bronxbomber252

I'm an HC-130J CSO/former HC-130P nav... I have my right side wisdom teeth still and have been flying for 4 years. Never a problem. The Navy dentists at NAS Pensacola kept trying to convince me to get them out, but I kept saying no... Getting my left ones out was miserable.

If I remember correctly, there was a civilian instructor or two who were former military Navs/WSO/NFO/etc... Who had FAA CFI's but don't quote me on that

When I went through CSO IFS in 2011, we did our visual nav routes in the 500-1000AGL range, but it was a segmented altitude based on the highest point on the leg. We navigated off secionals, did all the planning manually, and had to do timing control (arrive at the end point on time) as well. Only navigational tools in the VNAV were chart, instruments, and stopwatch, no GPS. The first week was combined academics with the pilots, second week everyone flew the same profiles (basic takeoff, landings, area work doing stalls and maneuvers, etc...). the third week pilots went on to do more advanced pilot stuff, and CSO's did VNAV. If there were no delays (HA!) CSO's were done at the end of week three, and pilots at the end of week 4. The pilots eventually soloed.

There are even differences within the chronometer category. Mechanical chronometers are certified to +6/-4 seconds per day. Quartz chronometers are certified to +/-10 seconds per year. While mechanical watches can be very accurate, as a rule, even mechanical chronometers are less accurate than quartz ones. My casio pathfinder when out of radio range drifts about +0.5 per day... My chronometer mechanical breitling Transocean Unitime varies from day to day. Many days it only drifts +-0.5 but some days it has drifted as much as 3 seconds.

Geico screwed over my wife a few ways when we were in college, will never consider them again no matter how cheap they are... Also, when we got married, insurance for both of our cars combined, with half the deductible and a much better coverage was half as much for USAA to cover both our cars than it was for geico to just cover hers.

Some units just use desert. Thats what we used.

THIS!

Shack! after more digging the milled trigger guard is the only thing other than the original stock that is missing.

Latest addition to my collection: Springfield Armory M1 Garand, January 1943 production. Arsenal refurbished, definitely has the original barrel and definitely not the original stock (has arsenal proof mark but thats it). Everything else appears, but may or may not be, original. M1 by bronxbomber252, on Flickr

I lived in a house in a subdivision off Dog Track road about 10-15 mins from the back gate, decent rental prices decent neighborhood. We like it.

Not sure if it has been mentioned, but my squadron issues Casio Pathfinders, currently this model (http://www.protrek.casio.com/watches/detail/PAW2000-1), but has issued others in the past. I have flown with a few G-shocks, the cheapo ironman issued at Pcola, and my citizen, for flying the pathfinder is by far my favorite. Hacks off the atomic clock nightly, and holds time extremely well when there is no signal, has every feature you could need (and a few gimmicky ones) is low profile, looks nice, and is lightweight. The only thing I didn't like was the way the band fit me, so I got a Zulu band from Maratac which looks better, is lighter, and is much more comfortable. They make a version of this watch in all stainless with a stainless band too for those who prefer that. I really like the mode that displays Zulu and local on the same screen, very helpful when parts of the crew are doing everything in local time, but planning is in zulu.

Avoiding moody altogether for an entire career would be near impossible for a number of reasons. 1) the 71RQS at moody is significantly bigger than the 79RQS as DM, 2) they like to PCS people between the units, and 3) they are both part of the 23d wing which is headquartered at moody so any wing level job will be at moody. That said, if you were just looking to do your 6 and out, you would have 1 year gone before you showed up at your squadron, and it may be possible to do 1 term at DM then go be an instructor at Kirtland then punch. As for the distribution, more go to Moody than DM (see reason 1 above). All that said, moody is not terrible (especially if married), there are plenty of cool places to go on weekends (anywhere within an 8hr drive can be gone to on a weekend pass, this includes places like Miami, Jacksonville, Atlanta, Panama City, Savannah, etc…) And there are a few nice bars and such in town. However, I think you will see a little more even distribution for a while since DM has fully converted to the J model, Moody is still transitioning, and Moody has proportionally too many navs/CSO's (nav=P model, CSO=J model) in that it is more than 1 nav/cso for every 2 pilots. But that is just my opinion based on my own observations so take that for what it is worth WHat Barney said is pretty accurate except you would go to the J model more than Likely (planning on completely phasing out the P's by sometime in 2015) so you would have a well air-conditioned plane with the new plane smell. As for stuff we do: HAAR (helo air to air refueling), Low level/modified contour, airdrop to include HALO (mostly of equipment, supplies, and/or PJ's) are the bread and butter, but there are some other things we do as well. In general this community does treat Navs/CSO's well so I agree with Barney again there. We deploy to a mix of shitholes and nice locations (and some REALLY nice locations). Pipeline for the J model is just 6 months at Kirtland following Pcola graduation (instead of 6 months each at little rock and kirtland like with the P model). Feel free to ask me whatever either via this thread or PM.

