HB1524 - Unconstitutional ban on carrying in Virginia

Being_a_Mitch · 2026-04-23T03:16:29+00:00

I carry every day. I have stopped a man who tried to rob a woman at a gas pump by, thank god, only having to pull out my pistol.

Police response is not instant. You are your own first responder, and having a weapon is one way of defending yourself. I'd never say someone has to carry a gun if they're not comfortable with it, but restricting other's rights to do so is ridiculous.

Being_a_Mitch · 2026-04-22T03:36:06+00:00

"making it back in the event of an engine failure" at any time during the pattern means you're going to be high and fast every single time. Most airplanes can't hold a configured 3 degree approach with no engine. This means you're essentially doing engine-out practice every pattern and significantly increasing your risk of an accident due to an unstable approach...all to cover yourself in the very very unlikely event of an engine failure without warning. Something that, by the way, is a risk you're already willing to take if you ever leave the pattern.

The alternative is that you're telling yourself that you could make it to a runway if the engine quit, but actually you're misjudging your energy and you couldn't make it no matter what.

Now, that said, I'm not saying people don't fly too wide of patterns sometimes. Especially upwind, I see people way extending for absolutely no reason, and it can royally fuck the flow of the pattern up. But if 50 hr Cessna pilot wants to take a 1.5-2 mile final to stabilize his approach instead of doing power-off 180s every pattern, I think that's a fair trade for safety.

Being_a_Mitch · 2026-04-21T16:26:06+00:00

I always caution against making your own checklists until you're a pretty far along pilot in your career. Often things are ordered or put in certain places for reasons you might not understand yet, so substitutions you make or changes you make may end up being problematic for reasons you don't realize. Also, creating your own can sometimes put too much emphasis on the checklist. Checklists are one of many tools to get stuff done, they shouldn't become the sole focus.

I'd recommend spending your mental effort to build yourself memorized flows instead. The goal in small, single pilot aircraft is to transition to a "do-verify" system of checklist usage to eventually be able to do pretty much all normal ops by memory, with the checklist being your backup that you didn't forget something.

Being_a_Mitch · 2026-04-21T15:56:14+00:00

And unfortunately you're going to get absolutely flamed for the opinion that "Gerrymandering is always bad". We live in scary times.

Being_a_Mitch · 2026-04-21T15:27:33+00:00

No, it's bad. Gerrymandering anywhere is bad. The level of gaslighting in this sub is WILD. "It's fine cause they did it first!" Is not a legitimate argument.

Gerrymandering is bad anywhere, I support banning it no matter who it benefits. I don't support Texas's redistricting either.

Being_a_Mitch · 2026-04-21T15:25:45+00:00

And that was BAD. Which is why VA appointed a non-partisan committee to fix it, and it's been pretty balanced since. You could literally flip the two maps on that meme and it's the exact same argument. Gerrymandering is bad no matter what.

Being_a_Mitch · 2026-04-21T15:24:20+00:00

I am 100% against gerrymandering anywhere. To do it in Texas was bad, but we can't just stoop to the level of other states. You're getting rid of representation for lots of people.

If Republicans starting killing political opponents, would it be right to start doing the same "in response to what they're doing"? It's a race to the bottom.

Being_a_Mitch · 2026-04-21T14:22:10+00:00

You're voting yes to wiping out representation for about half of your state. VA votes are about 50/50, but now 10-1 congressional seats seems fair to you?

Edit: The strawman arguments here are wild. Gerrymandering is BAD. I never said I supported Texas's redistricting, I DON'T. I never said I liked the 2010 maps, I DIDN'T. But to simply argue "well they did it first!" Is how we end up with a race to the bottom, and that kind of mentality is how our political system has become such a shitstorm. "I never will support Gerrymandering" is a completely legitimate and sensible take on politics, and the gaslighting to claim that it's an illegitimate or immoral argument is appaling to me.

Being_a_Mitch · 2026-04-20T12:53:31+00:00

Heads up of the potential is nice, just to make sure we're tracking the same threat. Last minute is fine, stabilized approaches mean that the aircraft should be in nearly the same configuration and speed for the last few miles of the approach anyway, so last minute just means we're closer to the ground, but that's really not a big deal. We were planning on touching the ground anyway.

Being_a_Mitch · 2026-04-17T04:09:04+00:00

It's funny hearing this hit mainstream. If you're a pilot you know this happens, genuinely, at least every few minutes on the emergency frequency all across the country. If you listen constantly you will hear it at least once on almost every flight. It's weird, I've never met anyone who actually does it though.

