Leaderboard

On the KC-10 side, all of the good dudes I looked up to when I first showed up have jumped ship. All of them. Reserves, airlines, other jets, or just plain quit. The active-duty leadership in 6-9 years will be made up of the uncool kids who decided to hang around, bolstered by a few senior captains who know what they're doing. Not a good outlook, IMHO.

If the Navy had adopted the AETC Form 29B, this wouldn't have happened.

No, she definitely DOES take it in the butt.

Honest answer... Our best and brightest in AMC are now working for Southwest, FedEx and hell probably McDonalds right now. Think about that next time you meet a Two-Below the zone O-5, AMC guy who is their poster boy.. The level of bullshit that I saw during my prison term with AMC was enough to make the decision for me. Even though it's the non-flyers who gleefully enforce those stupid rules, it's that 2 BTZ Superstar Pilot that comes up with the bullshit in the first place.

I like the CAF mentality. We have 35 pages of what is wrong with the AF, would love to say i'm shocked but it should honestly be about 100 pages. To steer this back on course I think once the AF stops promoting "perfect people" on paper, the ship will start to right itself. These squeeky clean idiots I see running around have their head so far up the ass of the person that can help them get promoted they forget the reason why they are in key leadership positions. To lead! I am so sick and tired of people looking to get promoted instead of making the mission the priority. I have posted more tonight than any other time, the reason? I read this forum and realize that many of YOU are the people I want to see leadership from. I am sure some of you are in key positions and have some influence. We bitch and moan and for the most part make great points and yet nothing happens. To make a quality E you need a strong O. I see a lack of strong officers at the sq and wg level. Sure there are some good guys, but they are too few and far between and don't go as far as they should. I need you guys to step up, stop jockeying for the next rank and lead. Please. We cannot have a great CSAF if everyone between he and the airman basic is unwilling to lead without fear of consequence. Take risks, put your balls on the line, take a stand, and for goodness sake, be a leader. I wish I had the ear of the CSAF. Some may cringe with what I have to say, but damn it I speak my mind, it's always heartfelt, and it's what needs to be said. So come on guys, I haven't seen in the last 15 years enough officers I would follow into fire if they asked. But trust me, we WANT to follow that guy and the AF needs people of character now more than ever. Again, sorry for the rant and I was obviously not an english major so I apologize.

MAF vs CAF evaluator mindset, IMHO: In my current community, we are an island of misfit toys from all the different communities. It seems that in AMC (and former AMC dudes), the pinnacle is to be a higher up in Stan/Eval. In the CAF, the pinnacle is to be a Patch. I think that's why there's such a difference. In AMC, you have to flex nuts in order to show you can be a badass evaluator that will hook people without any qualms. CAF bros treat checkrides as an annoyance and something that we have to do between training for the actual mission. Hence, very few Q-3's that will slow down the training with the requisite requals and all that cheese. One man's opinion.

Honest question because I don't know the answer - why the fuck do people in the AMC world care if a pilot flies with a wedding ring?

If that is what is happening in AMC, it is an absolute pile of chickenshit. Nobody ever goes out and flies a perfect ride every time. Just does not happen. If the guy could get safely to and from the target, handle an IFE, and fly an approach in order to get another jet and go out and kill more bad guys, he was good to go. Throwing down Q-3s from Mt. Olympus is an even higher level of chickenshit. UFB. Micromanagement at its worse.

Add on - due to spam protection issues, we are now having to manually check new accounts and weed out spammers (of which we have around 100 a day). We're not going to catch them all, so if you see spam posts, please DO NOT QUOTE THEM to label them as spam. Hit the "Report" button at the bottom of the post and it will instantly send an email to the moderators, who can go in and manually remove and block the spammers. If you quote the posts, it just makes it harder for us to clean it up.

The past few pages have become "What's Wrong with AMC," which could literally fill a book. AMC has developed some weird corporate mentality that rewards the extremely few shiny pennies and takes it out on the masses. Probably one of the biggest issues with checkrides/evaluators is that AMC for the most part views the upgrade to EP as something that enhances your career vs a position given to your experienced instructors. As a result, many evaluators view the sortie thru a soda straw and seemingly take pride in producing bloody form 8s. Not trying to throw spears, but this phenomenon appeared to begin in the airlift world and due to the "excellent" Phoenix crossflow program, has manifested itself in the tanker world. And as an aside, the evaluator boom referenced earlier gave a n/n to a boom on one of my flights last year. From my point of view, I have nothing bad to say about him at all, and thought he was a great crew member.

