Appalachian, Politics, Aviation, Mining Investor. America First, Fiscal Libertarian, Political Populist, Social Conservative, 'Know what you own' Lift Heavy 🏋
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Joined April 2011
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LTDPILOT retweeted
My daughter will start flying lessons in a little over a year.
She doesn’t want to be a pilot, but she thinks it will look good on a college application. Fine by me; I don’t care if she ever touches an airplane again after she gets her license…I just think it will teach her confidence, to remain calm in a crisis & most importantly, that nobody is coming to save you. You must rely on yourself & the stakes are real.
I’ve flown w/ plenty of female pilots. Some were not great, but at about the same rate that some male pilots weren’t great. I remember Nanette, keeping the KC-10 steady in Afghanistan with only the standby attitude indicator after we lost literally everything else. Just humming along, like she did it everyday, and listening as we worked the checklists.
I guess my point is that immediately blaming the female is out of bounds. Maybe she did have something to do with it, but so do males. By the way, the fact that you hear her voice on the radio means she wasn’t the one flying the jet…she was the “Pilot Monitoring” & runs the radios / navigation.
We learn things from every crash. This one will eventually make it into a lesson plan, and students will hear the tapes. It’s not pleasant, but understanding what the cockpit environment may be like in an emergency is an important lesson. Panic is your enemy & causes you to make mistakes like shutting down the wrong engine. You must fight it, but…eventually there is probably a moment you know the fight has been lost and you are going to die.
I might scream, too.
There are multiple ways you leave this profession, but it comes down to two scenarios:
One day, you’ll stroll out to the jet knowing this is your last flight, with your family & friends in attendance. There will be a party after.
Or…
One day, you’ll stroll out to the jet not knowing it’s your last flight.
We hope for the former & prepare for the latter.
LTDPILOT retweeted
I lost another friend in South America. Aircraft disappeared into the jungle without a trace. They never found him, his FO or the aircraft. Suspected CFIT combined with mechanical and weather issues. Aviation is unforgiving.
I've been in aviation for 2 and a half decades, I've lost several friends to accidents during my career. One college friend flew into a thunderstorm at night and the turbulence remove a wing from the aircraft. They found his body several miles from the aircraft crash site. He had recently been married.
Aviation is a serious business. The safety record is impressive when one considers what we do thousands of times every day, all year, in all kinds of weather.
Social media, individuals who have no idea what they are talking about, will pick apart the actions or inactions of the crew in this accident. Weather is unforgiving. No aircraft can handle everything that may be encountered. Maybe this crew could have done something different, but in the end, all crews do their best in any situation they encounter. Sometimes it isn't enough.
When I have trained other pilots I have done my best to prepare them for the unexpected and the unforgiving reality that we operate in a dangerous environment doing something that is very unnatural.
Fly safe.
LTDPILOT retweeted
Writing this in my personal capacity, but I have been flying these types of aircraft for more than 20 years, with over 8,000 hours, and have reasonable familiarity with how the charter world operates. I feel compelled to post after seeing commentary about the Lear 60 crash, from missile strikes to DEI to critiquing this poor woman’s final radio calls.
That last part is what I find most troubling. She was the second-in-command (SIC), and while she was empowered to point out mistakes as part of good crew resource management, she was doing her job, communicating with ATC right to the end in a terrifying situation. She likely knew before many of those calls that she was going to die. I have heard final calls from friends, from military pilots with thousands of hours in fighter aircraft, and they are just as heartbreaking because they know the end is approaching.
I understand the public interest given the footage and audio. But you do not know the aircraft’s maintenance history, whether there was a structural failure, if any failure was induced by turbulence, overspeed, or overcontrol, or everything happening in that cockpit. I am sure weather will be part of the investigation, but beyond that, it is speculation. The charter industry routinely hires commercial pilots very early in their careers to gain experience alongside an ATP-qualified captain before they move up to the airlines. She would still have the appropriate training, qualifications, and checkouts by an FAA examiner or designee.
Let people investigate, learn, and share the facts. Be respectful to those who perished and the families who carry their memories. God bless them and their loved ones.
I lost another friend in South America. Aircraft disappeared into the jungle without a trace. They never found him, his FO or the aircraft. Suspected CFIT combined with mechanical and weather issues. Aviation is unforgiving.
I've been in aviation for 2 and a half decades, I've lost several friends to accidents during my career. One college friend flew into a thunderstorm at night and the turbulence remove a wing from the aircraft. They found his body several miles from the aircraft crash site. He had recently been married.
Aviation is a serious business. The safety record is impressive when one considers what we do thousands of times every day, all year, in all kinds of weather.
