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At first, I thought this would be a cliched movie; brash, hotshot 2Lt Benny Jones graduates from Army flight school in 1969 and gets selected to fly the hot new AH-1 Cobra gunship. Arriving in-country, his gray-haired squadron commander recognizes himself in the young pilot, but knows that the stakes are for keeps in the 'Nam in 1969. So the arrogant Lt is paired with the grizzled CWO4 Snake McArthur as his co-pilot/gunner in the lethal Cobra. At first, the confusing chaotic situation of troops in contact, smoke, haze, humidity, fast jet movers overhead also dropping ordnance, all seems too much for young Jones. But he quickly gets the hang of it all under Snake's tutelage; maybe too well. Snake soon finds himself in situations that are hairy even for him thanks to his a/c's willingness to hang it all out for the grunts under the gun on the ground. Soon, Jones' finds his favorite weapons are the various flavors of rocket pods that can hang from the stub wings. In particular, the 2.75 HVAR and the flechettes are his favorite. His skill is such that he can fire singles and, more often than not, score a shack with that shot. He's become "Rocketman." Which would be a much better movie than the ode to over the top celebration of the homosexual life combined with the age-old story of rock star comes from nothing, gets famous, goes through every drug known to man, gets used by the hangers-on, then sobers up, and Oh, and his daddy didn't love him epic that is the Elton John biopic of the same name. Which I had promised my wife and artsy daughter that I'd take them to. I need whisky and a couple of hookers to get my man card back. Just...no...

Man, would you just please go away for a while. Just switch yourself to a read-only mentality. Take a break. It's too annoying sifting through your nonsense. Thank you.

Never would have thought there were this many RV owners on the forum. I feel like we should start a thread dedicated to posting pictures of GA flying.

I used a civilian format. And I addressed it however the job announcement requested. Sometimes to a specific person, sometimes to the board. If it didn't say anything, I asked the POC. And if they didn't care, I addressed it to the squadrons UPT selection board. If you want to see the format I used, message me and I'll get it to you.

This is 100% opposite of the truth.

Brick, There are some things that even a father and husband should just say NO to. I have to give you an Unsat for situational awareness, I hate to, but you should have seen this coming (sts). 😒

Plenty of regional pilots kick ass and take names in UPT. I personally know two who graduated at the very top of their class, and another who finished in the top third. As a UPT IP, I've seen students with regional backgrounds excel far more than they tend to struggle and they're usually the ones leading study sessions and teaching their peers how to make sense of instrument flying. Those with "vast hours" who struggle do so because of their attitude, and are in the definite minority. I'd say your analysis, while true in some extreme cases, is inaccurate.

You can have margarita Friday. But when you throw in "friendly" games of Twister, that is where people draw the line. Thou shall not combine Twister with margaritas because someone will cop a feel. AF Times: Leader Approves Margaritas & Rape Twister 😮😮

Showing Not Secure for me. Also, I don't know where you get your certificates, but https://letsencrypt.org/ is always an option.

Whoa. Never knew we had those types of hats in the AF. That’s weird.

Learn to spell, work on grammar, and place your posts in the correct forum.

That a C-5 person of any rank is tied to JFE definitely belongs in this thread. All MAF is not equal, nor representative... just like the CAF. Chuck

I have an unused one collecting dust up somewhere in the attic. My old CGO cap was worn once...

They are honest taildraggers with decent crosswind capes, 20 knots doable. The gear will wear outer half of tires, so you can get used to flipping on rim. I like Desser retreads, harder compound. There are upgraded tailwheels and steering links that work great. Current RV-6 owner, have had S1S, Luscombe, Kitfiox, SuperCubs. RV is about as easy as it gets, great visibility. Edit, it is a solid SELLERS market right now. There are some models with either small or big vertical tails and rudders. I have a small tail RV-6, it is rudder limited in slip/crosswinds as much any RV, and it's still dandy. Full 40 degree flaps are fine at any crosswind, no tail interaction or aileron washing out.

Apparently it's "the sport of Kings," not "the sport of potential Kings."

Good question i’d rather Have a wing quarterly with a good #1/XXX. Sijan is limited to AirPower type of things, which can be limiting

This seems pretty small potatoes especially in the world of "fly what you can, log what you need."

