FSPilot

Bigger bullets, that'll solve all of our problems.

I've also seen some pretty convincing pictures that Kerry and Edwards were gay lovers.

Anybody see it? I'm living in central Kansas and I could see it great. At about 0530z I was out in the middle of nowhere with my camera (pictures didn't turn out) watching the northern lights. Simply amazing to actually see this for the first time ever. I figure if I can see it in Kansas other people can see it too. Did anybody?

I've got no idea what that is so I'm going to go ahead and say no.

IIRC that photo was taken in Kansas north of Garden City. If only I could figure out how to do time lapse photos with my digital camera. It's supposed to happen again tonight. the Kp index was over 9 early this morning. But of course it was cloudy around here.

Now that's stylin! Now we just need some alien ass to kick!

That was probably the southern lights (Aurora Australis).

It didn't happen as much last night as it did the night before. Before the Kp (an index of the geomagnetic activity on a scale from 1-10) was at a 9 for a few hours. Last night I think it peaked at 7. Maybe tonight we'll get lucky. I read somewhere that the Kp has to be at least a 9 for it to be visible here in Kansas. The higher north you are the lower it has to be.

It's supposed to happen again tonight and tomorrow night.

I guess it's just a really active sun spot causing all this. Gallery of Auroras

I've never seen it before so I was pretty excited about it. Especially living in central Kansas.

I completely agree. Â I don't care if they have some state issued marriage. Â I don't even recognize that as a real marriage, just a certificate and a name change. Â What I don't want is the government mandating that we have to let them get married in our churches. Right, but the state also has to keep it's hands off of the church. Â That's part of seperation of church and state too, I think most people have forgotten that. Then I've got nothing else to say. Â I simply don't care if they want to go into a city hall and get a certificate. Â I just don't want them doing this in my church. Evolution as a method of explaining the origins of the world is no more a fact than anything. Â It's a theory. Â And to teach it in place of creationism in schools, which is just a valid explanation as any, shows a bias. Â I think schools should just not teach anything about the beginnings of the world. Â Since nobody really knows in the first place we wouldn't be losing much. Let the parents do it. The way I see it, they're using evolution to replace religion. Â They're not teaching it as a scientific alternative, they're teaching it as an "I know you heard this in Sunday school, but here's what really happened" lesson plan. Damn straight, I'm a fundie. Â Nothing wrong with that either. Â I'm not stoning anybody or burning anybody at the stake, just believing what I always have. I agree 100%. I belive that homosexuals should not marry. Â So when the government says I have to let them into my church so they can marry I'm being forced to let them marry. That's the aspect of it that I don't support. Â I don't have any problem with two guys having a legal union and getting some tax breaks. Â Just don't force me to change my beliefs for it.

Will they storm the church and force them to not marry? No. It is when they want to get married in a Christian church. Like I said, I don't have a problem with that. Just don't do it in my church and call it a christian marriage.

I actually agree with you. Â Not just with pilots but with any uniformed soldier vs. a civilian. Â That uniformed soldier is prepared to die, the civilian isn't and they don't have to. Â That's why we've got an army in the first place. We were just being nice. Different skills are employed in flying low and shooting the cannon. Â It's just that simple. Â You can't judge how well a pilot is going to land by how well he takes off. Ever heard of "task saturation"? Â Didn't think so. You can only do so many things in a cockpit before you start screwing up. Â You make it sound like it's simple point and click. Â It's just not. Â Aside from flying the plane, you've got to do about 100 other things from following checklists to pulling the trigger. Flying is relatively easy. Â You've got your "go" stick, the control stick, and the rudder pedals. Â Now you've got to fly the plane hundreds of miles away in your cramped and uncomfortable cockpit. Â Scan for traffic, scan the engine instruments, crosscheck your navigation and IFR gauges, repeat. Â Do this for about 2 to 3 hours. Â Longer than that if you have to refuel. Â Airspeed changed because you took on fuel? Better re-trim the plane. Now, while you're doing all that, follow an immense checklist involving every other switch in the airplane. Â Identify the target as hostile, without any error mind you, then engage them. Â Pull upwards of 9Gs without throwing up in your oxygen mask. Be sure to arrive on target within a few seconds of your time. Â Now try it at night, in bad weather, while you're being shot at. Â Not as easy as it sounds.

