BFM this

Early December morning tailwheel instruction ride in a Citabria. The heat outlet is at the firewall and airflow isn't the greatest, so my bud in the front has the heat cranked full up and my feet are still going numb in the back: he's baking. Stud also fails to fill me in on the fact that he pulled a pizza delivery shift the night before and has all of two hours sleep, a Mt Dew and bag of chips in him. Two patterns later at a grass strip (beautiful, *smooth* day, mind you) base to final turn, I see him squirm in his seat a little, something muffled and unreadable over the ICS, followed by his hands going up in the air stick-up style. Then the sweet aroma of undigested Mt Dew wafts back to my seat. I full stopped so that he could settle down a bit.

3 night RON in '97. Great place: an hour's train ride to Venice toward the south and the Alps to the North. Good night life. Prob some more up to date info to be had, otherwise I'd say that you've snagged yourself a good deal. Congrats.

Another hit you'll take is having a car sit in storage with the warranty clock running out. I agree with you, Ken, regardless of how you play the depreciation game, buying and selling cars always costs the consumer: the most money-wise move is always to drive a car for 10-15 years or until the wheels fall off.

But if you're getting reimbursed for it, why not find something covered with a turnover service described above? Three times the cost reibursed is still $0, right? Is there a max reimbursment? I'd just hate to leave my car to rot in the elements for a year or three.

Also, if you're planning on feeding at the DITY trough more than once or twice, buying a trailer is prob the wtg. Otherwise, you're paying for the UHaul out of the DITY settlement and the weight of the trailer itself doesn't count toward your weight. Vice getting paid for the weight of the trailer in addition to the stuff in it. My first move covered the cost of a nice trailer that's bigger than I need and will prob last longer than I will.

The Navy already uses contract crews on their KC-130 iso the test program at Pax River. IE: tanking the new F-18E/F during trials.

Sounds like a quote from 1980...

My class got blind sided by the "ACC requirement" to take at least an intermediate course when we arrived here at DM. Sure, we've got nothing but time on our hands... Here's another twist: in order to get signed up for said IC, you have to ride with a "mentor". OK, so they want the fellas that just get their licenses to "season" with a "mentor" on the open road before they go for the IC. OK so far. I walk into wing safety and because I've already got 8 years on my bike, I'm GTG for the experienced rider course. Fast forward a month, my bud, who's got way more exp than I do (has raced bikes, etc) is told that he has to go the "mentor" route (turns out, I managed to skate somehow). I'm all for the "mentor" program and any other straws that CC's can grasp to try and get a handle on our 2-wheeled fatality rate, but where are we drawing the common sense line anyway?

During my stint as a skydiver-driver, I became convinced that the little parachute symbol on sectionals meant that you got bonus points for using the marked airport as a VFR checkpoint. The best one was a twin commander that started berrating me on the radio after he flew right through the middle of 5 tandem chutes. HHmmm, Darwin...

You're a SQ/CC, Group CC, or Wing CC?

Absolutely (raises his hand). Although I wasn't giving advise per se, I've seen a handfull of commanders ranging from good to not so good from the bottom looking up. Some older craniums on the board can probably speak from a closer vantage.

A commander should take responsibility for h/h contribution to a situation, be that good or bad. If said subordinate commits suicide after weeks of "warning signs", the CC will likely hang (sts). If the CC's been doing everything in the book and even thinking out of the container trying to be forward thinking and address problems then an honest mistake or a clear act of stupidity shouldn't bring too much wrath from on high. Once again, depends on how much common sense is rampant in all levels of the particular command. For instance: in my prior life, said fire bottle situation happened to my community some years ago. Hundreds of briefings, hangar stories, and CRM topics later, even when the Nav walked up to the plane the hair would stand up on the back of my neck when I saw that fire bottle positioned under the radome. Believe me, before we even unlocked the door, someone would move that damn fire bottle, and, oh yeah, it became common technique for one of the pilots to have eyes on that thing before we let the plane move one inch. Which leads me to my original thought when this post started: Why does T-line insist on putting that fire bottle in one of the few spots that it cannot be seen from the airplane? They've been doing it for years and I'm sure there's more than two that've jammed one in the nosewell.