Social media, individuals who have no idea what they are talking about, will pick apart the actions or inactions of the crew in this accident. Weather is unforgiving. No aircraft can handle everything that may be encountered. Maybe this crew could have done something different, but in the end, all crews do their best in any situation they encounter. Sometimes it isn't enough.
When I have trained other pilots I have done my best to prepare them for the unexpected and the unforgiving reality that we operate in a dangerous environment doing something that is very unnatural.
Fly safe.
I've been in aviation for 2 and a half decades, I've lost several friends to accidents during my career. One college friend flew into a thunderstorm at night and the turbulence remove a wing from the aircraft. They found his body several miles from the aircraft crash site. He had recently been married.
Aviation is a serious business. The safety record is impressive when one considers what we do thousands of times every day, all year, in all kinds of weather.
Social media, individuals who have no idea what they are talking about, will pick apart the actions or inactions of the crew in this accident. Weather is unforgiving. No aircraft can handle everything that may be encountered. Maybe this crew could have done something different, but in the end, all crews do their best in any situation they encounter. Sometimes it isn't enough.
When I have trained other pilots I have done my best to prepare them for the unexpected and the unforgiving reality that we operate in a dangerous environment doing something that is very unnatural.
Fly safe.
LTDPILOT retweeted
Toyota Hilux is the best truck ever invented. Versatile, indestructible. Multiple friends of mine in Mexico had them. Some with 200k+ miles. There’s a reason the Taliban put 50 cals on the back of these.
US won’t let them in because they know it’d nuke the pickup truck market so fast
LTDPILOT retweeted
BARIS: In 2014, we projected Rick Scott would win by about 70K votes. He won by about 70K.
In 2016, we had Trump up 1.6. He won by 1.4.
In 2024, we were the first pollster to show Trump winning Florida by double digits.
There’s nobody with a better track record in public polling in Florida than Big Data Poll.
LTDPILOT retweeted
This is what a D+10 Generic Ballot would produce in the House and Senate on the Generic Ballot Model. It has been adjusted in the House to account for redistricting. It has also been adjusted for a Republican President prior cycle.
ALT Generic Ballot Model
NATIONAL POLL
2026 Midterm Generic Congressional Ballot
Democratic candidate 52%
Republican candidate 42%
5% undecided
emersoncollegepolling.com/oc…
LTDPILOT retweeted
$EMO.NE $EMOTF
@EmeritaRes Announces Positive IBW Pre-Feasibility Study Results Highlighting US$776 Million After-Tax NPV (8%), 23.51% IRR and 21-Year Mine Life.
Twenty-One Year Mine Life...
C'mon $2.50-3.00! 🙏🤞💪📈
pro.ceo.ca/@newsfile/emerita…
Was in a great iron gym today. Commercial gym bros... there was a girl in there squatting 175kg/386lb for reps... Your 315lb squat isn't strong.
LTDPILOT retweeted
Public opinion is uninformed, nearsighted, wrong here. Forfeiting Virginia's special role in our nation's politics to become just one more competing line item for Big Politic$ in even years is bad. It further nationalizes politics that are and should be local. This idea is bad.
Prof. Andrew Block discusses a survey co-conducted by #UVALaw’s State and Local Government Policy Clinic finding broad public support to consolidate Virginia’s federal and state elections. @UVA @UVADemocracy news.virginia.edu/content/uv…
LTDPILOT retweeted
🚨VIRGINIA, VOTE NO🚫: A message from the Bishops of Richmond AND Arlington
Most Reverend Michael F. Burbidge, the Bishop of Arlington, & Most Reverend Barry C. Knestout, Bishop of Richmond, urge Virginians to vote “No” on Amendment 1 (Right to Reproductive Freedom) & Amendment 2 (Marriage between Two Adults):
Why is it so important to vote no on these two ballot measures?
"Many evils and unintended negative consequences will flow from enacting these ballot initiatives. Moreover, if written into Virginia’s Constitution, it would be extraordinarily difficult to later reverse these unjust amendments. Virginia would effectively become a sanctuary for abortion and commercial abortion businesses. Basic health and safety standards that ensure women’s health would be eliminated, parents would be pushed out of life-altering decisions involving their minor children, and unregulated abortions would be possible on healthy babies up to the moment of birth for any reason with no limits."
"At the same time, Virginia’s constitution would open the door to dangerous laws that put girls’ sports and women’s safe spaces in jeopardy. It would mislead future generations concerning the truth about marriage by adopting a false legal definition of marriage that would further erode a public sense of marriage and a natural institution binding one man and one woman. Additionally, the amendment would further protect a growing commercial surrogacy industry which violates the natural rights of children and exploits vulnerable mothers" (Catholics Vote No).
MORE details here:
protectvirginia2026.org/
catholicsvoteno.com/