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If you think Mandani’s policies are bad (they are), then take a look at the new mayor-elect of Seattle.

Leave the kids alone. If the boomers hadn't raped every institution and convention for their own advantage, all the while incinerating the housing market, suppressing interest rates, saddling every 22 year old with crippling debt, and inventing "too big to fail," maybe the younger generation wouldn't look toward something different. The American Dream was raped by the generation that cried out for free-love and no war until they got in power to give us a corporatist government and endless wars. Now they don't like that their kids are skeptical of their promises. No small wonder. Socialism is a nightmare, but you have to be blind to think this is just about lazy young adults. 😂

I agree cautiously...The younger generation is spoiled and soft...Iphones, safe spaces, remote work, and a general dislike of hard work has opened the door to uber progression socialist ideas that promise free everything. A lot of them voted in this last election to elect a self-described democratic socialist who is actually a communist to be the mayor of NYC. Even more troubling was the election of the Virginia Attorney General, a man who sent text messages advocating not only to kill his opponent but to put bullets in the heads of his children. Can you imagine the outrage if a mainstream conservative said such a thing? The fact that these shitbirds were put in office is a warning shot that the younger generation is looking for leadership and as of now they are finding it on the FAR left.

Don’t want to veer off topic too much and fantasize this plane or that one but…. this jet, yes it’s a kit plane, could be the basis for what could be a great ACE CT aircraft https://www.kitplanes.com/viperjet-redux/ Like a modern Folland Gnat, small light quick nimble and cheap in jet aircraft terms. It would be modified some for sure if adopted for an ACE or CT aircraft but the basics I think are handled.

Your age is a pretty glaring factor. It’s extremely hard to get hired by a fighter unit when you’d be going to UPT near/at the age waiver requirement. It happens occasionally, but data shows it’s very rare. I think many units won’t even entertain interviewing someone who’s in that position, regardless of how stellar their app is otherwise. When a unit sees your app vs. a very similar app (but the guy is 23), they’ll take the 23 yr old 9.9/10. Your best bet is keep submitting apps, but hit your home unit with all you got - put in the extra time to interact with pilots as much as possible, make it known ASAP to them you are excited to be a CC, but your ultimate desire is to fly in the Wing. Your home unit is probably your best bet given your timeline. If no luck by 30, I’d start throwing out apps to heavy units if you really want to fly mil. If you don’t want that bad enough/fighters or bust, then so be it, but be at peace with the decision and never flying for the mil (if it comes to that).

It feels like a pipe dream, but I hope there is a successful movement on the “near” left (e.g. the mid 90s Dem mindset citizens) to establish a new party and send the Dems the way of the Green Party. AOC, etc. can enjoy their irrelevancy on ballots and in the public square. We don’t want everyone to be in lock step with one party - we need rational debate and different ideas, as well as shifting leadership over time (e.g. not having one party dominate for decades). But we also do not want a socialist shit show party who hates everything about America and wants to completely reinvent it into an abomination.

Really? That’s at least one thing possibly moving in the right direction Probably so but if the Bobs get a win they don’t lose face and the Line gets the flying it needs, so be it. I think if the staff wanted to approach the Hill and justify they could with fairly defensible points: - Delays in delivery of new MWS platforms causing excessive waits / BITs - UPT production is high, no corresponding increase in FTU capacity hence low flying time for newly winged aviators - Need for proficiency and experience building prior to and during MWS training with tasks / general flying that are cross platform reinforcing - Fewer MWSs now than historically per pilot in the Air Force hence there is a need for an affordable, capable training aircraft(s) or program(s) to achieve flying experience targets

easiest problem to solve and a no brainer.

The only thing the shutdown accomplished was to destroy any remnants of the Old Guard Democrats. Nancy is retiring, Nadler is retiring, a host of others are leaving and they will primary Schumer. AOC and the other lunatics are now the norm and leadership of the DNC.

Good news, good times are here again! Our biggest problem as a service has been solved. https://www.airandspaceforces.com/air-force-callsigns-nametags-morale-t-shirts/

i totally agree that UPT cuts are seriously degrading the quality of the product. But don't conflate the UPT syllabus cuts with a need to create a new ACE program: even with a robust UPT syllabus like I went through many moons ago, the ACE Program was extremely beneficial for the new co-pilots. Story time: I remember back in the 2005-2006 time frame, there was a Langley F-22 at Hill AFB whose crew chief lost control of the landing gear pin during ground ops, and the pin got sucked down an engine. IIRC $6.8M in damage. That year, at Beale, our T-38 CT Program was run on a budget of around $6M for ~3700 hours of flying time. Think about that. That's around 3,000 SORTIES in a T-38... for $800,000 less than the cost of a single Raptor FOD incident. My experience in the Beale T-38 CT Program has made me such a better U-2 pilot and overall aviator than I would ever be without it. A magnitude better. There is so much that could be done to make our USAF aviators "that much better"... but the AF leadership will simply not invest the pennies... and I do mean "pennies"... to make it happen. It's no longer a priority. I hope I am proved wrong on my last statement.

