#but this basically tracks with my experience

[usafphantom2]

#TomcatTails

#TomcatTuesday

That Time I Bagged an F-16

I’ve written quite a bit about the challenges when flying the F-14A Tomcat against the F-16 Viper. It’s a very formidable Fighter, highly maneuverable, light weight, nearly 1 to 1 thrust ratio, fast roll rate, 9+ G capable, etc., etc. In contrast, the F-14A is much larger, heavier, .75 to 1 thrust ratio at best, slower roll rage, 7 G capable, etc., etc. It’s similar to two boxers, one with longer reach, more muscles, and better footwork; you know how it’s normally going to end. You’ve also heard me quote the Red Baron about the importance of “the man in the box”, vice the box itself. That will always be true but in reality, some boxes are REALLY good and can make even a mediocre pilot fairly formidable. At any rate, enough excuse making.

As one gets better in the air-to-air arena over time, you learn your own personal limitations but also discover a few of your own techniques that seem to work for you. The more time you spend on it, your BFM (Basic Fighter Maneuvers) get better and better and your skills improve, just like any endeavor (mental or physical or both). Wikipedia, for what it’s worth, has a pretty good section describing BFM in great detail and defines them as:

“The tactical movements performed by fighter aircraft during air combat maneuvering (ACM, also called dogfighting), to gain a positional advantage over the opponent. BFM combines the fundamentals of aerodynamic flight and the geometry of pursuit, with the physics of managing the aircraft's energy-to-mass ratio, called its specific energy.”

OK, pretty good start. The advanced stuff comes with practice and experience and instruction by the highly qualified bogey drivers at the Aggressor squadrons and for the purposes of this #TomcatTail we’re talking about the VF-126 Bandits at Miramar, CA.

When you’re between cruises and deployments, Fighter Squadrons have time for Unit Level Training (ULT) that doesn’t require the rest of the air wing to support. This is great since the squadrons are pretty scattered (Tomcats/E-2s at Miramar, S-3s at North Island, Hornets in Lemoore, A-6/EA-6 at Whidbey Island). This is also the time you take on some new Nuggets and focus on the basic A/A and A/G skills. One way we did this as a community was an annual flight line wide contest known as “Fighter Derby”. While the specific rules escape me (it WAS 30 years ago, please), it’s essentially hosted/run by the Bandits and all squadrons field 3 or 4 sections to compete against the rest of the squadrons on the base.

As you may imagine, something like this got HIGHLY competitive. As such, so was Bombing Derby that measured your A/G skills with precise times on target, etc. There were a number of other flight line contests and awards to be won at Miramar that all factored into the annual competition to win either the coveted “Battle E” for excellence or the even MORE coveted “Mutha” trophy for the most shit hot, coolest squadron on the flight line. The Mutha story would take a book, so I’ll leave it to another time, but that was THE trophy to win.

Our squadron, the VF-24 Renegades, began to prepare for the contest by focusing strictly on ACM for a couple weeks. We assigned crews to their specific sections (two planes are a section, four planes are a division). Just my luck, I got paired up with our only former Bogey Driver from VF-126, “Space”. Space was one of those rare salty dudes that just seemed older than he should be and spent a long time as a Lieutenant, eventually got selected for Lieutenant Commander, but likely wasn’t going much beyond that. That’s not a dig by any means, he just managed to stay in the cockpit his entire career and didn’t get those “checks in the block” that put one on track for higher ranks.

He was a WIZARD with the Tomcat because, as you’ve heard me say often, them damn Bogey Drivers were just SO good at ACM in any platform they flew. He had F-16N Viper time, A-4M Skyhawk time, and F-5E Tiger II time. He could transform the often lumbering F-14A Tomcat into quite the nimble minx (mostly) and would routinely beat up anyone in the squadron. He knew when to control energy to keep the fight going, when to transition into a vertical looping fight or a slow flat-scissors fight, and when to sell the farm (knots) and take a lethal shot. All in all, that’s a GREAT guy to go into Fighter Derby with!!

