Hacker

PSA also regularly has great deals on the DSA aluminum mags. I buy when they hit the $6.99 each sale, but they've been $5.99 at some points previous, too.

They must just not be very patriotic. Or, at least, that's what some doofus in AF management once said.

Yay! Virtue signaling! I wonder if those airlines are going to be making the same changes to their relationship with the FBI and the Broward County S.D.?

His point was, with the exception of a couple of years here and there, there has historically generally been some sort of pre-UPT screening program. Nice white paper on the history of USAF screening programs here: http://www.aetc.af.mil/Portals/88/Documents/history/AFD-061109-020.pdf

It was "FSPOT" - Flight Screening Program for Officer Trainees.

The Executive doesn't create law. Neither does the Attorney General.

I like to post this "fact checker" whenever the real gray beards start opining about their "50% washout rates when I went through UPT in (insert timeframe here)."

These slides are pretty dated now, but for the life of the PCSM, there's been a positive correlation between PCSM score and washout rate. One slide circa 1998, the other circa 2002.

How many Flag-level officers realize that the bright, shiny low-hanging fruit they're chasing in attempts to "fix" the disaster are not the actual root causes? More importantly, do they realize they are both the living embodiment of the problems forcing pilots out the door, as well as the key to fixing those actual root causes?

I much preferred the days when Academy staff used macroaggressions to show cadets what worthless maggots they were enroute to earning a commission and respect.

Naw, just busting your balls, since most folks don't remember some A300s and A310s -- with center yokes, manual flight controls, and analog/EFIS cockpits -- are still out there soldiering on.

I never understood why they didn't use the term "Combined", which IIRC is the term when actions are multi-national (the analog of "Joint" for multi-service actions). Since international students are trained there (and there are sometimes international instructors), it should have been "Combined Undergraduate Navigator Training" this whole time.

SHACK. Leadership is simply unable to acknowledge the real cultural and leadership issues that are driving pilots to the door. It isn't a big mystery -- pilots are quite clear and vociferous about their reasons for leaving. Thus, there can only be a couple of reasons why leadership is failing to understand, internalize, and act on these reasons. My favorite theory is still the self-indoctrination, self-delusionary, fart-smelling, alternate reality theory that says leadership is so in denial that they are a key part of the cause (and a key part of the solution) that their worldview simply ignores these clear reasons and invents other alternate reasons out of thin air so it "logically" makes sense to them. Leadership can change their philosophy of leading and commanding. Leadership can change who they groom for promotion, who they promote, and for what reasons they promote. Leadership can re-institute a mission focus and shut down the death-by-papercuts side interests that dominate AF life. Leadership can stop the pandering and social experimentation to non-mission essential people, tasks, and ideas. We know there is a war on. We know you don't control what the National Command Authority tasks the USAF to do. We know there is suck and sacrifice in doing our duty. None of those things are why we have left or are intending to leave.

I'm always entertained by the inevitable APC post (or here, for that matter) opining, "why would the airlines hire a fighter dude who doesn't know anything about their business when instead they can hire someone who knows how to be part of a crew and use an FMS and fly into high-volume airports like the airlines do?!" Well, dude...why don't you ask the hiring folks at the airlines, who don't seem to see the same problem with it that you seem to think there is.

Yes, and that is how the bed you've made over the last 15 years feels to sleep on, Big Blue.

And have a backup plan if you don't get "the call" you want during the timeframe you want. Regionals, contractors, lower-tier national/LCC/freight airlines, etc.

The AF gutted itself, it isn't any fault or cause of the airlines.

Not sure which "the Airbus" you're referring to, but the one I'm on has a heading bug regardless of the status of modes.

At my current airline and in my jet, they are fairly militant about keeping the bug centered. In all my years of military flying, I never did this. Like Huggy, I used the heading bug for other stuff (like "pie in the sky" MOA maintenance, yeah baby!!). I don't have a preference or opinion contrary to that, so I just do it.

Retiree ID has been good enough to satisfy both the Club Membership and Marksmanship Activity requirements for the standard CMP membership and purchasing rifles.

Don't be a pussy. Do it. "Thirty years from now when you're sitting by your fireside with your grandson on your knee and he asks, 'What did you do in the great World War Two?' You won't have to cough and say, 'Well, your granddaddy shoveled shit in Louisiana.'"

Soooo, I still haven't received a PM or email from anyone that can help me get in contact with ol' Tweak. The bag tag's about to start a world tour.

Interestingly enough, that pic was taken by my associate (who has the flag), who is a pilot at a regional...so that's the real reason to be impressed at the hotel pen!

This luggage tag, presumably owned by "Viper Driver Tweak" was found by an associate of mine at the aeropuerto in Erie, PA. It is currently being held hostage by the Swedish Bikini Team, who are threatening to suffocate it with their boobs and/or thighs if ransom demands for its return are not met. If you know Tweak, and he cares enough about this $15 bag tag to save it from certain death from overexposure to soft, delicious Nordic flesh, contact me to help arrange to get it back. Photos/video of the bag tag torture threats unavailable at this time.

I know several guys who fly for Blue Air and are relatively happy with it. At least out in my neck of the woods, they're supporting the JTAC school/CAS training, and are looking primarily for former A-G fighter dudes (Hogs seem to be preferred). There appear to be several spots in the CONUS where they're flying, and pilots airline travel and ferry the airplanes to/from the locations. Like what was posted regarding Draken, nobody's getting rich doing it, but retired mil guys with the pension and Tricare seem to be satisfied with the company and the work.