General Discussion

av8tor55 - If I can give a recommendation, not from the military stand point, but from the view of someone who worked for a large insurance company and someone who sold term life insurance, term life is a waste of money. If you were looking for a small amount of supplemental insurance, term could be the way to go. If you are looking at covering your mortgage, I would look at mortgage insurance. Otherwise, I would recommend spending the extra money on whole life insurance. It builds cash value that you can borrow against. Basically with term life you would be giving USAA $90 a month and saying "I bet I die this month". And USAA says "Okay, I will take that bet". Loo…

Anyone care to comment on the QOL and Ops tempo of a C-5 Reservist? Is transitioning to a civilian flying job after initial training easier than the fighter guys because of the airframe? I spoke with a JSTARs Active Duty pilot a couple months ago who kept b*tching about the flying he was doing - and I'm hoping that's not the general feeling throughout the non-fighter community. Any insights would be great! Thanks!

Can anyone tell me what type of lifestyle a pilot flying an AWACS, JSTARS, or RJ usually lives? I have a rough idea of the missions of these jets, but not the crew lifestyle. Long deployments, amount of flight time compared to the KC's or C-type jets? I searched, but didn't find much to answer my question. [ 31. August 2006, 17:23: Message edited by: robot_chicken ]

Ok, I know that most of you are fixed wing pilots, but I am really looking at flying Helicopters for the Military. The question I have is as follows: What are the career ops outside of the military? Where can you find these jobs? Respectfully, PWL

Interesting argument for light (very light) on-demand direct airlift for small, specialized cargo/passenger requirement. https://warontherocks.com/2019/06/featherweight-airlift-for-want-of-a-nail/ Is there a requirement for this? Is it affordable? Does it offer secondary benefits? It was interesting that the authors were/are respectively both fighter aircrew and not airlift aircrew advocating for this, thoughts?

Light Fighters... interesting article and worth a read IMHO. https://warontherocks.com/2022/02/the-light-fighter-is-the-air-forces-manned-unmanned-team-solution/ Author leaves room for discussion for what I would call mission requirements vs platform requirements, that is what is the mission and then what is the platform required or capable of meeting those technical / performance requirements. How many UCAVs / UAVs would it need to control, at what distance, how resilient to EA to that supplied link, how much organic capability for offense/defense for this platform, etc... most of that I think would be a result of what the cognitive load is determined to …

I am unfortunately in the process of being medically disqualified from flying related duties. I finished three months of training but had to be removed because of my medical problem. I am currently preparing my reclassification package and was wondering if anyone with experience can tell me the proper protocol to ask someone for a letter of recommendation when you are no longer in their chain of command? Most of the people going to the board commissioned through ROTC and received really good LORs from their leadership at ROTC. I am prior service that commissioned through OTS so that avenue is not available for me. I am hoping to get LORs from my past leadership but mo…

I'd like a template of a lineup card for formation flying. Something from the T-38 or T-6 is probably the best for what I need, but I'll take anything. I'd rather not reinvent the wheel. It needs to be editable. PM me for an email address to send it. Thank you.

I've been reading a lot on here lately about non-continuation for passed over majors in the flying arena, and this is a topic addressed to the rated community only. I would love to see the reaction and hear the great stories of individuals who choose to be the best in the jet, and forego all the queep. A few questions to consider. - How did this individual affect morale in the squadron, and were they actually credible? - Would they have been better leaders if they had promoted based on flying ability and officership instead of exec strats and PME completion (in-res selection, etc...)? - Would it have been better for these individuals to help "run the company" f…

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/32401/general-atomics-wants-to-give-aerial-tankers-their-own-missile-laden-loyal-wingmen-drones Any thoughts on this? Seems pretty interesting, but I'm just a new guy trying to get more educated-er.

https://www.controller.com/listingsdetail/detail.aspx?OHID=1334219 This would be a fun refurb project. Wish I had stupid money.

Does anyone have or know where to find a list of all the pilot exchanges available?

Can anybody recommend some good furnished apartments near the base. I have heard bad things about the Links and was hoping for some other options. Any info would be great. [ 29. July 2005, 16:50: Message edited by: pilotpm ]

The story below explains the plans for the Reserves to take over the Legacy FTU at LRF. The big question is how are they going to find the people? Are there AD Pilot's, Nav's, FE's and LM's excited about becoming Air Reserve Technicians in the FTU? Even if they know the legacy herks will draw down with the AMP and J's coming on? Just wondering, H2Nav LRF FTU story

How often do you use live bombs in training? How often do you get to shoot down aerial drones? Thanks

Live Free or Die

Looks like I may be living in Egypt for a bit. Anyone been there (TDY or otherwise)? Any tips/pointers/insults/vicious personal attacks?

I've read about units paying for hotel for those who don't live in the area while on duty for the weekend. However, was wondering if travel (i.e. air travel) is discounted when travelling from out of state to your unit's base?

Hey all, LM is looking to hire a weapons integrator at the F-16 SPO at Hill. Fighter types (pilots and WSOs) and B-52 patches would be a perfect fit. AFAIK, this job will mostly be on-site (not telework/remote), there will be travel involved, and LM Aero is a great company to work for! Let me know if you have any questions. https://www.lockheedmartinjobs.com/job/hill-air-force-base/senior-aircraft-systems-engineer-weapons-integration-level-4/694/26713588176

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lincolnshire-29544064

Hello everyone! Does anyone have any experience or know someone with experience with crosstraining from a loadmaster to a pilot or navigator? I am pretty sure I am about to take a loadmaster position with the 136th Airlift Unit in Fort Worth, but at the same time not losing my dream of becoming a pilot or navigator. Thanks for your insight and opinions! Justin

I am wondering which would most of the folks here rather have: a great unit and mission in a less than cool spot like Cannon, or what they think is a less than cool mission in a great spot? Would it matter if you had a family? Just sort of curious.

Lockheed Martin is hiring an F-16 Flight Manual Manager to the team at Hill AFB. If you or anyone you know might be interested, and you aren't going to the airlines, please consider applying! LM Aero is a great company to work for and the work environment and team at the F-16 SPO are top notch! PM me if you have any questions. You don't need to have F-16 experience (though it would be great if you did!), but you do have to be aircrew. https://www.lockheedmartinjobs.com/job/hill-air-force-base/f-16-flight-manual-manager/694/14369192?fbclid=IwAR1NKFDcEoO-0cWDep4KYV8TuXhqkCg2GYQK2__08C1VKRUUZHFO4yOCiAw

I have heard that the blue logbooks with the wings on the cover are not recognized by the airlines. I'd like to start logging my flights not only as a backup to my flight records but to have something to pass along to my kids. I'm not sure that I am interested in ever going to the airlines but if I did and I'd logged my hours in the AF logbook would I have to copy the entries to another format? Does anyone have any experience with this? Thanks.

I was wondering about how logging sim time towards your total time works and if we’re able to do it for military sim training. I’m currently at JMATS in Little Rock, training in their full motion C-130J simulators. I’m a guard guy so after seasoning I’ll be back out on the streets and have to find a full time civilian flying job (hopefully), and I’m trying to plan ahead. With the market as it is, I want to count as many hours as I’m able to towards my total time and hopefully go straight to a regional, or at least a fractional ownership company like Netjets. Does any C-130J pilot out there know if the C-130J sims are FAA certified so that we are able to count them towards…