Leaderboard

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Downgrades establish unit trends. Trends can be sourced from flight evals, testing, instructor meetings, aircrew feedback, etc. Units should tailor training to “close” trends once the training has been completed. Flight supplement evals and ground supplement evals are used to randomly gauge the unit members knowledge of open trends. These flight/ground supp evals are recorded for trend closure but don’t list the members name specifically that was given the supp eval. They are just a random snapshot to see if the training has been sufficient to close the trend. Trends are closed twice a year and are recorded via the Stan Eval Board (SEB). Downgrades on a Form 8 don’t matter for the individual (other than pride). The overall grade matters. Downgrades are key to the unit’s trends program and are actually vital to identifying bigger picture issues in the different communities.

Was it a '60, '61, '62, '63, '64, '65, '66, '67, '68, '69, '70 automobile?

Viper SEFE. Never given a Q3 to a US pilot. I've seen only 2 Q3's in my 19 years - both FTU students. Q1 no hits is by far the norm. Probably because our community is made of pretty awesome pilots...

Q1 with some downgrades are not uncommon. Downgrades are not a big deal and as alluded to earlier are important, IMO, to capture trend data. I've seen more commander directed Q3 for shenanigans than Q3s resulting from a scheduled checkride. Both circumstances still very rare. I personally take a big picture approach to evals. I'm not going to curb stomp a dude/dudette with a Q3 for a single bad day. Other than a "big three" area, nearly everything is debrief-able. But errors in those areas would probably warrant a Q3 independent of a scheduled checkride.

I think I've given more Q1s with downgrades than I've given clean Q1s, but I've also never given a Q3, and honestly do not see the point of a Q2. That's an evaluator with no guts. Either put your instructor hat on and fix it in the debrief, or have the guts to Q3 them and defend your decision. Had a couple of cases that could've been argued into a Q3 by strictest interpretation of the Vol 2, but in my perspective the benefit of the doubt goes to the evaluatee. So, noted it, gave a downgrade in the appropriate area, debriefed it, and we moved on with life. At the end of the day, even with a downgrade your 942 is going to say Q1.

It’s not bribing. If you Q3 the evaluator doesn’t get the bottle, the evaluatee drinks it instead. Things like this is just weak dick leadership at Sq and Grp level.

Admittedly, my data is now going on 10 years old, but... Q-3s and Q-2s are unusual unless the examiner's hands are tied. Q-1s are the standard. Single item downgrades are not unheard of on Q-1s, but not the standard by a longshot.

FWIW I've given a LOT of checkrides, a minority resulted in downgrades and even smaller minority resulted in Q-3s. I've also sat on selection boards (WIC, IP upgrade and such), where we reviewed FEFs as part of the selection process. I always viewed checkrides as a necessary evil and approached them as a continuation of the learning process, you should always learn something because you are typically flying with a more seasoned aviator and not one of us is perfect. Yes the stated purpose is a periodic standards check to ensure compliance but it was also another opportunity to evaluate the instructors in a squadron and their training program...this is a team sport. At the end of every checkride I gave a final grade based on the following optic, do I feel comfortable sending this person into combat with my brothers and sisters in this community. I never once gave a Q-3 to someone who made a technical mistake like being off airspeed or altitude for weapons employment or an instrument approach. On the rare occasion I did give a Q-3 is for something blatantly unsafe, usually related to attitude and most importantly...effort. Case in point I once gave a scheduled checkride to an attached guy who had a reputation as an ungood pilot. The day prior I sat down with and went over the profile I wanted to see and outlined the areas of general knowledge we were currently focused on. The next day he absolutely floundered in the briefing and general knowledge portion...basic blocking and tackling stuff...as if he didn't even try to study the night before. I could have ended it there and no-stepped but I wanted to give the benefit of the doubt and see where he was in the airplane, at that point I wrote down "downgrade for GK" in my notes. We took off and went to the range, he skipped two checklists and tried to arm the guns before we had cleared the range or completed our basic checklist set up. It was gross and pure safety of flight, I called knock it off and ended him right there. That was by far the exception...although I once Q3'd a dude walking down the hallway...not kidding...he was bragging about something he did that was so unsafe and outside the regs that I had no choice . I confronted him and he admitted it as did some others on his crew...absolutely GROSS. 18 years later I still can't believe they did it, story for another time perhaps. AFSOC has a unique setup in that the GUNSHIP FTU was colocated with the ops squadrons (that is about to change unfortunately with a move to Kirtland), so newbies got to do training with mixed crews. The training sorties were tailored to their training but there was a lot of benefit to training with folks who were cycling in and out of combat all the time. I gave a lot of initial qual checks and most turned out fine but I always finished with the same statement. If I am here I can GUARANTEE you will get a no-notice within the next six months. Here was my rational...for a newly qualified person completing an MR check meant that for the first time since they were 5 years old they were not forced to study. I reasoned that they were forced to study through grade and high school, college, UPT and FTU...probably 20 years of continuous studying. They suddenly had time and disposable income...AND they were living in Destin Florida. There would be a huge temptation to exhale and get lazy. If they wanted to be safe and credible, now was not the time to back off. I honored that promise on every occasion (with a VERY large optic). Once or twice I had to take a recently MR dude or Dudette into a private room and give them the WTF are you thinking speech (had one dude who broke down in tears he was so disappointed in himself), I never Q-3'd anyone but I think it set a tone in the squadron. On the subject of downgrades in particular, the FEF was used in discussion for things like WIC. Sitting on a selection board we never once excluded someone for a downgrade, sometimes it led to deeper discussion and the only time it became a deciding factor was if there was a pattern of downgrades which I only saw on one or two applicants that were being pushed to WIC for the wrong reasons (careerism).