I unlocked my old iPhone before I PCS'd, then bought the 15 euro T-mobile pay as you go, which is really a plan without commitment. It charges you 8 euro a month, but with that you get unlimited T-mobile to T-mobile calls and texts, and 100 mb of text per month. Standard fees for calls to other phones, something like 15 - 30 euro cents, don't remember. I'm TDY a lot and most people I need to call or text have T-mobile. I don't surf the internet much on my phone, but check email, stocks, weather, translators, whatever as much as I want. I end up only paying about $25 (or 18 euro) average per month. Every 2 or 3 months I stop by any T-mobile store downtown, or the one in the BX and add another 50 euro which lasts till the next time. So for me it's a great deal.

Yes Botswana is an option as somebody mentioned. I will speak to the embassy positions only here. For the embassy positions you'll still have a day job. Attache as several mentioned, but not always. One of the others is in the office of security cooperation, under DSCA, where you'll work Foreign Military Sales, International Military Education and Training, etc. You will likely fly with Army or Navy guys in addition to AF. You won't get as many hours as a major mobility MWS. To answer a few questions above, and some things I think are important, it's not the type of situation you'd want to bring an EFM family, and joint spouse assignments most likely won't work. Embassies are different, but many have very few military members. Some wives complain enough at regular bases, so if yours is prone to that, avoid. It's a downer to have a small community and a couple wives who complain about being homesick or stressed all the time. On the other hand if you're adventurous and outgoing and like to party there's a good network. But if you do a little research and ask yourself if it makes sense, it will probably be just fine. If you have kids check out the school situation, many mil people happily have kids in these situations. Obvi many of the embassy people have kids and they do fine. There are international schools, but these vary in quality by location and age. There's some perks like FEML plane tickets, US and Host Nation holidays off (if you aren't flying), housing and bills provided but you won't get the BAH. Usually no Tax free. In many places you can have a full time or live-in house keeper and gardner for a great value, which is awesome. You may have a rater from another service for instance. You may have a very small pool of aircrew to share the plane, so good luck, hope you get along. The assignment can be a great experience, but depending on your job and location it may not be as good for rank progression as other more traditional options. But that varies by your time away from big blue, and varies by which promotion board you're looking at. For those that understand and welcome that fact going in the assignment can be an incredibly enjoyable time, a great break from big blue, a look into Dept of State/Embassy life, and immersion in a foreign culture. It can also motivate you to return to a regular AF assignment. It may be an option as a second assignment, but I think 3rd is more common for the embassy gigs. Tour length also varies, but I've seen 1 year unaccompanied or 2 year accompanied. You may be able to extend either of those for a year. You can't take your spouse everywhere, but when you do take your spouse they may have the option to work. The DOS has a system similar to GS (but different incase your spouse is looking to combine time) where family members have some options to work at the embassy. This can range from part or full time Community Liaison Officer work, to other full time jobs around the embassy. Hope that's helpful. I definitely recommend it to those that think it's a fit. Good luck!

And that's why I read here. Thanks for the time-saving advice. Cheers.

I've heard of ground handlers in Africa looking for "Capt Onfile, where is Capt Onfile?" for a signature (or cash). Our guys would just roll with it. Amazing how many Capt Onfile's there are flying around.

It's actually not too hard to get that STRD moved. I think that we have the technology and shouldn't have to force it ourselves, but until that's fixed I'm keeping mine up to date. No MPF at my location, so I email PDFs of the paid travel voucher and the orders to my servicing MPF. That removes the "awaiting verification" and moves the STRD. There's a few briefs floating around that go into more detail, but not needed for the quick fix. You can also take those documents in hand and go to the MPF and sit there until it's done if you're concerned it won't happen. There was a message recently about DTS cleaning out docs older than a cutoff, (2007, 2008?) so might be worth saving those now. I don't want to derail the thread, so PM if you have more questions. If you get desparate you can also download their reg on e-pubs that explains the STRD. Ironically, I'm on a short tour now (but it was voluntary - they're not all bad) so I could have just not bothered updating any of it. At this point it's just habit.

I think this is still only part of the picture. The Net Present Value function gives a very different picture for your decision making. The NPV of the $1.37M in your example 40 years from now at 7% interest, compounded monthly could be achieved with an initial one time deposit of $84,082. There's many ways to calculate and a lot of factors to consider, but I recommend keeping the NPV function in a variety of financial calculations. It's available in Excel or from various sites online. Cheers.

Man, tough times for Puerto Rico.