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We received a briefing this morning on this, and I think it did a lot to dispel some of the complaints voiced in this thread. For the last month, an OT&E team has been flying sorties breathing ambient air and undergoing endless medical analysis before and after each flight, NASA has been involved sampling cockpit and mask air quality, and maintenance has been tearing down OBOGS to try and find a source of the issue. Below are some of the highlights from that briefing. 1) Only TCTO compliant aircraft will be flown with OBOGS operational as normal. Breathing cockpit air was not approved by AETC nor recommended by the OT&E team. To answer those who wondered why this was such a big deal when other aircraft fly unpressurized without oxygen, it is an FAA airworthiness certificate issue. Without the OBOGS, the T-6 would not be considered airworthy by the FAA without an amendment. 2) The TCTOs are a "millimeter by millimeter" (their words) inspection of the OBOGS from the engine air inlet all the way to the mask. It replaces parts to make the system as close to factory new as possible. 3) This is not the end. No causal factor was found, but the OT&E unanimously agreed that returning the OBOGS to a factory new state made them comfortable flying the jet. Flying is still volunteer only at PIT. 4) The top six of the T-6 SPO were fired due to mismanagement of the program and a fly-to-fail mentality. The zeolite bed maintenance interval has been aggressively reduced from 4,500 to 700 hours, and the new SPO is re-evaluating other fly-to-fail parts on the T-6 to possibly set replacement intervals. 19 AF is also using this debacle to highlight the ISS and EFIS issues. 5) The future: The team considers this only the beginning and are still trying to drill down to a single cause. From what the briefer said though, the OBOGS on all of the jets inspected were absolutely horrendous (kinked lines, valves stuck in the open position, evidence of water in the lines, general dirt and gunk, etc), and 79% failed the inspection, so there might not be one silver bullet. The incident T-6s are all still impounded, but an Edwards AFB test team will begin inspecting those independently and in parallel so the two teams can compare notes. Honestly, I was pretty impressed with what the team has been doing this last month. There were a lot of really smart people helping with this, to include a NASA test engineer who has made a career out of OBOGS issues. It also received visibility all the way up to the VPOTUS. My biggest misgiving is that they never found a single causal factor, but I am not surprised given the fact that the entire system was basically never inspected since the plane left the factory. I think the 19 AF initially fumbled at the beginning of this grounding a month ago, but since then a lot of good things have happened to make up for it.

Fridays are the best days to hire and fire anyways right? Happy or sad at least its the weekend.

Agreed, he says all kinds of crazy shit. Which he might believe at the moment he is saying it, but who can know? Still better than Hillary!

06 W11H. Palace chase has been approved all the way up through AFPC. Front office thinks I should get official notification without issue in a couple of weeks. I’m very surprised it has gone this well so far. Best of luck to others trying. Luckily our functional is shit hot.

https://warontherocks.com/2018/02/air-force-crisis-part-pilot-retention-matters-right-now/

Little background about me...I was an off the street hire last year for a Herc unit (guard). I attended my FCI last week and was unfortunately disqualified for defective stereopsis with no waiver recommendation. I have plenty of flying experience, but it doesn't seem as though my depth perception is good enough for manned AF aircraft. I was told by the flight surgeon that I was eligible only for RPAs at this point, but that I would need to find another unit to hire me. Any other strings I might be able to pull before I am forced to give up on my dream of flying Hercs? Any thoughts as to switching over to the RPA track for a guy who had his sights set on manned aircraft? My enlistment contract states that I enlisted as an E-3 solely for the purpose of commissioning as a pilot with my squadron. I've been gained at my unit, attending drill, getting paid, got my ID, submitted my SF-86 for SSBI, etc, etc, but now I'm guessing I can just get my DD-214 if I so chose. But what type of discharge would that be? Medical? General? OTH? What happens to my security clearance? Any words of wisdom or encouragement would be deeply appreciated. Thank you all.

I could ask my Commander how many slots there were for each category but hopefully someone should be able to let you know of selection/non- election.

If your CC is gone (and he/she isn’t going to be offended not telling you personally) I would call your Group. Personally I’m too impatient to wait a week ha Good luck everyone!

I spent a lot more than that on hotels and booze rushing. Plus you can resell it for $400 when you’re done and it will have been free. Hell put an ad up on a cork/white board in W100 next time you go to WP.

I recently did MEPS and FC1 and can vouch that the first and the last are never it, but I do recall having 2 in a row more than once, 3-3-2 (or 3-3-4?) specifically.

2018 UFT Release CC Advance Notification ALCON, the 2018 UFT results will post on myPers AFPC Secure Friday 2Mar18. This will allow Commanders an opportunity to notify personnel of their selection. On 8Mar18 at 0900CST, the PSDM will officially post to the normal myPers PSDM website and be viewable by all. If a member has questions/concerns on selection/non-selection status, please email the AFPC/DP2OR Workflow. We will reply within 7 days of reception. -Knuckles

I laughed at so many of those questions.

Good luck dude. That chick going thru with us said she had a depth perception trainer app on her computer that she used. Have you tried one of those? I can’t vouch for it and frankly have no idea what it is or how it works, but she said it worked well for her when we were discussing your bad news. Regardless, hope it works out. RPAs are cool too...get to kill a lot of dudes and go home every night. Prob not as fun as flying, but an important mission nonetheless. I think I mentioned to you I had some army bro’s who flew in the army but couldn’t pass color or depth perception at WP for their FC1. Maybe navy/army/coast guard could work out if ANG doesn’t?