The only advice I have for evaluators out there is to honor the booze bribe, you dumbasses. I was going to downgrade a dude one time (and I’m a huge Santa Claus evaluator so it was bad) and he produced a nice bottle of bourbon at the end. Q-1, no downgrades!

I mean, you can’t be a military pilot and ‘not’ see Top Gun 2. I’m old enough that I remember seeing the original when it first hit the theaters. Hindsight, it wasn’t really appropriate for a young middle-school kid to hear all the swearing and see Tom Cruise thrusting and french kissing Kelly McGillis. I heard Cleared Hot and M2 saw the original as well when it first hit the theaters…right after they both retired from the Air Force, so it probably brought them back some good memories of being in the military.

I always said during my career that if you treated every ride like a checkride then the checkride wasn’t an issue. Fly every day like you’re being graded. Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile app

Why’d you have to shit all over my happy rumor?

From a guy who is not an ANG pilot, answering #2 with my past experience: Do your own research, learn as much as possible about the airframe, unit, and mission on your own. Then ask the questions. Your questions will be more educated, genuine, and ultimately peak your own interest; therefore, likely to lead to more meaningful conversations and connections. Telling you what to ask is not you being yourself. The quickest way for them to turn you down, is for you to ask some BS questions with the sole purpose of leaving a lasting impression to get an interview. They will see any hubris or mock version of you. Just be yourself and you will be perfectly fine. Good luck!

Sadly this is not limited to AMC. A currently pinned on 3 star who is likely the next AFSOC/CC is said to have given 20 plus Commander directed Q-3s as punishment while a SQ/CC.

EQ = Exceptionally qualified Q1 = fully qualified Q2 = remedial training Q3 = unqualified These are the overall evaluation qual level. Downgrades are for individual tasks not meeting the criteria outlined in the vol 2 for Qual. For each task, you can be evaluated at Qual (Q), Qual - (Q-), or Unqual (U). Q and Q- have specific criteria. Want to stay clear of Q3 and U's.

Day Man, I should have! Instead, I initially defaulted to my credit union who gave us our first home loan over a decade ago. It wasn't until I started receiving suspect loan requirements that I recalled this thread & posted a question. As a result, my first interaction w/Jon was via this forum & even though he (at the time) didn't have my business, he answered my question & even offered to cover the topic offline. I took him up on his offer & after 2 mins on the phone I knew I was switching. Cheers, Herk 🍻

I didn’t see one person fat enough to pass for Navy in that whole trailer. Every Key West dive school support mission 3/160 does they walk into the base gym like we are the first ones to have ever found it. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

2023 Race coming to Vegas Strip Here we go.

Herkdrvr, Hey outstanding news and glad Jon was able to guide you through the process and provide you with a positive outcome! I'm very glad to have him assist myself with a new home purchase, I have the same sentiments - just a very squared away team! w/r, Steve

I may, or may not, have brought a 68 chevy truck cab, hood, fenders, doors, grill, basically the whole front end, from Chino CA to HRT in a AC-H.

Thanks for the kind words! Glad you shopped around first and discovered it on your own. Makes for a better review😂 Thanks for putting your trust in me and my team! Jon

The downfall is officially full bore Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile app

Admiral Kazansky reference was a nice touch too. As cheesy and rehashed as I expect this movie to be, I’m not ashamed to say I’m really, really looking forward to it.

Thanks to those at Vance and Columbus that came by to meet us. We even had one pilot that came in from another base a couple hours away to listen. Based on what I heard, there are still a lot of inaccurate beliefs about the U-2, so if someone tells you "you can't apply because of X", give us a call to verify that.

Which would you choose?

Unfortunately the booze bottle to your evaluator tradition is slowly going the way of the dinosaur; have been told some FTUs are actively discouraging it. Lotta young guys don’t do it anymore.

We had an OG policy at one point that every form 8 had to have at least 2 comments: 2 commendables, 1 downgrade and 1 commendable, or two downgrades. F*cling stupid. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk