Bergman
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Posts posted by Bergman
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Well, I wasn't going to go if it was JUST the P-51s....but now I'm going for sure!!Originally posted by Hacker:I'll be there.
:D
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Aren't they the NY unit that is getting UAVs? :D
The bastards took our Block 30 F-16s two years ago! Yes, I know it was NGB that made the decision. But I still give "The Boys" grief about it. At least we have our -135Es now...*cough*
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You will usually have the 3-4 day weekend off. What happened quite a few times (at Laughlin) was that we ended up flying on Saturday of the 3-day only to have Monday off. It's all dependant on the timeline...if you've had good WX and everyone is ahead of schedule, then you're golden. If it's the base is behind, you're flying Saturday!
Leave during those weekends will be on a case-by-case basis. If you have a good reason for needing leave (wedding, graduation, etc) then you should be OK. If you're just taking leave to go party in Dallas or something, then your Flt/CC will look at it more closely.
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Holy Sh*t...you mean all this time my civilian job was supposed to be paying me when I was working for the ANG?!? They must have lost the memo! Could you call my civilian boss and inform him of this great benefit that all of us ANG folks are supposed to have?Originally posted by HercDriver24:Nag nag. I wish I could get paid leave by my civilian job, and full per diem in addition to the standard HFP and tax exclusion everytime I go to war. [/QB]
Full per diem...take a look at the regs! As has been stated already, we live under the same regs as you. I've only been in the ANG 3 years (but have been TDY 300+ days of that) and I have yet to log a SINGLE DAY of full-rate per diem. Guess my ANG unit lost that memo! Can you call my OG and explain to him that "ANG guys always get full-rate"? If you could clear that up after you set my civilian boss sraight, that would be great.
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Good call!Originally posted by Animal:...I'm still over 10% though.
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The fact that two tanker guys are still telling Tweet stories tells you how exciting flying the tanker is! I think my best "tanker moment" is whenever the convection oven bell rings, signaling my frozen pizza is done. :DOriginally posted by Animal:I'll be damned if my story is gonna be about a lame ass Tweet!!
Now, PAB and I could get into some RC-135 stories but this is probably not the right place ("Hey guys...check out that F-15 on the left wing!!!"..."that's not an F-15!!"...as PAB sets his bowl of chili down and picks up the camera...)
Loved your story, BTW.
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CH - Sweet thread! Spending the last 10 minutes just trying to decide which story to post has been a welcome diversion. You're right...the natives have been restless lately, perhaps the winter is wearing on everyone. Anywho...on to my attempt at a cool flying story or two...
So there I was (every great aviation story MUST start with that saying!)...on my first T-37 area solo. WX at Laughlin was CAVU with light southerly winds. It's third period on a Friday in December and I had just gotten "signed off" for the area during first period (thanks to Capt Jeff Stift!) so with little apprehension and not a care in the world I headed out to the low area.
I report in to the MOA at about 200kts, 10,000', inverted. After doing about a half dozen aileron rolls, I set up a slow invtered decent, paralleling Hwy 90 to the east. Right above the National Weather Service's white "golf ball" radar antenna. I remember just laughing my ass off at the people on the highway, thinking "Mere MORTALS! HA HA HA If they only knew the freedom I have up here!". I roll upright at 8000' or so, 250ish knots and pull into the vertical for a four point roll and finish with a half-assed immelman. Not exactly Sean D. Tucker, but then again...I was only performing an airhow for one person: me!
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135s have chutes, but they are convienently located in the far as* end of the jet where you would NEVER be able to get to them if you actually needed one.
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I don't know about the 'good guy' thing, but I'm sure PAB will also have something to add here.Originally posted by AV8NSP:You have just as much chance to fly as a senior Capt copilot (Like me) as the young LT copilots. I am not the only "Late Bloomer" in my unit, and no oner seems to have suffered because of it. Might want to get PAB in on this, too, since he was an AD EWO and now a Guard Pilot (and an all-around good guy)....
My ANG unit doesn't seem to care what rank the pilots are. Everyone has the same opportunity to fly and go TDY. In the long run the rank may even work for me...with supposedly superior judgment than a LT/junior Capt, it will hopefully be easier to waiver the A/C flying hour requirements and thus upgrade quicker.
The only minor irritation that I've had is that they can't seem to disconnect the words "copilot" and "Lieutenant" so I get called LT often. Of course, if they're going to give me O-4 pay and expect the work of a Lt..BONUS FOR ME! :D
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It varies greatly, I imagine. My first line squadron had 100 officers and 8 enlisted folks. More typical for a flying squadron is 40-50 flyers and then maybe a dozen support folks. It depends largely on the crew ratio...1.5, 2.5 crews per jet for instance. Take a squadron with a 2.5 manning ratio and 8 tankers (typical ANG unit) and you're looking at roughly 40 pilots. When we had 18 F-16s, we were authorized roughly 28 pilots.
[ 27. February 2005, 22:13: Message edited by: Bergman ]
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Not to put words in Rainman's mouth, but as he mentioned, I believe he's just trying to give a different point of view. This board tends to be pretty skewed toward the "ANG is the greatest thing since night baseball" opinion, which may or may not be true. The grass isn't always greener on the ANG side, and I agree with Rainmain that sometimes that opinion needs to be shared as well. The more facts, opinions, and options new people have, the better and more informed their career decisions will be.Originally posted by Caddis:For a guy who is in the Guard you sure do not seem happy about it.
