CHQ Pilot

There is video of the final few seconds from what looks like a security camera. Tragic

I've been in Dover for almost 8 years in the Reserves. What I can say about Dover.. The location is more like the Midwest of the East Coast. Flat, farm fields, Amish, NASCAR. Lower Delaware, except for the beach areas has a definite southern feel. Northern DE is more cosmopolitan and big city liberal. It's the state of Joe Biden, but you wouldn't know that in the southern 2 counties. It all revolves around agriculture and what comes with it (guns, little government, open spaces). There is a clear difference from northern and southern Delaware. The cost of living is some of the lowest on the east coast. No sales tax, low property tax (I pay a year what some in MD almost quarterly), low gas prices (we are about 2.20/gal right now and was right around 2.00 a few weeks back). It does save a lot of money in the long run. Just no sales tax alone is great. Schools around Dover are hit and miss. They are nothing to brag about, but they tend to fare okay in test scores. There is a large low income population mixed with solid middle income and it shows. The "diversity" is generally spread evenly around the districts, so there really isn't one area that is better than another. Most regard the Caesar Rodney SD (Camden-Wyoming) as better than Capital (Dover city), but that just may be because I live in the CR district. Nightlife...what is that? Not much to be found, unless you head towards Philly or the beaches. The most exciting new restaurant to come to the area was a Cheddar's if that says anything. There are some good places around, but you tend to have to search it out. It also goes back to COL, since it does save money because eating out all the time at the same few good restaurants would get old. So after all that it pretty much sounds like Dover is one of the worst places ever. During my last 8 years I've started to see some of the good qualities and it has grown on me. There are some positives that I've come to enjoy. Beaches are 45-60 mins away (Assateague Island and the wild horses are a great escape with nice wide beaches) and the mountains of PA, MD, VA are 3-4 hours away. A lot of the local people are extremely friendly. A few years ago I was stuck in a snow drift (Delaware has an issue when it comes to plowing roads) and a guy in a pickup drove by. He immediately got out, hooked up some chains and pulled me out. When I offered him some cash, he refused and said "We're all just neighbors helping neighbors." Another time I had an appliance issue and I called a local repair place. To save me the charge to come out, the manager talked me through how to fix it for free. Those are two examples that have surprised me. I wouldn't expect that around Philly. Although DE can't compete with the west coast, there is lots of good beer available around here. Dogfish Head is close by, along with Dover's own Dominion and Fordham, Flying Dog out of MD, 16 Mile, and Mispillion River all brew some good stuff, but that is dependent on taste. DC, Baltimore, Philly are around 1.5-2 hours away with traffic. NYC is a little farther at 3-4, but doable. Dover is not a big city with big city amenities, but I'm starting to enjoy the slower pace. I don't deal with traffic, Amazon can deliver pretty much anything I can't find (and usually the next day because of the large distribution center 20 miles north), and I've made some great relationships. If you're young fresh out of pilot training, it may not be great, and I totally get that. If you have a family or are past going out all the time, it's not that bad and I've seen some great positives. A lot of the younger guys live in the Newark, Wilmington, Philly area. It's a little bit of a drive, but it has more appeal. If anyone has specific questions, PM me and I'll try to answer them.

The first thing that caught my attention was that from the pictures it appears the rudder separated from the vertical stab. Still holding out that because of the remoteness of the crash site, news of the crew hasn't been as forthcoming. It hasn't been a good couple weeks.

Have a friend that flies -400s for another cargo operator and he believes it was highly unlikely it would have been a trim runaway. Some of the points he stated was that the trim moves relatively slowly in the -400. The greenband for the trim is set from the nosegear strut extension for each takeoff. If the trim was set outside the greenband, then they would have gotten a takeoff config warning. If the trim ran away after V1, the stab moves too slowly for it to put the aircraft in the position it was. He said it may be "possible", but many different systems would have to fail simultaneously in order to have a mistrimmed or runaway trim condition. He thought, like a lot of people, a possible load shift or some other unknown catastrophic failure of the aircraft in the pitch control.

I just noticed I have the same charge (141 I think). The orginal charge was what I was expecting, but I'm not sure what this one is.

tunes, thanks for taking this on. I know it has been a long process, but hopefully it will be ending soon. Thanks again for making this happen (and to the others that took care of things in the background when you were gone).

This info should be accurate (at least from a few months ago) There is a form (an excel spreadsheet) that will contain your name, contact info, and what you want engraved (name, callsign, etc). Payment is done by credit card and is another form. The amount is not charged until the watches are received in the US which can take several months. They say approximately 4-7 months, but I was told it could take up to almost a year (worst case) if they have a lot of orders. I don't know if they run a preauthorization. There is another form that you sign saying that you are an astronaut or have obtained military pilot wings and are currently serving as a pilot (or something to that effect). It's on the same form or a different one saying you agree not to sell the watch for a minimum of 5 years from receipt.

