Free Republic

The Islamic State continues to target, taunt and terrorize American military service members with impunity. Obama’s “JV” is on the march emboldened, empowered by our jihadi-in-chief. “Government Report: U.S. Fight Against Islamic State Disorganized, Incoherent,” Washington Free Beacon The fruit of President Obama’s anti-American jihad. Americans are not safe in our own homeland. These lists are trying to spark Muslim attacks in the United States like the ones in Garland, Texas, and Chattanooga, Tennessee, in recent months.

Iraq’s Ministry of Transportation announced that an Iraqi young woman has become the country’s first female commercial airline pilot, according to Arab media reports on Friday. The ministry’s media office said in a press release on its website is that “Dalia, an Iraqi woman, has received a pass after completing her qualifying courses to become the first Iraqi woman to fly a civilian aircraft,” also adding that “this makes her an accepted and welcomed member of Iraqi Airways.” The British educated woman will be the first Iraqi female to hold the title of “flight captain”. The Iraqi minister of transport...

A group of zealous supporters of Sen. Ted Cruz’ (R-TX) 2016 presidential run is planning to launch a ‘Ted Cruz Air Force’ (TCAF) in the coming months prior to the Republican primaries that begin in less than a year. According to TCAF, “Ted Cruz clearly has the support of the grassroots. He will also have air support.” TCAF says its most prominent air feature will be the “Ted Cruz Blimp,” but it also plans on recruiting “antique aircraft, towed aerial banners, light sport aircraft … [and] parachutes.” Member of TCAF Jerry Collette says he’s going to do everything he can...

Andreas Lubitz: Germanwings flight's last minutes revealed in chilling black box transcript 29 March 2015 By Alex Wellman Patrick Sondheimer is heard screaming to his co-pilot "Open the goddam door" as passengers scream in the background The dramatic last moments of the doomed Germanwings flight have been revealed in a chilling transcript of the black box recording that shows the captain screaming at Andreas Lubitz “Open the goddam door”. Patrick Sondheimer, pilot of the traffic plane, is heard frantically pleading with the killer to let him into the cockpit, just seconds before crashing into the Alps. BEA Germanwings CVR Evidence:...

Two Saudi pilots ejected over the Red Sea on Friday after their fighter plane suffered a technical problem and were rescued with US assistance, state media said. "A plane of the F-15S type was stricken by a technical fault yesterday evening over the Red Sea and the two pilots were forced to use their rescue seats," state news agency SPA quoted a defense ministry official saying.

The U.S. Air Force and Navy rescued two Saudi pilots Friday after they ejected from their F-15 fighter over the Gulf of Aden during combat operations against Houthi rebels in Yemen. The Saudi jet apparently suffered some mechanical problem forcing the pilots to eject. A U.S. Air Force Pave Hawk special operations helicopter and crew were dispatched from Djibouti to rescue the Saudi pilots.

The “Best helicopter door gunner of all time” died and went to heaven. St. Peter greeted him there and said “Welcome to heaven! Your terminal assignment orders indicate you were the best door gunner in human history and did wonderful things for your fellow crew members, your unit, and your country your entire life. For that reason I am authorized to let you choose in which part of heaven you would like to spend eternity.” “Well”, the gunner said, “I’d love to bunk somewhere where I will never see another helicopter pilot – they are loud, contemptible, and generally a...

Residents of Lakeland, Fla., probably didn't notice anything odd, but a private plane flying overhead Thursday followed a unusual flight path. Aviation buffs who use FlightRadar24, the popular site that can track planes in flight around the world, got a clearer picture. The plane's path described a the shape of a phallus.

Too many missions and too few pilots are threatening the ‘readiness and combat capability’ of America’s unmanned Air Force, according to an internal memo. The U.S. Air Force’s fleet of drones is being strained to the “breaking point,” according to senior military officials and an internal service memo acquired by The Daily Beast. And it’s happening right when the unmanned aircraft are most needed to fight ISIS. The Air Force has enough MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper drones. It just doesn’t have the manpower to operate those machines. The Air Force’s situation is so dire that Air Combat Command (ACC),...

Too many computers and not enough “hands-on” flying mean most pilots would have fallen victim to the weather that brought down AirAsia 8501. As searchers close in on what appears to be the main wreckage of AirAsia Flight 8501 the retrieval of the airplane’s flight data and cockpit voice recorders should soon follow. The wreckage lies no more than around 100 feet down in the Java Sea. Although there are strong currents and poor visibility, compounded by the high seas generated by stormy weather, divers should be able to locate the rear end of the fuselage where the flight data...

