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I enjoy flying as little as possible, to give myself “white space”. White space, as I have learned from management, means time not uselessly flying, but sitting in my office doing fun things. Fun things like help a copilot come up with 60-90 bullets for an awards package that I found out about yesterday and is due by COB today. I find that using a thesaurus and using little tricks to massage more fluff into bullets in order to use all the space on every line in a desperate attempt to appease my vanity while being dishonest about the actual work we do is thrilling. Its the worst when flying gets in the way of my real job. Since flying doesn’t help me get strats, I like to avoid it to the max extent possible. I strive to plan parties, volunteer for dick-watch, support mission support troops by doing their jobs, and volunteer to help others learn to stop their inner rapist. If I do these things well, I can go home after a long days’ work, and masturbate to my OPR strats in good conscience, like a good AF officer.

What you like the most will change based on your experience, how many times you’ve done it etc. A few hours ago I was doing a 500kt low level through the mountains for 30 min followed by 30 min 2v1 DACT. When I was young I would’ve given my left ball for that flight. Today I wanted to land, debrief early and go pick up my kids from school. After ~3,500 hours and 16.9 years, what things I look forward to flying have completely changed. I’d have traded today’s flight for an out and back to get a good meal. Overall, I’d say providing support to a TIC in the Koranghal from an alert launch was the coolest rush ever. Nothing has compared to that or come close. Killing bad guys is as cool as it sounds. My *overall favorite “rewarding job” 3 years was as a T-38 UPT IP. Right now, it’s all about lifestyle so where my family lives and work/home balance is key. Lastly, I have friends who got their #1 fighter out of UPT and were miserable. I also have friends who dreamt of being fighter pilots and got a heavy who are loving life. Have a good attitude, realize no airframe / mission is perfect and don’t be a blue kool aid drinking d-bag...it’ll work out for you. Now I’m gonna go flog myself for liking my AETC tour.

Teaching T-38 students tactical formation even though I’m not an 11F. It is either that or airborne quarterbacking closehold missions in places that Americans don’t belong at.

As an F-16 guy, I enjoy every mission... even if I have no idea what I'm doing because I haven't flown that mission in a year.

No, you're not working for 2/3s pay either. That''s the same incorrect logic as the working for 50% pay argument. It's fallacious reasoning based on retirement being only 50% of base pay and discounting what the 2.5% increase means in real dollar terms because 2.5% is a very small number. In simplest financial terms, at 20 years you're working for: (100% pay + any bonuses) + (2.5% added retirement) - $54K. The $54K is what a Lt Col would get if they retired at 20 and you forgo by continuing to work. The 2.5% retirement increase for a Lt Col averages about $3K per year past 20. It's also almost zero risk. Using a conservative 4% rate of return, you's have to earn $75K net to generate the same annual income stream increase. However, you're giving up the $54K in retirement income, so you subtract that from $75K to get $21K. This $21K net would get added to your full Lt Col pay when making a comparison to a civilian job. So what you're really working for in that 21st year is Lt Col salary + any bonuses + $21K. This would be a base income number that you would compare to a civilian job to see if you would do better or worse financially by leaving at 20 years. You'd also have to add in extra money to account for your tax free BAH/BAS pay. Granted there's tons of other factors that go into the decision of when to retire: QoL, you prefer money in the bank as opposed to a gov't pension/annuity that goes away when you die, risk tolerance, etc.

Still nothing at my base (besides the two upper level execs being notified). I did have a friend look me up on the list and my name wasn’t on there, but until I hear it officially, I am holding off on the Duck Passover Party (clothing optional).

Urgent medevac. Nothing clarifies your purpose like saving a life. It can leave you wholly spent because giving anything less than perfection is not an option, but is worth it. ...formation combat airdrop and down range dirt LZs are a close second.

Find the fun wherever you end up. In the C-17, flying (literally) around the world over the course of about 2 weeks as a brand new aircraft commander. Flying a 400k lb jet low level at 300 knots at 300' in formation to an airdrop. Airdropping supplies to FOBs in Afghanistan. 37-ship formation across a DZ during an exercise. Teaching a LT how to fly the T-6 and sending them out on their first T-6 solo. Taking a T-6 solo and raging in the MOA against your buddy, or just cloud surfing. Watching your students pin on their pilot wings. Seeing how many aileron rolls you can do in a row. As crappy as the AF can be at times, there have been moments that I treasure, knowing that I've gotten to do things that many people only dream of getting to do.

Island turns, when I get fed and then get to go home.

PRFs were written because it was required and this change in policy didn't come down the pipe until after the were all requires up to the group level. Wht promote a 100% promotion due to numbers if they did not intend to add to the end total of promotees?

It is indeed RNLTD. My story concluded with me getting an assignment with a June '16 RNLTD, I dropped the 7 day option, enjoyed the good life for a year, caught a non-flying "gee i can't understand why all the pilots are leaving" 6 month going away tour in CENTCOM, and now I'm a free man.

That's how you know you've struck a nerve.

I enjoy teaching students, either in the T-6 or T-38, both have their pros/cons.

Copying ATIS while the other guy flies.

AAT mainly, but I revert to other “inside the jet” crutches like heading bug when it’s inop.

Yes, thank you, we all get it. I am getting promoted.

Its even worse, since the pointy-nosed Generals are the ones who are leading the AF into the ditch in the first place.

Well...displaying the rumor fucks with them. To me...that's reason enough.

No need, I’m in the same boat. Gray jets were fun for the reasons you stated, but I have gotten far more satisfaction out of being a T-6 driver in UPT and now in PIT. I loved helping young guys the basic skill set they will use for the rest of their careers and seeing the light bulb turn on. PIT is less fulfilling that way, but the flying and squadron is great. Family life is great. SA is a good city. I feel way more like a real pilot in AETC than I ever did in ACC. I know that’s sad.

Guard bonus is better than AD. First and foremost, it’s not an ADSC and can be curtailed if you change your mind. Second, you can sign multiple contracts (newsflash, dollar amounts have been going up, not down). Third, they’re even offering a bonus, albeit smaller, to DSGs who get a full year of MPA. The flexibility far outweighs the negative factor of annual amounts that lag a year behind AD.

Providing a military salute in response to someone who gave it first? Seems ok to me and I hate those Commie bastards. Listen, I’m sure you are convinced Hillary would have gone in there on a menopausal rage and a week later Bill could have a NK comfort girl after his trip to the Pyongyang McDonalds but that’s not how this stuff works. The left once again imploding. Sad.

Yep. These type deals can take a loooong time to reach any logical state of fruition. Here's a look back/few highlights from the last time we conducted nuclear weapons negotiations with an adversary that actually had "Real Live Nukes" with Short, Intermediate, Strategic range/reach. - Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty; US/USSR negotiations started in Nov 1981 and the INF Treaty went into effect in June 1988 (it took 7 years, 5 months to cut this deal). Key note; The INF Treaty was approved/ratified by the US Senate. - Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START); US/USSR negotiations started in June 1982 and the START Treaty went into effect in Dec 1994 (it took 12 years, 6 months to cut this deal). Key note; The START Treaty was approved/ratified by the US Senate. Here's my take on the current status of the US/Nork Nuke negotiations. We have taken the first baby step by CNX/suspending Joint US/ROK exercises and have 6,969 more steps to go; - We have seen these type of actions taken by the US and our allies before. I'm cautiously optimistic but wouldn't be surprised if we get screwed "again" in the long run. Hopefully this move (CNXing Exercises) will be considered a signal of good faith to the Norks and it's also reminiscent of something right out of the President Reagan/HW Bush playbook. - We did something similar to this back in the late 1980's/early 1990's in Europe/NATO. These US/NATO actions were in direct response to the US/USSR Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF-Treaty) which went into effect in 1988, ongoing comprehensive START Treaty negotiations, and finally the collapse of the USSR in late Dec 1991. Also the end of the Cold War ushered in the era of the "Peace Dividend" which resulted in drastic cuts to US/NATO military spending. Note; the Peace Dividend era pretty much sucked for us military folks. - Basically we started scaling back our troop levels/equipment/armament, cancelling or scaling back our exercises, etc, etc. Here's one of maaaany Examples; The massive "Reforger Exercise" was cancelled in 1989 and by the early 1990's it was officially terminated (many other NATO exercise were also terminated or scaled way back). The downside today (last 5 to 10 years) = Russia is acting up again and we're starting to ramp some of this stuff back up again.

Did you win?

And suddenly we have funding for a 7th Gen Fighter that will probably be designed with a stick and OBOGS system in it but no seat and delivered 20 years to late. But as long as control + Alt + Delete works

PRFs were written because it was required and this change in policy didn't come down the pipe until after the were all requires up to the group level. Wht promote a 100% promotion due to numbers if they did not intend to add to the end total of promotees?

So... why did we not just include the PRFs that everybody had already written anyways?

Unfortunately our operations in Afghanistan have mandated that minimum requirement into stone.... You know because pushing the envelope on aircraft performance well past the current bench marks is way easier than say.... making a bigger f’ing FARP with a few extra T-walls and not surrounding them with OA254 antennas so you can make a VMC approach/takeoff.

Gee things different about the two. The fact that the Iran deal was not negotiable because they refused while this is still an active negotiation... The fact it lapses after 10 years... The fact we were allowing them multiple loopholes to continue enrichment and centrifuge research at military sites we weren’t allowed to inspect by our own agreement... as well as refine their ballistic missile capability. Look the Iran deal sucked. This deal could very well suck. Difference is the Iran deal was “done” as far as every party outside of us was concerned and was no longer negotiable so we go back to sanctions in the hopes of forcing them back to the table for the same reason they originally showed up. This.... is still the opening stage of a long term discussion and actions. Trump hasn’t agreed or brought some treaty for anything that is final. Let them run this out because the sanctions, the huge military apparatus, and the willingness to turn the hurt back on didn’t go away yesterday with a handshake and some sound bites on CNN. Same as Reagan and Gorbachev didn’t suddenly turn off MAD/Afghanistan/SDI/NATO after the first press junket. Some people just want to excercise in a self exhaustive effort of sport bitching.