ANR headsets are not approved in the C-17 as far as I know. The C-17 also uses a low impedence system which is different than almost every other headset out there. Awhile back I remember recieving an email about pilots using their own headsets (I think mostly Reserves) and how it wasn't authorized. There was talk about having a custom made ear plug system that would reduce the noise, but haven't see anything on it lately. I not sure you will need to hear the engines. Autothrottles are used most of the time unless in the pattern and then you are flying off the HUD almost solely. You see all this at PIQ. I wouldn't invest the money in ANR. I have a Oregon Aero Comfort kit that I put on my headset and it works wonders.

This is where we got our "broken wings" plaques. I think they used to actaully have a text of the poem, but the website has been redesigned. http://www.aeroriginals.com/shadow_boxes/brokenwings.html This is also where we got our "shadow boxes" for graduation.

I'll second the Oregon Aero Kit. I got it for my my straight -76s and the comfort factor went way up. The biggest difference was the memory foam type of ear seals which eliminated most of the hot spots. Wearing them 4-5 hours during locals hasn't caused me any problems. The ear covers are better than the ones I had before because they are "oversized" and fill the inside of the earcup. The thin head pad distrubutes the weight better also. They had some density foam to replace what was in the hard shell, but I'm not sure how much it helped. Overall I've been more than happy. I did replace the old wire boom assembly with the flexible one from the ENC and it is a lot better for positioning the mic. I bought it from DC off their website along with a set of mounting screws for the mic (the ones from the -76 don't work). The boom doesn't keep falling out of place and doesn't need to be tightened. The -76XL (ENC) and the straight -76 use the exact same mic, so there is no need to change anything other than the boom itself. My lip light is much more tighter because of the change also. I use the Telex 850 in my other job which as ANR. It cuts out the wind noise tremendously and since the aircraft I fly doesn't have a hot mic or interphone, it is much easier to hear the other person. I've never tried an ANR headset in the C-5, but I'm not sure how much it would help over a comfortable set of DCs since there is an interphone system. I've heard ANR causes less fatigue, but I've never really noticed much of a difference other than ease of understanding the other person (which is almost a non-issue in an intercom airplane). I've heard pilots with the BOSE like them, but they've also said the same about how they don't hold up too well in the military realm of flight.

I think you misunderstood what PilotKD was trying to say. I don't think he is saying that as sole manipulator you can't log PIC. That is what you can do as far as the FAA is concerned. The issue is if you are applying to an airline, they have different stipulations on what they consider "PIC". It all depends on the airline and what their policy is. I know SWA will only accept time as the "A" code. All other time is SIC. For straight civillian, PIC time can only be counted if you signed for the aircraft (the assigned Captain). The issue would be is that if you logged time as say a FP or a First Officer as PIC when you were sole manipulator (but didn't sign for the aircraft), the interviewer may catch on when reviewing your records. If you're a prior airline pilot, there is usually a shift from all SIC to all PIC. Military pilots would show a shift from predominately SIC to predominately PIC. That is generally how airlines look at logging time. I know Southwest wants it that way because that was how it was relayed to me directly from one of their recuiters. You are correct that if the FAA reviewed your records, you would still be legal in their eyes for meeting minimum PIC requirements for ratings and currency.

I was asked if I would be requesting BAH in my HOR when I was outprocessing for UPT last year in addition to BAH at Vance. They had seen that I had a dependent and said I could claim BAH for my wife at my HOR if she was staying behind. Finance said they could do this because UPT was a TDY (as MDINC said). Finance said there was some talk of changing the regs (to include bachelors) so that if a member owned property and maintained ownership for the duration of the orders without renting it out, they could claim BAH for that property. Basically said it is pointless to possibly force someone to sell a house because they are going to UPT. [ 17. July 2006, 20:12: Message edited by: CHQ Pilot ]

Unless the aircraft has a civilian equivalent, most military aircraft do not have type ratings you can add to your certificate. There is no type rating for a T-37, T-38, C-5, C-17, but there is for T-1 (BE400), KC-135 (B707), KC-10 (DC10), etc. I'm sure most fighters fall into the same situation. There is a difference in logging PIC under the FAA definition for ratings and what an employer considers PIC for meeting their minimum qualifications. I think that is where most of the confusion lies.

Speaking with several pilots and an HR person at Southwest, I've been told to log UPT time in the appropriate category (multi/turbine/etc..), but to not log it as PIC even if you were rated. Most airlines do not accept "sole manipulator" as PIC if you did not sign for the aircraft (which I didn't at UPT). The only possible exception would be solo time. It comes down to the time at UPT will overall be a small factor in your flying career. It may not be worth trying to log a few hours of PIC and have it come back and get you years later. My plan is to take my records printout for my military times and my civillian logbook for all my other. REally can't go wrong with that.

