Haven't logged in here in a while. Nice to read some common sense viewpoints. While I think there is plenty of blame to go around I tend to lean to the right and as such I'm biased to support facts that support my agenda.

That said... everything I've heard from the Border Patrol has said that they need more walls as well as other things. This includes personal testimony from my Helicopter flying buddies that work at the BP.

Here is one such narrative stolen from a friend's Facebook post - he wished to stay anonymous...

Lots of opinions will be gathered from either side of the political party. As someone with now 5 years experience on the border, I am here to tell you walls/barriers work, and more importantly keep family units from the harsh environments they can encounter once they are in the United States. These barriers and walls are actually all over already and they work. So what if the wall or barriers don’t stop them, keeping in mind they are being smuggled by cartel orizations, who will leave them as soon as they are too weak to continue!

Let me give you one of my experiences.

Three years ago I responded to a 911 call of an alien in distress. The 19 year old son and father were abandoned in the Texas heat during the summer. Since the son did not know where he was in the vast Texas landscape, all I had to go off was cell phone towers, 3 in fact, in about a 40 mile radius. After 7 hours of flight time, we finally found the son, who for the 3rd time, ran 1.5 miles to huge power line poles, from where his father was located. I landed in a tight landing zone, dropped off 2 BORSTAR agents (google them) who put two bags of fluid into the father, who was having extreme heat stroke, along with assessing the son. I made the call to fly him to an airport near by because I knew local ems helicopters, by policy, wouldn’t be able to land. As we loaded the father into my helicopter his bowels released and went all over us and the aircraft. I made the decision to continue to fly him to the awaiting EMS. Below is the photo after I landed. The father ended up passing away. A barrier can funnel these unknowing illegal migrants into the safety of the border patrol. Most asylum cases allow them to stay. Politics aside illegal immigration is extremely dangerous. This is just 1 story of thousands each year, over 4300 Rescues in 2018 by CBP.

Since I've started flying at the Airlines I've been spending more time online at https://forums.jetcareers.com/ than I have at POA. Jeebus Christmas though I couldn't even think about posting what I just posted here over there. If'n ya'll want to waste a bunch of time arguing with the left leaners there is more than I can deal with LOL.

Anyhow, as stated here - the fact the Dims won't fund a wall tells me they are not serious about people's safety at all - as well as all the other salient points made here.

Hahaha, ok one more time I guess I need to be more direct.

If everyone in the USA somehow magically moved all of their money out of 'banks' and put their money in 'credit unions' would it have any effect at all ?

My guess is no, I am no financial expert by any means however...

I can't play the vid.  What is she saying?  I am sure it is VERY intelligent, logical, and without mindless emotion.   

Basically she took her money out of the bank and put it into a credit union to spite Big Oil - because of the North Dakota pipeline thing - she thinks that will make a difference.

Now I'm no financial expert I think that she is pretty ignorant in believing that - among other things...

Of course.  And the media joyfully joins in with the talking points.

However, a lot of Americans are tiring of the charades and seeing through this.

I think you are giving "a lot of Americans" too much credit, unfortunately.

Can the night cross country be done under the hood in "VFR conditions" and still count ?

Is it still in the PTS?

3. Explains and uses an entry procedure that ensures the
aircraft remains within the holding pattern airspace for a
standard, nonstandard, published, or nonpublished holding
pattern.

If so, then the FAA does indeed care.

btw - the last I looked at TERPS (admittedly it's been a while), the people creating and checking procedures care about protecting airspace as a function of how the hold is depicted.  It tends to be more important for the fast movers.

So as stated, how you enter doesn't matter, only that you stay in the protected area.

The actual protected area is even almost as large on the non-holding side as it is on the holding side.

Just wonder why so many people get bent around the axle about being able to determine if you should do a parallel or teardrop, when the technical answer is only a matter of degrees and the non technical answer is who cares.

While hopping helicopter rides at Mount Rushmore this past year, I was climbing out of the Keystone helipad which is roughly 2 miles to NE and 4500' up to 5800' which is eye level with the monument.

I had a 210 call on freq (123.3) that he was 5800 and one mile north of the monument.... hmmmm.... that is exactly where I am.... caught a glimpse of him through the upper left corner of the windscreen and immediately dove down and right. So yea, he basically almost descended into me from behind(best guess 20' away from my rotor disc) and that was the first call he made.

So if you are cruising through the area, just give a shout out on 123.3. Plenty of room in the "pattern" for ya'll starch wingers to fit in.

However, the tour operator does actually have special permission, many man hours spent with FAA, US Dept of Forestry and what not and whatever the boss had to do, every year to break the "2000" foot rule. At the end of the day we probably get 30 phone calls a year complaining about us overflying someone's house when it was a starch winger. This makes life tough on the boss, especially when it comes time to renew his agreement with the forest service and what not. I'm sure you business owners out there can appreciate what I'm saying.

I was going to make up a Google map of our routes but I'm just too dang lazy. I flew at 5800 - 6200 but our lead pilot, she would, heh, fly as high as 7500  in front of the Rushmore monument. Basically our routes go around Rushmore, from Rushmore up to Harney Peak, and over to Crazy Horse and back. Also a heli base located a mile south of Crazy Horse. The people on the North Side of Harney Peak ridge (near Custer) complain even more. We fly around 7500 at Crazy Horse (some fly higher.... )

I thought I was clear but I meant purely from what maneuvers you have to do. I realize everyone wants to make a big deal out of an initial FI.