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In India (and other countries using the RAF rank structure) the "wing commander" title is their O-5 rank, O-6 is "group captain" (flipped compared to our ranks). +1 on getting him home and the situation deescalated though.

volunteering...

I feel a bit remiss not adding some perspective to my last "trip of justice" post for those guys who may be considering FedEx. As far as the 777 goes, that was an above average trip - primarily for two reasons. 1) the front-end deadhead to Paris and 2) the one leg per duty period. But, if you take off the deadhead and have the trip start in Memphis, that's a very average and attainable trip for anyone with just a few years of seniority.. That is primarily because it's a flying trip (FO trip versus an RFO trip) and it's longer than some care to fly. FO trips are not as popular as RFO trips because every leg of an RFO trip is over 8 hours and typically generates more pay per duty period, potentially averaging as high at 8-10 hours of pay per day. I like flying to maintain some proficiency every now and then (as opposed to RFOing every month), I like deadheading from home to work in first class, so I don't mind the minor hit in pay per day to do a trip like that. The nice thing about the 777 flying at FedEx is the trips are not hugely different. A much more junior trip than the one I had might have one or two duty periods with two legs intra-Asia or intra-Europe but other than that be very similar even including the deadhead to Paris. We have one somewhat notorious trip that has three short legs in one day from Cologne to Paris to Munich to Frankfurt which is the only time any of us see more than two legs in one day. The good thing is that it's all day flying (Europe day) but it obviously opens up the door to delays and weather challenges with more legs. The bottom line for now on the 777 flying at FedEx is that it's attainable relatively quickly for new hires and it's relatively good considering the other options. Those other options are what I really wanted to throw out. The domestic, night flying that FedEx is famous for is really like being at a completely different airline. It really doesn't matter what aircraft you're talking about - MD-11/MD-10, A300, 767 or 757 all do the same kind of stuff. You commute in Monday night late, arrive Memphis around midnight or if you're local you show up for work at about 0200 and fly to city X, arriving around 0500-0700. The best case scenario is you stop there, go to the hotel and sleep as long as you can during the day. You leave 12-16 hours later, fly back to Memphis and do it all again the next morning and so on all week. The variables that make a particular schedule far better or far worse are length of flights, number of legs, direction of flights, etc. If you fly west, you land in the dark. Fly to the east coast and you're staring at the rising sun at top of descent which starts your body's wake-up cycle and makes it harder to sleep when you get to the hotel. Senior pilots are flying one leg from MEM to say, Birmingham (:45 block), arriving at 0500, laying over for 16 hours and flying one leg back to MEM that night, arriving just before midnight. They do the same thing three hours later - rinse and repeat all week. Or, they deadhead to Atlanta on Monday morning and leave that night at midnight to fly up to Newark and return to ATL by 0530 that morning. 17 hours later, they do the same evolution again. Repeat all week until arrival Friday morning from Newark. 10-12 hours later that Friday night, they deadhead home. Not bad duty if you live in Atlanta or can deadhead there easily, but I wouldn't say it's the easiest flying for those who may not adapt that well to back side of the clock work. There are far worse nights that consist of working between 2300 and 0600 flying three legs (Detroit-Newark-Syracuse-Buffalo) 14 hours off and then do the reverse routing the next night, similar layover and then start again in the original direction. They stick a Sunday night deadhead to Detroit and a Friday night deadhead home and it's doable, but you're working for you money - no doubt. The 757 pilots based in Cologne have some of the toughest flying we have. Similar night flying patterns to what I already described. Three legs a night on many trips in busy Euro airspace combined with typical winter weather challenges there make for some long, difficult duty periods. There are pilots who choose this kind of flying because they may live in a particular city that allows them to be home every night (day) for their layovers or be in place already and forgo the deadhead to city X and get paid to be at home for most of day one and day last. Some like the daytime options which follow a similar pattern, leaving Memphis in the afternoon, short layover in city X, returning the following morning very early and repeating that afternoon for the week. Other guys just don't care for the long-haul options and are willing to accept the downside of the domestic pattern. Whatever the reason, we're fortunate that the wide variety of flying attracts all types and lots of pilots find their niche. I just wanted to try to give some balance to the international snap shot I gave in the last post. Lots and lots of variety, but some is vastly different and considerably more work (in my opinion) depending on a/c, base and mission.

Fellas, this isn't rocket surgery. Give an availability date that reflects the first day you can show up for day one at airline X and at least complete initial training. The guy with the flexible FTU dates is kind of an anomaly. Whatever airline hires you is expecting you to allow for whatever known absences you have coming in the future. If you get hired and have to drop mil leave half-way through new hire training, most likely airline X is going to ask if you knew about that mil duty when you took the job. Tap dancing around the answer to that question isn't going to bode well for your future with that particular airline, in my opinion. If it's FedEx, I guarantee you that they'll show you the door if it comes to light that you were playing fast and loose with the definition of "available". To the guy with 8-10 months of pending FTU (what aircraft is that anyway? That's a long-ass FTU). If your CC can push your FTU dates as required with 100% certainty, then I'd give an availability date based on sep and terminal leave. As a minimum, get through indoc and your initial training. In a perfect world, you finish your first year and get off probation but that's not an absolute. If you have to drop mil leave before that to go to FTU, then you do. There's a big difference between that and taking a start date knowing you have a hard conflict that won't even allow you to get to the line.