The Donald may be on the verge of one of the biggest peace breakthroughs in recent history and people are getting wrapped around the axel regarding Trump (returning) a salute to a NK General. We really are in trouble. People focus more on optics than the actual issue. (For the record I thought it was stupid regarding people getting spun up about Obama bowing.) Plenty of material to criticize any President on, this is not one of them.

I’ll try to be serious: formation low level to an airdrop! Airdrop is actually the mission while formation / low level is a tactic but it’s still the most fun thing I do in my airplane - followed by tac approaches.

And people can’t understand why some guys like the T-38A better.

Klepto, best option get out, go airlines, get off probation, drop mil leave with the guard or reserves, bypass crap seniority, collect AD retirement, then truley start airline career with up to 8 years of seniority.

Duck, thanks for keeping us informed with some of this info. At least someone is trying to get the word out. Would like to know what the “MAJCOM Commander Action” was.

Totally thought this thread was going to get flamed down with “Use The Search Function” Now it’s turning out to be shitting on Hacker lol. He had a great point. Currently in the U-28 community people can’t do VFR patterns unless they have the missed approach fix / runway in the GPS with a GD bearing pointer. To the original poster: I have been both a B-1 pilot and U-28 driver. By far the most rewarding aspect of my job has been being in places I never thought I’d be in and giving great support to guys on the ground. In both communities I never thought I’d be stuck at the Deid flying an 18 hour mission after the entire F15 fleet got grounded and I never thought I’d be in blah blah blah because I’m in AFSOC and it is classified. BL: You will learn to love whatever you do and have great memories with the people you have done it with. Everyone’s mission is the best because you identify with it and the people you support.

Using heading bugs and counting right?

They already did with a 6+ month coordination and release fiasco because they decided to second guess the SRs.

Mission Accomplished.

With or without dinosaur puppet?

We need to live stream ducks promotion ceremony

Why am I so sure the Air Force is going to some how screw up this 100% promotion?

Last four of your SSN. Oh wait... wrong organization.

My calculations show that getting out at 12 YOS, joining the Guard and flying for the majors for 8 years, then “retiring” from both, murders the active duty check of the month club if you have the discipline to live on senior captain pay and save everything above that. If you suck at saving or investing and need someone to pay you twice a month then you should not think about getting out. Second best scenario, again purely by the numbers, is staying until 20 and then flying for the majors for 7 years. If they’re still hiring... Of course, in either case, if you continue flying for the majors until 65 you’ll just be stupid filthy rich in retirement... as long as you don’t spend $200,000+ a year. BUT this doesn’t account for QOL or job satisfaction. If you love coming to work everyday in the worlds greatest Air Force then getting out might not be worth it to you, even for a Ferrari or two in your 70s.

Duck pins on July 1st

Regardless...in today's DOD timelines....add 5 years min to the dates in this article. ATIS

Incorrect. What, ~3 form rides in IFF? The only ones that get a dedicated form ride in the FTU are internationals. IFF/ FTU syllabi are built on the assumption that UPT taught them basics, like formation. I left Luke back in the day with almost 100 hrs. Punks now leave with <69 hrs. There is no room in the syllabus for re-visiting basics. When they suck at admin the end up on CAP and unable to do basic employment tasks like running FCR/TGP, using visual references to find a bomb wire or executing a valid threat reaction. There is only room on the iceberg for so many penguins. When students spend so many brain bytes on form/admin, they fvck up many other basic tasks. Worst case, they try to do everything, prioritize the wrong things and run jets together. This has happened and will continue to happen. Having an attitude of “these 20+ Dedicated form rides in UPT aren’t critical, they’ll fix that shit in IFF/FTU” shows that you don’t know what the hell you're talkingg about. Get over the butthurt. It’s not about IP ability/aptitude, it’s about IP skillset/experience.

I don't pretend to know what it takes to make a good co-pilot or AC in the heavy world, so I don't understand why non fighter guys think they know what it takes to build a solid wingman in a fighter squadron.

Hopefully all ya'll saw this, but if not, the update is good. Their follow on post said they're back to flying again. Crazy year again.

Fair enough and rather than starting another round of Heavy v Fighter version 69,000 I will agree some T-1 trained could do it, some couldn't (sts) , I would just add that it would be the majority of T-1 guys and not the minority could rise to the challenge.... Sidebar, SUPT should end and the USAF return to UPT, coming up on 19 years in Big Blue and flying over 17, it (SUPT) is having a pernicious effect of creating and us vs them culture, I feel like it is always there and it just screws things up. Two cents paid.

For those with severe Trump Derangement Syndrome.