Quite the story about a pilot here in MI

Selfridge Air National Guard Base, Mich. --
Two thousand feet up and flying over the forests of Alpena County, Capt. Brett DeVries was running through his mental checklist and most of the options were bad. With his wingman flying just feet away and an Air Force maintenance specialist patched in via a radio set up next to a speaker phone, DeVries made the decision to land his badly-damaged A-10 Thunderbolt II on the runway at the Alpena Combat Readiness Training Center.

Despite the fact that his landing gear wouldn't come down. And the canopy had blown off the aircraft 25 minutes before. And his main radio stopped working. Along with the first back-up.

There's an old saying in the Air Force: Any landing you can walk away from is a good landing.

In this case, DeVries expeditiously exited the aircraft - gulping deep breathes until he was certain there would be no explosion. But yes, it was a very good landing.

DeVries made the landing on the afternoon of July 20 at the Alpena Center, which shares a runway with the Alpena County Airport in northeast Michigan. It is believed to be the first time in the roughly 40-year history of the A-10 that a pilot had to land with no canopy and with the landing gear up. While the aircraft sustained heavy damage, the pilot, his wingman and all the people on the ground were unharmed when the drama came to an end.

goodbar wrote:"Four A-10s were headed up to make the 30-minute flight to Grayling, to drop dummy bombs and make several strafing passes with the 30mm GAU-8 Avenger Gatling-style gun that protrudes from the nose of the A-10."

when is this godforsaken dummy insurgency going to end? how many bombs do we have to drop on them before they give up???

Senior Dickfist wrote:

goodbar wrote:"Four A-10s were headed up to make the 30-minute flight to Grayling, to drop dummy bombs and make several strafing passes with the 30mm GAU-8 Avenger Gatling-style gun that protrudes from the nose of the A-10."

when is this godforsaken dummy insurgency going to end? how many bombs do we have to drop on them before they give up???

Come on Goodbar. Both you and I know this is the work of the Downriggers. They've shown this type of aggression in the past, just not to this scale. The story about the gun malfunctioning is typyical propaganda to point the general public in the opposite direction of the truth. I believe that this was a warning to the government that they are operating too close to their territory.

Turtleneck wrote:I thought this thread was going to be about a gas station.

goodbar wrote:"Two thousand feet up and flying over the forests of Alpena County..."

Prosecutor: Over Alpena County?

Capt. Brett DeVries: No. I don't think I'll ever get over Alpena County. Those wounds run...pretty deep.

tGreenWay wrote:

Turtleneck wrote:

Alpena has really shitty football. They did not have a team for a long time so maybe that has something to do with it. Their enrollment means they have to play bigger schools in the area (actually they have to do some serious travel), but they just cannot compete with those schools consistently. What is your take on Alpena football?

Cute. Lookit the little eastsider trying to play with the bigtime westsider. You're like that little chicken hawk going after Foghorn Leghorn.

goodbar wrote:

tGreenWay wrote:

Cute. Lookit the little eastsider trying to play with the bigtime westsider. You're like that little chicken hawk going after Foghorn Leghorn.

my advantage is that I grew up on the east side. I know how they think.

tGreenWay wrote:

Turtleneck wrote:

Alpena has really shitty football. They did not have a team for a long time so maybe that has something to do with it. Their enrollment means they have to play bigger schools in the area (actually they have to do some serious travel), but they just cannot compete with those schools consistently. What is your take on Alpena football?

Cute. Lookit the little eastsider trying to play with the bigtime westsider. You're like that little chicken hawk going after Foghorn Leghorn.

goodbar wrote:

tGreenWay wrote:

Cute. Lookit the little eastsider trying to play with the bigtime westsider. You're like that little chicken hawk going after Foghorn Leghorn.

my advantage is that I grew up on the east side.  I know how they think.