This is good info. I hadn't thought of Vonage before. I have an email from my unit from awhile back about using the DSN to make calls, but it is buried somewhere in my achives, so I have to do some searching. I heard another option is getting a SIM card for your cell phone that will allow you to roam for somewhat low rates. It is prepaid and is .49 cents a minute back to the states and free incoming for most of western Europe. Some of the highest rates were from Kuwait at .99 a minute out going, .19 a minute incoming. Using Toro's advice I looked up Militel and (I still need to do some research with them) they have some plans that look like you may be able to call from the states to the cell phone for .06 a minute. That would effectively make it .06/min to Europe and .25/min to Kuwait. Since it is prepaid you can control the cost. Creativity seems to be the key. You need to have a compatible phone (Cingular and T-Mobile are for the most part) and have it unlocked. There are some reputable companies that will unlock it for a nominal fee (around $25). [ 01. July 2006, 21:38: Message edited by: CHQ Pilot ]

I'm headed to the AMC world soon and was wondering what are the best and cheapest ways to call home. I was looking at calling cards, but I've heard they don't always work or you get hit with fees from the hotel for dialing out. My cellphone (Cingular) has an international plan that is something like 4.99 a month and then .99 a minute for most of western Europe. Does anyone do something like that? I'm looking at all options, even good text messaging plans if there are any. Also, my wife just started as a flight attendent with an international DOD charter airline, so she will be overseas quite a bit as well. If anyone has good ideas or suggestions that might work well for us, it would be appreciated.

When you get to your UPT base they should ask if anyone wears contacts and if they want to schedule an appointment to get on the program. Took about 5 minutes and the all they did was ask a few questions about how long I had been wearing and what brand. They also covered the special solutions to use and the standard Air Force safety precautions. Pretty painless actually. They key is to be wearing contacts before you get to UPT. If they don't say anything during your medical inprocessing, stop by the eye doc and ask. They'll be able to hook you up.

When I spoke with them they said they don't hire off the street because they have enough prior F-16 pilots in the DFW area. I don't know if it happended, but the person I spoke with said they would be getting some AD guys to fill the new pilot ranks (where they would move on after they got some experience). I'm sure with units getting BRACd, it is only going to get more difficult to find units that hire off the street.

I would think that "Other" time doesn't mean anything to people outside the military. It seemed to me a way to have an accountabililty of being on board. I wouldn't count "Other" time towards any total time. I don't even count the sim time because I was told the sims don't have an FAA certification. I'm keeping a record of all my times, but I don't use it for any ratings/resumes. I pretty sure you can count your Primary time as SIC since the aircraft requires two pilots.

It seems to be almost purely random from what I've observed. In my selection board from my unit, two of us came to Vance and one to Laughlin. Before that it seemed everyone went to Columbus. I spoke with Cynthia Freeman about this when I was selected and she said she just puts people in classes where there is availability. She also said there is no possible way to ask for a certain base (unless it is a special request for such reasons as a child needs specialized medical care not available near another base). Your UPT base will show up with all of your information about 6-9 weeks before your tentative OTS date.

I'd say a Bristol Britannia.

Hey there.. I'm using my husband's login. Here at Vance, it was explained to me that the OSC did not include girlfriends. I actually ran into a problem because my last name didn't match my husbands, so they automatically assumed that I was a girlfriend and was told it was a "no-no" to belong if I was a girlfriend. That was when a group of girls started the Student Officers' Spouses' Club. This club is open to girlfriends, fiance's and wives of student pilots.

You should be able to get most of your uniform items before you leave. Your unit should know all about it. I took the list from the OTS website (plus some extra stuff I learned about from airforceots.com) and I filled out an AF656. My unit signed it and went to clothing to get it filled. The big problem was clothing didn't have a lot of the sizes, so either go well in advance of your OTS date or make arraigments to have it filled at a large base. My unit even took my receipts from the "extra"stuff they make you buy the first few days and I got some money back from it. You cannot get uniforms paid for by your unit down at Maxwell, plus it helps tremendously to have your stuff altered ahead of time. If you have any other questions, feel free to PM me.

If you took an Initial Flying Class I physical and it was stamped from the SG, then you can apply to AD, Reserves, or Guard for 36 months with the same physical. I took my IFC1 at an ANG base and was subsequently picked up by a Reserve unit with the same physical. Actually, the Reserve unit liked that it was already done an stamped. Guard units can be picky about keeping all the paperwork from their own unit. I found they really didn't like taking someone else's work. Short answer....it it was completed and stamped (even with a waiver), you shouldn't have any problems using it in your package if it is within 36 months from when you took it.

Our flight was able to get off-campus only one weekend, but even then the people who didn't drive said they wished they had their own car (even it was for only a few hours over 12 weeks). Like everyone else, I suggest driving.