The day comes for VF-24 to throw their sections at the Bandits and it’s (naturally) beautiful weather. As I recall the scenario, we’d meet in the Restricted Area 2301 West to the west of MCAS Yuma. That’s a huge training range with a TACTS range inside of it (tracked your aircraft) as well as a great target complex called “Cactus West”. A little Fighter lore; years ago the VF-2 Bounty Hunters (callsign “Bullet”) lost a jet out there due to a departure and flat spin. It impacted in a mountain pass in the Barry Goldwater Range and to this day, the site is called “Bullet Pass.” (aircraftarchaeology.com/f14goldwater.h…)

Space and I launch out of Miramar, as ready as we’ll ever be (me at least). After our transit to R-2301 we check in with Range Control and check in with the Bogeys. They were already on-site as they’re doing one engagement per section (you get one run) so they can cycle through 2 or 3 sections pretty easily before they have to RTB to Miramar. Today, a Viper and a Dog (A-4) are on the menu. Or is it going to be Tom Kitty for lunch? We’ll see.

The basics here are that you start with a 30-mile set to give both sections time to acclimate and maneuver as needed to provide the most advantageous merge. The overall score is determined by time-to-kill and if you lose anyone. Key to note is that this is a training evolution. The Bogeys are going to give you a HARD problem, but not an IMPOSSIBLE problem. They will fight you hard but they will not just spank the shit out of you. You’re being judged on how you engage, how you react to perceived bogey mistakes, if you make any mistakes, etc. Again, I will be a hard fight but you can both survive. The question is can you kill them faster than everyone else?

So the set up is ready and we call “Fights On”. Space is on the left (lead) and I’m on the right in 1 mile combat spread, stepped down about a thousand feet (don’t be co-altitude, too easy on the bogies). As we march in, we get radar on the Bogies. At this point we can see two, about a mile apart but don’t know which one is which, Viper or Dog. What you DON’T want to do here is let them “bracket” your section (where both pass outboard me and Space….kiss of death) and you don’t want to meet off center so either Space or I go down their middle; also not good. Best scenario is you bracket THEM, and Space on the left turns right to attack my guy with angles and me on the right, turn left to engage HIS guy with angles. Classic “switch”. Break the hands/pens out, take a minute and think that through…..I’ll wait.

Once you’re within 10 or 15 seconds of a merge, you’re not allowed to try and cross over someone’s nose to change the pass from left-to-left to right-to-right because you could screw it up and collide nose on. Not good (but frankly not painful as you’d never know it happened). As luck would have it, we face the Kobayashi Maru; we’re getting bracketed and can’t maneuver to change it. Wonderful. And I get the Viper……down my right side. Nuts.

As I’m merging with the Viper I take a peak at the Dog passing down Space’s left…..oooh, he’s going nose high right. Towards me but nose up. I have several options, mostly bad, but one that I think might work. Space follows him nose up near vertical to get separation, the Viper turns across my tail and starts pulling for Space, and I elect to roll right and pull OUT of the fight and away from the Dog. Strange, but it works out. You’ll see.

So I’m pulling for my life to get back in the fight, the Dog is struggling to catch up since I got such separation, and the Viper is chasing Space up hill and left. After a 180° I then pitch it pure nose low (straight down) and roll my lift vector to where I THINK Space and the Viper are going to be in about 20 seconds and pull….HARD. The lift vector is an imaginary plane coming out the top of my jet and it’s where you’re pulling to in space. Did I say I was pulling HARD?

After a few seconds, the gray-out starts to impact my vision. When you’re pulling that many G's and you’re body is fighting 7 times the force of gravity in sometimes awkward positions in the cockpit, it’s not hard to let the G get in front of you. You’re doing your “HOOK” maneuver, straining your stomach to keep blood in your head and your G-suit is full inflated, but sometimes it’s not enough. If you’re sitting there looking straight ahead, imagine your peripheral vision going gray at the far left and right and then slowly getting more gray toward the middle, and eventually it takes a circle shape where 80 or 90% of your view is now gray. That’s gray out. The harder you pull the smaller that circle gets. If you ease off, the circle gets bigger. You’re conscious, you talking to your RIO (in this case “Watts”) and you’re flying your jet, you just can’t see all that good.

The timing wasn’t quite right to ease the pull yet; that’s the instinctual part of ACM. You just KNOW how fast you’re turn rating across the sky and you just KNOW when you’ll be nose on the bogie based on where he was and what he’s was doing 30 seconds ago. You just KNOW. I can’t really explain it past that.

