ISU President Personal Use of Plane

Pull early, pull often! :D

Cirrus should equip those things with autothrottle so the pilot can keep a grip on the red handle through all phases of flight.
 
One weekend in the last year or so, I was down at St. Simons Island, Ga. I went to the plane to get something and greeting by a ramp that was covered with university jets...SEC jets.

I asked the lady at the FBO, "WTF?" and was told that the SEC conference championship golf tournament is held on St. Simons.

"Cool, this weekend?"

"No, in a couple of weeks."

"Sooooooooooooo...why all the planes this weekend?"

"The pre-tournament banquet for the coaches and administrators." (Or some B.S. like that)

WTF?
 
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Let's get this sorted out.
Wasn't supposed to fly the plane
Wasn't supposed to use it for personal gain
Not allowed to be pic, school has three pilots for that
Lands like a wanker and both wings are damaged, plus a runway light or two.
Did not schedule any of his flights with the school
The school had to send a plane down to get him and his wife
Used school funds to fix said plane
Used some personal money, or his pay that is school Mooney to fix/pay additional costs
Has his contract extended.

From the story it sounds like he was routinely stealing the plane for personal use. Now he is in Hillary mode.
 
timwinters said:
One weekend in the last year or so, I was down at St. Simons Island, Ga. I went to the plane to get something and greeting by a ramp that was covered with university jets...SEC jets.

I asked the lady at the FBO, "WTF?" and was told that the SEC conference championship golf tournament is held on St. Simons.

"Cool, this weekend?"

"No, in a couple of weeks."

"Sooooooooooooo...why all the planes this weekend?"

"The pre-tournament banquet for the coaches and administrators." (Or some B.S. like that)

WTF?
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Don't worry, it's all about providing those kids with a world class education. Academics comes first.:rolleyes:
 
Acrodustertoo said:
Let's get this sorted out.
Wasn't supposed to fly the plane
Wasn't supposed to use it for personal gain
Not allowed to be pic, school has three pilots for that
Lands like a wanker and both wings are damaged, plus a runway light or two.
Did not schedule any of his flights with the school
The school had to send a plane down to get him and his wife
Used school funds to fix said plane
Used some personal money, or his pay that is school Mooney to fix/pay additional costs
Has his contract extended.

From the story it sounds like he was routinely stealing the plane for personal use. Now he is in Hillary mode.
Click to expand...

Having had some experience trying to run a business on a large State-run University, let me say there is NOTHING so much like a God on Earth than a major Department Head/Big-time coach, and the University Prez is the God of the Gods. Everyone wants his favor, for more money, for the big promotion, for the bigger budget. Falling out of favor usually means unemployment.

Everyone likely knew quite clearly what was going on, but no one DARED to say anything contrary about it, for the above reasons. After all, it isn't THEIR money they are playing with, just the taxpayers. And if they need more, they just cry to a couple of TV Stations about "Edumacation", and the legislators don't dare to say no.
 
getting mad at the symptom doesn't solve the problem. I've come to understand that hating the game and not the player is a much useful approach to one's umbrage.

As such, remove the govt's guarantee of student loans. Literally watch the ed market correct overnight. Yes,painful for the ed industry, but beats the alternative of generations of people with useless degrees and a lifetime of debt for what today is essentially a de facto high school diploma.
 
hindsight2020 said:
getting mad at the symptom doesn't solve the problem. I've come to understand that hating the game and not the player is a much useful approach to one's umbrage.

As such, remove the govt's guarantee of student loans. Literally watch the ed market correct overnight. Yes,painful for the ed industry, but beats the alternative of generations of people with useless degrees and a lifetime of debt for what today is essentially a de facto high school diploma.
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As a faculty member of a college I have this to say. Our grade/middle/high schools are failing us miserably. My students cannot even perform simple math, writing, comprehension, grammar to what i would classify as middle school level. I am absolutely appalled at their knowledge of major historical events and basic geography. Most cannot tell me how many oceans or continents ore on this planet. Most cannot tell where a country is on a map. It is sickening. I now have to teach them SOFT SKILLS! soft skills are basic things like shaking someones hand, look them in the eye, show up on time and leave on time, put your phone away, use words that aren't four letters. It is rather unthinkable to me that these adults are this unprepared for life. I think you are correct in saying that college is a defacto high school degree. The last i saw, something like 70+% of high school graduates could not pass a GED exam.
 