The rumor is one IAF MIG-21 was shot down and one PAF F-16 was shot down in this little air-to-air engagement? F-16 Was Used By Pakistan, IAF Displays AMRAAM Missile Part As Proof; All About The Evidence Presented by India (See Photos And Video): https://www.latestly.com/india/news/f-16-was-used-by-pakistan-iaf-displays-missile-part-as-proof-all-about-the-evidence-presented-by-india-see-photos-and-video-669605.html

Not much to say, standing up an MWS is not easy but you won't know much better as a new guy. Hopefully the Whiskey cross flows will have some good lessons learned from their experiences. I'm not smart on the AC-J IOC status, but I've seen them at big multilateral exercises single ship, airshows/flyovers, and not anywhere else. And they keep taking our new planes from Lockheed with the promises we'll get some more (yeah right) but I don't know if they have any fully mission capable airframes or crews. The Whiskeys can't fly forever, I would say Cannon is a when (not if). My $ .02 on KCVS is available on here somewhere... At this point though it will be what it is. Once you have a unit get a sponsor and at least some ambiguity on what your life will look like will clear up. Final thought - if gunship aren't for you, you'll get rehomed in AFSOC. If AFSOC isn't for you, you'll learn that as well and still have opportunities elsewhere in the AF (but neither of those should scare you, it really is for the best).

Maybe I'm overly conservative, but this doesn't strike me as the best strategy for something like this. When the FBI showed up at my high school bud's house after I gave him as a reference for my security clearance back in the day, his mother about had a heart attack (in hindsight, he probably wasn't the best option considering his recent coke possession conviction - my bad). Fortunately, it all worked out for me. 🙄

It is probably similar to retired pay. It starts a month later for some reason too. Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile app

@Duck i wouldn’t say there much “thought” at all behind it. I bet it’s one of those things that have just always been and now its SOP buried under 32,847 layers of beaurocracy and incompetence leading to it never being “fixed.” but then again when we die we’ll theoretically get the next months payment so we’re getting paid for that month just after we’re dead 🤔

You should change your availability to the day you start terminal leave. You'll get some time after indoc to spend with the family. You (understandably) don't appreciate what 1 month of seniority means.

From my understanding there are about 3 AD T-1 IPs and around 35 T-6 IPs. From knowing a couple of the guys out there this assignment can be given as a second assignment though it seems to be either a luck of the draw or you know some one. I’m headed there in a month and got it as a 365 follow-on. One of the guys I was deployed with took the deployment so he could stay there. He said it’s probably the best hidden flying gem in the AF. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

What Skitzo said. I don’t see the Whiskys going away anytime soon but I’m not a gunship guy, rumors I’ve heard is that once there are enough Js they will be at both places.

It’s all supposed to be a pure fleet of ACJ at some point so I would think Cannon would be inevitable. However anything can happen. Cannon isn’t too bad as long as you don’t breathe the air or drink the water. Actually with the dairy farms going out of business maybe the air quality will improve. From the Resident U-28 Dude. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I just can't reconcile how that language is being proffered in 2019. The turnover rate is gonna go to 11. The entire premise of even entertaining the Strategic Reserve model was predicated on enough baked-in experience not to worry about the chilling effect a "greening demographic" would have on spin ups. Under this paradigm, the Reserves become driven by R-ATP applicants only (aka don't have a better option at the moment), and if they don't mort themselves in training and/or drive the class-A rates to Pluto, they get to pass GO, collect $200, mainline number and at year 2 they punch from the mil cold turkey. The ART cadre gets burnt out, tightens the spiral. UFB.

Email 122fspilothiring@gmail.com We are looking for the same thing every squadron is looking for - the best possible candidate to send to UPT.

For any of you fellas in the timeline that haven't yet made it pass the age waiver mark or TFCT, the attached MFR was released by big blue. I immediately asked the recruiter if it would cover both guard and reserves. He said he had no idea... shocking. I called another recruiter in another state with the same question and his response was YES it should be a blanket cover for everyone not just AD. We all know how recruiters might stretch things here and there from time to time. Does anybody have info on this? MFR for UPT Age Limit 33.pdf

@Patrick_Krueger This thread has some contact info. BogiDope also shows the squadrons phone number. Hope this helps!

Have you tried Facebook? The 159th FW has a page. Message or email their Public Affairs office and ask for a number to Ops. Ask to speak to the DO or Chief Pilot. They'll be able to answer your specific questions and how to schedule a visit. Sometimes the hardest part is just getting in contact with the right people. Good luck!

C'mon, guys. Obviously a fellow pilot.