We are flying, but instead of our usual 6-8 5.0's per week we are flying 4 4.0's. (HC-130P's)

They are really flying, but like all rescue assets fly predominately at night. In fact they have a few DM J's deployed right now actually. If their flying hour program is anything like ours they maybe have 1-2 day lines a week and many weeks have none, but fly 1-2 night lines per day.

Nsplayr... since you seem to be editing your post to keep it accurate, I would delete the "long time off" after HC-130J. the guys in the 79RQS at DM are flying strictly the J, and here in the 71RQS at Moody we already have some J's with more on the way, they start flying in October and we will retire our last P NLT 2016.

MC-130J has 1xCSO just like the HC-130J. HC-130P are not going to be dropping anymore except for Guard/Reserve due to AD transitioning to the J model, the 79th at DM is already full J and the 71st at Moody will be full J by 2016.

Nice catch! lol

OK, I'll bite a little... First off, the plural of aircraft is aircraft, not aircrafts. (not trying to be a dick, but for some reason it irked me and since it was a repeaded thing not just a 1x typo I figured I'd let you know) As for roles, it really does vary and you are better off asking about specific aircraft because it would be a PITA to try to list them all out, especially when you will learn all this at Pcola anyway, but I will address your examples plus aircraft I have personal experience with. F-15E (and only the E) has a WSO, his job is weapons and navigation mostly. (maybe a mudhen guy can chime in with better details) AC-130H and AC-130U have 3 CSO's: a Nav, an EWO, and a Fire Control Officer (you start as a nav or EWO and upgrade to FCO)... Navs navigate, EWO's protect the plane, and the FCO manages the weapons, (Again maybe a Spectre or Spooky guy can chime in with details) the AC-130W is a whole separate animal and I am unsure what is involved. now for what I had experience with: The C-130H has a Nav, who runs the radar, does navigation, directs airdrops, directs Airborne Radar Approaches (ARA's) which are approaches where the Nav basically finds the field on radar and directs the pilots in, operates defensive systems, and operates some other systems for things like flying in formation and such on the HC-130P the nav does all that but with a few differences and additions, on the HC-130P the nav directs low level flights via radar predominately (vs. visual on the C-130H), the nav directs rendezvous with the Helo's for helo air to air refueling (by finding the helo's on the radar and guiding pilots in), and we do Self contained approaches (SCA's) instead of ARA's (basically lower mins, and a different flight profile. We also have control over the FLIR (forward looking infrared) pod which has IR and TV cameras which help with searches and other things. Other than that its the same except we just use different tactics tailored to the different mission. On the new HC-130J we are actually called CSO's and the systems change, the plane does more of the navigation stuff, but... the CSO also does comm and operates the refueling panel for refueling the helo's, and such, but I have not flown the J model yet and won't transition to the J until 2015.

A toast

A LGS here has cases of 500rds of MFS 62gr SP .223, (zinc plated steel casing) for $200 ($0.40/rd). (T3 outdoors near Moody AFB)

Florida state law dictates that manslaughter is a lesser included charge to murder 2... It is pretty standard practice in florida. Zimmerman's lawyers should have already known this (and likely did). So, if the lawyer was worth his salt, he would have already been defending based on this possibility (and likely was).

AC's to Herbie tend to be near the top of their class, AC's to Cannon vary widely.

near Moody... not on Moody... Moody doesn't sell gun stuff anyway. I am talking about gun shops in the vicinity of Moody.

Ammo seems to be slim pickings in many calibers here near Moody. But you can find it, prices are still a bit high though.

Honestly, after talking with guys from the squadron that have been around for a while, I hope we just stay in ACC. Things may not be perfect here, I suspect that AFSOC would just screw us, and cannibalize us for airframes, I honestly don't se much positive change potential based on the stores I have heard from those older guys in my squadron.