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Showing content with the highest reputation on 06/19/2020 in all areas

  1. Recognize that when people feel compelled to say “officer first” they usually mean “aspire to be a leader,” and don’t understand how that works in the flying world. Also realize that the type of leadership that happens in combat aviation is inaccessible to those who haven’t spent years studying combat aviation. A non-rated Captain with many subordinates may see a rated Captain with none and assume that the rated captain isn’t a leader. They don’t see the briefs with hundreds of pages worth of information conveyed in 65 plus or minus five minutes. They don’t see the planning process in which the mission commander coordinates for every domain, service, and discipline of physics to achieve a goal handed to him by the Army four star. They don’t see the split second decision-making that will drive success or failure. They don’t see the meaningful eye contact when you go over something one last time because ing it up will be a disaster. They see a tired Captain with messy hair, who’s never officially supervised anybody and therefore can’t possibly be a leader. That’s not the non-rated officer’s fault; their exposure is movies about aerial combat that’s portrayed more like boxing than war. Give them time, and they’ll get it eventually... or they won’t, and they’ll be sent to tell you that aircrew aren’t leaders. Be a leader; scoff the people who want you to prove it in a silly way. Fly, fight, and win. Don’t apologize for it.
    6 points
  2. I appreciate the “Never Give Up” attitude more then most and just understand timing is everything despite the best laid plans. My late 80s/early 90s story among many other great stories out there. 1. Planned to join Air Force ROTC work hard/stay focused and earn a Pilot Slot. 2. Several of us in the running for a pilot slot in a non-normal environment. Graduating Class before us multiple pilot slots awarded, our class a total of 0. It was Post Gulf War 1 drawdown and ROTC dropped from 1200 slots to 100 slots annually. Try applying several years after Top Gun came out and a Reduction In Force Impact - nothing was tougher. Haven’t seen anything like it since. Banked Pilots, no fly just working other jobs awaiting a seat in aircraft that didn’t exist. 3. Next focused attempt. Give it my all to earn the Commandant/Vice Commandant Award at Basic(Camp) since all previous award winners were given the choice of either a Full Scholarship or Pilot Slot (Rated Position). Finished Basic and received the Vice Commandants Award. Finalized paperwork for Pilot Slot opportunity vs Scholarship and missed the writing on the wall. Due to continuing cut backs we regret to inform you we have canceled all Pilot Slot awardees via the Top 4% Award Winners program and I was unable to go back and receive the Full Ride Scholarship to further kick sand in our face. 2nd Upset, Timing is everything. 4. Elected to enter/serve the USAF as a Maintenance (MX) Officer and continue to compete for slots while young enough. Applied every other year for a total of 2 more times while banked pilots continued to roam the base in alternative positions. 27.5 years old was the cut off and that ended the Active Duty pursuit. That’s 4 legitimate full force attempts where I crashed and burned. 5. Sent to the Air National Guard Headquarters as an Active Duty Staff MX Officer. Worked hard as always, especially taking care of my assigned ANG units. Saw the light with the Guard and while many were offering the opportunity for me to transfer to their units as an MX Officer, several of my preferred locations did not have those positions and asked if I was interested in becoming a pilot? Imagine that, someone working on your behalf which was new. Told them I was too old and they never batted an eye as they had the political gusto to cut red tape and make it happen. Offered amazing opportunities by three units and one other Great unit officially hiring me as B-1 WSO (Now JSTARS) just in case my age waiver was torpedoed by the USAF Chief of Staff. Turns out the Director of the Guard had Gen Ryan at the time personally endorse the waiver, especially after the UPT age limit just rose to 30. I entered Pilot Training after nearly seven years of Active Duty at the ripe age of 31 as a senior Capt. Just happy to be there. While pushing for Pilot I broke myself physically and paying for it now while doing CCT/STS Team tryouts annually. Much easier life now and I probably would have been dead on a mountain in Afghanistan or at least divorced so someone up there is looking out for me. Overall, it’s not necessarily what you but who you know, the work effort and trust you will build with those above below and around you and once again timing is everything. Let your work speak for you! You never make the shot you never take! Fully retired now, C-141s, C-17s, too much Staff Work , but I am making up for it here in Korea resting up for my flight to Australia flying a 747. Some senior officer (New OG at Columbus AFB) once told me during pilot training - “You shouldn’t be here!” He was one of the AD Staff O-6s holding back my application packages at the Pentagon, but our General swiped it from him. Look at me now: Multiple incomes, flying The Whale and loving every minute of it. Even if doesn’t last, it has been an amazing opportunity. Hard work eventually pays off, but it was those below and above that raised me up and pushed me up to the front of the line. You only have “ONElife”....
    3 points
  3. https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/tyler-o-neil/2020/06/18/thomas-eviscerates-timid-daca-decision-as-destructive-to-the-rule-of-law-n548134 TLDR: POTUS 44: Since Congress can't agree to do anything, Ima sign this DACA executive order without following the admin rules. POTUS 45: Since Congress can't agree to anything, Ima cancel the previous executive order. SCOTUS: Nope, you didn't follow the rules cancelling the previous order that didn't follow the rules. Not a lawyer...
    1 point
  4. I guarantee they will find another reason to uphold it next time. The Supreme Court has gotten out of hand. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
    1 point
  5. As a retired WSO/EWO I suggest pilot or bust. It is really tiring to have to work with people who are eaten up with sadness and jealously towards the guy in the front seat.
