Comments on: Federal budget issues could end flyovers

By: ordinaryday6

ordinaryday6 — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 00:11:07 +0000

Will, I never even really thought about this issue.. But DUH.

By: sourdoughsam

sourdoughsam — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 23:09:25 +0000

Well if these flyovers are helping us train pilots to bolster our national defense, who do I call to have four F-18s fly over my nephew’s birthday party as he blows out the candles on his cake?

By: adambballn

adambballn — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 21:11:46 +0000

I have a friend that is a pilot in the Navy… they have a required amount of flying they have to do on a monthly basis to assure they aren’t rusty when it comes time to actually do something. My understanding and from what he explained to me is these flyovers are simply used towards the pilots already required training hours and were at no additional cost?

By: Tom in Desoto, TX

Tom in Desoto, TX — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 21:04:35 +0000

Flyover always seemed stupid to me, and they flew over enclosed stadiums. Hello? If flyover never existed, John McCain would only have lost 4 jets instead of 5. Once can be mechanical problems, after that it’s operator screw up. The U.S. could have saved about $20 million if McCain never got the chance to crash any jets.

By: michiganhockey11

michiganhockey11 — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 20:44:59 +0000

They get rid of the fly overs due to the sequestration, and yet we’re giving Syrian rebels $60 million. Nothing like talking out of our mouth and our arse at the same time….

By: flipper9494

flipper9494 — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 20:28:31 +0000

There are plenty of ways to waste tax payer’s money, however, a flyover at a football game is exciting and awe inspiring. If for nothing else, it allows us to see the magnificent skills and technology at work that is actually used to protect our country.

Come on, football games are a spectacle and I’d rather have my son and daughter witness something like that once in awhile rather than the other mindless stuff that they use to kill commercial time with.

By: jaketdogg

jaketdogg — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 19:51:11 +0000

Typical lawyer speak- portraying everything in terms of lowering risk tolerance. Way to go, Florio. Cutting off alcohol sales after halftime is a much better way to reduce the risk of personal injury during/after a football game, but keeping people lubed up thru the end of 3 quarters brings in revenue, right?? We lose the jets but keep the drunk idiots amped to the 9″s (just 1 more reason to stay home, in my opinion)

By: thewizardsrevenge

thewizardsrevenge — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 19:07:07 +0000

Perhaps we could trim bloated pensions for government bureaucrats instead of flyovers.

By: johnnythek1

johnnythek1 — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 18:51:11 +0000

I absolutely am shocked the NFL did not pay for this already.

The flyovers were always dramatic and a nice touch, but sorry… not on my dime. We have bigger issues in our country that need the $$.

By: castleanthrax

castleanthrax — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 18:27:03 +0000

All of your points Florio are invalid, but the overall idea is true.

However, these fly overs as you say are logged as training hours, so the fuel, pilots time, etc. are spent regardless if they are flying over a stadium to help invoke national pride or flying in a formation over a bomb run…

And to say it is an ineffective recruiting tool is also off base; air shows and demonstrations like this certainly get the attention of an aspiring pilot or anyone that just wants to be affiliated with such…

And they aren’t as close as you think and these pilots are very well trained and are not performing risky stunts like at an air show…

You seem rather sour on the military there my friend…and the Patriots, maybe there is a link here.

By: Ponder This

Ponder This — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 18:02:50 +0000

Our government leaders are lying about how bad the sequestration is. We’re talking about cutting a tiny amount out of an incredibly bloated budget. A real leader could do that without anyone noticing, but our dictator will make the cuts in the most visible way possible to try to convince the idiots who voted for him that we can’t get by on a penny less than what he wants to spend. Of course, we’re not actually cutting anything, we’re just decreasing the rate of increase. We’ll still spend more this year than we did last year.

By: Ponder This

Ponder This — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 17:59:51 +0000

eatitfanboy says:Feb 28, 2013 11:42 AM

People seriously need to stop with the idea that it serves as a training aid.

Yes, we all realize that in order to complete missions successfully, pilots need to know how to be over a specific target at a specific time.

The idea that the Air Force is dependent upon fly overs at sporting events to provide this crucial training is preposterous.
______

That’s not the point at all. They’re going to do the training anyway, so why not have them fly over a sporting event during one of the training missions? Seems like everyone wins.

By: surran70065

surran70065 — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 17:59:32 +0000

“Really, any kids who would be attracted to the military because they think it’s cool that planes skim the top of a stadium in tight formation may not be the best candidates to carry loaded M-16s.”

_____________________________

What a condesending thing to say. Jerk

By: Stiller43

Stiller43 — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 17:54:14 +0000

Waste of tax dollars? How much did an inaugaration for a president ALREADY in office cost? THATS a waste.

This is a waste too…but at least its cool

By: harrisonhits2

harrisonhits2 — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 17:43:16 +0000

“And there’s a risk — regardless of how small — that those planes will touch wings and one of them will land in the south end zone seats. Not doing flyovers reduces the risk of a major catastrophe to zero.”

Geeze Florio, how do you get through your day to day life with your lawyers fear of everything that could possibly go wrong ?

I mean you might stub your toe or trip and fall down every time you walk up and down your stairs. Or the chance of a drunk driver hitting you every time you have to go out and drive somewhere.

