Greatest threat since Janet El Reno and her illegal activities funneling Federal dollars to influence local elections and pushing for more gun control in the wake of Waco and Ruby Ridge and Columbine.

This actually represents an existential threat to the 2nd amendment, personal privacy and our history as a free people. 

With the stroke of a pen Obama not only empowered but DIRECTED health care practitioners to violate the HIPAA privacy requirements.  Now, a practitioners belief about your state of mind can be used, pre-emptively and without appeal, to strip you of a natural right recognized in the founding documents of this nation.

It should be terrifying to anyone with a brain, especially in light of the drive over the past 12 or 15 years to criminalize right of center political beliefs and speech.

'If you like your policy, you can keep your policy' until we couldn't, then he said he never said what he said.

When you find yourself on the same side of an issue as Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, Mao (all utilized 'safety' as an argument to first control then confiscate personal weapons), you might think about checking the premise.

'Gimp

Why would you say this? Just because we now have this new wild west, no rules forum, doesn't mean we should all just blurt out whatever comes to mind at that moment without thought. It would be awesome if this place were to become a place for actual debate and discussion and not just a place for conservatives to vent their pent up frustrations and congratulate each other on insults well done.

On the other hand, with no rules or governance, this place will likely end up mob rule and if that is to be the case, it will stagnate and die.

An alternate point of view would be that an uncensored forum allows for a fuller and more open flow of unfiltered belief and opinion.  The drive to censor, and filter and water down is, in my opinion, a substantial contributor to the mess we find ourselves in today.

We need a return to true freedom of thought and expression, the freedom to call a spade a spade, and especially the freedom to disagree and discuss.  Good is good, evil is evil.  There are causes, there are results.  We observe, we calculate, we categorize and then we determine what these things, what any thing means 'to' us, and 'for' us, and for our country or our friends and families. 

Some of us feel very strongly about our beliefs, about the threats we perceive to our way of life or to our families and friends.  This naturally leads to occasionally high emotions, and that frankly is good in my opinion because the unfiltered beliefs are more authentic, more real - and the result can be real, unfiltered and unfettered communication which might lead to change.

At least that is how I see it.

'Gimp

Welcome to 'the know'.

Some of us have been pointing this out for years but the PC crowd and apologists usually come out in force and 'but this, and 'but that' you into submission.

It is a misogynist death cult, stuck in the 7th century and hellbent on world domination, in my opinion.  Unlike Christianity and Judaism, there has been no equivalent reformation and precious little advancement in the underlying 'theocracy' such as it is.  ISIS, Al Qaeda, The Taliban and the Shiites in Iran are still fighting the Crusades, only the weapons have changed.

I know that some people can find good in it as with almost any religion or cult, and good for them if they do, but at its base I believe it is fundamentally incompatible with Western culture in general and a republican form of government in particular, given concepts like Taqiyya, Kitman, Jizya and Jihad and the continued justification of slavery, rape and death to homosexuals.

'Gimp

I have not actively participated at POA since I bailed in October or whenever but stopped by yesterday and noticed what I think is new language on anonymous postings for the medical and regulation sections - basically only 'allowed' if posting/asking about yourself/on your own behalf.  I don't recall that being there before and am too lazy to check the internet wayback machine (IWBM might be able to get to old Spin Zone posts by the way but not sure). 

Give a fascist an inch.....   

'Gimp

I made an immediate 180 and joined downwind for 27R (the runway I had just taken off from) because it smoothed out and was responding more or less normally at moderate power settings.  Tower cleared me for a short approach and I basically just brought it in from a low pattern.  The Yak actually only requires 1000-1500 feet on the ground to get down and stopped so I had options from the initial roughness to right base.

Had it continued to run rough or quit altogether I suspect I would have called for 17 or even 09L - in hindsight I allowed my comfort of the fact that it smoothed out to push me for a regular pattern with short approach - OK because it did clear up and run fine after the big backfire but on review I should have probably committed to 17 or 09L since I had no guarantee at that point that it would continue running.

It all worked out in the end but with the benefit of hindsight I see that I could have done better and that is why I am sharing.

'Gimp

So I alluded to this in my rec ride thread.  I had an engine driven fuel pump failure recently, was very scary and could have been a literal disaster. Fortunately for me it was just after takeoff and was able to produce enough fuel flow for partial power operation for an immediate RTB.

I have had some time to go over the internal and external GoPro video and I think there is a real learning opportunity to review what I did right and what I could have done better that would be of help to everyone so I plan to put it all together with my self-critique notes and maybe share it as a private video.
 
I had a loss of power/backfire event while climbing out and made an immediate RTB.  We had departed as an element #1 and #2, I was solo as #3 with SNAP as #4 on a delayed roll in his -50.  Normal spool-up and takeoff, gear retracted fine and as I pulled the prop back to 82% passing 500 AGL I got a significant roughness that went into violent backfires/substantial loss of power when I advanced the throttle to try and clear it - I departed the formation, informed Tower I was making an immediate return, and recovered uneventfully.

