Gazmo

B45's been around for what? Over a decade now? It's not "new" to the KC-135 at all. Obviously we've got a lot more B45 tails now, which could be helping to rear the ugly head of some software issue that has always been there, which surfaces during very specific conditions.

No. Nothing that had anything to do with the autopilot so why all of a sudden now? There could very well be an issue with our hardware, but VVM and the understanding of the way the systems work should definitely be an SII.

1,000 days? And we can't get days for continuation sim training...

I have never had an issue with B45, however, I can say that in typical AMC fasion, its implementation, training and SOP's have been pretty terrible. There is a very good chance these issues are crew error due to aforementioned reasons.

Yes, when I looked into a Cat-E job, the CC told me to come as an O-5 already.

So IMA's are not subject to any sort of mobilization? I thought that was the whole point.

Have you heard of them funding more AT or MPA days for IMA's?

+1 for the IMA route if you don't mind hanging up the military flying. ARC is getting more and more like AD, at least in the tanker world. I thought there was a light at the end of the tunnel pre-COVID with the talks of pulling out of Afghanistan, but due to COVID, there were no swapouts out of CENTCOM this year, so everyone did 60's. Guess what. Next year, PACOM is 60 days with no swaps. Show them (AMC) you can do it once and it's hard to go back. I remember when PACOM was a "business effort" with 15-day rotations. Now it's 60-days with staff. The stuff's getting old. I am going into my 19th year and have already been promoted to O-5. If I could find an IMA job to sit in for the next 3-4 years, I'd jump on it in a heart beat. Remember; there are different IMA's (A & B; and I believe there is a C, but I could be wrong). A's give you 48 IDT and 14 AT; B's are 24 IDT and 24 AT. Both will allow you to use TRS for healthcare.

Attend your Cockpit Working Group (CWG) and bitch about what you need in your airplane.

Went to FL on vacation a few weeks ago and we traveled to on a Wednesday. Overhearing conversation around us, there were quite a few people sitting near us on business trips. Definitely not an official sign that business travel is coming back, but there are definitely people traveling for work. I'd imagine some business travel may never come back, but I really don't think the technology we have is reliable enough to replace the majority of business travel and will definitely not replace the importance of human interaction/collaboration during business meets.

Let us not forget our PACOM footprint and last, but not least, our no-fail nuke mission.

There is also some evidence out there that recent MMR and Tdap vaccines provide some protection against COVID. Google it.

Yep... did that on the 190 at AA the whole time I was on that jet. I miss that thing. My record was 23 days with being called. Been out for a while on mil leave, but we shall see if I have the same luck on the 320.

Probably (and arguably) the highest hourly rate of 99% of other careers fields on the planet (when it comes to income per actual WORK performed)... I think.

Pretty much this.... and although the -135 community does have a weapons school, the rest of the afformentioned reasons still apply.

Yes... this circus act is what lead to tankers having to add MB52Y to our list of training events when we already had MB50 (or the old M050 for those that knew that). I remember being at the RTRB years ago when they talked about MG and how multiple aircraft got "shot down" by SAM's thus driving the need for MB52Y. I raised my hands and asked if any tankers were shot down during the exercise and got the deer in the head lights look like, "We have tankers in AMC?".

Not sure who is telling you that. 8 times out of 10, the pilots and FA's at AAL stay at different hotels. We have different hotel contracts. Can't speak for SWA.

Shack. I can't begin to tell you how beautiful it is to be less than 40 minutes from both my base and my guard unit. I bid reserve on purpose; sometimes long/most of the time short. There are days I get 3-4 hrs notice. Sometimes (rarely) it's a 4-day trip. A lot of times it's a 2-day or a day turn and I am back in my bed that night. I've gotten the call while I was mowing the lawn or working on the car and I was able to wrap things up and take a shower and pack and get out the door with time to spare. If you have the opportunity to live near a very junior base you can move up in the ranks on reserve pretty fast because a lot of Pilots are looking to get the hell out of there and move somewhere else so they don't have to commute more. I've flown with Captains that run off the airplane and asked me to shut her down because they're trying to make it to the next terminal so they can get home that night. Some have to stay in a hotel that night because they had no way to get back home and they're flying home on their off days. I couldn't imagine living that way.

Yeah my thought was that I'd try the no-PME route the first round and then get my $hit together for the second one if I got passed over. Then again, I was pretty OK with retiring as an O-4 at the time. Of course this mentality was all pre-COVID so I'm glad things worked out. I was all about pushing the button right at 20, but thinking about sticking it out another 2-3 years to get more seniority under my belt to weather the next crisis. Chida, how many years of service did you use for your calculations above? I'm not one who thinks PME should be a determining factor for a PV, but most states require it. I have witnessed a lot of non-flyers get promoted multiple times in min time because they did PME, but were pretty darn average everywhere else. There's one particular person in my unit whom I always use as my example who I knew as an O-1 when I was an O-3 and promoted to O-5 over a year before me. Why? This person did PME and PV'd to O-4 and O-5 in min time. I would love to get paid as an O-5 and wear O-4 rank.... forever.

ANG tankers. I have definitely seen a few get passed over for O-5 on ROPMA boards in the past 5 years or so. All of them were DSG types with no PME and weak OPR's.

I suppose if you are chasing every last dollar and you know your unit will give you a DP on a PV, it may be worth it. I can tell you that if you are an AC (heavy world) with weak OPRs, you may get passed over. If you are an IP/EP with some significant bullets/strats in your OPRs, you should be fine. I was a shop chief, was involved with many Sq functions/additonal duties and was a deployed DO during my time as an O-4 and of course that was all on my previous OPR's leading up to my O-5 ROPMA board. Like anything else, what is your time worth to you? Do you have the time to do PME? It's not the old program it used to be and requires some significant time, which just can't be knocked out all in one deployment like before. Are you an airline guy on 2-3rd year pay? You can make more cash at your company picking up extra trips vs. Getting promoted 3 years early any day of the week.

Late to the convo here but...most states require it for a PV, but if you have strong OPR's and competitive qualifications, you shouldn't need ACSC. I recently promoted ROPMA without it. I did the math a while back and it wasn't worth it for me knowing that I probably wouldn't have an issue getting promoted without it. I was an ART for many years as a pretty busy shop chief and then left the fulltime world for the airlines. I wasn't willing to make time for PME. My unit was also notorious for not PV'ing people anyway (unless you one of the "chosen ones"). I had showed my airline card several years before I finally actually got hired so I wasn't going to bite off on that carrot.

Going to a regional basically allows a legacy carrier to verify you can make it through a 121 training program and get through OE.

Riiiiiight.... and how will they recruit this 50%?

I followed your original divorce saga with empathy. Life works in mysterious ways. Sometimes for worse or if you can wait long enough without making a more dumber mistake, sometimes for better. Glad it worked out for you. There are many, many men out there who've gone through or are going through the same thing who may never be as fortunate. It is nice that both of you had similar experiences as it will enable you to appreciate the normalcy you never had with your ex. +1 for crazy nurses.