If they had a FE this would've never happened! Glad they crew and pax made it out safely.

Life isn't fair There is no justice She won't take it in the butt But seriously, life isn't fair, get over it. A government entity trying to make it fair is like letting everyone trying their hand at landing a 737 with 90 PAX on board, it doesn't make sense.

Just an opinion based on some graphical study, but over the past 50 years, the size and scope of the Federal government has only gotten larger. With this increase in size and scope, more and more regulation agencies have been created to oversee private industries. I'm obviously a free-market capitalist to the extreme, but I personally believe it is the increased presence of government in business that has been a driving factor in wealth inequality. Those that can afford to get preferential treatment (e.g. tax breaks/incentives) get hooked up while the small businesses don't.

He might be mad at me, but I'm posting this anyway. Two sides to every story and here is the other side: "It was me, but the story has been altered drastically. There was an AD and ANG boom. As for Fraud Waste and Abuse, I spent 12 hours and 20 minutes on island and was billeted on base. This was in conjunction with another mission I had accomplished on a different jet. As for Q3s, nobody got a Q3, especially for not having your EFB charged. I beat them with a debrief because of GK, checklist discipline, and pax brief requirements. I also stroked them for excellent CRM and configuration. I believe the other part according to the post was me threatening the pilots with a Q3. Part of my brief as an evaluator is safety of flight items maybe sent for a commander directed downgrade option. For example, I flew with a different crew in which the pilot did not remove his ring. I left it until prior to t/o. I mentioned something and knew that was sufficient. I have given 3 Q3s since I've been up here, and they were earned. Damaging equipment, GOV boom who could not answer amplified questions and had very limited GK." I hope my buddy was ok with me posting this, just felt like I had to share. Thanks

Is it a holdover from, "you will never go airlines, boots on the ramp for you." Kind of thing?

WaBoom my remarks weren't pointed at you, I've seen this video passed around for months about people complaining about how unfair it is that these people are rich and they shouldn't have all this money. Edit that being said I'm under no illusions that my military job will make me rich nor will my dad working the corporate grind ever be anything but your avg. well off middle class family. Just because you are working your ass off in whatever job you are doesn't mean it will someday make you a millionaire it may if you manage to climb the corporate ladder. However having a revolutionary idea and a lot of risk usually (Microsoft, Apple, Facebook ect.) makes those people the wealthy. Yeah does your Ivy League, family with connections leg ups help? Sure but for everyone person you point out with that had those advantages there's another that didn't.

There's little arguing that the wealth gap between the top 10% and bottom 10% (or even bottom 80-90% for that matter) has widened over the years. Look at the stock market booms in the mid/late 90's, around 2006-2007, and the one over the last 1-2 years--if you had your money in the market odds are you made some good cash, especially if you bought low. But little is stopping even the young Airman from living below his means, saving money/putting some away in the market, taking advantage of opportunities (free school, etc), and then bettering himself in the long-run. Will he ever be in the top 1%?...doubtful. Will be in the top 20%, definitely a possibility if he plays his cards right. Same can be said with the poorest of Americans even if they don't join the military. If they live below their means, take advantage of the opportunities (scholarships, government aid and grants, etc) and is always trying to live below their means and doesn't get himself in trouble (substance abuse, run-ins with the law, knocks a chick up) then he can definitely better himself as well. Sure, he'll have to work harder for it than someone born to a family where both parents make $100K+, but the fact is that the guy who started off poor can definitely improve his life. Hell, today the government gives out quite a bit of welfare (subsidized, and for the very poor, free healthcare), so they have that going for them as well, though I think that keeps in the lower class. Check out the table: It shows how the wealthy is increasing their wealth at a greater pace after the last 2 recessions..but it is also showing that there is growth outside of the 'top 1%' (skip to the very end if you're not seeing my point). No doubt the last few years have been tough, especially for the folks at the bottom, but unfortunately that's what happens with a weak recovery. Also, we have spent TRILLIONS of dollars on the 'War on Poverty' only for the poverty level to be documented as mostly un-changed. That being said, those 'living' in poverty are much better off than they were 40 years ago. Here's an interesting chart done by PA's Dept of Welfare which shows that in some cases, there is definitely a reduced incentive to better yourself. And with the top wage earners in the US paying the most taxes, the country would be worse off if that wealth was truly 'spread around' with our current tax system. The Dems and the GOP are all about the corporate welfare--funny, under President Obama the richer are getting richer than they were before and the income gap is ever increasing...though like I said, the bottom half of the people still live better today than they did 40 years ago. I think the late Margaret Thatcher explains liberalism and socialism pretty well and better than I ever could:

Really? You've GBSM. Part of the reason healthcare is so god damned expensive in this country is precisely because of excessive consumption...and I'm tired of subsidizing a general public that can't deal with routine illnesses without 'medical care'. Is it really necessary to see a doctor so that they can tell you to get some rest and drink a lot of fluids? Infant child has a fever? Emergency room visit. You're a healthy 24yr old who doesn't feel so good because you have the common cold? Go to the doctor and demand antibiotics. Oh, antibiotics aren't effective with a viral infection? I don't care, I've heard good things and I want them...write the prescription. Getting a wisdom tooth pulled? I need to be unconscious for that, and I want a Vicodin prescription to kill the 'pain' afterwards too, because I can't deal with some minor discomfort unless I'm heavily medicated. I've got some lower back pain because I have horrible posture and sit in front of a computer all day. I need an MRI. MRI shows nothing abnormal? Thats odd. Well I guess you should just write me a prescription for a bunch of painkillers then. Rolled my ankle playing basketball and it's mildly painful. Need an D.O. to look at it, get x-rays, give me a pain killer prescription and an air cast to immobilize it. Oh yeah, I need time off of work so that it can heal, too. Yeah. You've got the be shitting me. I'm tired of subsidizing a general public that can't deal with being a human being.

Too bad he didn't have an FE there to stop him from doing this stupidness.

Apparently his ego wrote a check his body couldn't cash.

Sure... but then you can't bend your arm without clicking it open or you forget the ones on your leg until you notice the huge ink stain as you pull it out of the dryer.

No. In my years as an evaluator I've had guys commit some interesting errors like report initial at 500 feet, forget to reset an altimeter (WTF is an A-10 guy doing above FL180??), get lost and attempt to fly over KRDU, take me IFR in a pop, and a plethora of other weird stuff. Those all resulted in downgrades and were debriefed appropriately. The only Q-3 was a great dude on a Single engine approach that over finessed the approach and forgot the gear. Hard to overlook that one as a "momentary deviation but correcting" when I had to make a call to remind him on a 2 mile final.

*DING* Alright folks, I'm gonna go ahead and turn on the fasten your seat belt sign. uhhhhhhh There may be some turbulence ahead based on the forecast. uhhhhh Please feel free to uhhhh PM me if you notice anything strange going on wrt malware or possible spammers. ANNNNDDD as always, thanks again for choosing BODN for all of your forum needs.

Douche

Gotta sell yourself for that next promotion. That's tough to do without going full retard. And you're the last to realize that you have, in fact, gone full retard.

What caused you to read a magazine called "manlicker"?

I am sure this chart explains where to find the answer. Seriously, what could possibly go wrong? http://www.jec.senate.gov/republicans/public/index.cfm?a=Files.Serve&File_id=8e6dbf03-ca4a-44be-9de4-a100c43fb5c8

I just spoke to my sister this weekend and she said they are being told that their premiums (their health insurance from her husband's job) are going up around 55-60%. What ever happened to people saving $2500/year? David Ramsey explains it pretty well here:

Couldn't get the whole deal, but could see this snippet: Why do people say things like this? It's not some cosmic alternate reality machine; it definitely feels like you're sitting in Nevada in front of some computers with the crappiest radio ever fielded, all the time. I don't care how involved you are with the mission, it's not plugging into the matrix.

No it's an island off by Hawaii, at least that is where I've seen it on the map.