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Since you’ve invested so much in your hours and ratings, I 100% would recommend not accepting the CSO slot. I’m sure it’s a great career in many ways but you’d be throwing away so much money and opportunity compared to someone with little or no flight time. I can’t speak to the odds of getting picked up for AD OTS again after turning down a position, but it doesn’t hurt to try. And as most people here would recommend, pursue Guard and Reserve units. You’d be able to continue your civilian flying career in parallel, and I’m pretty sure 99% of their selection boards are not going to bat an eye at someone in your shoes having turned down an AD CSO slot.

In the simplest terms yes. It's of course more nuanced than that, but to your question of downward displacement (both in seat, equipment, and yes even domicile) you got the right idea. Like I said it's nuanced, because there's also fleet capacity shuffling which affects the net effect of said displacement on an usually smaller fleet total than pre-furloughs, but again, you're in the ballpark. That's why you hear some folks utter the words "there are worse things than getting furloughed", and they're not being ironic when they're implying not getting furloughed can be worse. Being the QOL/schedule plug in your late40s/50s is one such of those insinuations. A lot of people don't have the stomach for that kind of scheduling reset in what is supposed to be the highest grossing years of their lives, and usually their highest overhead years (for the ones with children who are hitting college). It's also the reason many late 40s/50s career changers stuck in the regionals when these musical chairs stop, decide to exit the industry outright. In essence, they don't have the luxury of time to endure that collegiate quality of life over the pedestrian opulent luxuries like weekends offs, that they could attain in their measly 30s in a different industry. Which is why when people say the job is not for everybody, I find it a heavily understated utterance. On the other side of the silver linings spectrum, you had many mil pilots in the lost decade made absolute bank by attaining an active duty retirement they thought they had left on the table, by virtue of being furloughed. Coming back to airlines with true free agency courtesy of that check and lifetime universal healthcare well before the age of 65. Of course, a few decided the juice wasn't worth the squeeze after 7 years of being home every night in the ARC, and just bypassed the airline recalls anyways and never returned. Others did return for a little then bailed when it was convenient for whatever they had going on at the time. How people cope with those lifestyle displacements in middle age is a very personal thing, since it relies a lot on people's life stage and what's going on at home, and the composition of the home of course. Good luck to all.

Wanna fly a formation landing still but big blue cut you off?

It's not that we don't like them, it's that we have been bitten by them in the past. Not likely to hire another for a while.

Since the library has been closed, been re-reading some of my own library: The Path Between the Seas by David Mccullough About the digging/building of the Panama Canal. Fascinating, sheer grinding work with a very high disease death rate.

Don’t do it. CSO’s are second class citizens int the Air Force. Well pilots are too. But not as much. Plus if you want to fly. Fly. Riding is technically flying. Same same. But different. https://media3.giphy.com/media/C6JQPEUsZUyVq/source.gif

Cannot stress this enough, I was in the exact same shoe and listed 4. Pilot CSO RPA Missileer Picked up for CSO. Life has already set me deep into a professional flying career and now this is requiring me to essentially choose one or the other. If anyone has info on how to go about turning down the slot and reapplying please share your experience, I am all ears. To everyone that got selected, congratulations A LOTand to those who weren't. Keep at it. I know the feeling. It took me ROTC and then OTS to get here. You know the process is arduous but the reward is worth the effort.

Exactly. The official prosecutor, DOJ, says that the investigation wasn't based on anything factual, therefore it's a invalid investigation. If so, then any alleged lie to the FBI (the agents involved didn't think he lied according to the now missing 302 - edited to remain in the original FBI agent's voice but with a different slant by corrupt Stryck and Page), is immaterial and moot legally. So why is the judge trying to act as a prosecutor? Both sides of the criminal case are saying, "Never mind." Yet the judge isn't letting it go. Why? As to your Trump tweet post - news yesterday is that the FBI and DOJ have NEVER produced a recording or transcript of the call in question. Not once. They briefed Pence on a paraphrased version of the call. So if they said Flynn lied, Pence was led to believe Flynn did so. But what if the FBI lied to Pence? Certainly reason to believe that the senior FBI folks at the time were capable of doing so - bogus, repeated FISA warrant applications, a bogus CI investigation of the incoming administration, leaking to the press, etc, etc. The FBI has removed itself from me giving it the benefit of doubt as to its integrity. Not most rank and file, I believe. But as an institution? Yeah, I'm squinty-eyed at it. Which as naïve on my part, since I, and believe most of us, will acknowledge Big Blue as behaving the same. Why would any other government leviathan be different? On the political side of this, Flynn being fired by a President is something I could care less about. Weaponizing the IC and justice system to settle political scores and/or screw your replacement President is a big deal. Because if allowed to stand, it will happen again. Regardless of party. And if it happens again to the big dogs, what does mean for the peons like us? I'm agin that.

