BFM this

Jaden Smith looks like he needs eye bleach. Or he had an epiphany: "is this what it's like to watch me try acting?"

GMAFB. This thread is the equivalent of a group of grad Lts, waiting for orders from their UPT base, arguing about how bad they'd heard PEX is, from stories their buddies at the B-course told them. Mods: please move this thread to its appropriate place in the RPA forum, where it can whither in peace.

Maybe its just me, but I've always stood up the throttles on my workouts when single ship in the gym late at night. Backed off the weight a little, steered clear of most rack lifts, etc. Always thought that was common sense. ...oh wait, I think I see the problem.

I will be within 3 years of an AD retirement when my commitment is up. I am researching my Res/ANG options. Some may think this a dumb move. I'm not saying that I am committed to that option at this point. Check of the month, TFL, sure; it's a gamble that those would still be around if I stretched my timeline out. What would be a leap of faith for me, if I instead choose to take another assignment, is that the General Changs of AFPC won't pull another TAMI-21 or in some other dumbshit way send me back to this trailer park hell again. Lesson learned. Oh yeah: $25k per year to own my ass for anything more than 3 years? No. Fucking. Way. It will take substantially more than that before I give up the option to tell Big Blue to GFY.

Airstaff needs to commit to a course of action, one way or another. Right now they want to straddle the fence: commoditizing the pilot group on one hand (bonus), and paying lip service to the actual practices that they should have been doing for, as CH rightly pointed out, over three decades. The second option is probably more costly, imo. If the commoditization route is chosen, fine: stop pulling the punch then. The bonus is woefully under priced at this point, and it won't come close to slowing the coming problem. But it allows the slide builders to say "look at how much money we've thrown at the problem!". It is well below current market rates for the pilot group as a whole, and only draws, as has been endlessly pointed out in these threads, those who "were going to stay anyway". GC, sorry, but if you want to stick to this gameplan, no, I will not be grateful. If you really want to pay for my comitment, you are going to have to pay the market price. Right now, the ACP doesn't even come close to, say, what we pay dentists. The most dangerous threat to this whole program isn't the Airlines, it's the Pilot that truly understands his/her broader options as they are going into their peak career earning period. The route that I would prefer, but would cost more in some senses, would be for Airstaff and AFPC to, well, do their fucking job. There is just no justification for QOL to suck this badly. The failed manning programs as CH listed. Shiny pennies that do 4+ ops tours while ALOs, white jets, and RPAs are told "sorry, there probably won't be a TX on the other side". Guess what: those marathon ops players are getting out because you've burned them out. Ironically, the folks that were told that their fate was sealed are bailing as well. You have failed to practice the balance and broadening that is so blithely painted within the officer progression pages on AFPC, and now you're reaping what you've sown. Right now, dudes are being non-vol'd to Luke and DM. And at least on the Hawg TX side, guys are going to the notch. TX is the new RPA. Why? Hoss already pointed out one reason: everyone thinks that the boneyard push started in the late 80's is going to finish it's run in the next few years. Another is QOL. Why go back to a jet that is low hanging fruit for stupid shit like sequestration, and 12-14 hour days chasing busy work projects, inspections, and whatever else the WG/CC wants done to secure his star. There isn't even a token attempt to practice time budgeting above the squadron level. If the boss thinks it up, 69 man hours per week are dedicated for the next fiscal quarter just to generate the new slide for the weekly standup. Wanted to take leave? Sorry, another wing exercise just showed up on the schedule (though, in fairness, efforts have been made to curb the old ORI/UCI madness). Do we really need yet another "Dear Boss" letter?

But I bet that it's gotten some airplay at the HQ level. I don't think that it will happen because of the repercussions that will result. -As far as Congress goes, this will go over like an F-bomb in a Baptist service. Congress has already offered to "lend us a hand" in determining future force structure. A stop loss with no national contingency as an alibi will mean that the beast has gotten completely away from us. So unless the Chonger is willing to throw down in the next year... -90's RIF's? 157 Majors? Yeah, imagine the hundreds of pilots who just KNOW in their heart of hearts that the promised land of the airlines is awaiting them and that the mean 'ol Air Force is costing them their valuable line number postition every day of the stop loss. The resulting litigation will be epic. -I sincerely hope that this doesn't happen because the way I see it, this could be another no-confidence scenario that sends the current CSAF the way of T-Mike. Yeah, that's how we ended up with Schwartz. No thanks.