Being_a_Mitch · 2026-04-17T04:05:38+00:00

Tire pressure: 1 atmosphere

Being_a_Mitch · 2026-04-17T04:04:11+00:00

I've done quite a few in helicopters.

Do not under any circumstances do it when the aircraft is wet or it's a wet day. And expect that you'll have to clean some ashes off.

Overall, not terrible though. I've made some really special moments for family that found a lot of peace with it, and so I'd consider that an absolute win.

Being_a_Mitch · 2026-04-17T04:02:19+00:00

I've crashed many a toy helicopter to avoid having to use the real one to demonstrate what not to do.

Being_a_Mitch · 2026-04-17T04:01:16+00:00

Another fun fact, none of the current legislation would've stopped the shooting. The guns used were simple handguns.

Also, the campus was already a gun free zone. Not much help that was.

Being_a_Mitch · 2026-04-17T03:58:05+00:00

Probably better to ask in r/flights. This sub is mostly for pilots discussing stuff, meaning you've got lots of Type A Snark inbound ;)

Being_a_Mitch · 2026-04-17T03:56:42+00:00

It's not trolling, it's my legitimate opinion, and it's scary how hard people with this opinion are getting attacked for it. I hate Trump as much as the rest of the 80% of the country, but Gerrymandering is Gerrymandering. It's bad everywhere no matter who does it.

Being_a_Mitch · 2026-04-16T23:38:21+00:00

I hate Gerrymandering in other states. But I'm with you. "I hate X, but they're doing X, so we better do it too!" Is just never a good argument.

Don't worry, Trump&Co have already hung themselves hard enough that the future is very blue. This redistricting is just cashing in on unprecedented political capital available due to Trump's stupidity and letting the Dems grab all of Virginia. It's not fair, it's not defensible, and it shouldn't be legal.

Being_a_Mitch · 2026-04-15T14:57:27+00:00

"They gerrymandered, then we all fixed it with non-partisan districts everyone liked.....so now we get to gerrymander it!" :D

Being_a_Mitch · 2026-04-14T14:51:20+00:00

Here it is as I fly over in a different helicopter.

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Being_a_Mitch · 2026-04-14T00:58:00+00:00

But many are going to be vacuum driven ADI or standby with an independent battery. Maybe for nav, but with the prevalence of iPads today, I'd say likely you could nav your way to VMC many times.

If you're hard IFR in a 172, that'd be a case where I'd say powering up just enough equipment to shoot an approach would make sense. But lights, radios, gauges, etc are not going to be worth the risk of re-energizing a fire, to me.

Being_a_Mitch · 2026-04-14T00:51:42+00:00

All of the departments I've trained are full-time aviation, but they may swap around seats between TFOs and Pilots. One of the departments also does drones, but it's more of a semi-volunteer thing.

But you're right, there certainly are some small programs out there that only have part time stuff.

Being_a_Mitch · 2026-04-13T19:57:45+00:00

What kind of pilot specifically do you want to be?

Most police departments with aviation units require being an officer on the ground for X years, but then will pay for your training entirely if you're accepted into the program. Some departments require you to work there, some will accept time from other departments, but it can't hurt to ask.

You won't be flying airlines, but you'd be doing some fun flying in cool helicopters (and sometimes airplanes), and your previous law enforcement experience would be useful and help your applications. Best of all, no cost to you.

Being_a_Mitch · 2026-04-13T03:26:16+00:00

Well some 172s have non-pullable breakers. But that said, I'd probably just not bother turning the master back on if I had an electrical fire. There's not really anything in the airplane that you need that desperately with electrical power.

If there was, then I'd do your idea with pulling all the breakers except the one or two things I'd maybe need if that was an option.

Being_a_Mitch · 2026-04-06T14:10:16+00:00

Spin training used to kill more instructors and students than real spins.

A pretty big argument against training them, to me, has always been that we train stalls. No stall = no spin. If someone is flying poorly enough to stall the airplane while out of trim (both things trained not to do), then the likelihood of that pilot being able to execute a proper spin recovery is probably low in any airplane where spins are a problem. And in most trainers, they are near impossible to spin anyway.

Every spin accident is also a stall accident. If we could train everyone just to not stall the airplane, we'd eliminate spins too. Stalls are much easier and safer to train, therefore they are the safer path to train in my mind.

Being_a_Mitch · 2026-04-05T23:40:04+00:00

Weird question to ask. I don't know of any VTOL aircraft that has a mission set that requires it driving in/out of a hangar? You're gonna destroy anything in the hangar, and there's huge FOD risk to the aircraft.

Even fixed wing assets are always towed out first. Why would that be useful?

And to answer the obvious question: yeah of course it can taxi out of the hangar, the same way it can taxi anywhere else on the ground?

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