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Iraqi pilots who have joined Islamic State in Syria are training members of the group to fly in three captured fighter jets, a group monitoring the war said on Friday, saying it was the first time that the militant group had taken to the air.

United Flight 1637 was returning off-duty Air Force Captain Mike Gongol, his family and 157 other souls from their Christmas vacation when disaster struck. The Boeing 737's pilot suffered a devastating heart attack at 30,000 feet on the way from Des Moines to Denver, forcing Gongol to rush to the cockpit and help guide the plane to an emergency landing. His heroic actions have gone unheralded until now, as Gongol recalls the dramatic moment he answered the chilling announcement on the December 30 flight, 'Does anyone know how to fly a plane?'

"9/11 plotter released in Syria prisoner exchange" SNIPPET: "The al-Qaeda recruiter reputed to have assembled the so-called Hamburg Cell, which planned and largely carried out the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington, has been set free in a prisoner exchange between rebel and regime forces in Syria. Islamist rebel group Ahrar al-Sham has secured the release of 9/11 plotter and alleged al-Qaeda core member Mohammed Haydar Zammar, adding to concerns about the composition of the Islamic Front. A naturalized German citizen of Syrian origin, Mohammed Haydar Zammar left Germany shortly after the attacks and traveled to Morocco, where he was reportedly...

The Air Force is offering big bonuses to keep its pilots in the service, but they’re not taking them because budget constraints are forcing the service to limit both current flying hours and opportunities to fly the next generation of aircraft,...

Members of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) are reporting that they are being "stopped, questioned, and searched" without cause by armed agents from the Department of Homeland Security's Customs and Border Protection agency and "other law enforcement agencies". An email went out to members detailing the searches and a request for donations. The letter does not address the legality of such serarches or the expansion of intrusion into Americans lives. Below is the text of the letter Dear _________, Over the past few months, AOPA has received more and more reports of pilots like you being stopped, questioned,...

After I retired from UAL as a Standards Captain on the -400, I got a job as a simulator instructor working for Alteon (a Boeing subsidiary) at Asiana. When I first got there, I was shocked and surprised by the lack of basic piloting skills shown by most of the pilots. It is not a normal situation with normal progression from new hire, right seat, left seat taking a decade or two. One big difference is that ex-Military pilots are given super-seniority and progress to the left seat much faster. Compared to the US, they also upgrade fairly rapidly because...

U.S. authorities couldn’t perform drug or alcohol tests on the four pilots who were aboard Asiana Flight 214 when it crashed at San Francisco International Airport — a lapse that will complicate efforts to figure out why they were seemingly unaware that the plane was coming in too slowly and too low. Those were the latest revelations Tuesday from National Transportation Safety Board Chairwoman Debbie Hersman, who said her agency and the Federal Aviation Administration couldn’t legally requirethe crew of the South Korea-based airline to submit to testing after the crash. That decision is left to the airline’s home country....

Flying has obtained information from a law enforcement source about the federal program that detains pilots upon their arrival at their destination airports and searches their airplanes. Training for the program was conducted via an “aviation drug interdiction” class sponsored by HIDTA (High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area), a government organization that is a conglomerate of federal, state and local law enforcement agencies to fight, as the name implies, drug traffic. ...airplanes are approached often at gunpoint and usually by local law enforcement, who detain them until the Citation lands and federal agents arrive on scene. They are then ramp checked...

Since 1998, they have introduced a range or piston driven light aircraft that have proven popular with kit enthusiasts -- the two-place Sonex, Y-tail Waiex and the Onex single-seater. Now they've unveiled the jet-powered SubSonex. The "pre-prototype" SubSonex JSX-1 has been flying since August, 2011. It looks like its piston relatives, except that instead of a propeller, a surprisingly compact PBS TJ-100 turbojet engine is mounted on the top rear of the fuselage, directly in front of the distinctive Waiex Y tail. The TJ-100 puts out only 247 pounds of thrust, but that's enough to propel this tiny 400 lb...

Annals of the Security State: More Airplane Stories James Fallows May 21 2013 "My dad fought a war so this can never happen in America. I will not dishonor my father's memory by giving up what he fought for. No, sir. With all due respect, I will not consent to a search without a proper warrant." Over the weekend I related the story of Gabriel Silverstein, a businessman and pilot who for no apparent reason was subjected to a two-hour detention and invasive search by Homeland Security officials as he traveled across the country in his small plane. The picture...