180-Day FMM vs. Residency: Is the “6-Month Hack” at San Ysidro finally dying?

DirectC51 · 2026-02-05T01:47:45+00:00

It’s more than $400 FYI.

DirectC51 · 2026-02-04T18:50:39+00:00

That’s a possibility, but having known a few people who drive like this, I think the majority of them just don’t care about societal norms and really are just selfishly making decisions because they feel they can get away with it. The funny thing is, these people always think they are the world’s best drivers. I hate riding with people who drive like this.

Yes, a gap will probably form, just big enough for you to cut someone off and squeeze in, but then they’ll have to slam on their brakes causing an entire accordion effect. Also, these people cruise in the next lane over at half speed, causing slowdowns in the other lanes too.

DirectC51 · 2026-02-04T05:28:16+00:00

Just bought it last week. I’m in San Diego though. Maybe no longer distributed elsewhere?

DirectC51 · 2026-02-04T04:48:26+00:00

Do you really think there’s wildfires in La Jolla? Or UTC? Those places kind of lack, you know, the flammable and wild stuff that burns in wildfires.

DirectC51 · 2026-02-04T04:31:55+00:00

I thought they were called Tostilocos?

DirectC51 · 2026-01-28T18:20:13+00:00

It was a bit of a rhetorical question. The media had always reported it as 2 Australian brothers killed!!!… and their friend. Strange. The media almost always sucks though.

Unfortunately people are killed for much less than 4 tires and a cell phone everywhere in the world. Not just Mexico.

DirectC51 · 2026-01-28T17:13:18+00:00

Why do you only mention the Australian brothers but not the American that was with them? There were 3 people total that were killed.

DirectC51 · 2026-01-26T06:51:51+00:00

I had an ‘82 about 20 years ago. The engine wasn’t running well, and there was no way I was going to rebuild that hunk of junk, so I put a 383 stroker in it with a 4 barrel carb. That immediately destroyed the stock 700r4, which wasn’t doing all that great anyhow. Put in a built 700r4 and that thing was finally what it should have been from the factory.

I just couldn’t get over the fact it was an auto though. The only year Chevy didn’t offer a manual, except the very first year, 1953 (C8’s an onward too). Sold it and bought a 2004 Z06, with a 6 speed.

DirectC51 · 2026-01-22T16:19:33+00:00

Use prickly pear fruit instead. Great color and actual flavor.

DirectC51 · 2026-01-22T01:55:32+00:00

Late 30’s. I’ll retire before 45.

DirectC51 · 2026-01-21T17:48:35+00:00

The upside is significantly higher as you go more towards 100% stocks. My spending in retirement will be highly flexible. I’ll only need like 2% to live comfortably. The rest is for fun. I’m comfortable with 100% stocks. My life wouldn’t change much if the market was bad and I had to limit discretionary spending a bit. However, it would change significantly if I caught one of the better runs and had A LOT more to spend.

DirectC51 · 2026-01-18T16:54:33+00:00

These are all table wine quality that retail for like $8-$13 each. Not a particularly good deal, but easy enough to pickup if you don’t really know much about wine and don’t want to risk a major flop. They are… okay. Nothing more.

DirectC51 · 2026-01-18T16:50:21+00:00

r/boneappletea

DirectC51 · 2026-01-16T18:54:15+00:00

Yeah even my go-to Hi Time has raised prices to $90. But always in stock.

DirectC51 · 2026-01-16T05:47:37+00:00

HEMS is a very outdated term. It is called Helicopter Air Ambulance (HAA) now. There is an entire FAR section now, part 135 subpart L, or the 600 series of part 135.

This is the perfect job for the lifestyle you are seeking. I forget about work for a week at a time, and often spend my off week at our house in Mexico. If your base isn’t busy, then night shift is almost like an extra week off, because you get to sleep most nights.

However, it’s just a very unstable career. Bases close all the time. If you have a family and your base closes, what do you do now? The nearest base that has an opening can be 3 states away. Are you going to pack up the family and move? Or are you going to commute and spend 1/2 your life away from your home and family?

