Scudrunners

[url=http://feraljundi.com/205/quotes-colonel-john-boyd/]http://feraljundi.com/205/quotes-colonel-john-boyd/[/url]

[quote]One day you will take a fork in the road, and you’re going to have to make a decision about which direction you want to go.

If you go one way, [b]you can be somebody[/b]. You will have to make your compromises and turn your back on your friends, but you will be a member of the club, and [b]you will get promoted[/b] and get good assignments.

Or you can [b]go the other way, and you can do something[/b], something for your country and for your Air Force and for yourself.

You may not get promoted, and you may not get good assignments, and you certainly will not be a favorite of your superiors, but you won’t have to compromise yourself.

In life there is often a roll call. That’s when you have to make a decision:

[b][size=18pt]To be or to do[/size][/b]

–Col. John Boyd[/quote]

[url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Boyd ... trategist)]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Boyd ... trategist)[/url]

How someone so deeply hated by everyone with
stars in the USAF ever got to be a bird Colonel is
the eighth wonder of the world.

He's the guy that brought you the F-15 without
comprimises, the F-16, the F-18 and via his
disciples, the A-10, which the USAF spent decades
trying to get rid of.

He was more effective than any USAF General
and was passionately hated by them.  He once
fired a two-star - as a Colonel.

Oh, and he wasn't a bad stick, either:

[quote]He was dubbed "Forty Second Boyd" for his standing bet as an instructor pilot that beginning from a position of disadvantage, he could defeat any opposing pilot in air combat maneuvering in less than 40 seconds[/quote]

[quote]when the windsock is exactly opposite what
you are expecting, frequently pilots read it backwards,
especially when they glance at it in the air from overhead -
they see what they are expecting.  Almost.

Not long ago, I saw an experienced pilot taxi and take
off from an uncontrolled airport - perfectly downwind.
Again, the windsock was perfectly reversed from what
it usually is.  He had to taxi right by two different
windsocks, but he saw what he was expecting to see.
Fortunately the runway was so long, it really didn't
make any difference - he got away with his mistake,
as is the usual case.[/quote]


[i]re: "the usual case":[/i]
[i]When something rarely goes wrong with clearing the obstacle or an airspeed decay, it would appear that a low percentage end in accidents[/i][i]. [/i][i]Yet there are quite a few accidents. In researching them .. IMO .. it's the [/i][i]unintentional cases AND where at the time the tailwind[/i][i] component is increasing among gusty conditions which is the scenario more frequently hiding in the synopses of those reports which involve that type of thing. [/i]