Homestar

Having just started a fleet-wide cockpit upgrade, the timing seems perfect to shut ‘er down 😂. It’s the Air Force way. Seriously though, it would take years to divest and/or retire the T-1 fleet. I feel comfortable believing I’ll retire flying the T-1. Heaven knows I ain’t going to T-6 PIT I never flew the T-6 but it’s cockpit looks pretty bare. Could you replace the T-1 nav phase with a T-6 and still get NDB, GPS, VOR, TAC and ILS approaches? I get a kick out of hearing IPs flip out over cutting stuff from the syllabus then in the same breath recommend cutting the T-1 phase entirely for some extra T-6 instrument rides.

I agree. But I’ll also say that T-1 classes are syllabus complete before assignment nights these days. But the AF is fixed on the current grad model for now.

Instrument approach practice. Stan isn't very good at it, regardless of what he thinks.

No kidding. Why would anyone do that if they weren't in on the plan in the end. Hopefully the FBI got a hold of all of them. If I were in charge I'd send every single one of the Saudi students home from all UPT bases.

Stable global oil market? They can get bent for all I care at this point.

AETC is holding a realistic training review board this summer. Hopefully there is some crosstalk there.

It's surprising to me that after a 25+ year career she didn't understand the potential issues with charging her hotel to a cadet's GTC....a cadet making 10% of what she makes per month, and who is subordinate to her command. Previous comment nailed it: these kind of travel anomalies exist everywhere, it's when you've pissed off too many people that the IG complaint lever is pulled and it all comes tumbling down.

Nothing wrong with attempting innovation in the UPT enterprise. We can’t stop calling for QOL and compensation improvements tho.

Pilots killed identified https://www.vance.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/2024813/two-air-force-t-38-talons-mishap-news-release-003/

Doesn’t sound good. https://mobile.twitter.com/71FTW/status/1197568977322549248

I feel like I should get college credit for reading this. Geez.

My biggest complaint with the ACTF is the auto-reponse of "we can't compete with the airlines" when you mention pay. Nobody is asking that you compete with the airlines. Just pay more than what you are. Military members are generally hesitant, I believe, to say that pay is a causal factor in leaving because they don't want to appear un-patriotic. You join out of Pride, you stay because of Quality of Life/Job Satisfaction, and Compensation. You cannot disregard the Compensation aspect. The Air Force continues to cop out when they say that they simply can't compete with the airlines. I don't mind the initiatives to produce our way out of the aircrew crisis. But compensation has to continue to be on the table or people will continue to walk.

The AF needs to produce 1,400 pilots/year and retain 65% until 2034 to emerge from the aircrew crisis. That according to the ACTF Maj Gen Mack. UPT fell short of that by like 200 pilots this year. Probably going to underproduce next year as well. It does seem that in a way the Air Force is really just waiting for an economic downturn. Nobody wishes for another 9/11, but another shock like that would fix the aircrew crisis over night. Also, according to the ACTF, the AF is overmanned on FGOs and undermanned on CGOs. You may not see it that way in your neck of the woods, but those are the numbers.

I don't understand the excitement over the Air Force having Enlisted do Officer jobs for Enlisted pay. You'd think the Enlisted Union would be up in arms about the lack of pay and incentives given to Enlisted aircrew vis a vis Officer aircrew. Nobody doubts the competency of Enlisted aircrew. But it certainly seems ironic that we bash the Air Force for not providing pilot pay commensurate with the civilian economy but we're celebrating the fact that the Air Force can get away with paying an E-4 half of what they would pay an O-4 to do the same job. This is the argument that goes through my head every time someone shouts "bring back Warrants!" We should demand that the Air Force pay incentives and bonuses something near the market wage for a particular skill. (edit to add: I'm not opposed to the enlisted RPA program)

I really wish more had been done for Afghan interpreters. They risked life and limb.