I try not to be the one throwing stones but... The worst part of this thread is: A: :rolleyes: B: (and my personal favorite) C: (duh, yeah, like I know, fer shuurr, everybody knows thaht!) D: You've found that you've clicked on this thread and can't warp back in time to get those two minutes of your life back. flyboy: I needed a little relief after a hard day's clown-act in the jet. Thanks, bro.

It feels like a giant piece of duct tape is pulling your face down toward your stomach. Then your peripheral vision starts to close in and--OH, uh, hmph, my G-strain, ggrrrunt, there we go, that's better! Huh? Did you say something? What was the question?

It isn't so much of an EGO thing that makes it worth it. When I flew on Hercs, the oft heard comment on the ICS was: "Man, they actually pay us to do this..." Here at FTU, the oft heard comment is: "Man, not only do they pay us, they're going to teach us how to [fill in with any one of dozens of insane things], not put us in jail and throw away the key after [above insane thing], and tell us how we can do [above insane thing] even better next time." As we all look at each other like we're about to get away scott free with multiple felonies...

Not neccessarily. I had enough flying experience prior to UPT that I didn't think there'd be any way I would get airsick. Guess what: I didn't , but I came damn close. Fast forward past track select, a month of academics for the -38, and guess what: no , but I came to realize that my stomach had it's own currency schedule. Lo and behold, it happened again when I suited up for IFF. My point: if you've gotten over airsickness once, you might have to get over it again (and again, and again). But I haven't regretted my decision for one second since. Certainly not for some occaisional mild discomfort.

Here's a MUST READ for any UPT stud facing an unsure track select decision. Good Luck EDIT: I didn't write the letter, just found it among a collection of gouge and found it helpful and informative

FWIW: In my flight at UPT, all of the relationships like yours survived UPT as of graduation. They were either still going strong or progressing toward the engagement phase. GFs visited occaisionally, and only one finally moved out to Columbus. That was well after the official engagement, she graduated college, and had a job lined up locally.

If you can get a car with no CARFAX history, only 1 - 1.5 years old with plenty of warranty left that you can extend out to 100K, why go to the dealer and pay markup? I bought my wife's car this way off the private market and it worked great. At least 3K off what I would've paid on a dealer's lot. Just don't cut corners: IE CARFAX, a good inspection by a mechanic that you trust, good value vs blue book values, don't be in a rush--shop around for a few months, etc, etc. Shop autotrader and the local classifieds. If you're stuck in some hole like Columbus or Del Rio, scour one of the bigger markets nearby like Memphis or San Antonio. Bottom line: Dealers are going to make a profit. They have to in order to keep their doors open. Some private sellers are only interested in getting rid of their payment.

How was said 2LT commissioned? USAFA, OTS, ROTC, decree from God?

Sheepishly, I have a tough time describing why it is that I wear my AMs with as much pride as I do. I didn't to anything spectacular or heroic. Sure, I felt a little wary going where I was sent. I learned. A LOT. But I came home every night to a hot shower and usually an AC'd tent. It was when I got a glimpse of the real action figures that my outlook changed. Three in particular who began their FINAL trip home in my solemn Battleherc on a moonless night. At that point all the faceless numbers hit home. I wear my AM's as a reminder that maybe my small bit part helped someone else who put a lot more on the line than I. Someday, I may get called to put my money where my mouth is and finish paying them off (my AM's).

1) Attitude 2) Commit the study time (know when it's time to go out partying--not every night/weekend)

I would replace that whole statement with "I fu(&*d up. Period, Dot." From the way you put it in that statement above, it sounds like you are trying to sugar-coat, make excuses, justify, introduce mitigating factors, quible down the significance, etc. If you shorten it to "I f'ed up", it sounds like you've arrived at the mature conclusion that regardless of the circumstances, you are now old and wise enough to avoid those mistakes above in the future. Other than that, have a shiny four years in ROTC, and you'll be good to go. Yes, you will have a couple of extra interview sessions with the investigator, but it's no big deal. An extra two to three hours, max. Mine was done during UPT.

Hey, turtle, Since when do the criminals have internet privileges?