I did not declare an emergency, I requested an immediate return, Tower asked if I needed assistance and I said no, they cleared for me short approach and landing and that's what I did.  Since the plane was under power I was able to taxi back to the YakCave so I have not had nor do I anticipate any follow-up from the airport or FAA - if I had made it back to runway but engine stopped/unable to clear runway I know this would have been different.
 
I was initially convinced that the actual issue was a good slug of water due to the left wing tank sitting empty for a week during the recent cold snap as a result of the fuel leak I fixed previously.  When it was filled from the truck on Sunday afternoon it took over 15 gallons on the Left meaning it was close to empty and had sat that way for a week during the temperature swings we have had. 
 
After I recovered to the hangar, it was making plenty of power on the ground with no roughness or perceived imbalance when I did some high power runups with no sign of stumbles or misbehavior (~85% RPM and 7 potatoes) and no unusual smoke or other external evidence.

That it occurred on the reduction in prop speed on takeoff was most likely coincidental IMO.  Only after I pulled the cowlings did I notice a fuel leak from the pump housing that indicated a failure of the internal diaphragm.
 
In thinking back, this was without a doubt the most challenging and threatening issue/malfunction I have had in 29 years of flying.  We all like to think we will do it all right when the defecation hits the oscillation and while I did OK it was mostly reaction and in hindsight should have been a bit more deliberate.  I did the whole aviate, navigate, communicate thing just fine, if I had been solo, but in formation and in a busy pattern it is a bit more complex and could have been, I think, done better.
 
One key takeaway is that practicing engine failures and the impossible turn did help a lot in that I made an immediate RTB decision.  They say recognition/acknowledgement of an engine failure could take 5 seconds and that is how I have trained engine fail/impossible turn scenarios which I have done in all of the types I fly regularly, including the Yak. 
 
I immediately leveled off at the first roughness (38 seconds after brake release), advanced the throttle to see if it would clear (made it worse actually) and made the RTB decision and initial turn when I got a series of large backfires - this was almost exactly 5 seconds after the initial roughness.  I checked right to see if John was in position (he had called airborne about 2 seconds before the initial roughness and was well behind, no conflict) and seeing the path was clear I started a turn. 
 
Had this been an element takeoff, I believe I would have pulled up and over if #4 were in position but can’t say for sure.  I made my initial call to Tower as I started the turn/depart from formation but it was blocked – had it been an element takeoff I would like to think I would have made a call first to alert #4 but it was, in hindsight, pure reaction to depart the formation and RTB.  Fortunately we were on Tower so I did not have the issue of tuning the radio to add to the rest of the situation.
 
I made a 45 deg bank turn (recommended in the POH) at about 500 AGL and just after passing west of Cuyamaca street - had the engine quit at any point during the turn I would have made it back to the airport grounds, barely – I did not climb much, and stayed close to best glide speed (190 KPH) using only enough power to stay airborne (this was not in my recollection a deliberate decision, I think I only actually looked at airspeed on the initial level off, and just before I went to set gear down – it was mostly head-out)– engine did not cough after the initial backfires and responded normally to power changes in the pattern, landing and taxi at obviously reduced power levels.  Altitude should have been higher and in hindsight the engine was producing power, I should have climbed up to TPA or higher just in case.
 
Bailing out never crossed my mind due to altitude and the thought of the plane landing wherever it decided to go after I left, nor did landing on 17 which would have been, in hindsight, the better option.  If the engine had quit or continued to stumble I would like to think I would have thought of 17 but am not sure I can say that definitively.  Although I did get the gear and flaps, I did not make my customary callouts and video shows I did not check the gear indicator pins like normal.  I did consider Highway 52 as an alternate since I was too far north for a safe return to 27 for a bit (at that point 17 would have been obvious since I would have turned into the airport immediately and would be looking right at it).  Both 27’s were in use at the time, could have been nasty but I don’t recall Tower clearing any departures for 27L while I was on downwind or final.
 
A last point here is that again, in hindsight, I should have made a check flight following the fuel leak fix since this issue would likely have shown up when I was NOT in a formation departing the field (less risk to others).
 
I sumped the fuel system once back on the ground just in case but found no water or particulate contamination but am still changing my SOP from filling the tanks prior to flight to filling the tanks after flight if below about 45L per side to minimize the chance of a water in the fuel.   The Yak fuel system is considered relatively impervious to fuel in water (we don't normally sump prior to flight) and even though water was not the cause for this issue it is much more on my mind than before.
 
Shared in an attempt to provide a review of events while still fresh in my head – hope it is useful.

'Gimp

The ends (orgasmic totalitarian fascism) justify the means (fraud and collusion) for true believers, even if it results in wholesale destruction of trust in science and untold costs in real dollars as well as jobs and quality of life.

'Gimp