General Discussion

This is a great telling of the story from Rescue's point of view, and reads much better than I'm sure the citation will. https://www.bagram.afcent.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123254042

Seems odd to be speaking so late on a Sunday night!

To USAFE Fighter Pilots- Thought I'd pass this along and see what ya'll thought. I need your help. During a recent 4-star meeting, we talked about what appears to be a pending fighter pilot shortage. The AF's rated personnel management folks are projecting a 300 fighter pilot shortfall in FY13 that could grow to over 1000 by FY21. They also told us that the fighter community's bonus "take rate" is 10% lower than the rest of the rated community. Obviously, many of you are leaving, or thinking about leaving, the Air Force for other opportunities. If you've already made the decision to do so, then please accept my sincere thanks for your service and best wishes fo…

Anyone recently receive a type rating from a FSDO office by walking in with a form 8? Did the FSDO place any limitations on said type rating (specifically SIC)? Is there any printed guidance which defines what the FAA will issue?

Hmm....no wonder they made it 40 minutes into pakistan without being detected....

Raptors grounded today over potential Onboard Oxygen Generating System issues.

Last Friday, with very little fan-fare, the AF's first production F-35A arrived at Edwards AFB. We should start seeing one or two delivered a month through the end of the year, even more after wards. One down, 1762 more go to (if anyone still believes that number).

Does the AF only use time in the AOR to determine the amount of reconstitution leave or do they use all time spent away from your home of record? I am deployed as guest help with another unit. I will have over 90 days deployed and will get another week of reconstitution if they consider time spent at the other unit (which is out of my State) as well as travel time getting to the AOR and back. Our Log Plans guy back home is telling me that they only use time in the AOR to calculate the leave while the unit I am with says they count all time away from home. Which is it and can someone point me to a specific reg?

Anyone care to share his most memorable experiences in mock air to air fights? This could include a simulator fight as well I think. Could be the time you took on the most challenging or most reputable opponent. Any humorous, dangerous, or accidental moments during or around training? If not your own, do you know a story of another, or perhaps a famous story from another era? Also how did a day of mock fighting go? What was your first engagement like? Did you go out with an instructor all day? Did you go up against several different people in one day or was money so tight that flight time was limited? Did you ever challenge anyone outside of your squadron?

https://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20110527/NEWS/110527022/Iowa-airman-killed-in-Afghanistan?odyssey=tab%7Ctopnews%7Ctext%7CFrontpage

Queen decorates Nepali for Afghanistan heroics Its like Call of Duty, except IRL. All kidding aside, hats off to this dude for not giving up. "I had so many of them around me that I thought I was definitely going to die so I thought I'd kill as many of [those fvckers] as I could before they killed me." ^^^^^^Hell yeah

Llyas Kashmiri He was a heavy hitter in S Waziristan. He seems to be the facilitator between UBL and field jihadis. There was no love lost between him and Pakistan either. Whatever, props to those who bagged him and tagged him. Hopefully there will be someone left for me to kill. EDIT: linky

Looking for the AFI (or the like) containing the definition of AF tail number formats. Any help would be appreciated! Something along the lines of this, Globemaster link or Globalsecurity.org link, but official.

Linky

If you own a house in Florida, filed a homestead exemption, and have been deployed in the last year to OEF/OIF/OND, read this: https://srcpa.org/. Florida approved an additional tax exemption on top of your homestead exemption proportional to the days in 2010 deployed. Looks like it'll be every year from now on, too, so keep it in mind next time you get non-vold to Balad. If you're home right now, you should get something in the mail, so this is more for guys that are deployed or instinctively throw anything from the Taxman's office in the shredder. Here's the application. https://srcpa.org/dr501m.pdf

Obviously there are a lot of (more) disgruntled rated dudes after the VSP debacle who are still meeting the RIF. Hypothetically speaking, if you were given the option of a "do not retain" on your RRF would you do it? Thoughts on chances of being RIF'd after VSP denial? Potential repercussions of a "do not retain" if retained?

Just saw this on CNN... Video at the link. More details...

Pilot of Goodyear Blimp Saves Passengers Before Dying in Fiery Crash

Anyone have any info or a link that talks about the minimum requirements for guys to go fly the E-4B? Thanks for any help

Gotta put in the shameless plug... Air Force Times article

Big first story is the 747-8 just landed there a few hours ago. U-S-A, U-S-A!

Obama to announce plans to begin withdrawal of 30,000 troops Wednesday night. Stay tuned. I won't miss the B-huts one bit but then again I think some of us are still gonna be there for a long time. Maybe he had this on his mind...

https://us.cnn.com/2011/US/06/21/north.dakota.flooding/index.html?hpt=hp_t2 Is this affecting the base at all? These spring/summer storms are starting to get out of hand!!

I am a medical officer with 3 years in and want to switch fields to become a pilot. I am already commissioned before my 29th birthday (I'm 28 now). Can anyone assist? I have called AFPC and my functional and they either say they've never heard of it, or that I'd lose rank (don't mind)--and still no help after that. I am seeing if anyone knows anything else in order to help me out and if it were even worth my while with only a few hours of pilot training and ground school knocked out. Phone numbers, e-mails, or contacts would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

Austin Hatch in critical condition Quote from a friend about the first crash that killed his wife and 2 kids (Doctor pilot and his son survived): Guess this guy never learned what unusable fuel was. The only time it is ever used, is in a post crash fire. Why does the FAA keep giving pilot licenses to Doctors?