Cornholio5

Check out this article from Air Force times. Apparently this particular FAIP thinks hand flying ability no longer matters since the T-1 students are going on to fly autopilot aircraft anyway. I am 69% certain we have a Wing Exec here....I feel bad for her poor students. http://www.airforcetimes.com/article/20130513/NEWS/305130012/Vance-AFB-pilot-instructors-take-pride-job A few of my favorite excerpts are below: During transition, the first phase of T-1 training, instructors look for “good hands,” or pure flying ability. “After that we don’t,” she said. “We know the people we’re sending on, they’re going to go to aircraft where they’re going to fly with the autopilot on. You don’t need the best hands to be the best Air Force pilot."

Well isn't the AAD the root of the problem :). To bring this train back on track, has anyone got any details on what happened? Does it just boil down to an aimpoint in the grass?

No, it won't change. In order to get anywhere in this AF, you have to conform and not innovate. New, crazy ideas do not ever make it because the rules of the game say that you do not even attempt to change anything if you want to make it up the ladder. It is a self-licking ice cream cone. I was just told by a FAIP yesterday (who has been here only 6 months) that he was told by his commander on day one after PIT that if he does not do his AAD now, he will be considered a failure. This is a guy that SHOULD be focusing his time on being the best instructor and technical expert he can be, but instead has to do a worthless online masters program. Absolutely pathetic--a SEVERE lack of focus on what is important. I hear you on taking your services elsewhere. It looks like this hiring boom is going to occur and I see a MASSIVE outflow of pilots from the AF to the airlines. Heck, United just got a 35% pay increase, and they are hiring 50/month.

THIS!!!!! What Big Blue is doing is trying to do is combine two inherently different things: being a career AF officer AND an "experienced" pilot. We are making pilots instructors/evaluators and group stan-eval who, in some cases (many would argue most), are not the best or most-experienced pilots in their respective units. Their upgrade to IP/EP is based solely on the almighty "career progression". My unit, in particular, is very much like this. For instance, the guy who graduated IP school two months after I did and has less than half my IP time, got upgraded to be chief of DOV. In addition, the head of our group stan-eval has been here a year longer than I have and I have surpassed him on hours. What do these two have in common? Well, lets just say that leadership loves them and "coddles" them because they focus their time on things other than flying such as paperwork, planning events, etc. What this messed up system is doing is creating "artificial experience" for these guys so that they can move up the almighty career ladder. What is happening, though, is that we are sending people to these positions who are not necessarily good in their primary jobs. I have to laugh every time I read the cookie-cutter AF bios for senior leadership who are pilots. Most, if not all, have evaluator experience and I have to wonder--are they REALLY that good in their airframe, or were they just given "artificial experience"? In my previous airframe, we upgraded a guy to AC so that his career would not be killed. This guy, though, once his OME was complete, was not allowed to fly with two copilots. He had to fly with another "seeing-eye" aircraft commander and copilot. So, from a scheduling perspective, this guy took out two certified aircraft commanders for one mission. Makes sense to have a "seeing eye" AC, but this guy should have never upgraded in the first place. This madness has got to stop. The line has to be drawn between being an officer and being a GOOD, PROFESSIONAL, EXPERIENCED, KNOWLEDGEABLE, CURRENT, MISSION READY, pilot... Yes, careerism is a cancer. Have any of you read Tim Kane's book, Bleeding Talent? It describes how the military mismanages great leaders and why the system NEEDS to be changed.

The problem was that this AFPC rep that told us about stop loss is a command pilot O-6 with a shitton of heavy time. Maybe he is just passing the "political answer" from A1 which was probably the case. The AF better start coming up with some creative ways to retain their pilots if this so-called "hiring boom" does occur.

I just read that article this morning. Even though it is fighter specific, it is very true in the heavy world too. Has anyone on here read Tim Kane's book "Bleeding Talent" yet? I heard it is about the crap that we are frustrated about on a daily basis and I just wanted to see how it is. AMC was pretty bad on the queep and the AETC base I am at right now has taken the queep insanity to a whole new level. When I was in AMC, I was told by my supervisor that I am making myself look like a dirtbag because I am flying too much--damn, I thought that was our freaking job? When AFPC came and talked to us at the mindfvck school at Maxwell, they are worried too about the pending pilot shortage. The representative also mentioned they are ready to impose programs such as "stop loss" to keep the floodgates from staying open too long. When he said this, holy crap, you could hear every pilot in Polifka sigh and you could feel the tension.

What absolutely amazes me is how doing "inspections" of our workplace and purging all potentially "sexual" material is going to solve this problem.

Seriously man? Do you honestly think that was what I was implying when I typed that? This could have happened to ANY ONE of us---especially after a long duty day. I was saying that there are tools in the cockpit, that if utilized properly, that can help prevent incidents like this from happening. The important thing is too see what happened so maybe fellow aviators can learn from this mistake.

It sure as heck was. Looks like they all got focused on that runway right in front of them and got compartmentalized on that. I went on google earth and changed the eye view to that of what the pilots saw being on final for MacDill and their long runway is very identifiable. Even if it wasn't, this approach should have been loaded up in the FMS and the pilots should have been crosschecking DME. I wish I was a fly on the wall in that cockpit. It will be interesting to hear the CRM that was going on.

I think its funny how awards such as IP of the year, AC of the year, so on and so forth go to the individuals who fly the least. It should be the opposite, but I guess that is Big Blue's rationale for awards....