Acrodustertoo said:
As a faculty member of a college I have this to say. Our grade/middle/high schools are failing us miserably. My students cannot even perform simple math, writing, comprehension, grammar to what i would classify as middle school level. I am absolutely appalled at their knowledge of major historical events and basic geography. Most cannot tell me how many oceans or continents ore on this planet. Most cannot tell where a country is on a map. It is sickening. I now have to teach them SOFT SKILLS! soft skills are basic things like shaking someones hand, look them in the eye, show up on time and leave on time, put your phone away, use words that aren't four letters. It is rather unthinkable to me that these adults are this unprepared for life. I think you are correct in saying that college is a defacto high school degree. The last i saw, something like 70+% of high school graduates could not pass a GED exam.
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IMO, I don't think the universities are doing much better. What use is a BA these days? As you say, it is the equivalent of a high school education of not too many years ago. Even an MBA is useless if the student was simply passed along to the next level sans the knowledge required to obtain said degree. A major in golf or other sports is not going to help you in the business world. Too much emphasis on the wrong things. Some professors are more interested in indoctrinating student into their preferred political philosophy than giving them an education. My high school diploma is worth far more than a BA is today. Part of the problem is that HR people have been instructed to accept nothing less than a four year degree that is basically useless. Many of those students would have fared better had they gone to a trade school or taken an apprenticeship.

Almost forgot. Don't stop learning just because you have the sheepskin. Education should be continuing thought life.

Off my soapbox. :mad2:
 
Acrodustertoo said:
From the story it sounds like he was routinely stealing the plane for personal use. Now he is in Hillary mode.
Click to expand...

When it comes to our public universities we are all about back door deals here in Iowa. Just Google U of Iowa President search scandal and I am sure you will come up with some good stuff. Basically the President of the board of regents picked some former CEO who never really worked in an education environment for the job before the interviews ever started. This is the same board President that gave the 'okay' for the use of the ISU plane for personal use as well as purchasing farmland from ISU at below market rate.

Oh and they are all republicans and he was chosen by Brandstad who has a old by him.
 
timwinters said:
One weekend in the last year or so, I was down at St. Simons Island, Ga. I went to the plane to get something and greeting by a ramp that was covered with university jets...SEC jets.

I asked the lady at the FBO, "WTF?" and was told that the SEC conference championship golf tournament is held on St. Simons.

"Cool, this weekend?"

"No, in a couple of weeks."

"Sooooooooooooo...why all the planes this weekend?"

"The pre-tournament banquet for the coaches and administrators." (Or some B.S. like that)

WTF?
Click to expand...
Side note, how's the St. Simons Airport? I want to land there soon since it's close by.
 
Cykoguy said:
When it comes to our public universities we are all about back door deals here in Iowa. Just Google U of Iowa President search scandal and I am sure you will come up with some good stuff. Basically the President of the board of regents picked some former CEO who never really worked in an education environment for the job before the interviews ever started. This is the same board President that gave the 'okay' for the use of the ISU plane for personal use as well as purchasing farmland from ISU at below market rate.

Oh and they are all republicans and he was chosen by Brandstad who has a old by him.
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Can we stop with the partisan comments?
 
Cykoguy said:
Funny because I am a republican. I am fine with stopping if you make this a hard rule and enforce it but from what I have seen that is not done on here.
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It is a rule, and we have enforced it. It's posted on the header to Hangar Talk. Granted, someone posted this thread in Flight Following but the same rule applies.

Hangar Talk
Open forum for discussion of any topic you like, aviation related or otherwise.

Virtually all topics in this forum are permitted - so long as they are discussed in a civil manner.

NOTE: Politics and religion and any other topic likely to become highly charged are not allowed, and threads may be deleted or closed if they start or trend, respectively, towards "spin" topics.
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Everskyward said:
It is a rule, and we have enforced it. It's posted on the header to Hangar Talk. Granted, someone posted this thread in Flight Following but the same rule applies.
Click to expand...

Fine with me. I will be more than happy to report posts with political content from now on.
 
Matthew K said:
Side note, how's the St. Simons Airport? I want to land there soon since it's close by.
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It's a great little airport. Been in there probably a 1/2 dozen times in the last year or so.

Two things to keep in mind:

They close down 16/34 on busy weekends and use it for parking (like when the SEC or Wildcatters (oil men) are in town).

Keep an "open ear" for the idiot jet jocks on who will announce the airport as "Brunswick" instead of the proper "McKinnon/St Simons" on those same busy weekends.

These guys are apparently smart enough to get a type rating but aren't smart enough to read the legend of their IFR Low chart and see than names in ALL CAPITALS are names of towns. Names in Upper Case/Lower Case are names of airports.

It wouldn't be so bad if there wasn't a Brunswick Airport just a few miles to the NNE but there is and it can cause confusion.
 
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