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1. Woggy's Zeonic Frolicks (washedoutgundampilot@poa.st)'s status on Friday, 13-Jan-2023 11:19:50 JST Woggy's Zeonic Frolicks

   German capture P-51 in OD/yellow.

   I love how much of the old internet lives on in boomer sites like this. Guys carefully cataloging their finds on a godaddy instance for 25 years straight. Cool stuff.

   • Woggy's Zeonic Frolicks (washedoutgundampilot@poa.st)'s status on Friday, 13-Jan-2023 11:23:03 JST Woggy's Zeonic Frolicks

     in reply to

     FAG Mustang

     Guatemalan air force

   • Woggy's Zeonic Frolicks (washedoutgundampilot@poa.st)'s status on Friday, 13-Jan-2023 11:24:19 JST Woggy's Zeonic Frolicks

     in reply to

     You could write some cool stories about this era, set in LatAm after WWII when all this mil surplus flooded their militaries. I think the last prop dogfight happened down here, was something like dominicans vs cubans or whatever.

     You could have a cool storyline showing all these planes in their supposed retirement

   • Woggy's Zeonic Frolicks (washedoutgundampilot@poa.st)'s status on Friday, 13-Jan-2023 11:25:36 JST Woggy's Zeonic Frolicks

     in reply to

     FAG reloading

   • Woggy's Zeonic Frolicks (washedoutgundampilot@poa.st)'s status on Friday, 13-Jan-2023 11:25:45 JST Woggy's Zeonic Frolicks

     in reply to

     FAG aerobatic team

   • Dr. Rupert, Doctor of Shitpoasting Studies (rupertvonripp@poa.st)'s status on Friday, 13-Jan-2023 11:27:29 JST Dr. Rupert, Doctor of Shitpoasting Studies

     in reply to
     @WashedOutGundamPilot Why are older planes so much more aesthetic than today's variety?
     Woggy's Zeonic Frolicks likes this.
   • Woggy's Zeonic Frolicks (washedoutgundampilot@poa.st)'s status on Friday, 13-Jan-2023 11:32:11 JST Woggy's Zeonic Frolicks

     in reply to

     • Dr. Rupert, Doctor of Shitpoasting Studies

     @RupertvonRipp Simpler, more honest, more fit for purpose. Like swords, they’re meant for lower, slower, and closer combat. Today’s gear is long-range, standoff munitions lobbing above all else, and they have to be gigantic to fit all that fuel and shit in their portly skins.

     It’s easier to take in an old warbird, it looks like a vehicle, it feels like something you directly drive. It’s like comparing an SUV against a miata at the track. One’s just more fun

   • Woggy's Zeonic Frolicks (washedoutgundampilot@poa.st)'s status on Friday, 13-Jan-2023 11:53:15 JST Woggy's Zeonic Frolicks

     in reply to

     • Dr. Rupert, Doctor of Shitpoasting Studies
     • CoQ_10

     @CoQ_10 @RupertvonRipp It still bugs me that the F-35 was in some respects a follow up to the F-16, but it ignored so much of what made that thing work. The 16 was a VFR day fighter, and they knew going into it that a single engine was a liability, so they at least put some effort into keep it simple and robust where they could….of course that didn’t last long, now that it’s just like everything else.

     But they really threw that out the window with the 35, its ready rate sucks tremendous ass

   • CoQ_10 (coq_10@poa.st)'s status on Friday, 13-Jan-2023 11:53:17 JST CoQ_10

     in reply to

     • Dr. Rupert, Doctor of Shitpoasting Studies
     @WashedOutGundamPilot @RupertvonRipp On the F-35, it always struck me that they must be pretty confident in the reliability of those solo tires.
   • CoQ_10 (coq_10@poa.st)'s status on Friday, 13-Jan-2023 11:59:08 JST CoQ_10

     in reply to

     • Dr. Rupert, Doctor of Shitpoasting Studies
     @WashedOutGundamPilot @RupertvonRipp Not surprising.
     Imagine how many avionics and other systems there are to break at any given time.
     And how great the quality (and quantity) of maintenance personnel will be in the next few years.
     Woggy's Zeonic Frolicks likes this.
   • Boina Roja Enthusiast Karl Dahl (karldahl@poa.st)'s status on Friday, 13-Jan-2023 12:17:16 JST Boina Roja Enthusiast Karl Dahl

     in reply to
     @WashedOutGundamPilot FAG stood for "Forward Air Guide" in SE Asia, the ground based local radio operator (usually a lieutenant or captain) who worked with FACs to fix air assets on ground targets in CAS for light infantry missions, trail watch or seek and destroy recon work
     