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HUH?Originally posted by taxcollector:Why does it way it would be good even if going for astronaut? Its not engineering.
Tax
:confused:
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Depends on whether you need any waivers or not. A WAG on my part would be about a month, if your package (sts) is complete . I needed a 5 year commissioned service waiver and it took over 150 days.
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At least in the previous administration (anyone remember Felix Hooks! ) they would review them for completeness, then check all the qualifying details...PCSM, AFOQT, etc to make sure the people selected met the minimum ANG standards. From there, they would determine if a waiver was needed and then write a staff summary sheet and start it in the waiver loop, which is a 90-150 day process it seems. Of course, not everyone needs a waiver, so those that are otheriwse eligible and have everything (AETC approved flight physical seems to be a common holdup) they approve it and give out the dates.
IIRC, they were processing them first-come, first-served but that was a couple of years ago now. Don't know how the "new" guy is handling it (sts). We had one guy who was waiting on a vision waiver and passed the age limit while his package was at NGB, so they just re-wrote the SSS and added a caveat for the age limit. Having seen that process...doesn't sound like they give priority to age-critical folks, as there is always a backlog of age-critical folks so none of the young pups would ever get a class date if that was the case.
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True enough. If you are a Texas resident, living outside of Texas, there is a different form to complete where you, as the vehicle owner, perform and certify the "Safety Check" So that works out pretty well. It's really an easy process to register/renew out of state, especially now that all the forms are available on-line. Something like $56/yr for a truck, IIRC which isn't the cheapest but not too bad.Originally posted by bailey:It will be hard to get inspections in Missouri living in Texas. Just something we ran into.
Just one more 'plus' for switching to Texas residency.
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First question...IS SHE HOT?!??Originally posted by AFROTC cadet:What do you think about dating between GMC and POC? I realize that AFROTCI "highly discourages" it, but we are in college after all, and as previously mentioned...we're not officers yet.
Second, you answered your own question. You are in college and not officers yet. Sounds good to me...just be smart about it. Don't get caught banging the admiral's daughter in the Det or in the closet at the AAS meeting and you'll be fine.
Discretion is the better part of valor.
On a side note...why is it that, in general, AFROTC cadets are soooo friggin' uptight? It was that way when I was in ROTC and it sounds like it hasn't changed much. Not trying to point fingers at anyone in particular, just marveling at how wrapped around the axle people get in ROTC. Thankfully, most of those folks go on to enjoy careers in the shoe-clerk AFSCs...
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BOTH. Well, sort of. At UPT the "classroom" instruction is all done by contract instructors (basically retired IPs). The FAIPS (and all IPs) instruct the students in the flight room, but it's not "academics" or "classroom" in the traditional sense (i.e. no written tests on what they teach) [excludes EPQs of course]. FAIPs will also fly with students on a daily basis, proably more than the other IPs in fact.Originally posted by waxgoblin:does a FAIP do classroom teaching only or actually flying in the airplane with the studs, or both?
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Ditto that for the heavy world. With 3 squadrons manning every jet on every sortie (that has since changed. Used to be pilots/navs from 38th, EWOs from 343d, and comm guys from 97th) on the RC-135, everyone pretty much knew each other and got along well (except for PAB) but other than TDY drinking binges or the occasional party (college world series!!) we didn't hang out with "them" all that much due to the squadrons being a mile apart.
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Each track will have at least 1 DG, but I believe the flying scores from both Phase II and III are used to compute who earns the award.
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It seems to vary quite a bit...my class had 5 of 28 that were married, while the class ahead of us had 12 of 24. In my experience, I would say the average appeared to be about 1/3 of each class.Originally posted by PalmettoGuy:In an average class, how many guys are married?
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TOBOGGAN!Originally posted by Clearedhot:I nearly bent the throttles trying to get the gas, let a lone sustain a 9 G turn.
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Here's mine....got it 3 months after my Nav wings. Spent the next 4 years restoring it to its current glory. It's worth double what I have in it, so it's been a good investment and a helluva lotta fun.
[ 23. January 2005, 23:32: Message edited by: Bergman ]
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Stearmann, et al. Thanks again for the info! I am finding out that I have just scratched the surface on this whole topic. My vast 69.0 hours (good stopping point, eh?) of GA time was in -172s and Cherokees and I don't have much experience beyond that. Lots to learn about the various costs, so I appreciate your input. Either way it will be a hard sell (sts) as the wifey doesn't care to fly GA. Perhaps she'll see my point of view eventually... :D
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Thanks for the replies! Don't know if I could swing a Glasair...pretty pricey kits. What about the availability of Cubs? Seems that the few around (for sale on-line, at least) are fully restored and quite expensive for what you're getting.
Solicited by a FW?!
in General Discussion
Posted
I'm a career -135 guy (nav now pilot) so the conversion worked out pretty well for me...might not have been hired except for my prior -135 experience (and charming personality! :cool: ).