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Selected for UPT! 95 PCSM/99 Pilot/30 Hours no PPL.
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Captainteej joined the community -
This popped up on the FB and I was like WTF? I flew with that guy. Early 80s. No idea of his political leanings.
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Cruiser was confirmed today...god help those still on active duty.
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It was said that Ol' Fisher DeBerry was the highest paid person in the federal government.
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Dibs.
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Initial Pilot Training and Future Pilot Training
Lord Ratner replied to LookieRookie's topic in General Discussion
U-2, as far as I know. I only flew it three times, but holy shit, it's... different. On the KC it was the combination of low engines, fast approach speeds, and the cable driven ailerons and elevators delaying all the inputs. Then you had a huge hydraulic rudder that would throw the plane around much faster than the cable driven surfaces. It had so much inertia that if you didn't pull the power at the right point, you couldn't slow down. If I remember correctly we went to idle at 200-300 feet for the flaps 30 (engine out) approach when heavy. I also can't compare it to the fighters that were around in your day, because they only keep the planes, not the pilots in the museums 😂🤣. I suspect some of those rocket ships with stubby little wings were an absolute monster to fly, but everything we have now is so much more advanced. The difference between the U2 and the kc-135 was not close, I don't want to make it sound like the kc-135 was unmanageable. After all, many of the world pilot training students flew it just fine. But when I talked to pilots who had flown both fighter aircraft and the kc-135, the raw stick and rudder of the kc-135 was more to manage. It was just really sloppy. You made up for it with probably the easiest combat mission in the AF. I taught many many KC135 pilots that were barely able to fly the plane, much less handle a more complicated mission. Honestly the biggest argument I have in support of the kc-135 being harder to land than a fighter is that the fighters weren't doing touch and gos when I was in. That blew my mind. There's no way you could get proficient at flying the kc-135 without doing pattern only flights. But you also have the better pilot factor to deal with, for whatever that equalizes. -
Troy Calhoun, head football coach at the U.S. Air Force Academy, is the highest-paid person directly employed by the U.S. Air Force with a reported salary for 2025 of $1.55 million. (Calhoun's salary is paid through the Air Force Academy Athletic Corp., a private non-profit that manages the Academy’s athletics program. This structure allows for compensation levels that are significantly higher than typical military pay grades.)
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Private sale up in Austin. I was surprised it didn't get snapped up before I got there. Six 200 round boxes of .223 and four in 5.56, and Winchester white box. I've got enough good ammo to cover any non-range needs, this will mainly be range use. 7.62x39 has always hovered around 40₵ a round, and of course I've loaded up on the stuff over the years. I see it now can go for 90₵ upwards which is ridiculous. You'd think with the hundreds of billions or more rounds (300B+ according to some estimates) made since 1944, it'd be as cheap and easy to find as water. 5.45×39 started replacing it in the early 1970s although many of the old caliber rifles are still in use. Global conflicts are still a factor, but I think it's more to do on the 2021 US import ban on Russian ammo (thanks Uncle Joe!!), nitrocellulose and antimony shortages and remnants of the COVID-19 manufacturing and logistics disruptions which still haven't caught back up.
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Initial Pilot Training and Future Pilot Training
TreeA10 replied to LookieRookie's topic in General Discussion
I was A FAIP and instructed in the T-38 from 85-88 at Columbus. Most loses in a UPT class occurred in the T-37 with a wash out rate around 30%, IIRC. We would usually lose 2 or 3 students in the T-38 in the contract or instrument phase. I don't remember anyone washed out in the formation phase. There was a change in the syllabus after a mid-air during a 4 ship rejoin. Those going to heavies got more nav and instrument rides and the guys going to fighters did more 4 ship. Worst class I saw in the 38 was when the AF decided to push more students through and limited wash outs. We had a class come to us in the T-38 that lost students in the T-37 for medical or SIE but not much else. It was a blood bath and we washed out half the class. -
Where? Always looking for cheap .223. Also, just bought my first AK...had no idea 7.62 ammo was so expensive these days, I always thought it was cheaper than .223. War in Ukraine?
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As I expected…
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Damn man those are great scores… sorry to hear. I read on another year’s thread that someone from the board will reach out to you if you’re next in line should a spot come open. I don’t think they release the rankings but I’m sure they have alternates listed 1 - n. In terms of spots opening up, main example I heard of was a few selectees getting accepted into reserve flying units turning down their active duty spot. MFS-N could be another way but with most people having the stamped FC1 already a MFS-N failure seems pretty unlikely.
