OT: The end of military flyovers?
It looks like March 10th at the Las Vegas NASCAR race will be the final flyover at a sporting event, at least until the end of September, due the the sequestration budget cuts that trim training hours. It's too bad, as it serves as a reminder of the sacrifice that some make to provide the freedom for thousands of people to gather and root on their favorite teams. Hopefully they will be back in the near future.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/2013/02/27/federal-budget-cuts-seq…
Mod Edit: no nice things. [zl]
Edit: Sorry, wasn't trying to cause controversy or make this political, just thought it was an interesting topic that would be noticed by people who attend outdoor sporting events.
You guys can borrow our Canadian fighters if you want, you are close enough to the border:
them saying "Pew pew pew!"
My house seems to be on the approach route for the B-2s flying over the stadium these last few years - that has always been very cool. My understanding was this was good as a training exercise. Oh well...
This is from September 8th of last year (the Michigan Air Force game). 
was when ND came into Colorado Springs to play Air Force and Tony Rice was the QB for the Irish at the time. He made the mistake of being quoted by a reporter saying that playing against AF intimidated him because of the loud flyovers at the beginning of the game. Well, as you can imagine, the B-1 crew that was doing the flyover that day got wind of it, came over the stadium VERY low, it looked as if he was in between the scoreboard and the press box from the crowd's angle, and right over the stadium he lit the afterburners as he climbed away.
The crew got grounded following the incident. (The AF polices its own)
Kind of reminds me of an old saying: "When you say 'that looks too low to fly under', what a military pilot hears is 'I bet you can't fly under that'."
That's precisely what he hears. Living in St Louis, that statement really does ring rather true.
The best flyover I ever witnessed was at a Navy game in Annapolis. They were playing Duke, and ended up winning like 55-54. They had a stealth bomber come in flanked by 4 other jets. It was incredible, as they have no mounted scoreboard like at the big house, so they came in so low I thought they could have clipped the top row of the bleachers.
Not all, to be sure, but if an organization is willing to put up for the fuel and maintenance costs, I can't imagine the USAF refusing that.
/Inflammatory hyperbolic political comment designed to provoke angry response
/angry response
/Reinforces original point, subtly compares angry response to 1930's political movement.
/Bolivian-ed for political discussion
/Godwin's Law
/Banhammered
Followed by:
/Discussion about how profitgoblue sucks as a moderator
/Outraged indignance, not-so-subtle reference to 1930's political movement, incorrect interpretation of certain speech-related constitutional rights
/BRILLIANT counter argument highlighting the lack of beer as cause of 1930's political movement
/snarky comment about how dumb your dog looks
(but not really, I love dogs)
/Replys late to an already concluded conversation because of other stuff like "work". Manages not to add anything yet anger everyone
/dramatic misrepresentation of your already heavily political argument that implies you support thins everyone hates.
Don't get me wrong though. I love me some flyovers.
It seems that one of the rules was anything you didn't spend last year you had to give back (as opposed to banking for later use in the grant period). So we just went through a massive pissing away of "use it or lose it money".
We all got fancy full spectrum lights out of the deal, the office repainted, new couches, and a giant 60 inch TV that somehow serves a research people. Basically what I learned is our admin assistant is a goddess at justifying costs.
The USAF bought my wife a drone swarm with their spend it now money. Since the rules of the sequester wouldn't let the money be redirected by the Pentagon, the USN has a carrier they can't refuel and my wife's department had 2 million to flush down various toilets. So now I have a swarm of quadcopters in my basement.
Do you think she would let me borrow one for a few days? I got a few people that I need to keep an eye on . . . you know, for national security purposes.
Good. I've never understood why we need flighter planes coasting over stadiums. The patriotism at sporting events can really be over-the-top at times. Given the 20th century, I think such excessive displays of patriotism will always make some people uncomfortable.
Some people look for opportunities to be uncomfortable, and never waste an opportunity to let other people know it.