My lawyer was a Lt Col in the Army JAG. She knew about these women who latch on to military guys and sap them dry. She also knew all the ins and outs of military divorces--best decision I made, next to divorcing my ex.

Could not agree more BitteEinBit. What we have going on here is a very slow decrease in airmanship and it is going to continue. I feel sorry for the FAIPS at my base because as soon as they finish PIT, they are thrown into the queep grindstone immediately and do not have an opportunity to become proficient as instructors. Their next assignment does not hinge on their flying ability. Rather, it hinges on the sheer amount of worthless queep they volunteer for. I seriously do not know how they do it---fly the line, do the queep, their desk job, "professional" Air Force organizations, masters, PME, etc. , etc. etc. While us MWS guys have a little bit less, there is still a LOT of crap we have to put up with. For this guy, at least, it is enough that I want to get out of this misguided mess at the first opportunity. The issue of "careerism" is going to unfortunately bend metal someday. At my previous base, one of my "additional duties" was that of pilot scheduler. In that job I knew everything about everyone for the most part. I knew the Q3s, the bad pilots, the good pilots, the pilots no one wanted to fly with, etc. One issue that I saw, though, was that many of our Q3s and less-than-stellar aviators were the folks who put more emphasis on their desk jobs and career progression than being proficient in their airframe. This was not constant across the board, but most times, this was the case. I am not knocking guys who want to fight to stay in--but for the love of God, if you are going to be a pilot, KNOW your airframe and be as proficient in it as you can possibly be, because your crew's life is depending on your skill and experience. I joined the service to "SERVE" my nation as a pilot. I uphold that and I put my flying job first. I care about my student's learning and want to ensure that they are passed along the knowledge that they need to be safe and proficient pilots. But, I am told that I need "mentoring" because I put being a pilot as my priority and not PME, Masters, etc. Many say that the only way to stop this is for the ones of us that complain about this to get into leadership positions and change it. I don't agree, it will take a huge servicewide culture shift to change this and I sure as hell don't want to waste more years of my life dealing with it. Another issue I see is a severe lack of VFR flying skills. A lot of new pilots anymore (especially IFS graduates with no prior flying experience) do not know how to navigate an aircraft by looking out the window. I am not saying that a lack of VFR skills is what caused this near miss in Florida, but it would not surprise me either. Yes, we are required to fly IFR to the "max extent possible"--I get that and that should continue. Our new UPT students, though, should be getting a much better foundation for VFR and navigating by looking out the window and a sectional more (we only give them 2 sorties to navigate VFR). In my previous airframe we were descending into our overnight location in Europe and I told my copilot to just fly the visual approach because it was a clear and a million day in Germany. Wow, you would have thought I was about to beat him over the face with a golf shoe--suddenly he did not know what to do to fly a visual approach. I had to basically coach him through it until he picked up the VASI's on final. For all the airline guys out there, I hope this made you laugh. I just hope this pilot shortage we all keep hearing about is actually going to happen. The Air Force has a great way of making awesome dream jobs suck...

My favorite is "The Year of the Air Force Family".

You made a very good one herkbum! Hopefully I will be over to the greener grass soon.

Hey, do any of you guys know if a Jeppesen military account holder will be able to use the Jeppesen mobile flight deck app on iPad?

Hell, in my unit there are guys straight out of UPT that are already working on their worthless TUI and Riddle Masters. I am about a year and a half from majors board and have not even started mine. That's how bad AD is now. I hope all you Guard/ Reserve guys know how good you got it!

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You couldn't have said it any better! Thanks hindsight! The AD likes to scare us into thinking that they are the only thing going right now for pilots---well I don't not even care if I make less, I will be happier out of this madness! Thanks again for the insight.

Kind of off subject guys, but I am AD and want nothing more than to get out of this craziness called AD and join all my buddies in the guard/reserve. If I get passed over twice for O-4 while on AD, 1-will hiring boards look down on me because of that, and 2-will I still be able to be promoted to O-4 if I do get hired? I am starting my BS online master's this week by the way to check that box.

God I wish it were like that on AD. It is more of a struggle every day serving my 10 year active-duty sentence dealing with all the queep. I wished I had listened to my guard buddy a long time ago. It is a shame to hear that some reserve units are starting to sway over to the AD mentality. I hope to God it never gets as bad though.

Soon as someone gets a hold of it, put it on here!

So true. We eat our own. I like listening to old hands who were in during the eighties!

Well, I am biting the bullet and starting my ERAU Master's here in a few weeks---1.5 years from my Major's board so I am effectively screwed but oh well. I figure I should sap all the money I can out of good 'ol Big Blue and get a decent job in the civilian world where I will not have to constantly worry about my CC riding my ass because I don't play the game, why i don't have O-6 on my radar screen, why i don't have my Master's done, don't volunteer enough, etc., etc., etc all while flying my ass off because flying is what I love to do. Here is what I don't get. With each new applicant for these worthless Master's degrees, the credibility of actually having a Master's Degree is going down. If this cycle continues, which it will because all of us that don't like the system are not willing to put up with the bullshit to actually get to the point where we can change it, 2Lt's are going to be informally required to get their Master's before they become a 1Lt, Captains are going to have to get a Doctorate so that they can be promoted to Major. Where does this end? I have no clue, but hey, for this guy, I am going to pay the fee, and get a B and "check the box.".

In about three years, it will become a requirement to have masters and SOS done by the time you are a 1Lt.

I don't understand their secret formula here at all. People like me who actually raised our hands to get out would not get let out and buddies of mine who wanted to make Big Blue a career were RIFed. I don't get it and I don't think I will ever will.