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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.

How many retired pilots do you know with 100% disability that don't have neck/back issues as part of their claim? Are we really arguing the benefits of OHWS here.

How many retired pilots do you know with 100% disability that don't have neck/back issues as part of their claim? Are we really arguing the benefits of OHWS here.

I get it but assigned to each squadron and somehow we managed to not collapse wheezing on the way to jet prior to these? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I think this about the 5th cycle of colored shirts and name tags in my career. Thankfully I’ve been able to mostly ignore all of the knee jerk decisions and keep doing the right thing: morale shirts and call sign name tags (and no hat/sunglasses on head), as God intended.

Or simply performance, independent of the crash discussion. The average performance level is noticeably lower today than it was 10 years ago. That’s not a referendum on the individuals today, it’s the training quality/quantity sacrificed in name of cost savings, bureaucratic bullshit, misplaced priorities, etc.

Are you looking for medical data on how keeping pilots physically healthy is worth the AF's time or are you just screaming at clouds here?

All true and all good points. This has a very low probability of execution but you advocate for what you think ought to be done. Boomer, how in the ever living fornication is a squadron strength / happy ending coach being justified. Unless said coach in a 20 year female intern who also models lingerie then there is no saving the AF …

Spit-balling from the cheap seats: If the Air Force desired to set up a reasonable ACE program as quickly and cheaply as possible, would reactivating the T-1 fleet be an option?

Regarding ATC "For those that did nothing but complain, and took time off, even though everyone knew they would be paid, IN FULL, shortly into the future, I am NOT HAPPY WITH YOU," Trump wrote in a Truth Social post. -------‐------------------- Same post should be said for Congress. I'm looking at you, House.