once the fall-out settled down we stick up an American flag and start drilling our own oil. It would make terroist think long and hard before they consider another attack.

[Hank Jarrett]

Re: FAA Ramp check

That is exactly what they thought we would do, claimed we did, and still tell the world we are doing.
I think it's funny that the world says we went in to "steal" their oil when BUYING it at twice current price would have been cheaper than the war.
If you want something that will REALLY blow the "war for oil" argument, just get a geological survey of Iraqi oil. Almost 1,000 of Iraq's 1,500 oil wells are located in the south. The oil there is classified as the higher-quality "sweet crude," which contains a lower percentage of hydrogen sulfide and burns cleaner. Unfortunately those are the fields that were pretty much wrecked in the war. The northern fields (Kirkuk and Bai Hassan) produce lower quality oil we really don't want, almost all of which goes to Europe anyway.
If we went to war for the oil, why aren't we getting any of it?
I wish their oil could be "tagged" and we could see it any time we burned it. I would bet none of it ever got to the U.S.
That's the U.S. for you. They attack us, kill us, denigrate us and hate us as we liberate them, feed them, educate them and try to make their lives better.
Am I bitter?
No, actually I'm proud. That is who we are, and I wouldn't trade with anyone else in the world.
Hank
We aren't perfect, just better than most.

[flyguy]

Re: FAA Ramp check

Well put Hank. We get the worst possible people in positions of governmental power in this country because all the smart guys are busy making billions of dollars by gyping the government, and enjoying the luxuries thereof. The middle/working class pays for it. Then the government guys at the top promote and get us bogged down in a grossly costly (in it's broader sense) foreign civil war and the smart guys make more billions off it. Then my kids and yours have to pay for it directly in taxes and indirectly in the devaluation of our currency for many years to come.

On the other hand Europe is being taken over by people who do not separate their religion from their government. We have the presently smaller same problem here and no one in power has the balls or intelligence to name it for what it is.

Even though in my hotter moments I can express the simple wish to just "nuke em" myself, it is again one of those popular, simple solutions to a complex, difficult problem that everybody loves but won't work, not to even discuss the morality of it. Though I would not be surprised if it comes to that some time in the future.

Osama and company has managed to get us to react in stupid, costly, inefficient and cruel ways to their penetration of our open society, which is exactly what they wanted. They have caused us to screw up our transportation system and blow trillions of dollars elsewhere to little practical effect. That is the exact purpose of guerilla warfare and it worked.

We still have the best country in the world, even with the process of trying to screw it up going on for over 200 years. That process has accelerated in the last 50 years at an ever increasing rate. We need to change that, and I fear the longer it goes on the more drastic will be the solution required.
Darryl

[crispy critter]

Re: FAA Ramp check

If politics ever butts heads with the Rednecks,patriots,and true believers(which is getting close) then I'm affraid we might be facing a new age revolutionary war inside our own country all too soon once again. However if our government leaders continue to run this country with there heads stuck up each others asses and there hands in everyone elses pockets while laying all the blame on something or someone else all while trying to find new ways for political gain to line there own pockets even more then I'm all for it. I think it's time we get a president with some honesty,morals,personality,and back bone. Someone who is more interested in saving our country and returning it to what it really stands for. None of the presidential canidates have expressed any acutual interest in bettering our country.All they can talk about is how bad the last guy done it,how bad his(or her) oponante will do,all while talking about what the last guy should have done. The canidants won't really tell you what they would have done or what they will do for fear of later having explain why they did not do what they said they would do. I know all this sounds a little confusing the way I have wrote it so forgive me for not being very good with words. I think Earl Pitts,Jeff Foxworthy,Roy D. Mercer, Robin Williams, or maybe even Larry the Cable Guy would all be great presidential canidates.....at least if would be funny. What our government is doing now is a big F#@%ing joke that ain't one bit funny. I may not honestly support these funny guys for president but if one of them were running they would get my vote simply because nobody else is worth a shit. Hell,at this point I would vote for a donkey.

[flyguy]

Re: FAA Ramp check

Hope everyone was finished talking about ramp checks.
Kevin, I thought you said that rather well, actually.

Anyway, I have become amazed at how penetrating through the different layers of society is the disgust with the way things are being run by the powers of business and government.
Just talking with a really smart young guy (network systems analyst) about half my age the other day and he sounded like a recording of what I have been saying myself. Sure seems like the system is broken.
We could use a few guys like Jefferson, Franklin, Adams, Hamilton, and Lincoln to good avail.
Can only hope that we can change things before it is too late.
DC

[crispy critter]

Re: FAA Ramp check

I think I might run for president in 2012....any supporters???? If this upcoming election is anything like the last 3 or if the leadership is anything like it has been in the past 8-12 years then all I have to do is put my name on the ballot,keep my face hidden,and my mouth shut and I would be certin to win by a landslide in my sleep! MAYS-N-MAYS for president in 2012!

PS. The other Mays will be my wife,of course we all know who will really be president and who will be visepresident don't we.

[VictorBravo]

Re: FAA Ramp check

MAYS-N-MAYS for president in 2012!

PS. The other Mays will be my wife,of course

Nahhh, with all due respect the other Mays needs to be the guy from the TV infomercials, Billy Mays! He's the dark haired younger guy with the beard that talks like a battering ram to sell you Oxi-Clean detergent and a $2 suction cup dent remover for your car for two easy payments of $20.

I can see the next TV informercial: "Hi folks, Billy Mays here for Taylorcraft Replacement Struts! Made from space age plastics and recycled beer cans! Only four easy payments of $1200..."

[Forrest Barber]

Re: FAA Ramp check

Ah Bill welcome back, it is a gloomy day in Ohio; BUT I did get to fly over an hour today. Iowa & New Hampshire, perhaps we need to set up in those States to do things correctly in Aviation. Nasty weather out West hope none of our tribe got hurt OR any others for that matter.

[flyguy]

Re: FAA Ramp check

Ok for us here in the Central Valley about 100 mi. SE of San Francisco. Lots of rain just now but wind has died down. Pretty rough for folks up in the hills and mountains and the guys that got flooded out over in Nevada. LOTS of snow in the mountains. Understand still more to come. Airplane is nicely tucked away in the hangar. Thanks for kind thoughts.
Darryl

[crispy critter]

Re: FAA Ramp check

Nahhh, with all due respect the other Mays needs to be the guy from the TV infomercials, Billy Mays! He's the dark haired younger guy with the beard that talks like a battering ram to sell you Oxi-Clean detergent and a $2 suction cup dent remover for your car for two easy payments of $20.

I can see the next TV informercial: "Hi folks, Billy Mays here for Taylorcraft Replacement Struts! Made from space age plastics and recycled beer cans! Only four easy payments of $1200..."

He is no relation to me that I know of.....but laughed my ass off at the strut sales pitch....that was good. If you send your money in for those new space age struts do ya think the factory would even send anything back? ......it would probably be a garbage bag full of natural light cans and empty marguirta mix buckets(for the carban fiber).
I still think I should run in 2012!