     I mention this because their bread and butter in the early days was supporting the local T-28s and A-1s, which I believe replaced the P-51s the Guats used
     Woggy's Zeonic Frolicks likes this.
   • Woggy's Zeonic Frolicks (washedoutgundampilot@poa.st)'s status on Friday, 13-Jan-2023 12:21:21 JST Woggy's Zeonic Frolicks

     in reply to

     • Boina Roja Enthusiast Karl Dahl

     @KarlDahl Maybe for a while. Not sure of the unit, but the observation special in vietnam ended up being a freakin’ cessna a lot of the time. It’s been a while since I read about them, but to my recollection they ended up changing out from the texans because they’re poor observation craft, low wing and too fast to putter around and identify small targets down low.

     They ended up using a lightly modified Cessna 150 and came away happy with it. They gave it the skylight windows and the panoramic rear window that ended up a part of the civvie models for a time. It too ended up being replaced by the OV_10 for a lot of things, it was much tougher and had a higher payload for camera equip, ordnance, etc.

     A guy around here had one that he’d restored, was a handsome plane, pretty funny to imagine how high on the shit list you’d have to be to get tossed into one of these.

   • Woggy's Zeonic Frolicks (washedoutgundampilot@poa.st)'s status on Friday, 13-Jan-2023 12:40:56 JST Woggy's Zeonic Frolicks

     in reply to

     • Boina Roja Enthusiast Karl Dahl
     @KarlDahl
   • Boina Roja Enthusiast Karl Dahl (karldahl@poa.st)'s status on Friday, 13-Jan-2023 12:41:02 JST Boina Roja Enthusiast Karl Dahl

     in reply to

     • Boina Roja Enthusiast Karl Dahl
     @WashedOutGundamPilot Back in the day I knew a guy who had been a FAG who was invited to work as a FAC backseater because he spoke three languages and could coordinate the disparate forces. He was shot down on his first flight, was uninjured but had to carry the pilot nearly a mile to one of their local units. The second time the Piper Cub got shot up and made it back to a base with a dirt strip where they had a very rough near-crash landing. He wasn't hurt but the pilot was. They offered a third time and he said "no thank you"
     Woggy's Zeonic Frolicks likes this.
   • Boina Roja Enthusiast Karl Dahl (karldahl@poa.st)'s status on Friday, 13-Jan-2023 12:41:04 JST Boina Roja Enthusiast Karl Dahl

     in reply to
     @WashedOutGundamPilot Yeah FACs there went through a very rapid evolution. I should clarify that the T-28s and A-1s were the ground attack aircraft, not the FAC spotter planes
     Woggy's Zeonic Frolicks likes this.
   • Radians (demonsixone@poa.st)'s status on Friday, 13-Jan-2023 12:41:14 JST Radians

     in reply to

     • Boina Roja Enthusiast Karl Dahl
     @WashedOutGundamPilot @KarlDahl Cessna 305A/O-1.
     
     They used the model 170 frame as the base with a upgraded O-470 engine package. aviastar.org/air/usa/cessna_o-1.php
     Woggy's Zeonic Frolicks likes this.
   • Woggy's Zeonic Frolicks (washedoutgundampilot@poa.st)'s status on Friday, 13-Jan-2023 12:42:34 JST Woggy's Zeonic Frolicks

     in reply to

     • Boina Roja Enthusiast Karl Dahl

     @KarlDahl They have all kinds of wild stories, I think there was one who removed the doors and would drive around shooting out the side whenever he saw a juicy target.