I keep the pull on and I’m mostly grayed out for a few more seconds. And then it’s time. Relax the pull and Voila!, I’m in a nose up position looking at beautiful blue sky. And wonder of wonders there’s a Viper in my windscreen and his left rear quarter is showing me some leg. He’s closing in on a shot on Space but my Sidewinder seeker head is already staring to growl. Quick finger fire to get the ‘Winder to lock and “Fox 2 the Viper in a left turn…….kill Viper.”

The Dog is still a bit behind me and not nose on and Space keeps his hard turn in and gets nose on the Dog pretty quick. I come hard left now to get the Dog to chase and he does. A few seconds later Space bags the Dog with a ‘Winder at about a mile. “Knock it off” and head home for a quick debrief and probably beers at the O’Club. That tended to be the default at Miramar.

We didn’t win Fighter Derby that year but our flight did reinforce a few key lessons:

1. I’d rather be lucky than good.

2. Even a blind squirrel finds a Viper once in a while.

@RSE_VB via X

[letterlock]

disclaimer: it is a widely verified fact that i am a fool, please adjust any expectations of my accuracy thereafter

my understanding is slightly different:

stability refers to the relative mutability of the underlying code within a distribution (stable as in unchanging). Debian is stable as in unchanging, Arch is unstable as in highly changing.

with more of this stability, there often follows an amount of stability in a more traditional sense (stable as in unfailing). this is, however, only correlated because releases are fewer and farther between, so hacks, workarounds, and code adaptations have time to be developed for bugs that are discovered before a release is locked for changes.

this distinction is important because instability (as in failing) and insecurity in the codebase will, as a rule, also not be changed. so potential security vulnerabilities can even be allowed to stick around, unless they are of a certain level, and you better believe there are lots of places where a stable (as in unchanging) distro will have ux breaking bugs.

this leads to another place where it's easy to conflate these two kinds of stability - the reason stable (as in unchanging) distros like Debian have that philosophy is because it provides a constantly known quantity which increases the experience of stability (as in unfailing-ness). if you don't change the code, you can't introduce new bugs, especially in weird, seemingly unrelated places that make them hard to track down.

so it's a trade off. theoretically, a purely stable (as in unchanging) distro would actually sacrifice some security (if it didn't develop security patches), to create the most reliable UX possible (if it works today, it'll work tomorrow). this is great for systems that need to be reliable above all else, especially when they're not connected to a network. (lab equipment/computers, for example)

on the other hand an unstable (as in highly changing) distro would sacrifice a consistent and reliable experience for the newest features and fixes. this would, weirdly, in theory, be more secure, because bugs would get fixes as they were discovered and fixed in real time.

in real life, there are no distros that are ideologically pure in regards to their stability (unchanging-ness). Debian pushes security updates and rolling release distros have been known to hold back or roll back changes that broke things too bad. additionally, the theory of stability (unchanging-ness) doesn't always translate to reality. Arch systems break in fantastic and stupefying ways that don't get official fixes for a long time (despite what every Arch user claims. source: am Arch user, have had to reinstall because of weird esoteric interactions between seemingly unrelated packages), Debian systems have UX bugs that render certain programs basically unusable, making the stability of the system moot.

hope this makes sense. and I hope it's mostly accurate. this is all off the dome on my phone at work, so yeah, see above disclaimer. please anyone feel free to correct me

A lot of people seem to misunderstand what "stability" (in term of Linux distros) means.

It's not about your system beeing reliable and not breaking/crashing due to bugs. Stable simply means "no updates that introduce breaking changes" (as in breaking compatibility, not as in destroying stuff).

An unstable distro can still be reliable (e.g. OpenSUSE tumbleweed due to great testing) and a stable distro may move so slowly that things start to cause trouble due to old age (for example only shipping end-of-life versions of certain libraries that some software vendors indirectly stop supporting it or as sysadmin not beeing able to roll out a python script because some systems still have only versions of python available that are EOL).

I see this kind of misunderstanding not just here on Tumblr, but everywhere in the industry.

[a-god-in-ruins-rises]

[lygma-nygma]

Being a batfam fan is funny because people will make a post like “here’s my headcanon-“ and it’s just something that’s directly canon to the story then post about major canon events and get everything wrong.