Oh, I've also been working on my Glider Commercial addon while at tech school.

Currently wrapping up F-16 crew chief training, and I want to check the current ANG fighter hiring climate. Age: 28 (turning 29 in January) F-16 ANG Crew Chief: Enlisted 9/24, shipped to BMT 4/25, heading back to home unit in about 3 weeks. Day Job: Legacy Airline 737 FO 5600 hours E145, E175, B777, B737 Type ratings Warbird and formation time (Pilatus P-3, Nanchang CJ6, Yak 52, T-33 Shooting Star (type rating expected Q2 2026) Volunteer SAR pilot, instructor, FEMA Incident Commander qualified (CAP) Bachelor's with a 3.8 GPA Current Scores: P:99 CSO:99 ABM:97 ACAD:89 VERB:94 QUANT:76 PCSM:88 I've posted here regularly over the years, but unfortunately, I still haven't gotten any interviews. Thank you to those who have answered in the past, and I apologize for being a broken record.

That part makes sense, and I'm glad other people are recognizing and trying to solve the problem. This one is particularly frustrating though because it's so obvious what the solution is, and also so painfully obvious what the cause was. No doubt the whole circuit will get promoted. One half for "solving" a production problem. The other half for "solving" an experience problem. Everyone wins I guess. It's called UPT.

Watching POTUS realize that Putin is a menace in real time has been entertaining.

My godson finished UPT (abbreviated T-1 only). Graduated with way less than 80 hours and just now finished FTU recently. I guarantee he’s not comfortable in the seat with such an abbreviated training program. Now his squadron is going to have more work to get him up to speed (sharp kid but still he got less than 1/2 the hours we got back in t-37/t-38 UPT syllabus). There is no doubt an ACE type program would benefit the individual pilots and the AF as a whole.

I have heard rumint of a program similar to ACE as a possibility in the near future for AFGSC, although I have no idea where the process for that contract currently is. Personally, I have seen the benefits of flying GA while struggling to find flying hours after UPT in the Air Force. Getting back in the jet after a few GA flights feels much more natural and the airmanship and SA bubble is much greater. I would go so as far to say a program like this would have a significant positive impact on retention as well. Job satisfaction rapidly improves when the option exists to fly consistently and feel safer while doing it, not to mention the adventure of increasing the types of flying pilots can be exposed to. In the last couple years at least, I have seen the wait time for CAF assignees after IFF/T-38s exceed 12 months from last T-38 flight to MWS initial qual/B-course dollar ride. In my opinion, spending millions on training a pilot and then sitting them for a year is unacceptable, and we must find a way to bridge that gap. The additional crisis is the backlog of co-pilots/wingmen struggling to find hours to just keep currencies. When we aggregate the extra flights required and the safety impact created by decreased proficiency, I absolutely think some version of this is necessary.

I’m not arguing against OHWS, if this prevents injury / promotes pilot health I’m for it. I’m arguing that there is enough money in all the different areas of the AF, cobbled together, to provide a decent, equitable level of training, if it can’t be in a resurrected Phase 3 then a resurrected ACE. Baffling that if one institution (AETC) is unable, unwilling or indifferent to that which should be done, arguing for an alternate method implemented by other institutions (AMC, AFSOC, AFGSC) to achieve the same effect?

My name tags are legal now? Nice, I guess.

Go to the flight physical. The doc will tell you whether or not your condition is waiverable.

Well, looks you got your answer.

Hi I’m not sure if this is the right place to post this but I have the opportunity to become part of a flight crew but I need to pass a class 3 flight physical but I don’t know if I can since I do have amblyopia but this is something I really want to do but I don’t want to waste my leaderships time by going through the process just to be told I can’t pass. Thank you all for listening

To pile on, everyone always gets screwed. The people who get screwed the most are the property owners. The people who get screwed the (distant) 3rd most are the poors who get to benefit from "affordable housing." The people who get screwed the 2nd most - close to the 1st most - are the people who never get mentioned: the people who would otherwise be able to afford said apartment at market rate, but unfortunately inhabit the 'in between' - the wide span of those individuals being too rich to qualify for "affordable housing" but to poor to afford luxury apartments; i.e. the entire middle class. This is all to say that there is no such thing as "affordable housing" - but such is the core nature of Leftists' favorite social programs - none of them describe what the thing really is. In reality, there is only "taxpayer-subsidized-housing-for-a-select-few-lucky-enough-to-be-among-the-chosen-few-to-receive-it-housing." If there was truly "affordable housing," you and me would be able to purchase it at that rate, but as we all know, we can't.

Probably matters less in heavies, but in the CAF, OHWS has been a huge benefit. I hope it never gets shut down, especially for the young guys who were lucky enough to have it since day one.

I'm honestly not trying to be overly critical here. It's just baffling that something like this is under consideration.