    1 point
  6. Did you read the ruling? It was largely procedural. Don't hate the player, hate the game.
    1 point
  7. I learned something today. Actually, several things. One that the political science degree I got way back when is even more worthless today than it has been throughout my career because apparently most of what I was taught was wrong. The other thing that I learned today, and related to the incorrectness of that mighty BA is that executive orders cannot be overturned by a succeeding President. Silly me, I thought that unless Congress enacted a law and the President signed it or if the Supreme Court made a ruling that essentially acted as a law, that the executive orders issued by one President were not binding on subsequent Presidents. The Supreme Court changed that today. Seems some EOs are more equal than others...
    1 point
  8. 1 point
  9. I could see a little disorganization but I walked in Day 1, Ground School for about 3 hours, went and flew a checkride profile then left for the day. Showed up Day 2 and took the oral (sts) exam followed by the Checkride profile. All in all, a quick and relatively easy way to get the ATP certificate. I think I was out of there in 36 hours with the license and minimum money spent.
    1 point
  10. Y’all still rocking the original PTUs that were like MC Hammer pants that got turned into shorts? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
    1 point
  11. I think the General's article raises some interesting possibilities to improve UPT. Better said, I think he is offering some valid ways to improve the transition from UPT to today's modern fighter/attack platforms. However, I think he's forgetting the basic goal of UPT. We still need to produce pilots with strong foundational skills in basic aviation before we start giving them extra "toys" to play with. The problem with making changes to syllabi and training programs in aviation (military or civilian) is the guys making the changes are usually the old guys who were trained one or more "generations" in the past. They always seem to apply their perspective of how challenging it was to adapt to new technology when most of the time, the young guys do fine. What’s actually harder is being able to go backward once someone had become proficient with new tech. I've seen it over and over again. F-15 FTU syllabus changes to include advanced subjects and tactics that had traditionally been left until arrival at the ops units. Old guys are highly skeptical and swear the students will flail because when they had to learn the same stuff 10 years into their careers, their ingrained, semi-hardened brains found it a challenge. Surprise - the students eat the shit up and adapt because they don't know any different and they come out the other end more lethal than their instructors were when they were LTs. Airline X decides to put new hires into the right seats of the latest Boeing or Airbus wide-bodies because 1 - there aren't any more 727 Engineer seats to stick newbies into and 2 - they need to fill the seats. Old guys lose their minds again considering the impossible task of learning the ropes at a major airline while getting through right seat training on the modern marvel that is a 21st century airliner with a glass cockpit and all the bells and whistles. Surprise again - new guys (most anyway) from all kinds of backgrounds deal just fine with all the magic that the old guys stared at like a pig looking at a wristwatch. My point is that new pilots rarely have difficulty adapting to new technology that reduces workload, enhances SA and allows easier human interface. But, once you give them those new toys and train them to use and rely on them from day one, they have no ability to retrograde back to more basic methods. When my airliner computes a descent to hit waypoints at specific speeds and altitudes down track, I do the math and compute my 3:1 descent in my head to make sure the jet's plan is reasonable. It's just a habit developed before I had all the magic. A "child of magenta" probably doesn't have that same habit and may not even have the ability to do it. He's never needed to. So, when Murphy strikes in that scenario or any number of potential problem areas in civilian or military flying, if a pilot has no old school skills and is completely reliant on technology to do his job, he's less capable - period - dot. I laughed when I saw the side by side picture of the T-X and F-35 cockpits. YGBSM. The fact that both cockpits utilize similar displays and automation isn't going to matter on "Stanley's" UPT sorties when he's trying to figure out how to develop contact flying skills, land out of an overhead, not kill his classmate during a rejoin or shoot an approach to mins. I guaran-fucking-tee that his first sortie in an F-35 is not going to be any easier because he had a moving map or some other sensor display in his T-X while he was still earning his wings. Anyone can go from round dial steam gauges that actually required an instrument scan and some mental challenge to maintain positional awareness and overall SA to the latest, greatest glass cockpit. Going back in the other direction is a far different story. UPT needs to produce pilots with solid, basic aviation skills. Skipping over those by handing Stanley a glass cockpit with a moving map, HUD and whatever other toys are available isn't going to do that. I have no doubt he'll do just fine with them, but there's benefit to learning this job from a basic level first. You produce pilots who don't just take the information presented to them as gospel and blindly follow it - but have the ability to understand how to back it up, QC it to ensure it makes sense and flex to another option if it doesn't. I've seen pilots blindly follow steering bars on a flight director into oblivion because that's all they've ever done. Another is unable to transition to a round dial ADI because they're a HUD baby and it's now tits up. I watched a guy in the sim completely pork a way an approach because he chose not to use DME to the field, mis-interpreted his NAV display and lost SA on where he was. A bearing pointer and DME is a beautiful thing if you know how to use them. My point is that the General's concern seems to be how can we introduce more shit to Stanley sooner so he'll be more familiar with the F-35 or F-22 cockpit if and when he finally gets that far. I think students will adapt to those environments just fine when the times comes. There may be an opportunity to help begin their transition later in UPT or during whatever we're going to call the IFF phase. But not at the expense of creating a generation of pilots who start out from day one completely reliant on the most advanced cockpit we can field. Maybe the General needs to take a peek at the existing F-15C or A-10 cockpits. They sure as hell would be about 10 steps backwards for a UPT student who just got winged in an F-X and now has to figure out how to fly round dial steam gauges so he doesn't kill himself on his first ILS to mins. Anyway..... just my old guy two-cents. I still see some value in swinging a weighted bat in the on-deck circle before I'm up.
    1 point
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