I partially agree with you here, but I don't see it as an enforcement of our morals on everybody. Â I see it as a protection of our morals from everybody. Â Considering the issue of gay marriage, it treads all over the institution we had set up as a religious union between a man and a woman. Â Why should we sit by and be forced to believe that gay marriages should be allowed? Â What happened to our freedoms? You make a good point. Â But I don't think we should just throw our religion out of the window for the sake of technological advancements. Â It's not all bad you know. Â Religion has a lot of great things to offer. But we're protecting what we believe. Â I don't believe two men should be married in my church. Â Who is the government to step in and say that they can? Â Aren't they also cohercing people into their beliefs when they do that? No, but I don't believe that marriage is a purely legal event. Â I think marriage is a religious union. Â That's why they do it in a church, in front of a pastor who's reading from a Bible. I'm perfectly fine with legal unions between same sex partners. Â Just don't do it in my church and call it a marriage. But aren't they also enforcing their beliefs on people when they tell us which theory to teach? Â When religions are based on the theory of evolution, isn't it the same thing as teaching creationism in school? Â I think so. I understand what your objection is and I partly agree with it. Â I don't think we should be making all of our rules based on religion. Â But I also think that there's a profound lack of tolerance for religion in the US today. Â There should be a balance between the religious and non-religious sides in the US instead of this one way or another deal. Â I'm sure there's a compromise somewhere.

Low level high speed training is part of any USAF or USN fighter pilot's training. And since when did flying low at high speed have anything to do with friendly fire or accuracy? Just because a pilot can fly low doesn't mean he's going to hit his target, or that he's a "good" pilot in the first place. Maybe some of you should look into flying planes before you start criticising pilots?

Understandable. Â But when morality is a largely influencial factor in the election, and we pick one guy over the other we're picking him because of his morals. Those are the morals that represent the majority of our nation. I was being sarcastic. Â One of the reasons many people are atheistic or anti-theistic even is because of the concept of inherited sin. Â Now somebody's trying to put what people did hundreds of years ago on me? Â A little bit contradictory there. Â I've never hurt anybody because of my religion. Â To say that my religion is bad because of what somebody did hundreds of years ago is just plain unfair. How is that burning people at the stake? Â Is increased traffic on sundays because of church-goers burning people at the stake too? Â Americans voted for a moral and religious president because that's what we want. Â Yes, other people might have to put up with us, but we're the majority. Â That's just how democracy goes. Â Somebody has to not get their way. Â If liberals were in charge and they changed all the rules to their beliefs, wouldn't that be the same as what we're doing now? Yeah, that's a bad thing. Â But why are you ignoring all the good things that religion can do? Â My religion has played a huge role in my life, it's made me a better person and it's made a lot of other people better too. Â Just because some fringe groups take things way out of hand doesn't mean it's all bad. Of course. Â And it's the same thing for Kerry. Â If Kerry were elected it would of been because of his moral values. Â And his moral values would of been implemented as well. Â Isn't that the same thing you're talking about? Â Either way one side isn't going to get their way, be it liberals or conservatives.

I don't think they should be cut out of the equation, they should probably just be removed from combat. At least not until they're as proficient as the regulars. I probably would, but I know that they're not nearly as involved around the world as the US is. Not in terms of manpower at least.

Can anybody else say "too offtopic for offtopic"? Well duh. Â Everybody believes that their morality (whether conservative or liberal) is the right one, otherwise they wouldn't believe it. I've never burned anybody at the stake or engaged in any bitter wars over religion, did I inherit some sin from my forefathers? There's nothing wrong with being religious. Â People can believe what they want to. Â Just because you believe something different doesn't make everybody else wrong, or stupid. Â And nobody's burning anybody at the stake or having any wars between sects, at least not in any civilised society. The fact that you bring that up only indicates that you don't have any argument.

You also don't do half of the work that the US military does. Â If you had to do all the missions that the US military flies I'm confident you'd see an increase in mishaps too. Judging by this I'd say you've never flown with any US pilots. Â US forces don't rely on technology any more than any foreign forces do. Â They use it, they don't rely on it. Â Hell some of our guys still train in celestial navigation. Â The fact that you think that the only routes they fly are at 25,000 feet over the desert makes me question your credentials. Â I could point out hundreds of MTRs that weave through hazardous terrain at low altitude.

This thread is Finnished. *rimshot*

Yeah so do ours. You make it sound like (and the media makes it seem like) we're out there blowing up schools every day, that's just not true. Also bear in mind that most countries don't train nearly as much as we do. Because we've got so much more activity we're bound to have more mistakes.

The 177th isn't the DCANG, it's NJANG. The "jersey devils". They fly out of Atlantic City Intl.

Why else did you think I'm joining?

Everybody does, it just get's published when we do it.