Kenny Powers

From that website: I wonder what the surface temp of his suit will be at those speeds...100F doesn't seem very confidence inspiring.

My statement was misleading, those were two seperate questions. Testing the ambient during a test and testing the booth to make sure its within spec. The 20 dB ambient allowable is probably assuming the booth is within its specs - if one isn't correct, the other measurement no longer matters. Don't get me wrong, 20dB is pretty damn quite, but two grown men having a conversation in a room the size of a closet is louder than 20dB. I would expect it to be around 50-60 dB for a normal conversation. Again, just curious as to how they actually handle that, removing a booth to verify it's within spec has to be a pain in the ass!

Just out of curiousity, how do you verify that? I can imagine multiple ways to do it, just curious about how it's actually done. Does PMEL or whoever come in and remove the booth to test it?

I've actually hit the button so many times that the test told me I was hitting it too much (in a crappy booth with loud conversation outside). Even after doing that, my results still came out fine. If you do end up having a problem at the FC1, make sure that damn booth is within it's calibration date. Back when I did mine, they tested everyone before realizing the booth was out of calibration. All of our results had shifted by some magnitude in the "worse" direction (i.e. numbers that were previously in the 5's showed up as 20's). They came around and only retested people who had failed (in another booth on base somewhere).

If you are ready to go to college, know what you want to study, and think you will be successful, I would go to college first for one reason - it gives you the largest window to apply to become a pilot. If you enlist first for 4 years, especially in a high ops tempo job like the flightline, you wont have a ton of time to go to college. So 4 years after enlisting you could hit college, 3-4 years of college (depending on if you can get any classes done on active duty), then you are eligible to apply. By that time, you are 25-27, cutting it close to the age limit (unless you're ROTC). Do some research and figure out if you want to go ANG or Active, either is a good choice and both will help you pay for your school. Enlisting in an ANG unit, letting them pay for your school ,and busting your ass 1 weekend a month would be a great way to work your way towards being a pilot. Even if you apply to other units, the inteviewing SQ/CC will likely call your SQ/CC and ask about you. Of course you could do active duty, then join an ANG unit when you get out and go to college. Plenty of ways to do it.

Might be correct for the exemption - I know a few guard guys with PPL's that are still on for starting IFS this month. Not sure why they would care if you obtain any higher ratings.

Yep, the recovery was the big deciding factor for me (and the lower risk of side effects like hazing). For anyone considering it, the doc at WPAFB looked at my eyes and then said "you are going to be one of our easy waivers". He pointed out that the main determinant in how well someones LASIK results turn out is the post-op care (assuming you go to a legit surgeon). Told me some horror stories of some eyes he had seen from people who did a "buy one get one free" deal that did NOT include proper post op care. One such story consisted of somebody having an infection that was eating away at their cornea or something like that.

Weird that a guy who makes his money doing LASIK sold you on doing LASIK? I am sure there are different opinions on it but the doc at WPAFB said the majority of guys doing these procedures are starting to realize similar results. Of course, there are outliers on either end of the spectrum that show otherwise. I was fairly myopic so when he first mentioned that I thought "Shit, maybe I should have got PRK!" but then he explained what the boundaries were and I realized I accidentally made the right choice.

If you do want LASIK/PRK, I would just go ahead and get it done. Make sure you meet the pre-op requirements first! Your eyesight is only going to get worse, so now is the ideal time to do it. My LASIK waiver from FC-1 to approval was less than 30 days. If you find a good doc, don't cheap out and make sure you follow the post-op care, there is very little risk involved. Just to add some info to the thread: Back when I did my FC-1, the optometrist at WPAFB was putting together a study regarding LASIK vs. PRK. Though the study was not complete, he thought people who were highly myopic (>5.00) did better with PRK and that people with less myopia (<5.00) did better with LASIK. Something to discuss with your doc before you get it.

Depending on what your committment to the Army is, there is always the ANG. There are some stipulations about getting hired for UPT in the ANG. The one regarding your committment is stated below: From AFI-2205: 1.1.6. Applicants must not exceed their 30th birthday or 5 years beyond their Total Federal Commissioned Service Date (TFCSD), by the start date of the board’s first available UFT class. If you are able to apply and interview on ANG boards before you seperate (assuming you have a 4 year committment), you might be able to swing this. Waivers or Exception to Policy can be done, not sure how easy/difficult it is to do for this specific requirement. Here is the link from Buckleys site for the reg, it will give you an idea of at least what the requirements are: http://www.buckleypi.../afi36-2205.pdf

http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2012/09/air-force-f16-crash-report-090612/ Looks like a fan blade released due to some miss at the assembly level.

I agree that in some circumstances, i.e. less skilled labor, contracting makes sense, just not all. The 365/24/7 arguement doesn't hold water, because the E-5 is salaried. If you break down an E-5's salary to hourly, you are probably talking around $5/hr. The E-5 also doesn't get FSP, HDP, IDP, etc. unless they meet the criteria (which is usually only a few months out of the year) and, if you want to pay a civilian to do that, hourly wages will go out the roof. Again, I agree 100% on this. Believe it or not, there are some people out there who make E-5, are really happy with what they have going, don't want the B.S. that comes with E-6 (not that its a whole lot) and don't care to make rank. However this is not the norm, the norm is more along the lines of what you said. I would be interested in seeing the numbers though, of people who get booted for HYT. I personally only have met one and it was because the guy couldnt pass his PT test to promote (wasn't even close).