[undistortedworld]

art block is blocking so i decided i must do smth with no lineart and just start layering a thick paint brush until smth happened >:3

[occasionalincorrectquotes]

COUNTERPOINT. Toto is clearly learning a lot from working with Ron. It's not that he was "suddenly" so good at his job in the Cruise arc, in the alliance detectives being shaken off his trail. That is CHAPTER 90+. It's been basically a YEAR that he's in what is essentially a one on one lecture with Blue's most skilled student. You'd get smart working under Ron no matter how stupid you start out, deduction is a skill not a talent. (Also Ron could've just sent Toto instructions on how to shake the alliance tracker off his tail, Spitz is Blue's tracking instructor too, he could give some good pointers)

In the Auberge case I'd say it's because Ron brought Toto with him, Toto is his plus 1. Plus if he was that suspicious for being a plus 1, you'd think the people who were linked to that case be super untrustworthy of him. They accept his (true) story of coming to the auberge because he's with Ron, and Ron is DIRECTLY related to the case. If you were in the Auberge you'd want an official police officer helping you live this murder mystery, wouldn't you?

I do agree tho that Toto is around 26 years of age, it's exactly because he's a newbie that he's so young and entered the division. The division doesn't only hire seasoned professionals, they hire fresh blood like any job, maybe it's just that that specific division got sent Toto from their prefecture's list of new officers fresh out the academy.

As for the manga just showing Toto without his thoughts. Have you considered: No thought head empty. On a less joke-y note, it's probably just to show Toto's expression. We don't need to hear EVERY ONE of Toto's thoughts. Ron suspecting Toto's action in the Cruise arc… I must've missed it during my binge, you gotta point me to that for me to fully dissect it. What IS weird tho is Toto not thinking a single thing about himself, him not thinking about himself so he doesn't speak his thoughts out loud is what you'd do if you were him and was actually a spy, but it's like that thought experiment: If you're told not to think of a pink elephant, you'd think of a pink elephant immediately. Toto would have to constantly distract himself with other thoughts to stop this, and we don't see any of that at all.

What's also a thing that shows he's a silly guy is that he's been a known idiot for a while. Does he really need to play an idiot in front of Amamiya to the point that he's literally on the verge of being fired? I get that for Kiku, that's his closest path to Ron, but Amamiya? He wouldn't need to go THAT far, he almost lost his JOB. If he did have malicious intent on using Ron and pulling his heart strings with his adorable face, he could do a less than average job than a terrible one. It's not like Kiku sent Toto to Ron as a one off thing either, Kiku's sent multiple young detectives his way to get him out of his slump, it wouldn't be hard for Toto to just be a little bad at his job, ask Kiku for advice, and be recommended Ron Kamonohashi from the random apartment complex he manages. Losing his job and losing that connection to Kiku and therefore Ron is the worst possible scenario, he did not need to risk that much.

Putting out my Toto conspiracy theory because this is such an insane level of blatant withholding there’s no way there’s not more to him-

Okay so some other people have noticed that we have almost no information in Toto other than some very thin slices he’s provided and what Ron has deduced.

So here’s my theory:

The facts:

Toto is suspiciously bad at a job that he should not have otherwise been given without qualifying for it.

He almost never talks about himself or his past

Ron deducted that he must have grown up in a refined environment and was spoiled

He grew up with his grandparents

His age is constantly censored or left out of identifying documents and promo material related to the manga and anime, including the chapters in which they celebrated his birthday

He acts as a coil, constantly providing Ron with motivation and opening up his ability to move on or investigate when he would otherwise have looked something over or not been able to proceed

Which all seems far too convenient when we look at the broader scope of things.

So I have two theories here actually and this does contain spoilers for the most recent chapters so proceed with caution-

Toto is working for Alice specifically and before you get all puffy about it HEAR ME OUT:

if not for Toto, Ron wouldn’t have started investigating again, which would would have never lead to him confronting Elliot, ultimately leading to his downfall- something that also never would have happened without Toto being present and injured at the time.

Ron only knows what Toto has given him: very obvious clues that tell a story so he doesn’t have to.

Alice also has a lot of candid photos of Ron, which could have only been taken by someone close to him.

Now mind you I hate this theory personally. Toto to me is a ball of genuine fluff and must be protected at all costs but he’s just too convenient.

