General Discussion

Looking to invest in a new Ipad Pro and Foreflight + Jeppesen, before I drop a far amount of money on this setup I was curious if anyone had some better options or advise on why to go this route or why not to go this route? Aircraft already has a GNS430 as primary so this is more big screen for pubs, flightplanning, weather, take out of the plane ease of use type function. Thanks in advance.

We recently had the "Rainbow" deployment schedule shoved down out throats. All the tanker units had this vs. the AEF buckets put to a vote. The vote was 9 to 8 in favor with two units not showing up to vote. The new schedule is 1 1/2 crews, 1-2 planes, and 1 staff for the forseable future in the desert. I understand that about 6 months ago, the active duty stopped allowing guardsmen to volunteer for deployments. It looks like this was to get units hungry enough to vote this in. It barely worked because the economy is bad and many needed this "jobs program". Can anyone tell me when, exactly, guardsmen were stopped from being allowed to deploy? I'm contacting my ele…

https://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-afghan-photos-20120418,0,6471010,full.story

Alright overenthusiastic minds out there, anybody got any interesting ideas for a class patch?

Could be in the Russia or Ukraine threads but worthy of separate discussion, the genie is out of the bottle, I hope you can fight without GPS. https://www.gpsdaily.com/reports/Satellite_Navigation_Failure_Confirms_Urgent_Need_for_Backup_999.html

Has anyone ever successfully received an exception to policy letter after receiving an SRB for OTS? I am in a situation that I have one shot for OTS (November 2019 board) before I have to re-enlist. I think that I would be stupid to not take the bonus as I have no guarantees of ever getting an OTS slot, but it's tough to know I will have to wait 2-3 more years for my goal of an officer slot. Does anyone have experience with this or any advice?

Anyone know the validity of this? I don't see it anywhere outside of this FB page. If true...thoughts?

Saw this video origially on military.com and was wondering if a C-5 guy knew if this plane was damaged from this amphibious takeoff? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUx5wTV4XVk

Just looking to see if any one else has gotten contractors from Decypher to tackle additional duties? The background story is: my squadron's rumor mill said that there was a contract written and the Ops Group would get some contractors to take care of the unkillable additional duties. Theory being this would free up bodies for the flying schedule. Word was that if they actually showed up they would be parceled out among the OG and we might get 1, with no timeline given. Well, 1 March rolls around and we get phone call at 0800 telling us all 3 rumored contractors are showing up today for our squadron, get ready. These guys show up after lunch without anything. …

https://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AF_SOUTH_SUDAN_US?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-12-21-07-08-38 AP Reports that it looked like an Osprey, 4 injured, one reported critical. Now they are saying a UN Helicopter was downed as well. Might have fit better under the operation deny Christmas '13 threads.

For whatever reason, I never hear the proposal of increasing the pilot commitment. Let's say we move it to 15 years or even 20. Of course a number of people will say hell no but I wouldn't be surprised if the AF reached their SUPT recruiting goals. In the 1950s, it was 3 yrs and a degree wasn't a requirement. Then in the 60s, a degree requirement was established and 4 yrs for SUPT. In 70s to 5yrs then to 6yrs. 80s went to 8yrs and in the 90s to 10 years. The AF NEVER has a problem of recruiting pilots. Keeping them in during an airline hiring boom is the primary issue. One other major problem in keeping pilots is that most are single when joining and marry during t…

Got a question...so right now I have a nice POS daily driver. It still has alot of life in it so I don't want to get rid of it. That being said I also will want to buy a new car (looking at the 09 Camaro) when it comes out. I don't wanna turn this into a save your money type of thread, just curious if its possible to own 2 vehicles... Or say someone has a car they are working on...like an old 60's car...and then they have truck they tow it around with. Is that allowed? Or are you 100% limited to one vehicle on base? TIA

I thought the state of the union address from the President was awesome! I have a question though for those of you in uniform. I noticed that the five or six men dressed in uniform didn't applaud as much as everyone else did (not that I think that's bad). However, they did applaud on a few topics that involved military matters etc. I did think that all the applauding and standing up and down did get a little tiresome, but hey the President was doing a great job. My question is, is when do the men in uniform know when to applaud/stand and when not to? They did everything as a whole body, whether it was applauding or keeping silent, hands folded in their laps. Anyway, just …

I just heard about the crash yesterday near Vance. I'm curious what kind of knee-jerk reaction the AF will make due to this. Irrespective, my sincere condolences to the friends and squadron mates of the Lieuteant that died.

Should be a great time. The people at Oshkosh generally aren't the woke, virtual signaling part of the American public. Looking forward to getting back after being gone for a few years.

Apparently USAA needs our help. This seems like it could be very gay. New Legislation

This is pretty messed up. Just found out an old classmate lied on his resume. He is a civilian pilot who listed he had a bachelors degree on his resume, but in fact did not. The guy got hired by a major. How does he fricken sleep at night? Thankful for him, only a few people know about this.

Gen Fiel has directed every AFSOC CDR to perform an Morale, Health, & Welfare inspection of work areas, base lodging/housing, and dorms. Just had my Deployed CC take a look through my gear. Anyone know what happened or is this just a new trend? *Edit* : MHW not MWR... sorry.

Does anyone have any experience with receiving separation pay and moving from a state with no taxes to one with? I've seen various discussions about people receiving their pay after the new year so they get to put it on the next year's taxes, which implies when you receive it is what matters, not when it was earned? The issue I may have is I'm currently a Florida resident with no state taxes, but may take a job in California, and start before my separation date, or at least before I receive my final pay with separation pay. So looking at partial year tax laws, I would pay California taxes on the new job, and not my other military pay for the year...but what about the o…

Has anyone heard of any programs that will send a rated guy to Law School on Uncle Sam's dime? Cheers.

Mexican aerial drone crashes in backyard of El Paso home EL PASO (AP) — An unmanned drone belonging to the Mexican government crash landed Tuesday in El Paso's Lower Valley, officials confirmed today. "I was told that it crashed in somebody's back yard, and that no one was injured. I was paged at 6:28 p.m. on Tuesday, so it happened shortly before that. We were told it was not a police matter," said Detective Mike Baranyay, a spokesman for the El Paso Police Department. The crash occurred at Yarbrough and Loop 375. Police said the U.S. Border Patrol seized the aircraft, which was to be transported back to one of the international bridges so that Mexican offici…

So I’m sitting here at the gate on a delay at Logan (thanks Newark) reading the Bomber 134 thread and discussing it with the Capt and a C-17 taxis by. Odd for BOS but whatevs. Capt says “Do they use those for firefighting? Seems like those would be awesome for that.” Which got me thinking, with so many ANG units equipped with C-17s, are they going to adapt or develop MAFFS for that airframe?

Hey Folks, I was watching a youtube video of a KC-135 shooting a low-vis approach into Mildenhall. The video terminates with the AC commanding and the CO performing a missed approach procedure, which got me wondering: Are there any airframes out there where crews utilize monitored approaches? I was just curious. I never did em' until I ended up at the airlines, we use them for all approaches of a mile or less visibility. At any rate, I'm writing an article for the IFR newsletter and need to begin from a "know your audience" standpoint. So, Who does them? Mandatory or optional? If optional, are there any prohibitions against a crew performing one? G…

Has anyone ever experienced a death in the family or had a classmate deal w/ a death while at UPT? How does the Air Force/IP react to something like this?

Ok, so me and a few other cadets are going to Tyndall over spring break for some F-15 rides but we don't have anywhere to stay yet. Does anyone have any past experience going there and remember where they stayed? Everywhere we are looking so far is ridiculously priced, so let me know if anyone has any ideas