General Discussion

Need a sanity check... I flew active duty for 11+ years and accumulated 126 gate months. PHA is still current. Last fall I joined the ANG in a non-flying Wing Staff position. I don't intend on flying for the foreseeable future. HARM is refusing to turn flight pay back on claiming that since I'm in an API 6 billet on the UMD, I can't get flight pay unless I "I am in the process of acquiring an ACIQ slot." I disagree and think flight pay eligibility depends solely on gate months when in a non-flying billet... Who's right?

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https://www.iranintl.com/en/202305275606 The CIA and State Department right now:

Anyone have a good copy of the subtitled Downfall video about AETC students and fix-to-fixes? My google-foo is failing me.

I’m curious about the current deployment timeline of different platforms in todays Airforce and just how long you’re gone from home in general. I’ve heard that some planes have changed their deployment schedule in the last 5-10 years. I’ve heard that some special ops communities are gone for 5-6 months and then home for 18 months, C-17s are gone TDY for almost 300 days a year, tankers are at home almost every night but work more uniform hours in the day, other aircraft do deployments for 6 months to a year at a time but are home for the next 2 years, etc. Not sure if this is true or just rumors. Please comment if you know about any of the following platforms. I w…

I’ve heard it’s possible but rare to switch to an airframe in another command. For example, switching from Air Mobility Command to Air Combat Command. I’m interested in flying fighters at some point in my aviation career: any fighter or being an instructor in the T-38 or T-7 when that comes out. But, I tracked T-1s. I’m happy and excited to fly heavies but it’s always been my dream to fly fighters for a little bit of my career at least. Would it increase my chances of switching over to a fighter if I dropped a special operations aircraft or an aircraft in Air Combat Command like the EC-130 which is switching to the E-37 soon, MC-130, HC-130, RC-135, etc? I’d also be in…

Army aviators, ready to leave the military, are told they owe 3 more years instead

Good morning aviators. I had an idea that crossed my mind about investing in a flight sim. Items including stick, throttle, and rudder pedals (https://shop.thrustmaster.com/en_gb/t-16000m-fcs-flight-pack.html), and some kind of good reviewed/ not too expensive pc and monitor to play Microsoft Flight Simulator, and DCS. I have the money to pay for something like this, so I am not too worried about the damage, but I was looking for some input. Do you think buying, and playing a sim is worth it? ex. improving pilot skills; getting familiarity with jets that could possibly help in phase 2 & 3 of UPT (possibly practicing t-6 and t-38 maneuvers, for example formation …

https://www.politico.com/news/2023/04/17/joints-chiefs-lorem-ipsum-lorem-ipsum-00092130 Just saw this article about candidates for CSAF. I know there is the MAF v. CAF argument and its surprising that the 2 people they mention have MAF backgrounds. Both seem to have legit credibility with TPS. Just curious on the opinions of the forum.

Asking for a friend because I am not experienced with the heavy side of the house. Trying to get a feel for how much time are units asking out there. "My current unit (heavy) wants 8 days a month. I have seen other units as little as 2 days. I am losing a ton of money with the airlines at this point (CA at a legacy) but still have a service commitment. " Thoughts?

For the T-38, the takeoff Refusal Speed is computed using a 3" reaction time, during which the aircraft continues to accelerate. In other aircraft, the speed is based on starting the abort at that speed, with no reaction time. I'd like to know what is done in other aircraft in the military. I'm not looking for "technique", just what is in your flight manual when it comes to the consideration that was used in creating your performance charts. Bombers, trainers, fighters, heavies... let me know. Post it here or drop me a pm.

“Unidentified silver/gray cylindrical object” shot down over Alaska and Canada! It’s like they are deliberately trying to create conspiracy theories! I would have called it a drone dirigible but hey, what do I know!

Quietly inserted into 10 USC 1370 (regular) and 1370a (reserve): TIG requirement for Maj is now 3 years for it to be held. It was 6 months, previously.

