I have been bitten again by the aviation bug. I signed up for this forum in 2019. I think I have made a couple of posts but really don't remember.

I had my first lesson in 1982 as part of the USAF's flight indoctrination program. After pilot training I flew C-130s, so I can say I have done some back country flying. Next assignment was as a T-38 IP. Then I was a T-1A IP and EP. I had additional C-130 and T-1A tours mixed in with a coupon of staff tours. My Fini flight was in 2004, and I retired from the USAF in 2007.

We aren't supposed to say this, but when I didn't get a fighter out of pilot training (just missed) I lost a lot of enthusiasm for flying. It's not that I didn't work hard and do well in C-130s, but flying has become a job, not a passion. When I got to fly T-38s my next tour the passion somewhat returned. It waned again in my subsequent T-1A and C-130 tours.

I got interested in flying again in 2019. Through COVID and whatnot I was on again, off again with flying. I did get the fly a Navajo and a 182 as part of a 135 Operation for a bit. I flew a bit for CAP, then stopped all together in late 2023.

2024 was all about my Cape Buffalo hunt in Africa. I spent a lot of time working on the rifle and my shooting skills. So much so that I inadvertently let my CFII expire. I had it in my head that I had until Oct, but I expired Aug 31. That was just prior to the cutoff date for the new rules.

Almost inexplicably, I started to get the flying bug again this past summer. I looked at all my options and found myself in the Spokane CAP squadron. In the last 3 months I have logged about 25 hours in a C-182T, and I am bitten HARD again. I am as enthused about flying again as I was when I started pilot training.

I am working to get IFR recurrent and renew my CFI. I have even built a sim at home with Honeycomb controls and G-1000 panels.

I think this forum is where I should be. Along with being a pilot, a hunter, a fly-fisherman, and 1000 yd BR competitor; I am the Dir of Ops for Unknown Munitions in Post Falls, ID. Our main thing is building custom hunting rifles, selling shooting/hunting/reloading components, making suppressors, making custom ammo, and doing load developments.

I am enthused about starting my second 20yr aviation career, and I think this forum aligns well with where I am now.

Welcome back fellow AF dude! Life throws hurdles at all of us and glad to hear you are back into flying after the 'bug' hit you!!
I got into flying mainly to help my hunting passion. Well, that and got bit when I was about 8 and a friend of my dad (were were poor dairy farmers) gave me a ride in a SC on floats. Even at that young age, I told myself that one day I would fly a floatplane.

Never was fortunate enough to fly in the AF, but I was an AF Security Police Marksmanship team member. So shooting and hunting, along with the dream of flight follow you but in reverse. Hunted in many places of the world, including Africa, but didn't hunt Cape Buffalo, but maybe someday.

What model Herc 130 did you fly? Lost a B-I-L on an AC-130H gunship, Sipirit '03. Always loved that bad ass beast. I was stationed at Hurlburt where he was also stationed.

I only ever got to fly E models. I had hoped to get the fly Hs for my second tour, but they had swapped Yokota out to all Es when I got there in 1998.

I actually learned how to fly defensive "BFM" in a C-130. They had a special school for the in the mid 1980s.

When I was at Yokota I became frienda with the Security forces commander. I would up getting to shoot an EIC match and then I even got an M-16 qual, which was hard for a pilot to get back then.