Which leads me to my second theory, which has started forming within the last few chapter releases (somewhere around 150-153)

Toto is working for Ron’s mother.

Mainly spurred on by the fact that in both correspondences she has sent to Ron, she has singled out Toto specifically. Now this could be just a mom worrying for the safety of her child’s only close friend but it seems odd.

“I’m glad you get along so well with Isshiki-san but you can’t keep selfishly dragging him along”

Okay fair, she’s smart, she knows what’s going on is life or death and that Toto always gets pulled into these things

BUT THEN she sends Kiku over with a message to “Give Totomaru her best” without giving Ron anything else and I’m not going to lie guys my theory is now leaning more heavily into the Toto is working for Alice territory because this seems like

A) she was trying to encourage Ron to leave Toto out of things which means she may know he’s connected in some way

B) a threat not a well wish, “I know what you’re doing and good luck with that”

And I hope to all deities and non-deities that exist that this is just my crazy conspiracy theory board and that Toto is just baby okay? But I can’t help but to wonder…

[crispyjenkins]

just got morrowind for pc and have to run it on the Family Computer in our parents' study, so am really living the 2002 experience of huddling around the desk with my younger sib while i play and they read bits of the guide (wiki) to me

[ozcarma]

Trying to watch 999 let’s plays is such hell to me - NO ONE PLAYS THE GAME RIGHT just shutupshutupshutupshutup and play the game!! Stop trying to make jokes!!!!

I’m too autistic for this, I cannot bear hearing let’s players doing their own voice acting when I adore the game’s VAs too much. Everyone always fucks up Santa’s and Lotus’s voices especially.

I understand the draw of Let’s Plays are largely the people playing them who have gained their own following, but as someone who just loves the game I don’t wanna hear ur stupid banter 💥💥💥 play the game and be intrigued but not TOO intrigued because give it a fuckin minute it’ll explain what’s going on 🙄‼️

[professionaljester]

love being 25 and not knowing how to socialize bc i’m autistic and off putting and cringe so no one wanted to talk to me/wanted to be my friend growing up so now i’m an adult with very few friends or ppl i talk to on a regular basis bc i never learned how to socialize or text properly bc no one taught me how

[beacon-lamp]

gooooood morning beacon! how are u?

good evening alui i am doing well i just ate an entire crumbl cookie (big cookie. probably not advisable to eat one in a single sitting) to balance out the fact that i had to stay late for work and also i fell off the treadmill this morning so i can check that one off the human experiences to try list. i emerged unscathed except for a massive bruise to both my ego and left shin.

hope ur having a good thursday/friday urself!! :D

[astrofiish]

Once again rotating Zach Barns shitty experiences post labryinthia (whenever the fuck he decides to leave)

[fella-lovin-fella]

the déjà vu (?) is starting to get really bad again and it's ✨scary✨

[nordfjording]

hi, I've read a systematic review and it concluded there wasn't any effect of menstruation on exercise. If one has pains that might hinder, but there's nothing else that causes that. if you don't believe me look for systemic reviews/research papers and stuff. Remember that there are single studies that say the earth is flat, you want to read systemic reviews

I can only speak for my own extremely anecdotal experience that things like pain during menstruation sure but also the sometimes mildly extreme energy fluctuations between follicular (cocaine-addled lab rat pushing an electic stim button over and over on 3hrs of sleep) and luteal (recovery position staring at my bedroom wall too tired to turn over and check the clock which is just as well because the alternative would be to get up and drown myself in the fjord) has some effect on my workout regime.

And I understand that me not seeing this connection vs thinking it was all in my own head and I needed to just kick my lazy ass into gear doesn't mean it's a systemic failure of communication. I just think it would have been nice to have been given some clues earlier in life, rather than the effect of my hormone cycle on physical output being reduced to continuous harping that your uterus wringing itself of blood and mucus is no excuse to skip a workout. And I get bitter sometimes.

I'm sorry if my previous post suggested I was talking about something else.

[karasimpno]

I swear you couldn’t write some of the things that happen to me lmfao

[mobbothetrue]

Yeah I have a normal level of impulse control I think <- got burrito grease all over my fresh painted nails because I was hungry

[star-ch3rries]

there's so much background to tessa its insane actually like it just hit me right now in the midst of my fixation on her lore