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Initial Pilot Training and Future Pilot Training
Clark Griswold replied to LookieRookie's topic in General Discussion
I have about 1800 hours in the -135, around 100 IP so take this assessment from there. The -135 was a challenge to land and do OEI (outboard) training / landing OEI once all trimmed up was not bad, landed one 3 engine once, it was not a huge deal, a thing but not bad either. The challenge in landing was speed control and the effect of N1 inconsistency between engines on approach. The CFM 56 on the R models I flew had a poor man’s engine control called Power Management Control (PMC) there were multiple versions of them for CFM 56s and they controlled N1 above certain power settings, it is a system really meant to prevent overboost in climb but on approach they could be inconsistent and make the tanker’s speed control and pitch up/down kind of a bear. The cross wind landing technique was not the easiest to learn either as you have IIRC 18 inches (sts) from pod to pavement with only 4 degrees allowed in the wing low flare position. Most IPs taught an aileron pop technique with a flatter flare for strong x-winds (15+ knots). There were also challenges in proper sight picture as the dash and instruments were all slightly placed off from the original -80 bird, the plane due to the large changes in GW and fuel movement had a range of CGs to get used to, a 22 CG -135 is responsive and stable a 32 CG -135 is tail heavy and likes roll a bit, etc… All in all, a good plane but from a different era with challenges in the pattern but obviously learnable Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk -
Selected as an alternate. 98 PCSM / 98 Pilot / PPL. There are 18 alternates... How do they determine who gets a slot if one opens up?
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Initial Pilot Training and Future Pilot Training
Springer replied to LookieRookie's topic in General Discussion
Curious, what is the most difficult plane to fly in the AF? Was the -135 difficult (landing) because of the low hung engines? -
Also Vance as top choice, got a few buddies from undergrad there already. Really hoping for Pensacola IPT. Scared shitless for formation flying. Spending as many hours as I can in the Milviz/Blackbird Microsoft Flight Simulator T-6A module—in reality I’m not sure if it’ll help.
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You PCS first before going to IPT. My buddy is a T6 instructor out at Laughlin and I was talking with him yesterday and he said the kids that went to IPT aren’t back yet. Indicating it’s a PCS first.
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I might be crazy but I put Laughlin first since I’m currently in San Antonio and so are the in laws. Don’t think any of the locations are ideal lol. Does anyone know if we PCS to our UPT base and then attend IPT? Or do we TDY from our current station to IPT and then PCS to UPT?
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I would say "it depends." Like it or not College Football generates a LOT of money. Some of those funds are then used to subsidize other sports. If using tax payer dollars then I would prefer to see an analysis of the funds generated hiring a high power coach. Using Coach Prime as an example...horrible coach, but the reputation and "hope" resulted in several seasons of sold out games, increased TV coverage, merch sales that greatly increase AD revenue of the U of C. Interestingly the big buy outs are now being paid by the boosters, in several cases buy a single booster. Break Break - add another one to the list, Hugh Freeze finally got canned by Auburn yesterday. A $15.8M buyout to walk away. This situation does lead to some irony like Will Muschamp trolling the Gamecocks by posting a picture form the stands celebrating as his son helps Vanderbilt beat the team that paid him $13M to leave.
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Initial Pilot Training and Future Pilot Training
FourFans replied to LookieRookie's topic in General Discussion
Are you a bot? The chatgptness of your response and your Thai fitness webpage makes me think you're a bot. -
Does anyone know if there are any supplemental boards for this? (For example, if people choose not to accept or don't pass MFS.) Thanks in advance!
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BlancoMt joined the community
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Initial Pilot Training and Future Pilot Training
lilyelliott4 replied to LookieRookie's topic in General Discussion
That’s a really thoughtful perspective — and I totally see where you’re coming from. The shift in training hours and structure definitely impacts overall preparedness, especially when phase 3 time isn’t there to reinforce fundamentals. It sounds like experience levels are narrowing faster now, which can make the learning curve at FTU a lot steeper. It’s interesting you mentioned the FAIPs too — that balance between getting them the right exposure while still maintaining training depth for new LTs seems tricky. Hopefully, with the added hours at graduation, some of that gap can be bridged, but it’s hard to replace real reps and mentorship time. By the way, for anyone interested in thoughtful takes on training, learning progress, and milestones, I’ve shared a few reflections on my site as well — different field, but similar themes around growth and readiness. -
The Travis AFB Aero Club has a TB-20. I went out there 4-5 years ago and rented it with an instructor just to try it out. Enjoyed it. Maybe a good option for you to go sample it. https://www.travisaeroclub.com/our-fleet
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I also saw this somewhere on X, so I just went to this site and pulled up the same METAR I’ll need to see some legit reporting/posts before I believe it. https://metar-taf.com/metar/KATL.20251102.1652
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There is no limit to TDS.