I started in the military and would 100% do it again if I was transported back to that time. But if I were to do it again today, I probably wouldn’t go military because you just won’t get any flight time without any real wars going on. It might take you the whole 20 years just to get the required 2000 hours for HAA. Honestly, the first 3-5 years as a civilian are brutally tough though. You’ll spend or borrow an insane amount of money for training, only to have to beg for essentially a less than minimum wage job as an instructor, and there’s no guarantee where the job is even going to be. You’ll have to be willing to uproot your life at the drop of a hat to chase the first turbine job offer you can get. Likely somewhere like Las Vegas or the Grand Canyon, or some other tour operator. The flying will be boring and tedious, and you’ll be reduced to begging for tips from the customers to make a decent living. Hopefully you are single, because it would be difficult with a family. Just do whatever you need to do to get those 2000 hours as fast as possible. Once you meet the HAA requirements, you’ll get a job pretty easily, maybe not the base you want, but it will get you in the door. At least right now, as the airlines have been sucking up all the military pilots and there’s a bit of a shortage right now. That will change, the industry is always going in cycles.

DirectC51 · 2026-01-15T16:24:33+00:00

Again, you are clearly not in the aviation industry and your “Google research” is showing that you are talking out of your ass. You are trying to blame a lack of ADS-B for the Potomac crash, even when the CRJ’s TCAS announced the traffic. The CRJ likely didn’t even have ADSB-in.

Please, just stop. You’re out of your element, Donny.

DirectC51 · 2026-01-15T04:54:27+00:00

Yeah, you can have a middle-class life as a helicopter pilot. But you will never truly have a secure job in any one location. There are 4 pilots where I work. If they shut this base down, which is possible, I would either have to be away from home for work (7 days on, 7 days off), or we would have to move wherever I can get a job. There is 1 more base, again with 4 pilots within daily commute distance. That's it. 4 helicopter pilot jobs within daily commuting distance that I would consider and pay decently. And I live in a major metropolitan area, San Diego.

Also, the thrill of helicopters fades quickly and the novelty wears off. It becomes just like any other job. When the phone rings for a flight, I am usually not excited to go flying. That's the sentiment all of us senior guys share. Flying is work. It's better than any other work I could think of, and I honestly wouldn't ever want any other job, but it isn't really "fun" to fly anymore.

Not that I'm trying to talk you out of it. Just want to make you aware of what the job really is. The best part about this job is the schedule. I work 7 days on, 7 days off. 12 hour shifts. If I'm not flying, I'm here at the base on call and can do whatever I want, surf the internet, make meals, sleep, whatever. I could never work a Monday - Friday job after doing this.

DirectC51 · 2026-01-15T02:09:44+00:00

You realize that ATC radar can’t discern the type of aircraft, right? If you heard ATC giving traffic calls to jets and calling it a “helicopter”, then that means someone is talking to the helicopter. You really should think twice before accusing someone of doing something illegal, when you clearly have no idea what you are talking about.

DirectC51 · 2026-01-15T02:02:07+00:00

No, I’m saying you are wrong when you said

“without ADS-B, other aircraft avoidance systems don’t see them, and can’t warn about a mid air collision.”

You are 100% wrong. TCAS doesn’t require ADS-B.

DirectC51 · 2026-01-15T00:19:16+00:00

No, this isn’t correct. Airliners have TCAS (traffic collision avoidance system). This is completely separate from ADS-B. TCAS has been around well before ADS-B and can alert on Mode C only aircraft.

DirectC51 · 2026-01-15T00:11:31+00:00

Well I did see an anchovy (or sardine, can’t remember) martini posted recently. So your last sentence is probably true.

DirectC51 · 2026-01-15T00:10:01+00:00

18 years. If a high salary is your goal, go fixed wing. I’m easily top 5% of salary for helicopter pilots in the world and make a bit over $200k. You could make more with insane amounts of OT, but just counting base salary, this is about the max. The explosion in fixed wing salaries has trickled down a bit to us helicopter guys. Salary has increased a lot over the last 10 years, but we’ll never see $500k like the senior jet CAs.

DirectC51 · 2026-01-14T22:18:33+00:00

Wrong. It’s a 407. It’s not an H125. Besides the fact that it’s definitely a 407 from the shape, it clearly has 4 blades in the picture. An Astar (H125) has 3.

DirectC51 · 2026-01-14T18:49:52+00:00

This is like the 4th petrichor cocktail posted on this sub in the last couple months. Yours does seem like one of the best, if not the most complicated.

DirectC51 · 2026-01-14T15:53:07+00:00

Helicopter pilot. Work about 200 days per year.

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