The First One Hundred: Thirty Days In

With the inauguration of every new president, there is always the discussion surrounding the first 100 days of their administration. There can be absolutely no doubt that the current administration is doing things never seen before. A president who is actually fulfilling campaign promises and leaving opposition forces crying and moaning with their heads exploding. There is so much to discuss already but for now, want to focus only on two areas: DOGE and the rash of airplane crashes.

1. Department of Government Efficiency. (DOGE) Elon Musk and his crew are kicking butt and taking names. It should come as no surprise that the liberal left is in a panic. They are basing their anger on alleged government overreach but in reality, are running scared because they know that many of them and their less than “above board” activities are about to be found out. I saw this particularly good meme that said, “A store is robbed and all of it is caught of film. Elon Musk reviews the film and determines who the criminals are. Now you are interested only in arresting Elon Musk.” How true.

We see so many left-wing loons in the streets yelling and screaming. “Nobody voted for Elon.” “Billionaires don’t belong in government.” They seem to forget many things. One. Nobody ever voted for George Soros yet his money has been firmly engrafted into left-wing causes for years. Like Kelly LaBrock in the old Panteen commercials, “Don’t hate me because I am beautiful,” today’s saying is, “Don’t hate me because my billionaire is smarter than your billionaire.” And it is Musk who is wanting to find corruption in our government instead of ignoring the rampant corruption we are seeing.

Today, we are seeing so much of what the DOGE team has uncovered already. And yes, some people should start running scared. US tax payer money given to illegal immigrants for cars, homes, education, small business loans up to $15,000 and to help them repair their credit scores. As part of the Department of Health and Human Services, the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) provides cash and medical assistance as well as other services to help “refugees,” illegal or not, in their resettlement in the US. Grants awarded by the ORR have amounted to $22.4 billion for the five-year period starting in 2020. But to be honest, not all of this money has been allocated to illegal aliens. As reported, DOGE also says it has found an untraceable budget line responsible for almost $4.7 trillion in payments. And you can look up all the insane social projects we have spent millions of dollars on around the world through USAID. Yes, USAID has a good purpose but their waste has to stop.

As for Social Security, the numbers are truly staggering and sad. They uncovered 1 person over 240 years-old and another over 360 years old on the registers. In all, they uncovered 16,055,117 people on the registers between 110 and 369 years old. This is not to say money is still being paid out to these people (descendants or other scammers) but then again, that is what DOGE is trying to find out. Why would anybody not want this fraud, waste and abuse to be located and stopped. I watched a series of videos last night with Clinton, Gore and eventually Obama talking about this waste and promising to do something about it. They never did. It is sort of like so many presidents saying they were going to move our embassy in Israel to Jerusalem but only one man actually did it.

There is certainly much more DOGE information headed our way. It seems that everyday something new is uncovered. I for one do not want to see my tax money wasted anymore than it already has.

2. Aviation Issues: Although people like former secretary of transportation Pete Buttigieg wants to blame Donald Trump for these incidents, Trump has nothing to do with any of it. In one week, we had an F-35 crash in Alaska, the crash in DC between the airliner and Blackhawk helicopter and then the medi-flight crash in Philadelphia. Just yesterday, we had the Delta connection flight crash in Toronto. First, let me get this out. The crash in Toronto yesterday WAS NOT DELTA AIRLINES. There, I said it. “But Rob, the plane had Delta painted on it.” Yes, it did. But underneath Delta it said “Connection.” It was a partner airline, Endeavor, but it was not Delta. I tell people all the time. If the pilots were not wearing Delta pilot wings and were not on the Delta payroll, no matter what you want to think or say, it was not Delta mainline. Done.

Now to the crashes. I find it humorous how people want to say that there were no crashes while Biden was in office but now that Trump is in office, Helter Skelter, the sky is falling. I do not believe it is his fault any more than I can blame Biden. Looking at the crash in Toronto, to me, as a commercial pilot, I clearly see what happened. Plain as day. I won’t say right now but to my friends and family, I have thrown my hat in the ring for what I think happened and no the FAA (first of all this was in Canada so FAA is not an issue) had nothing to do with this.

As for Philadelphia, I have nothing. No idea. I came down like a bullet on fire after only 30 seconds in the air. I have no idea other than it was something catastrophic; guesses only. It was no simple engine failure for sure. To me, the most puzzling is the DC accident. It was a windy night for sure and the airplane was going to land on runway 01. But with the winds, that would have given them a dicey crosswind landing. The controller offered them runway 33 which gave them almost no crosswind. All things being equal such as runway length, distance to taxi to the gate, etc., many pilots will willingly forego a strong crosswind landing for winds straight down the runway. (We always try to land into the wind; headwind).

When offered runway 33, the pilots basically said, “Heck yeah, my brother. I’ll take it.” I know there has been talk of the helicopter being “way too high,” and that is apparently not true. The final radar track had them at 200 feet, exactly where they should have been. But there is some conflicting data. To me, again as a military and commercial pilot and former flight safety officer in the Air Force, I really have to ask just one question. When you look at the location of the runways in Regan airport, then the river to the east and the prohibited areas further east I have to ask, “Why in the hell would you, as a controller, clear a civilian airliner to switch runways requiring it to descend right in front of an army helicopter that you were also talking to?” Why? At a best-case scenario, even if the helicopter was at exactly 200 feet. It was reported that the accident happened 2,400 feet from the runway. On a normal 3.0 degree glideslope, which is what we try to fly even on visual approaches, for every mile from the runway you should be at 300 feet above the ground. At two miles, 600 feet. 3 miles, 900 feet. 4 miles, 1200 feet and so on. If the crash occurred at 2,400 feet short of the runway (as some reports state), let’s just round that off to 2500. A statute mile is 5,280 feet. This means the accident occurred at just about ½ mile from the runway. On a normal 3.0 degree glideslope, this would put the airliner at approximately 150-200’ above the river. Keep in mind, there can be a little slop involved here but the runway approach lights should keep the pilots on the correct glidepath.

If these numbers are correct, as reported, and the helicopter was “way too high,”(well above 200’) he would have sailed above the airliner. Obviously, this didn’t happened. “Well, Rob, the helicopter said he had the aircraft in sight.” Have you ever flown at night in similar conditions? You have city lights, harbor lights, boats possibly, streets, highways, car lights, trucks, other airplanes, etc. The light pollution is a real thing making it difficult to sometimes even on a clear night. It is very likely what they saw was not the traffic descending right in front of them. Tragic all the way around. Avoidable? Yes. Even if the two did not hit, would any of you consider 100-200’ separation at night safe? I would hope not. To me, again the question comes down to why did the controller offer runway 33 when he knew a helicopter was transiting the corridor at 200 feet and would cross directly in front of the flight path to runway 33? I for one am not wanting the blame to be placed solely on the Army pilots. There is certainly zero blame on the airliner but that clearance by tower is certainly a head shaker. Hopefully, a lot of good will come out of this accident.

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