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My only comparison to heavies is the airlines, which I know isn’t apples to apples, but I don’t think it’s far off much of the time. These styles of flying allow for significant decay of stick/rudder skills and dealing with EPs/abnormals/unintended events that require them (vs. manipulating automation/simply pushing buttons). It is a disservice to young pilots especially not having ACE - the mil is holding them back on advancing their skills/maintaining solid proficiency. There’s a lot of airline pilots who could really use some GA time for this reason, and the ones who don’t care and rest on their 6900 airline hours don’t seem to realize they don’t really have 6900 hrs of flying, they have 6900 hrs of managing computers and rinse/repeating the same taxi flows/departures/arrivals (over generalization a bit, but point remains).

I bet those T-37 hours were probably 10% the cost of -135 hours and at that point in your flying career twice as valuable in building airmanship. Resurrect ACE, fly COs after UPT thru a solid 300 hour min program. Give the new ACE program T-6s from AETC (after an avionics update) then recapitalize UPT with PC-21s, T-6Cs or M-345s… or this training aircraft offered by Grob https://gaf-aerospace.com/tpx-cobra-en.html#:~:text=The TPX is a low-wing%2C side-by-side%2C two-seater,turboprop engine with 750 HP%2C 7-blade propeller. One more thing, ACE was unfortunately before my day but I believe it was there to give COs flying hours they weren’t getting sitting alert to assure pilot development and to aid the development and timing of Aircraft Commander eligible (by hours) pilots of whatever aircraft they were assigned. Good for the pilot and good for the Air Force. ACE 2.0 would serve the same / similar rationale, cheaper flight hours developing Aircraft Commander eligible pilots sooner, less expensive and less wear and tear on an already well utilized fleet of aircraft

Minus the fact the Viper has two different engine manufacturers and different models between manufacturers.

Yep, only one engine to worry about vs three or four

Say the ladies are insane there......

Yall were enjoying it too much.....cancel that shit now!

@HuggyU2 I have the X4 and just this week mounted it externally via a mount that attaches to my underwing tie down. I had it up to 180 Knots IAS and it didn't shake a bit.

Well, I guess if you have to spend your cash on food vs spa treatments, sure.

I’m in shock that beached whales care about their eyebrows. Shouldn’t they be working on heart healthy diets and not worrying about lipstick on a sow.

https://taskandpurpose.com/news/air-force-relieves-521st-commander-confidence/

Every now then (though it seems to happen more often over the last several years), the left says the quiet part out loud.

I’m for anything that slows the passing of more laws (filibuster included). Slow and steady can be frustrating at times, but it’s better than thoughtless reactions. The Senate was originally supposed to be the wise and thoughtful chamber that moved slowly and purposely to prevent knee jerk reactions and minimize second and third order negative consequences. That’s def not the case now and removing the filibuster will make it even worse.

AKA, "the" engine. Having only one really simplifies which one you're talking about.

Agreed Huggy, the ACE program was awesome for us -135 and -52 copilots. I ended up with over 400 hours of tweet time while a CO at Plattsburgh. Used Csquared (the off days right after alert week - for you youngsters) as an opportunity to cruise down South for a few days with 3 hops each day. We’d leave out on Wednesday right off alert and return Sunday evening by 6pm. Any controlled airport with a military fuel contract and at least 5,000 feet of runway was good to go. Smyrna, TN used to give a small bottle of Jack for each 100 gallons of fuel. The Squadron bar keep was happy every time i flew through there. The furthest I flew out of Plattsburgh on a tweet trip was to NM and back. A few others to Homestead, FL and back. Great flying experience and tons of fun to boot. A few of us even got formation qualed and flew a few out and back formation trips too. I’m still shocked how many of my fellow CO’s didn’t take full advantage of the program. I was able to fill empty flight slots/schedules tons of times just by being willing and available to fly. One year I flew 2 “guest” flights with our 2 tanker squadron commanders.

For those of you using an Insta360 X5 camera (or similar) in the cockpit, what are you using as a mount? I'm also interested if your mounting setup is good enough for aerobatics.

C-5 and AF 1 both use a version of the CF-6. Of course how they attach to the airframe is where I see this investigation headed. Props and engine mounts keep maintainers/engineers up at night for a reason.

I've gotta go dig in my tubs of ol' USAF shit to find my "WSO Hater Union" card I was once presented at a roll call. Looks like I have others to pass that along to here. Wish I could remember the occasion for which I was awarded it.

They have been hosting NATA Formation Clinics out there for several years. An old SAC base with huge runways, lots of ramp space, and tons of clear airspace around it is a particularly good place to have 'em. The runway is long enough that a couple of years ago a formation of T-6s took off, lead had an engine loss of power at about 150' AGL with the gear up, and he was still able to get the gear down and land in the remaining runway. IMG_3978 2_E614E742-A9FD-4ADE-AE7D-726FC77310F9.mp4

Blytheville AFB. "Hooterville". Forgot all about that place. It was one of the ~13 bases that had B-52s and KC-135's when I graduated UPT. They had Tweets too, for the old ACE Program... which Gen Loh killed, in what I'd call a not-well-thought out decision.

ADMIN NOTE: Yeah, answering a six-year-old post, combined with their user name, may be a red flag fot a bot. We're being bombarded by them lately, somwhow they know how to bypass the filters to join. I'll look into it...

Yessir, that's Doc. Fifi is at home in Dallas already beginning to be pulled apart for winter MX. We also had to cancel our last event of the season (Blytheville, Arkansas, for the opening of the National Cold War Center) due to a prop issue.

At the recommendation of Boeing, both UPS AND Purple have grounded their MD-11's.

All things being equal, I'd rather have the gas.

Took my wife to the shooting range in Conecuh Alabama yesterday, as we were wrapping up we had a very unexpected flyover. I thought it might be @Hacker in FiFi but after checking the schedule online I am guessing it was Doc returning home after cancelling the rest of their season for an engine change in Panama City. Must have been a sight to see the sky filled with these beautiful birds. The sound was incredible.