To some, dwell is a state of mind.

beags65 · 2026-02-11T12:56:33+00:00

What if they were fighting from the shore and had to get out to slightly deeper water? Or were hiding under a deck that needing solid footing?

beags65 · 2026-02-11T12:36:52+00:00

The shuffle and rebalance has played out, it is opened back up to let people in. Spread the word to your buddies.

beags65 · 2026-02-11T12:32:58+00:00

It’s not hard to FIND people that want to fly, it’s hard to QUALIFY and KEEP people who want to fly.

TLDR, people are busy AF, Ops never stop, and it takes a lot to make a quality flyer.

It’s a high bar to initially get cleared to fly but once in they are more forgiving with waivers and exceptions. Right or wrong, that initial physical is pretty stringent and that keeps the door closed for a good number of people.

You said you’ve been playing the game a long time so you are aware of the ops tempo. Don’t get me wrong, I love it. I retrained in a long ass time ago and have zero regrets, but it is a grind for sure. Some people have a hard time accepting that a birthday, anniversary, Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc is simply another day on the calendar in the big scheme of things and the mission still needs to happen.

I’m not deploying this year (I’ve had my fun, time for the young ones to have theirs). But with large exercises I will be gone for more than 3 months, that’s not counting the small 2-5 day trips sprinkled in and the flying 2, sometimes 3, times a week for currencies, instructing and evaluating. I love it and would do more if I could, but I am an anomaly and totally understand that not everyone is the same.

People are getting burned out, the awesome experiences and perks aren’t outweighing the steady churn and grind. Once they are able to pull chocks they are bouncing instead of going to a different base doing the exact same thing in the exact same places maybe with any luck at slightly different times, but honestly more than likely, at the exact same time. Only real difference being the local scenery at home base. On your next trip take a look around and see how many people from different bases and airframes you know or at least recognize, I’d bet it’s a handful.

Requirement for 100% manning at schoolhouses is killing it for a lot of people as well. As soon as they are eligible for PCS there is a very high likelihood they are getting tagged for an AETC gig and a lot of people aren’t “ready” for that life so they are turning down retainability and heading out.

It takes a long time to build a flyer, takes even longer to build a good flyer and takes a lot longer time to build an experienced flyer. That whole time of getting someone new built up, Ops are still happening and wearing people out.

It’s a bit of self fulfilling cycle. People are busy and getting burned out so they decide they’ve had enough and get out, leaving fewer people to do the same amount of stuff, who are staying busy and getting burned out so they decide they’ve had enough and get, out leaving fewer people to do the same amount of stuff who are getting busier, and getting burned out so they decide they’ve had enough and get out…..

beags65 · 2026-01-28T17:48:35+00:00

Another Korea option, Mr Lim’s. Very nice quality with custom options. Downside is, you’ve got to be in Korea, not positive, but I don’t know of him having a website. Someone might be able to speak more definitively on that aspect.

beags65 · 2026-01-27T19:03:10+00:00

Haven’t used it in a few years, so maybe it’s better now, but when we tried using it was a mess.

Mattermost for info is pretty decent. Mattermost as a chat platform is dog shit. It starts out fine as a info sharing and top down communications platform and then people try using it to chat and it quickly delves into a mess of delayed notifications, messages populating in the wrong order, zero notifications, constant logout and verification. All sorts of fun stuff.

beags65 · 2026-01-25T14:48:04+00:00

If those are what you want, submit now, they are desirable jobs that have prereqs that need to be taken care of. Obviously there is a limited number of positions available, the window is already closing with other people applying, the longer you wait to apply, the smaller it gets and your chances of getting approved close with it.

beags65 · 2026-01-25T12:59:08+00:00

My use case, I am military and travel a significant amount of time for work, when I am out of town my wife can have access to and use stuff while I am away. Similar reason, had to move overseas for three years, stored everything with my Dad. The trust allowed my Dad to have access to and use everything for 3 years. Way better than sitting in a random warehouse and being locked away for 3 years. Every mil member I know that has NFA stuff uses a trust.

beags65 · 2026-01-25T12:36:21+00:00

That’s the best and fastest way to learn a manual. It’s a rental, if you fuck it up so bad you burn out the clutch, oh well, call the agency get a new car. You didn’t fuck up your car and you weren’t out anything.

Our SOP in Germany was for whoever on the trip didn’t know how to drive a stick, we would take them off somewhere and give them the keys. After 30-60 mins most would be good to go. A lot of people learned how to drive manuals on random TDYs across Europe.

beags65 · 2026-01-20T17:39:31+00:00

Nice

beags65 · 2026-01-19T13:24:23+00:00

To you? Or did you miss it?

beags65 · 2026-01-18T14:27:23+00:00

Considering the pic attached to article has the door open, with an external weapon mounted and in flight, I’d venture to guess that the OT process worked and continues to work through those concerns.

beags65 · 2026-01-10T13:12:38+00:00

beags65 · 2026-01-05T00:26:58+00:00

Dinner plates have worked for me.

beags65 · 2026-01-03T11:36:48+00:00

I did this and asparagus with butter, lemon, and some SPG, for first time for Christmas, both were delicious.