Holy crap I am so sick of the wussification of America and the attorneys leading the charge. The country could really do without you and the nanny state philosophy !

By: jameswestphal

jameswestphal — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 17:35:51 +0000

Not necessarily. I’m in an Airborne reserve unit and we usually schedule training jumps to coincide with air shows and other similar events. These units still have considerable training budgets and can very easily make sure some of those training hours are spent flying over events. This is media nonsense to a degree.

By: tmkelley1

tmkelley1 — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 17:03:05 +0000

Yeah, it’s exciting, but pointless. I’m a USN veteran, and I won’t mind one bit that they stop it. What the heck does it have to do with a football game, anyway? And I won’t miss the B2 flying over the Rose Parade, either. Ever wonder how much it costs to fly one of those babies? For every hour of flight time, it needs 119 hours of maintenance, and they fly to Pasadena from Whiteman AFB in Missouri. And back. $$$$$$$$$$$$

By: finsphan

finsphan — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 16:56:56 +0000

Need to save as much as they can, how else first family going to afford to take all those vacations

By: rayguyreturns

rayguyreturns — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 16:42:28 +0000

So Florio are you equally concerned about how much wasted fuel, manpower, and logistics it takes to fly Michelle and her daughter to Europe for vacation?

By: patriottony

patriottony — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 16:42:22 +0000

We have a Sec of Def (Panetta) who charges $32,000 (verified) each and every friday for a USAF C-37 to take him home for the weekend to California, the crew is TDY, and for that luxury he pays back 460.00.

We have a Dictator who spent 5.2 million just six weeks ago for a 17 day vacation in Hawaii, then 423,000 last week to play golf with tiger.
Oh today? 60 MILLION in Cash $$$ for Syrian rebels via John Kerry…to quote Nancy Pelosi “We don’t have a spending problem in Washington, we have a paying problem.” Frigging idiots

By: eatitfanboy

eatitfanboy — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 16:42:07 +0000

People seriously need to stop with the idea that it serves as a training aid.

Yes, we all realize that in order to complete missions successfully, pilots need to know how to be over a specific target at a specific time.

The idea that the Air Force is dependent upon fly overs at sporting events to provide this crucial training is preposterous.

“General, Sir, I desperately need more pilots that can be over target at the correct time!”

“Sorry, Colonel, the Super Bowl isn’t for 11 months. You’ll have to make due with what you have”.

By: joetoronto

joetoronto — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 16:34:12 +0000

Is it just me, shouldn’t the NFL pay for the fly overs themselves?

I assumed they were from the get go.

By: keylimelight

keylimelight — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 16:31:50 +0000

I live five miles from a naval air base and often see low, training fly-bys out my back window. As someone has already suggested here, coordinate game-day formation flying within the budget they are already operating on. Write it off as a free promotional event.

Hearing the government poor-mouth fly-overs due to budget concerns is, like everything else they’re telling us: a crock.

By: mpreto91

mpreto91 — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 16:31:05 +0000

It was my understanding that the team or event, NASCAR, paid a large part of the cost for these fly overs. There is also a FAA guy that has to be at the stadium to oversee the flight in regards to air restrictions.

By: olcap

olcap — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 16:28:19 +0000

As well they should cut out this excessive cost to taxpayers in this country. Who do they think they are anyway? Pro football fans (numbers of which are dwindling anyway, thanks to Ms. Goodell) certainly do not even amount to anywhere HALF the population. Same with NASCAR, stop wasting our money (costs HUGE sums of money to have those planes up there) on the flyovers!

By: billygoat

billygoat — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 16:25:24 +0000

There will still be fly overs. They just won’t be at the stadium. They will be over your house using drones.

By: Beezo-Doo-doo-Zippity-Bop-bop-bop

Beezo-Doo-doo-Zippity-Bop-bop-bop — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 16:23:48 +0000

I look forward to the spending cuts, ANY spending cuts. Our government has become an unsustainable, overfed, giant pig that can no longer even move. We just keep feeding it tax dollars and watching it grow as it does nothing but line the pockets of politicians that have brainwashed the masses into thinking they have our best interest at heart by pitting one party against the other over BS while laughing all the way to their bank accounts in Sweden and the Cayman’s – all of them . The very definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

By: guyljr

guyljr — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 16:23:25 +0000

To an Active Duty Air Force member the tone here is rather aggrivating. I fell in love with planes when I was 6 years old at an Air Show, I knew what I was going to do when I grew up from that day forward…. And because of that I don’t have what it takes to carry an M-16? Besides that your points are moot anyway. Those aircrew have to fly so many sorties/hours in a given time frame, so if they arent flying over a stadium they will be flying over a field somewhere.

By: zappaisgod

zappaisgod — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 16:18:35 +0000

Holy crap! My seats are in the South endzone of the Linc!

By: trollhammer20

trollhammer20 — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 16:17:22 +0000

As a training exercise, it requires pilots to be over a certain location at an exact time….hopefully so the “…home of the braaaaaaaave” at the end of the national anthem morphs into the sound of the jets flying overhead. Given being in a specific place at a specific time can be imporant to an air force, it’s not as much of a waste as people think.

If you want to talk about wasteful recruiting efforts, try the National Guard auto racing teams.