So, there's a country starting to dissolve in our hemisphere, not far from our shores and I've been casually following the story. It's awful, it's becoming a problem spilling over its borders and starting to directly affect us vis a vis illegal immigration and becoming an ungoverned space that will become a base for illegal activities throughout the Caribbean and Americas. Do we intervene, stabilize and prevent the collapse of the state? I'm fairly cynical on the idea of nation building but I'm not for letting problems just build in our sphere and letting us be affected by them when we could prevent it. I'm not sure it's nation building we should do versus just pl…

@argstarted the other thread about Gunships in Desert Storm and I recommended a war stories thread because I’m sure this group has some good ones. I’ll kick it off. Decmeber 2, 2014 Nangahar, Afghanistan Flying Draco out of Bagram and a raid comes down that we’re going to support and run the stack for. We weren’t doing hits every night but by dumb luck, I’d been on a few as we rolled through the schedule. As some of you know, they’re usually a bit hectic at first when the helo lands and then it’s pretty chill as they make callouts and not much would happen so that was what I expected. We brief up, get out there, get everyone checked in and ready to go. We had 2…

Say there's a C-146 at drop night. What should one expect from that life? Is it under-discussed because of how cool and secret the missions are, or because it's not exciting enough to talk about? I've had a friend tell me it's the ugly step child of AFSOC.

It was time to put away the homemade wine as I was about to enter crew rest for what would be the most memorable flight of my career. This was the third mission of the war for us. A snippet from this book https://www.amazon.com/Ghostriders-1976-1995-William-Walter-ebook/dp/B09VQWY5RP/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid&sr&fbclid=IwAR1vELr1aoqfQjbqO5BywaXVt7DDWvGiBeBh9ZuJL-V4stML3whaaGOFpAY On the evening of January 21, mission planners began tasking AC-130s identically as they did for fighters as two AC-130s were assigned to 30x30 nautical mile “kill boxes.” On this night, weather was good and both crews were advised there would be a fighte…

Oh... this again: https://taskandpurpose.com/news/air-force-call-sign-titties/?utm_campaign=trueanthem_manual&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&utm_term=taskandpurpose Sent from my SM-F721U using Tapatalk

Is anyone familiar with this assignment and area? I’m looking at potentially leaving the CAF to go there, but I don’t know much about it. Thanks.

Looks like the Marines are down an F-35.

Unfortunately, that wraps up the SOFIA Program. Two of my friends flew it. There are only 2 or 3 other 747SP aircraft still flying. https://simpleflying.com/nasa-sofia-boeing-747-final-flight/

Fill in the blanks: "In the [insert Military Branch], you're actually a ______ first, then a pilot second" and give me a reason why this is the case I've seen it on multiple posts here and there, decided I may want to try to coalesce these answers all together under one. For example, marketing tells me that going Warrant Officer Army Pilot all you'll do is fly helicopters. I find this a little too good to be true as with any leadership position there comes a bevy of staff duties to fulfill. Like making sure the fridge is stocked. For example: In the Marines, you're actually a rifleman first, a pilot second. Because "oo-rah kill". So let's hear it! Wha…

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/bells-v-280-valor-tiltrotor-picked-as-armys-black-hawk-replacement

They claim it can be flown manned or unmanned. There goes the Per Diem. Oh well.

Hello! Please feel free to move this if it’s not in the appropriate section. I’m currently an enlisted aviator that was selected for OTS/UPT in July (still waiting on dates). I’m interested in knowing what the average assignment length looks like for pilots, from what I can tell it’s 3-4 years. I assume it’s that way for most of the Air Force, but I have basically no experience with that since my shred can only go to 2 bases (I’ve been OCONUS for 4 years now, I know people that have done 9 year tours here or stayed at the CONUS base their entire career). I’m asking because my wife, who’s currently in the same career field as me but separating soon, wants to go …