You really believe this? You really believe there are too many enlisted people trying not to make rank? You say MOST AFSC's, yet I would venture to guess you have zero experience in MOST AFSC's. Thats ok, I do to. I have been in two AFSC's and in both your statement couldn't be further from the truth. Hell, one of the best MX dudes I have ever met (both on and off the flightline) had to get a waiver because he failed to pass his 5 level test 2 or 3 times. The waiver came from the SQ/CC. The "other talents" come with experience, not rank. You also probably dont realize that, in MX, most are qualified to work multiple planes. Funny thing is, for your skill level and promotions, you test on information regarding aircraft you usually have never worked on in your life. Top that with 12-16 hour days busting your ass on the flightline to get jets fixed, people easily lose motivation to study. Guess what? Its still the individuals decision, regardless of the requirement. Resource constraints because what probably turns out to be 1% of the entire USAF is not getting promoted? Come on...you do realize that the guys who work these jobs as civilian contractors make waaaaayyyyyyyyy more money than your average E-5, right? For example, my old Guard unit pays somewhere around $35/hr for an Avionics guy. Within reason was fine the way it was with the old high year tenure. Not that this new one is all that different and honestly will not have any kind of impact on the USAF, literally, I bet nothing statistically changes. Why, because we are talking about such a small percentage of the whole. Your claim is that this is data driven, so show me the data.

Thread Derail: Well 15 minutes to get tools out of the crib and get to the jet, 20 minutes on the jet to fix the problem, 20 minutes on CAMs, forms, logbook, etc...gets pretty close to an hour. 1 hour X 3 guys...let me check my math...seems pretty close to 3 man hours.

I don't understand why so many people have a problem with following these regs. Why does anyone give a shit what we look like in our PT gear? Why does anyone give a shit about having to wear a reflective belt? Its stupid. I understand it also doesn't make sense enforcing these kinds of things at an extreme level but rules are rules and this is the military.The only way to mitigate getting bitched at about them is just to follow them and carry on with your life. The amount of bitching and whining I hear about reflective belts or PT gear or this and that is ridiculous. If you are really worried about what you look like in your PT gear or feeling dumb about wearing a refletive belt, you're a ######. If you aren't worried about that but just don't want to follow the rules, you're an idiot. Then, when you get bitched at, suck it up and don't cry like a baby about it.

Do people unintentionally break grooming standards? I mean, we all know the regs., they aren't that complicated, so can anyone honestly say they "accidentally" weren't within them? With the exception of being TDY/Deployed and not knowing a local standard.

Not saying I agree with it but technically he was not in the wrong. He corrected the Major, the Major ignored him, and instead of the TSgt. going over there and causing an even bigger seen, he used the chain of command. Like it or not, it was not technically wrong. And you all have serious ######ing problems if you think your officership qualifies you as any better of a person. You people? Way to show your ass dipshit.

Technically this is correct but if the officer is being a dick, expect the same reaction from the enlisted. Respect goes both ways and is generally desereved on both ends. And the TSgt. was correct, dont wear your sunglasses on your head. He made a correction, the Major acted like a douche and ignored him which was disrespectful to the TSgt., so he went to his chain of command. Oh and someone saying something you don't want to hear does not justify calling the them rude, asshole, whatever. EDIT: Read over the part about "yelling across the chow hall". If that happened, thats a dumbass move but it sounds too stupid to be true. There's two sides to every story.

You're right, what the ###### was I thinking? There is tons of value in reposting some bullshit letter that has no credibility and, if it is real, is just an O-7 whining like a 12 year old.

Way to dick up your first post...

The average enlisted dude does not think that highly of the average officer (average meaning not my OIC, not my SQ/CC, someones opionion that might matter to me), i.e. you don't hurt their feelings because there is a good chance you haven't done anything to earn their respect. If the average officer would have put me at attention a few years ago and bitched at me about something, I would have appeased them, then walked away, my buddies and I would have talked about what a douche they were for a split second and then forgot about it. The average officer has almost no influence/bearing on an enlisted dudes life. Maybe that was just my enlisted experience, but the only officers I really ever saw were the ones climbing into a jet I just fixed, and they had a good respect for what we were doing out there. Don't get me wrong, I know there are assclowns that acting stupid in uniform that need to be corrected but you are wrong to think that they are going to give a shit about what you said 5 seconds after.

But the concern is trustworthiness and honesty. So if you say no, make sure nobody has ever seen you masturbate in front of a mirror.

Why not? It's their career, let them decide. Does it effect the way they perform their job? Granted, there should be some minimum standard obviously but I don't think there is anything wrong with letting someone decide whether or not they are ready to promote, within reason. Some of the best Mx dudes I worked the flightline with back in the day were 20 year staff types. They liked working the jet and, typically, after making Tech you start getting pulled from the flightline, no longer turning wrenches but instead filing papers. They enjoyed what they were doing, didn't care about promotion and pay, and did a hell of a job doing it. I know this doesnt apply to everyone, but the guys I have personally seen in my time that were following this career path were usually not doing it just because they were slackers and didnt care about their job.

People who shoot other people in the head don't give a shit about laws like this.

Ah, ok. Good news I guess, good luck resubmitting!