Hacker

No Vaccine comments on this PLAT vid. https://streamable.com/5w5tz0

'Merica. I like flying someone else's airplane with someone else paying for gas.

This was the core reason I stayed in to 20. Plus, the ability to put my special needs kid in line for a portion of my pension through SBP.

The other way to look at it is that it is the best part of the job. I'm happy with it being completely devoid of anything approaching excitement. Another way to put that is "safe". I go look elsewhere outside of work to scratch the "fun flying" itch, and I can control the frequency and intensity of that exposure to risk.

The pain of commuting depends on where you work and where you live. Personally, they could not pay me enough to live in my base, and commuting is what makes the career worthwhile to both my family and I.

No, not a deal breaker in any way. More people than you think have black marks in their record and are getting hired at the airlines. Be completely forthright and factual about it on your applications and in your interview. In the interview, all they want to hear is, "my bad", and what you learned from it. Don't offer excuses or explanations.

I'm sorry, I can't hear you....my hearing aid is turned down.

As a FAA examiner said to me about 20 years ago when I was asking about logging PIC time when I was solo in the T-37: "You were alone in the airplane -- who was the PIC if it wasn't you?"

This is a stupid idea.

FedEx supposedly holds the STC for these laser pod installations and is selling it to someone with an A321.

Yes, I know this is in jest, but all intra-airframe cock-measuring aside, and totally divorced from whatever we individually feel about the concept of "what type of hours", remember that it is the airline hiring departments that tell us this based on who they hire and with what experience. For guys who have less than 1000 hours of MTPIC it is a relevant metric. The good news is that today it is trending toward being less and less relevant, with the post-COVID hiring boom starting to spin up. All of the major airlines are lowering their qualifications for interviews, and essentially any USAF pilot who is nearing the end of their ADSC and has an average record (e.g. with normal aviation career progression and maybe a blemish or two) is going to likely get the call. Regarding the "this or that" airline choice, I thought I'd throw in the wisdom of one of my mentors, a Desert Storm vet who is now a widebody Capt nearing retirement at a legacy airline. After I didn't get a job offer at the legacy airline I really thought I wanted to work for, and subsequently being hired where I am flying now, he said: "Sometimes the airlines do a much better job of choosing us than we do them. They know their culture a lot better than you do, and even the one you might not have thought was a good fit for you knew you were a good fit for them." So, back to the advice given many times in this thread: put in your apps everywhere, interview at every one that invites you, take the first job offer you get, and then when you have options to go somewhere better, do that until you're where you want to be.

No small guys or gals want to up-size slightly?

This thread is emblematic of there literally being two completely different understandings of reality out there in contemporary American society.

Yes, a completely accurate depiction of the scenario as it unfolded.

Want to trade: My wife has a new-with-tags 1995 AF-issue Saddlery A-2 jacket in size 36L that has been sitting unworn in the closet for decades. It has always been too large for her. Jacket is in as-new condition, although a little wrinkled from being boxed up and taken on 8 PCS moves since '95 and sitting in long-term storage while OCONUS. She would like to try and trade it for a smaller AF issue A-2, preferably 34R or 34S. If not interested in a trade and you have one you'd rather sell, I'm open to that, too. Thanks!

What was the timeframe? Stone Temple was a '38 IP at Vance at the same time I was ('09-'13) and he did a nice job talking up the Dragon Lady IMHO. Might have been a different story down the street in the T-1 or T-6 squadrons, though.

Nah, I'd guess it's mine that needs to be written up.

Not at all. The entire point of an airline career is to work little and get paid a lot...it isn't about the passion or enjoyment of flying. An airline career gives you both the time and finances to enjoy life outside of work, rather than simply cramming your families, hobbies, and other passions into the little crevasses around that supermajority chunk of your time and emotional energy that a military career demands. Manage that money correctly, and you'll be able to retire early and *really* do whatever it is you would do if you had financial freedom (like fly cool shit for fun!)

Hopefully the universe provided the needed correction and they're all enjoying post-military careers which allow them the professional satisfaction and personal/family enrichment they deserve. 🙂

I am currently in the middle of a 6+ week period of not touching airplanes for work based on using 11 days of vacation. Now, it has been mostly during the month of Sept, so not exactly an in-demand period of the year with respect to holidays, school breaks, etc, but that just makes it easier for a generally junior dude like me to hold. Plus, it is the month of the Reno Air Races, so a good aviation time of year to have off. Can't speak for anywhere but Purple, but any monthly schedule type you can find at a pax airline, you can find the same schedule in freight. The single-departure/round-the-world flying is certainly a type of schedule you can find on the fleets that fly internationally, but it isn't even the majority of schedule type at FedEx.

Oh @HuggyU2! Your orange flight suit is being summoned!

Numerous forums I participate in have hilariously uninformed but spicy debates about military aviation between individuals of every other profession besides military aviation.

https://www.wired.com/story/would-it-be-fair-to-treat-vaccinated-covid-patients-first/ Some salient points on the topic in this article, despite being published in Wired. There is already an established triage hierarchy in medicine, and adding vaccination status into it introduces a whole new wave of other ethical decisionpoints that are unwelcome to the medical profession writ large. Bottom line: by the time someone gets to the point where they need to be admitted to inpatient hospital treatment, they certainly medically "deserve" that level of care just as much as any other patient.

Meh, I think the airlines have a more clear view of the (lack of) meaning of Q-3s from outside the AF fishbowl than we often give them credit for.

As I learned at multiple levels of USAF legal review, a Commander has the authority to issue a Commander-directed Q3 at any time, for any reason. It does not have to be given for a just reason, only that the CC wants to give it. There is no standard of evidence or proof of whatever the rationale is for the Q3 required.