Has anyone signed up for the "ZERO MONTHS" square yet? No? Ok, I'll take that one.

Uh, probably because the gear malfunction checklist says that all-up is preferable to whatever configuration is available at that point.

Polishing a turd: Leadership Piss on my back and tell me it's raining: Not leadership.

Par for the course. "Korean pilots are not susceptible to spatial disorientation". Different mishap, but yeah, they actually said that.

Aaahhhh, the AF did not "limit" VSP. It completely cut out entire year groups that had been published as eligible. If they had just stuck with some form of limit, even if only 10% of the eligibles had been let through the sluice, that would have been different. "The truth changed" line, didn't hunt.

Nope. After college you had no skills, no training, no marketability, no credentials. What the AF was offering was a fair market price for the commitment that it asked. This latest iteration of the bonus is nowhere near a fair price. I am not advocating that anyone punch. But it is a gross undervaluation for anyone to consider this a good deal. Stay in, by all means. But retain the most valuable chips in your stack, at least until the pot is right.

Occasionally, yes, but predominantly, no. My point was that the AF has no qualms about throwing manning and rank planning out the window to suit its needs.

I remember asking as a new capt, why we couldn't have enoug tx seats to get everyone back from white jets, ALO, staff, etc. I was told that we couldn't have all of those Majors and LTCs coming back because there weren't enough jobs for them in a flying squadron. Funny, it seems as though Creech has a much different perspective on that issue.

Osan gets neither, even with P518 sorties.

The perfect storm: -11F take rate tanks, like below 50% tanks -11F retention actually goes up This, IMO, would scare the living shit out of AFPC. Won't actually happen, but it would be funny.

Story is up on AFTimes. I bet they hit their 65%. I weep for the mass of "fighter pilots" that don't understand the value of their own capabilities and qualifications, and having the OPTIONS available to ply either, be it service or in the private sector should continued shitty management drive that way. The AF might as well be offering magic beans.

Fair enough. However you slice it, still a sucker's bet. At least it is at these mid 1990's prices.

3 year bonus was $15k per year. 5 year bonus was $25k per 8 year would be $40k per. Of the above three options, the best deal by far is clearly D) 0 year bonus.

So, if I'm reading this right: $225k over 8 years? $28,125 per year, up from $25k. Right. So the AirStaff, contrary to popular belief, does have a sense of humor. I think the economics of a longer commitment is being lost somewhere. Old math was $15k per year for three years, vs. $25k per year for five. There is a huge fucking reason for the two thirds bump in annual rate for those extra two years. 12% for three more years on top of that? Not just no,... Following the old trend line, $40k/yr for an 8 year commitment, but even then... Oh well, I've got that "e" time, so apparenly I won't be eligible, but it should be entertaining, nonetheless.

Ok, everyone is thinking it, so I will ask: Will PYB ever achieve the Tim Martins level of notoriety to which he so obviously aspires?

It would have to be a bizzare set of circumstances. He is in the perfect community to be "selectively removed" from the kill chain on a day to day basis, all while providing his services as seatmeat the rest of the time. Keep in mind, it's not as though he is strapped in his own jet, operating with autonomy away from leadership. My bet is that they (leadership) already have the threat template, and have the situation under control.

And the Marines, specifically, would bristle at this notion. The smallest service, never a full fledged department in their own right; they have a genetic dread of a dystopian future with one joint "purple" force. It would mark the end of their identity.

I thought that we had a rental thread, but a brief search turned up zilch. (Mods: little help if I missed it.) So I am about to get rid of a problem tenant in San Antonio. For the most part, I am just happy that he is gone. But the thought that is nagging at me is that I really should put the data of his conduct out there. Obviously, he owes me money. Not a lot, but enough. Has anyone worked with a collection agency? I'm not expecting to see a dime, but what concerns me is that he is in a military town, and I got a snippet of data that the new place he is about to move into is owned by another military member. I wish there was some way that I would waive that deal off, but at least I can put his bad dealings on file with the credit bureaus. Anyone had to deal with a bad tenant before? Any pointers? I'm specifically looking for insight into the collections and credit reporting processes.