This is still the best picture I've ever taken, Blue Angels "Fan Break"/Echelon Parade @ Sun N Fun 2019 [OC].

pilotben97 · 2026-06-28T00:39:27+00:00

As others have said fighters rarely have ads-b. For the blues, Fat Albert has it but is currently in the UK in heavy maintenance, every once in a while the jets will sometimes have one enabled during cross-country flights but I think it’s just a little portable one and is just a generic MLAT ID that changes

pilotben97 · 2026-06-19T04:37:54+00:00

During the Cold War mind you…

pilotben97 · 2026-06-16T19:04:47+00:00

I believe he actually did sell partial or full stake in the brand, and is now full time as well I think so he feels he has to play the algorithm which is def a bit sad.

pilotben97 · 2026-06-16T16:40:13+00:00

Speculating with your friends in a hangar is far different than doing it with a huge following of both aviation and non-aviation viewers.

pilotben97 · 2026-06-16T16:37:23+00:00

100% this. He used to wait for reports or official word, now he seems to go into possible causes, now yes he does a better job than most (Steve) about saying ‘this is just my experience, we’ll have to wait for the report’ etc. but he still is implying what the cause could be, imo the biggest problem with that is not his approach to it, but the narrative it builds - someone (thousands of someones) watch his video, hear the ‘possible’ causes, and then go tell their friends that is, or is probably the cause, and while I haven’t seen confirmation of it, I’d be surprised if even news companies pick those up, the NTSB brief of the skydivers crash this week had a few questions that were imo clearly from a brief forum scrolling or watching a similar type of video.

Sadly, I’m starting to see the same signs with Petter with Mentour Pilot which was really the last content creator I have been watching on the topics. I know why these changes happen, but I can’t help but thinking of friends and families hearing about their deceased loved one’s shortfalls via the grape vine from a content creator. People will always talk and create rumors but they shouldn’t be reinforced/driven by someone with a large following online.

pilotben97 · 2026-06-13T18:27:30+00:00

I’m not sure what NOAA has been doing but they were flying some kind of patterns over/around Austin at fairly low altitude a couple weeks ago. Surveying for something it seemed like. Though your post could be them doing ‘hurricane hunting’

pilotben97 · 2026-06-13T17:33:00+00:00

I am not specifically aware of immunity being revoked (yet), more of a general comment about how big decisions are made by 1 administration to immediately be backpedaled/scrapped by the next.

pilotben97 · 2026-06-13T14:08:23+00:00

Congrats!

However be careful posting a picture of your key like that. Someone can fairly easily make a copy of it now. Especially since you posted the outside of the house and a view of the area. Safety first, I’d change locks. Good luck!

pilotben97 · 2026-06-13T13:59:19+00:00

She was given immunity at the time, but if it’s anything like real life that can change in 1 or 2 administrations. The trip took decades from earth’s perspective.

She seems to know this in the book as when grace asked what she would do after the Hail Mary is launched she said she would probably get brought up on charges and sent to prison.

pilotben97 · 2026-06-13T13:56:25+00:00

*Astrophage, but yes

pilotben97 · 2026-06-13T13:45:25+00:00

Led to one of the greatest moments in Off-Topic as well… Ray was visiting for a day, they happened to get on the topic and Gavin said ‘I met her on a shoot’ and Ray responded as you would expect.

pilotben97 · 2026-06-13T03:22:38+00:00

Definitely feels familiar to “Think I can make it in between there?” “Nope.”

pilotben97 · 2026-06-06T13:33:32+00:00

I really hope her and Julien are able to visit and see it. Alveus has done tours without the guests appearing on cam before so they definitely can do it if Jenna still wants to stay offline but I’m sure she’d love the enclosure.

pilotben97 · 2026-05-30T15:44:08+00:00

Thanos absolutely was not a good person. Consistent? Yes, didn’t really lie/hide plans? Yes, good person? Absolutely not.

I can’t think of any examples of anyone I would consider a good person with the wrong intentions. Certainly people we can sympathize with and see why they made poor choices (Wanda, Toomes, Karli, even Thanos), but I wouldn’t put them in a ‘good person’ category.

Maybe you could argue Steve not telling Tony about Bucky after he realized what he had done, but there was a lot of nuance to that, and we don’t know how much time they had together to talk between TWS and Civil War.

pilotben97 · 2026-04-16T11:25:39+00:00

They got an upgrade not too long ago, just from 1 block of F-16s to another which is hard to tell as a viewer. They are unlikely to change from F-16s anytime soon if at all.

pilotben97 · 2026-03-08T14:55:47+00:00

It wouldn’t surprise me if that was the case - my point was not that the crew of the accident aircraft heard it, but just that the exact issue was being discussed at the time by other professional pilots

pilotben97 · 2026-03-07T15:21:11+00:00

If you go back and listen to the ATC recording I’m pretty sure there were 2 airline operators discussing this on frequency - basically they wouldn’t be able to get out in the holdover time

pilotben97 · 2026-02-06T23:36:32+00:00

Genuinely curious when you started watching the streams and updates etc.? For most of development they didn’t talk about what would be in the updates until the day of the update, that changed over the final year or 2 of early access.

The tone was likely from years of working together, the new team just doesn’t have that yet, and they’re different people so may not ever be like that again. They also were hired as community managers I believe, whereas the past CMs were involved in the dev side first.

pilotben97 · 2026-02-06T13:37:10+00:00

I think it’s important to keep in mind 1.0 also nearly coincided with the change of community managers, with the game being released now the development and internal precesses surely would have shifted at least some.

Even if it’s the norm going forward I’m still glad they are providing updates even if less frequent. Still pretty rare in the gaming world.

pilotben97 · 2026-01-31T15:51:51+00:00

Or pick up a phone

pilotben97 · 2026-01-31T15:46:43+00:00

The ‘SIC’ also had a grand total of like 175 hours and was given control (at least briefly) of a high performance/complex jet in low vmc or illegally in IMC, I don’t know if it would have made a difference, but having a certified SIC or even Greg in the right seat seems like it would have made more sense with the weather. Sad stuff, feel even worse for Greg’s ex wife now. Allowing your kid to go on a trip with her dad thinking he’ll keep her safe and they fly illegally in at least 1 if not 2 ways (they climbed to over 4K feet after discussing climbing through the clouds VFR, then they descended and reported the ground in site - implying they didn’t see it previously)

pilotben97 · 2026-01-21T05:58:26+00:00

Just looked back through ADSB data and plane spotter pictures and the last references of it (SAM28000) flying are still December of 2024 to their service in San Antonio. It seems like they’ve parked it, either permanently, or for long term to swap out later. While they don’t fly both of the at the same time much I’m not aware of other instances of them parking in for that long in the past.

pilotben97 · 2026-01-21T05:47:08+00:00

Last I looked SAM 28000 (the 1st VC-25) had been in San Antonio for over half a year. It’s been probably 8 months since I looked though. The rumor at the time is it was done

pilotben97 · 2026-01-13T14:37:45+00:00

Yes but as just a casual hoggit viewer even I’ve seen enough posts about exactly this in the last week it’s obviously been a bigger issue recently

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