It only took 20 years to make it happen. But it happened... finally. Another success to chalk up for the current leadership at Beale. Well done. It's a great time to be in the 9th.

I still just want to know why they pulled Zoe Kotnik. I get privacy and all, but seriously...just want to know, know. ~Bendy Sent from my iPad using Baseops Network mobile app

I’ve seen multiple instances where a wing king tried to fire some group commanders only to be told no by the numbered AF commander. The firings that I’ve seen kept quiet were due to infidelity (2 married squadron commanders).

Shack! Ya, sending us to the fucking arctic (northern tier Europe) in the dead of winter made great sense. Between inlet icing, ridiculous amounts of snow and no fucking tacan within 275 miles, we ended up weather cancelling more than we actually flew (no shit >50% attrition)....despite our best efforts to get USAFE waivers for wx reqs. We actually had to send guys to the sims in Spang just so we could actually get our sorties for the month because guys were going non-CMR. We were there 2 months before we even knew there was an A-team on the other side of base who might want to integrate with us. So ya, you're probably right, that has Army written all over it! But hey, this guy has over 175,000 hyatt points and another 150,000 points with another major chain and platinum status with both. I'm single/no kids so I'm always up for an adventure. That said, our last two trips were both divorce magnets and morale killers. Hate to see that happen for trips that feel like you're having zero impact on anything, all while having road block after road block when you try to have a positive impact. Time to open beer another beer and get off my lawn!

No, but I've had a few where I couldn't believe they didn't get fired.

Buckle up kids. 5 yrs of an airline slump means good retention and if you thought big blue gave less than two f-cks about treating your time and family well before when people could bail, now watch as people have no options. Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile app

Badgers are alive and well Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile app

104 aircraft built 104' wingspan F-104 cockpit. If you see one in a museum or on a pole, it was one of the 55 smaller A/C models. The last of those flew in '87. The big-wing jets: 12 built originally, then 37 more built in the 80's (as mentioned above), with the last jet being delivered Oct 1989. History info: short read with updated info on the Powers shutdown. Good stuff. https://dragonladyhistory.com/2020/05/01/u-2-mayday-shootdown-gary-powers/

If it makes you feel any better, all pilot union forums are more or less the same across airlines and time periods. Management sucks. Scheduling sucks. Hotels suck. Dispatchers suck. etc. They all said similar things prior to the current crisis, and always will in the future. Everyone talks a big game on the forum, but everyone still shows up to drive the bus for a company they think they could run better. Pay your dues. Vote. Know the contract. When it comes time to picket, go show your face. Want me to wear a special union lanyard? Fine. Whatever happens in the industry is going to happen independent of what is said on the forums. I occasionally go months without checking the forum. When I do, I might glean a tiny fraction of usable information, but the rest is noise.

Hopefully, the unmaskings keep being an uncomfortable subject for the left and the news (but I repeat myself), and will also hopefully result in some indictments. Politically, Biden is going to have to address, over and over again, why he, specifically, unmasked Flynn six days prior to being out of office. He's not an intel analyst. He's not a cop. He was the Vice-President. Why did he make such a request? Given his mental acuity due to age, it will be funny/sad to hear him answer. Not to mention, Joe's gonna have to explain why he was against Obama's decision to go get Osama. Which I give credit to that Administration for doing so. So Joe was against Gulf War I. He was for Gulf War II. And he was against taking out Osama. Helluva foreign policy track record. Not to mention the shadiness of China and Ukraine lucrative deals for Biden's son. While he was in office. Indeed, the son rode on AF2 and did business in those countries while Joe was "the portfolio manager" for them according to Obama. Edited