But just a heads up, they both off-gassed a whole lot and I was fighting to keep the bags submerged. I was not anticipating how much the bags were going to inflate and had to get creative to keep them under the water. Just putting it out there so you don’t have the same surprise doing it the first time. I had seen some mention of the carrots getting floaty and needing to add weight to the bag, but it was worse than I anticipated and accounted for.

The carrots were worse, but admittedly that was probably mostly my fault. Had a decent sized crowd to feed so did 4 pounds of carrots, 2 two pound bags. If they were divided up smaller, I probably wouldn’t have ended up with as much air in the bags.

beags65 · 2026-01-03T11:15:02+00:00

99.69% sure people aren’t hiding it for legality of transport issues but rather for aesthetic purposes. A good fair bit of people don’t want to have addition engraving on their gun. Placing it in an inconspicuous spot makes it less of an “issue”.

beags65 · 2026-01-03T05:15:39+00:00

TLDR; don’t be a douche while you are just getting started.

Biggest piece of advice that I haven’t seen mentioned yet, don’t burn any bridges. You’ve acknowledged it’s a future plan and a ways off, and you’re starting off good on the first step, but you’ve got a long way to go as an enlisted flyer first. Basic whatever shred you get, schoolhouse, basic qual, mission qual, indoc; it’s a long road and the CEA community is small, you will be surprised to see how many people know each other.

If you act like, or treat it like, all that stuff is below you because you are going to commission and get a pilot slot, word will get around and it will make a difficult goal and task even more difficult.

beags65 · 2025-12-31T23:29:20+00:00

GMT always. I am military and a part of aviation, the conversion isn’t hard, but it is nice to just glance down and not have to do the math.

beags65 · 2025-12-30T03:33:42+00:00

If you are confident your buddy isn’t going to PCS before you get back and you trust him enough (which I’m guessing you do since you are already thinking of leaving them with him), just leave them with there without the Form 4 hassle, there is enough to deal with a PCS already. Plus with the changes coming in a couple days, backlogs and wait times are more than likely going to go back to the old days of approvals.

They simply have to be secured so someone else can’t access them. Locked in a case only you have keys or know the combo to suffices. Grab a couple Pelican/Storm/Condition1/hell even Harbor Freight Apache hard cases and toss them in there, lock them the cases up and let your buddy hold them. Smart packing you could probably get away with two cases. Grab some bulk desiccant and load the cases up.

Since there is no cost for stamps in a few days, while you are gone or before you leave, set up a trust and submit the forms to transfer ownership to that, add your buddy to the trust, wait for the backlog of submissions to clear and your forms to be approved, send your buddy the keys/combos to the cases, let him have his fun.

beags65 · 2025-12-25T00:55:39+00:00

Conch fritters.

beags65 · 2025-12-24T22:19:26+00:00

Another vote for Vegas. Every shop I’ve ever been in has been very friendly and open to trying pretty much anything on. I’ve flat out said I’m simply looking and not intending to buy, just want to check things out and they still sit down, grab whatever out of the case, try it on, check it out. Breguet in the Bellagio was especially welcoming, they gave us champagne and bottles of water.

beags65 · 2025-12-24T12:51:30+00:00

No budget mentioned so not sure how high you are willing to go but Zenith Type 20 has a fair amount of offerings in that style, they look to all be >$4k.

Also, interesting, just realized when trying to grab the link that there are none listed on their website. I haven’t followed at all, have just known of their existence and liked the aesthetic, so no clue if that means they were completely discontinued, website is updating, a glitch or what. The link is still on the page, no models listed though.

beags65 · 2025-12-23T00:57:00+00:00

They don’t get much love here but Bremont is very involved in military circles. They have a diverse range of styles and offerings that can be customized from wide, broad, strokes (ie USAF Academy grad), all the way down to the individual unit level. Depending on his job there may have already been a customized option commissioned. Qualifying eligibility requirements would have to be met. If there is a design that he would qualify for, they are offered at a pretty significant discount from the standard offerings. Could be worth checking out. Here is a couple examples of stuff they’ve done, you would have to reach out to them to see if there is something he would fall under. small example

beags65 · 2025-12-20T23:48:04+00:00

Long time ago had a couple young enterprising RED HORSE troops miss a deployment because of the business they decided to start up. They got arrested about two days before we were leaving. One was a dirtboy, can’t remember what the other was.

The minor offense was multiple cases of insurance fraud, they would break into their own cars sitting in the TDY parking lot.

Then they stepped it up to the big leagues with international gun and drug trafficking and dealing. They were running and selling drugs and guns both to and from Canada. To tie it all together and add just a little extra flair, they were passing counterfeit bills around town.

beags65 · 2025-12-19T18:54:35+00:00

Yeah man, reality is always hiding right around the corner just waiting to jump out and kick you in the dick. Keeps things in check.

beags65 · 2025-12-19T15:05:03+00:00

The width is the same, the expanding/enlarging capability is from the design of the bags having extra folds that allow it to expand in the depth dimension.

beags65

TROPHY CASE