Yep, I too like to shoot in "Full semi-auto." Out

I called a few moments ago and spoke with Maj Jarding. There were some last minute revisions and it went to the General about 10 minutes ago. She said to expect an official release probably Friday.

Used to bug the shit out of me when I'd walk into base ops (sergeant) and they'd auto-sir me. Brief explanation that, no, despite the bag, I'm an E-5, you can call me Sgt, shithead, whatever, just knock off the sir. Still sir this and that sir. FFS. Then I finished OTS, now immersed in my newfound Blue world, was when I finally noticed, they're all sir/ma'am-ing each other. MSgt calling A1C sir, SSgts calling each other ma'am. And also calling me sir. But since they also call the coffee pot sir, seems like much less of a courtesy extended. Its a culture of diluting the enlisted rank structure, delineation and responsibilities within enl/NCO ranks, and the enl/off relationship. A continuation of the mindset leading to a SrA stopping a Capt for ________ infraction, and if the Capt does not accept the correction on the spot, the SrA tells their Shirt, etc, etc. My opinion, from the perspective of having been proud to be addressed as Sgt, because it meant something, and I knew early on that if I ever poked a finger in a Marine Captain's chest, I would pull back a bloody stump, regardless of what clownery he was wearing. But that's where I grew up, I guess.

In other news, AFSOC adds 40 GS positions to headquarters staff.

My wife and I are currently at Laughlin for UPT. We live in a duplex with our 3 year old little boy, and we have a reasonable 3 bedroom one and a half bath. You can get more for your money off base, but living on base is worth the extra dough for the convenience being in UPT. Buzz me a message for pictures/details. My son isnt old enough for school yet, so he just attends the CDC. They are building a magnet school on base, but I do not know much about it. As far as things to do, the town doesng offer much, but there is great fishing at the Lake and lots of outdoor opportunities. San Antonio is 2.5 hours, Austin isnt much further, Corpus is maybe 4 or 5, and Dallas and Houston are each about 7.

congrats!

I keep finding uses for this...

They must just not be very patriotic. Or, at least, that's what some doofus in AF management once said.

Are oil line chafing and ISS sequencing still issues as well?

Wait, the o2 system is broken and you cant detonate the canopy from the outside? This SIB is writing itself.

Good reply. I didn't know the compounding nature of risk acceptance you guys were dealing with. Thanks for a legit answer. That said, accept risk and execute seems like the MLCOA forward until one of the potential catastrophes actually plays out in reality. Yes the stories you quoted me on came from a bud at Vance within the last month.

That’s overboard. I haven’t seen that in my neck of the T-6 woods and if so that’s insane. The biggest issue is all the risk leadership has signed off on our behalf. Half of our fleets ejections systems don’t function properly. We have a known issue with instruments flying to fail and filling our cockpit with smoke and fumes. Oh, and we have no way of knowing when this will happen. Our CFS may or may not work, and heaven forbid we get damage to the canopy and pass out. The fire crew is going to chipping for a while because we no longer have an exterior CFS handle. Our oxygen system isn’t working as advertised, and they are going to cap us at 8k cabin altitude. Cool I can live with that. But our pressurization system isn’t the greatest after being left in the cold and not flying for a prolonged amount of time. What could possibly go wrong? People are upset about the amount of risk being accepted for them. And the pressure to keep progressing the timeline. We’ll also see what these mods do to the syllabus. And if we are altitude capped we lose half of our training ability. It’s a lot of crap piled into one aircraft. I haven’t seen this level of risk acceptance to an aircrafts core functions in my career. But I could be wrong.

This might be useful for someone fighting with MPF. From the current JTR 051002. Service Member Separates or is Released from Active Duty, Excluding a Discharge with Severance or Separation Pay I. Service Member Contracts with an RC. A Service member who separates from active duty to continue military service through a signed contract in an RC, may be authorized PCS travel and transportation allowances through the Secretarial Process to the designated Selected Reserve PDS, instead of limiting costs to the HOR or the PLEAD. (page 5(1)B-33) This means I get PCS allowances to my new reserve duty station RC = Reserve Component, which includes the Air Force Reserve, see page A-42

Had a bit closer look at the stats, and if I'm reading them right, the AF has given up on trying to retain 11Ms. Running the numbers paints a pretty dismal picture: - Per CH's posted slide deck, the AF projects losing 933 11Ms from their inventory over the next 5 years (from substantial surplus to substantial deficit)--an average loss of 187/yr - IAW the 1400/yr plan, apparently 640 UPT grads/yr will go to mobility cockpits - If we produce 640/yr, but the inventory drops 187/yr, that means 827/yr (11Ms alone) will separate, retire, get promoted to O-6, or be grounded/die/etc. -- From FYs 15-17, the 11M community only lost about 440/yr to seps/retirements/O-6 promotion/grounding/etc (with just 215 of those being folks who separated) - Problem is, there ain't that many 11Ms approaching retirement/their O-6 boards (force shaping & a-word hiring took care of that), and it's unlikely there'll be a huge spike in folks getting grounded/dying off (one hopes) - The upshot is this: the Air Force seems to be planning on three times more 11Ms separating (not staying to retirement/not competing for O-6) than in the prior three years. This is going to decimate a mobility pilot community that's already on the ropes. I'd say 11Ms are very aware of their marketability. The weird thing is, the Air Force is tacitly acknowledging this, yet is doing nothing to stop the hemorrhaging. Crappy quality of life, plus AF leadership that doesn't seem to care about their plight--seems like a winning combination. TT

I hear there is a lot of open airspace, and a big runway near Lubbock, Texas...