     I think one pilot got kicked into the 01 when he was caught banging his wing commander’s wife, was supposed to fly skyraiders but got punted

   • mmmfeet (mmmfeet@poa.st)'s status on Friday, 13-Jan-2023 12:42:57 JST mmmfeet

     in reply to

     • Boina Roja Enthusiast Karl Dahl
     @WashedOutGundamPilot @KarlDahl Whites and East Asians (japs and koreans) are probably the only two races where ordinary men have the creative intelligence and agency to "fixer upper" a literal airplane. Let alone being able to do that AND fly one well. Its similar to how you always hear about how awful non-Whites (and even a fair share of Whites) are at land navigation, it turns out most people don't have it in them to model themselves onto a map and figure out where they are based on the terrain.
     Woggy's Zeonic Frolicks likes this.
   • Woggy's Zeonic Frolicks (washedoutgundampilot@poa.st)'s status on Friday, 13-Jan-2023 12:43:18 JST Woggy's Zeonic Frolicks

     in reply to

     • mmmfeet
     • Boina Roja Enthusiast Karl Dahl

     @mmmfeet @KarlDahl “Track: North Up” is the bane of many a brown on the flight deck

   • Woggy's Zeonic Frolicks (washedoutgundampilot@poa.st)'s status on Friday, 13-Jan-2023 12:45:50 JST Woggy's Zeonic Frolicks

     in reply to

     • Boina Roja Enthusiast Karl Dahl
     • Radians

     @DemonSixOne @KarlDahl That’s a good find of a site, nice

   • Radians (demonsixone@poa.st)'s status on Friday, 13-Jan-2023 12:51:34 JST Radians

     in reply to

     • Boina Roja Enthusiast Karl Dahl
     @WashedOutGundamPilot @KarlDahl You're welcome - I try to find and archive sites like these if I can, because often these old comment sections are full of decades old comments left by those that flew or operated the equipment in theater and have since passed on.
     Woggy's Zeonic Frolicks likes this.
   • Woggy's Zeonic Frolicks (washedoutgundampilot@poa.st)'s status on Friday, 13-Jan-2023 12:53:28 JST Woggy's Zeonic Frolicks

     in reply to

     • Boina Roja Enthusiast Karl Dahl
     • Radians

     @DemonSixOne @KarlDahl That’s my hunt, too. I love finding and clipping those little treasures. I stumbled on a yt comment a while back about the german’s flight testing and their famous lady test pilot being messed up by drama. I posted it here somewhere.

     I hate to think how much of this just gets lost to time, we aren’t even getting unpublished manuscripts anymore….

   • Radians (demonsixone@poa.st)'s status on Friday, 13-Jan-2023 12:58:17 JST Radians

     in reply to

     • Boina Roja Enthusiast Karl Dahl
     @WashedOutGundamPilot @KarlDahl Occasionally I find through these comment sections or by digging into the names, that some of these guys have written books about their experiences. Often are still available in print but not advertised at all.
     Woggy's Zeonic Frolicks likes this.
   • Boina Roja Enthusiast Karl Dahl (karldahl@poa.st)'s status on Friday, 13-Jan-2023 13:17:24 JST Boina Roja Enthusiast Karl Dahl

     in reply to
     @WashedOutGundamPilot The USAF became very practiced at shunting good pilots with off-duty discipline problems into that role in Vietnam or what they jokingly called "The Steve Canyon program," where they were technically discharged from the military and employed with the CIA fronts Air America and Continental Air, using civilian aircraft or military aircraft "decommissioned" and repainted with those companies' livery. There were even regular guys who heard about it and volunteered - apparently their handlers thought they were insane because of the attrition rate. They could force them to be uniformed FACs in Vietnam but the sheepdipping process was 100% voluntary, though they would recruit them
     Woggy's Zeonic Frolicks likes this.
   • Woggy's Zeonic Frolicks (washedoutgundampilot@poa.st)'s status on Friday, 13-Jan-2023 13:38:33 JST Woggy's Zeonic Frolicks

     in reply to

     • Dr. Rupert, Doctor of Shitpoasting Studies

     @RupertvonRipp I yearn for a cool storyline where they have to weaponize more light aircraft

   • Dr. Rupert, Doctor of Shitpoasting Studies (rupertvonripp@poa.st)'s status on Friday, 13-Jan-2023 13:38:34 JST Dr. Rupert, Doctor of Shitpoasting Studies

     in reply to
     @WashedOutGundamPilot Sometimes I think a part of the heart longs for 'collapse' to get to ecotechnic hilux and crop duster warfare- take away the imperial supply chains and you're back to garage tinkers and what smaller scale industries can produce and that looks a lot like trucks plus mounted weapons, IEDs and the like... and all of the sudden small prop planes look mighty attractive without ZOGjets overhead or easy access to AA.