BFM this

I seem to remember, just before the 11F issue crested the horizon, when OGs were actually saying that RPA stink was the coin of the realm; in just a few years it will be tough to get on the command list or make O6 without it. FISH ON!

This is already the business model at Classic Assoc TFI locations. And at least in the ACC corner, it's a fucking abortion. Its seemed to work better in UPT, FTU, and RPA communities. Combat coded FS? Yeah, not so much. Active assoc also seems to work a lot better.

Which at least raises the question of the need for a FWQ program. Cobra-->Fighters, sure: FWQ + IFF Army C-12 --> KC-135 ....? At the very least it should be a syllabus with liberal SPA opportunity. My only point is that we (AF) bend over backwards trying to avoid the easy button.

Good luck selling that to Iran and SA

Got a call from the guy on the porch a few months ago. First time that's happened in 14 years. We all know: he's not the decision maker, just the flesh peddler, but it was something. I've seen about a half dozen dudes in his seat, some good, some less so. One of his recent predecessors actively tried to fuck me and my family royally as though it was his J.O.B. Nothing personal; needs of the AF, right? One data point does not a trend make, but it's a step in the right direction.

Never gets old

What monkey vid? That's a Strike Eagle squadron.

What do YOU mean by "what do you mean by black jets"?

If the BIT is post-IFF (and they're single) send them TDY to fly black jets for those months. No begging required.

Meh, gotta entertain ourselves between track/assignment nights.

https://www.af.mil/News/ArticleDisplay/tabid/223/Article/1048679/af-selects-shaw-afb-as-the-preferred-location-to-host-a-new-rpa-unit.aspx Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network Forums

The Air Force is a bureaucracy. The one truth with any bureaucracy is that it seeks growth. If the MSG/WG/CC posts $XX,XX3,### cash flows one year, posting $XX,XX4,### cash flow the next is a feather in the plume. QoL, strategic need, and stewardship can all be damned. See also: Joint Basing. ETA: anyone who thinks that RPA CPIP, 11F retention, or Sq re-vitalization are anything but min-run eye-wash initiatives is deluding themselves. Exhibit A: Shaw MCE Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network Forums

Already cresting the horizon in black jet AdAir. Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network Forums

Haha, having visited both Robins and Beale in the last year, all I can say is,...well, at least they're not Del Rio by the Sea. Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network Forums

CG: what locations did you have in mind? Our current UPT locations are specifically located under sparsely traveled airspace, leaving plenty of room for MOAs. I'm all about what you're suggesting, and I've been vocal here about the colossally stupid basing decisions in the RPA community--those could be installed in any office building/base/location--pretty much anywhere you can build a SCIF . Not so with trainers or any MDS that needs some form of range space. Best example is RND, where the daily struggle with San Antonio approach and Houston Center creates real production impacts. Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network Forums

Uninstall, reinstall FTW. Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network Forums

You asked so, yeah, you're out of line here. Comm officers don't do the same work (danger/personal risk//length/duration/intensity of training) but they also don't get flight pay or the bonus opportunities you have. Does current flight pay/bonus structure cover the value difference of the two jobs? No, I don't think so. But I also don't feel the need to undercut the value position of a career field that I think is dangerously undervalued in terms of emerging threat horizon either. Our position stands on its own merits. Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network Forums

9mm: 115 FMJ for plinking 147 HST otherwise. I shoot a mag or two every few trips to the range just to keep the supply rotated and test functionality. Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network Forums

I dunno, man. I got the joke. I thought it was balzy as hell, but I got the joke. Responses seem unintentionally SNAP-ish, compared to the clumsy attempt at humor. Maybe my brain just works that way. Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network Forums

True, but if it had turned out to be a pure, no-exceptions 1500 hour rule, that would have been a clean kill. Ironically, 1500hours probably would have worked in the AF's favor. Pilot careers would have been: -OPS assignment with plenty of "broadening"...~600 hours -RPA/ALO/365/etc -Maybe, if you're lucky, another ops assignment...but probably not. If you're lucky, 1300 hours -back to a desk/dumpster Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network Forums

Agree with all, except the matinee ticket is 750 hours, not 1500. Still a substantially different problem to solve than the previous standard (or lack thereof), but credit where credit is due: the ERAUs and UNDs successfully lobbied themselves out of the hangmans noose. Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network Forums

It will be interesting to see what their proposed solution will be. They could set up a robust 141/142 training program, and that could qualify their graduate to get an R-ATP at 750 hours. Graduating as a Comm/CFI would happen at ~250 hours, without applying Ponzi economics, the CFI puppy mill itself could get that graduate another 200 hours. Still 300 hours that need to be bridged somehow before that graduate can produce revenue in the right seat of an RJ. Airline subsidy with a contract term? Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network Forums

Tonnage Coming up with metrics is easy. Metrics that matter, when it matters is the hard part. Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network Forums

Just to cage your sight picture: If all of this is true, and Congress were to humor Fingers' request and eliminate the ATP requirement for 121 ops (It's not a 1500hr req, btw, but an ATP req, which is what drives 1500hrs), and we go back to the good old days of 250hr wonders in the right seat of RJs. You wouldn't be directly competing against those 250-1000 hour pilots. Imagine the market as one of those beer cups at the ball park that fills from the bottom. Those 250 hour pilots would flood the market--from the bottom--and the top of the market at the majors with 2500-5000 hour RJ captains. Right now, the civilian flow is stifled by a historically high barrier to entry. The CFI route--historically the biggest civilian pipeline--is chilled by lower demand as prospective pilot wannabes are daunted by that barrier and the murkier path forward. Pipeline patrol, sky-diver-driver, and other commercial time builders all pay waaayyyyy worse than even the regionals, and don't have near the capacity that the once thriving CFI puppy-mills could boast. But again, take away the 121-ATP rule, and you aren't directly competing with those 250hr wonders; they are just buoying the boats of the graduating RJ captains, who would increase pressure on your demographic.