Infamous

First off, Congrats!! This is honestly great advice for anyone limiting themselves to only fighters or bust. Get an idea of the lifestyle/mission/flight hours/etc from as many different units and squadrons as you can. Go and meet people in the unit by visiting to see what the place is like. After the new shiny toy effect wears off, now you’re stuck living that life for 10+ years and you want to make sure these are the people you want to hang out with (they want to make sure the same thing when it comes to you). If it’s a good fit, then more power to you and that’s awesome. Remember that even raging around in an F-22 eventually becomes just your “job” and I’ve got many friends I know that are sick of that and ready to punch. I know an Air Force Demo team fighter pilot who can’t wait to jump to the airlines and currently has no plans to even go to the Reserves/Guard. And his job is pretty freaking cool from an outsider looking in at what he has done and is currently doing. The biggest thing I caution anyone reading this is that you’re only getting older and that 10 year commitment isn’t getting any shorter. I am an OTS guy and I’m watching guys younger than me all punching out for the airlines and it makes me wish I had joined sooner and I was 25 when I commissioned. If you have goals of being an airline pilot, don’t forget to consider that some airplanes build your hours more quickly than others. Figure out how much the units you’re looking to fly for actually fly. I have friends that haven’t flown much because their reserve unit is short on money for flight hours. Things I never would have thought about before joining because I just didn’t know. Best of luck to you all regardless, I think you’ll find that no matter what you fly you’ll be pretty happy to put on a flight suit and go hang out with the bros in the squadron if you pick the right unit for you.

Started on time. Took 7 months. The new syllabus, mx, and wx really messed things up for them. I think we were almost 40 training days behind the day we showed up.

It’s still flying. Hope you’re not too upset still.

Get min requirements, apply. It’s a shame. The U-2 definitely wants to bring fighter dudes in, AFPC just isn’t having it...

Just wanted to re-emphasize this for the OP... I've been TDY about 1.5 yrs out of the 3 years I've been stationed at my current base. Make sure your wife/gf is independent bc it will not end well otherwise... I've seen ~5-10 divorces I think since I've been in the squadron.

So what are my chances of PC for a 2010 year group with a UPT grad date of Feb 12'... I'm an 11M.

FIFY

"lauded" is truly one of my favorites. *important person walks through squadron on a tour looking at stuff. *notice they're not saying much... *uh oh. My OPR bullet is fading quick!! Say something!!!! *Joking* "So our squadron is the best you've seen isn't it?" *important person* "Haha! For sure. You guys are doing great. Keep up the great work!" -Outstanding ldrshp--4-star lauded "best squadron in AF"

A bunch of us have already done this and are flying F-35's. It's really pretty easy. 1.) Don't suck. 2.) Finish #1 in your pilot training class 3.) Call AFPC or the Navy equivalent and make sure that they put an F-35 or F-18 Super Hornet in your assignment drop. 4.) Fly around with afterburners lit everywhere and make GoPro videos to dubstep music to upload on Facebook/Youtube/Vimeo to impress all of your closest internet friends. 5.) Marry a supermodel. 6.) Profit. It's really pretty easy and it's obvious you've done your research on here. Whatever you do though, don't join the real Air Force and find yourself stuck doing queep all the time jumping through hoops for whatever next assignment/promotion you're hoping for. Good luck!

I'm not a VSP candidate but I invest heavily. Check out the Vanguard Admiral shares accounts. The fees are incredibly low and I've done well with the Total Stock Market index fund and the S&P 500 fund. Personally though I've beat both of those investing individually in companies I've picked... Those two index funds are just my conservative picks that I contribute to on the side after I max out the yearly 17.5k and 5500 ROTH IRA.

Just curious. With the huge amount of people getting out combined with the VSP what do you think it'll be like hiring at the airlines? I imagine there will be a decent amount of legacy guys applying too? This job market could be interesting and I'm sure will make the hiring departments of all walks of civilian aviation happy

Sitting on a hot ejection seat going x-country without being strapped to the parachute (no shoulder harness on in the T-6). Figured it out about halfway into the flight when I went to reach for a map and I realized there was no resistance leaning forward. It was a night sortie so the IP couldn't really see me so I asked him if he could take the plane for a moment while I looked at the map.. Strapped into the seat without him noticing and I never made that mistake again... Scared the crap out of me imagining what the ride down would have been like had we punched.

Nah. It's going around the thunderstorm and not through it.

Admiral shares?? I'm in the same thing at Vanguard. Took all of my money out of USAA... I'm also in their total stock market exchange admiral shares. Maxing out the ROTH TSP contributions each year and also maxing out a separate ROTH IRA as well. For fun I'm picking individual stocks on the side. I'm probably up around 40%+ average on my personal picks compared to the boring index funds that are about 10% right now. That being said, the majority of my money is with the boring... Gotta keep up with the E's expectations that we're really looking at our stocks in Baseops and not actually preparing for the flight.... Plus it's kind of fun when you do your research and your stock goes up 100% in a span of 3-4 days. Also... http://money.msn.com/home-loans/rent-or-buy-calculator.aspx http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/business/buy-rent-calculator.html It's not ALWAYS the best to buy, although many will tell you that it is. Also if you're interested, I recommend this book. It was recommended several times on investing sites I frequent to get ideas on new companies and stock picks. http://www.amazon.com/Neatest-Little-Guide-Market-Investing/dp/0452298628 Read it earlier this year during a deployment when I decided I wanted to learn more about investing and how I could do more with my money. The market is doing well right now, so I can't say that I'm some genius, I'm definitely going to have some losses sooner or later, but I'm outpacing the S&P500 right now so I can't complain. Good luck!

LOL. This is easily the most butthurt comment I've read on baseops. Go cry some more, get it all out then come back and tell us how you really feel It's truly disturbing that someone "hates" another aircraft community so much that they take "pleasure" seeing our Air Force lose even more aircraft and capabilities than they have already. You need help bro, maybe you should go talk to the chaplain/SARC/IG and tell them about your problem with the KC-10 and how their aircrew members hurt you emotionally.