Everything posted by BFM this
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It's Almost Done!
If it paid the bills (and someday it might), sure, I'd fly an airbus without complaint. It probably is a neat airplane to fly. In the way of mopeds and...
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Info on OTS (Officer Training School)
ifrflyer, I made the same transition last year. I had one set of BDUs where the EGA was faded to the point that you had to get within two feet of my pocket to see it. That was the pair that I wore in the field. After that, I did go ahead and purchase two more sets for everyday ots wear. Being a flyer, that's a lot more BDU than I'll need for a while. On that note, yes, I said "purchased"; you'll buy everything. There will be no assembly line that you walk through with your seabag open while things get tossed in at 11:30 at night. (Ah, the memories) So, if you want to get a leg up (sts), go ahead and start hitting the uniform shop now. The OTS web page has a list of exactly what you need. If you show up with nothing but a credit card, you're golden. www.airforceots.com has this and a lot of other unoffical, but sometimes usefull gouge. SF.
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Whats the funniest thing you've heard over the radio?
Scenario: Me: fairly new CFI Stud: had his hands full but doing well on a night XC through West Lafayette, IN (Purdue). We did a touch and go intending to proceed to our second destination to the northwest. Shame on me: the controller had cleared us to land. Oh well, the deed's been done, I decided to sit back and see how the student handled this tense situation. Couldn't get any worse, right? Climbing out on our touch and go: LAF TWR (sounding rather perturbed): "Cessna 45G, I cleared you to land on runway 10, say intentions." I could see my student figet for a moment while he reached for the mike button. Stud: "Uh, Cessna 45G,... intentions ."
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Preparing for UPT
Rback, Live by the gouge, die by the gouge. The gouge is what you use after you've done your readings to reinforce what you've read. It includes notes, flashcards and study aids. The icing on the cake is when you take a critical eye to the gouge and verify it's accuracy. If you do this, you'll find some erroneous and dated material, and in the process you'll become the expert in the material that you need to be to not only succeed, but succeed well. If you don't, you'll get the rote memorization of facts and figures, which, if taken out of context, will show up in the table top briefings, check rides, and shotgun stand ups and leave you looking like you have a very poor grasp of the material.
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Motorcycles on AD
Wing safety or your unit safety officer should have info on riding courses. Another good source of info is the local bike shops.
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Civilian Planes on Base?
Without a club on base you're probably looking at Official Business Only. I flew civilian planes into my last base regularly, but it was after the aforementioned paperwork, and again, OBO while I was on duty with my reserve unit.
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Staying in shape...
Eluzion, Depending on where you go to school, see if there's a football stadium open in the mornings. Running up and down the stairs a dozen or so times will make you feel alive. I wouldn't do it every day, but it's something to mix things up every few days or so.
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Class leader questions
You live there? I just thought that was the after hours place that opened for drinks and breakfast when all the other joints closed.
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Class leader questions
Can I come drink on your tab, too?
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Private Instrument Rating
#153 on the list of things that you don't need to worry about and probably wouldn't understand until you get to UPT. There's some techniques, procedures, and technedures that are pretty military (and even Air Force) specific that differ from civilian flying. If you are inexperienced, it's all transparent. If you are experienced, theres a curve ball here and there, but otherwise it's all easy to adjust to. With regard to the topic of this thread, I agree that instrument training (or rating) for the sake of getting a leg up on UPT isn't worth it. If you already have some experience, be prepared to work hard at UPT regardless. If you lack said experience, be prepared to work a little harder than the experienced folks, but don't think that you'll get left behind. There are plenty of UPT grads that didn't have any experience to speak of and ended up performing as well as those who had some to start with.
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Jump School on AD?
I guess I'll wait till after UPT to let my twisted side out again...
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Flight hours prior to UPT?
The cheapest flying I've found is a Glider Club. Obviously things will vary from club to club but at the one that I was a member of back in IL you paid for tows and dues and that was it. It was about $400 per year and $21 to 2K', I had some pretty cheap 2 and 3 hour flights. Question is: will glider time kick up a PCSM score? It was never a factor for me as my glider time was a drop in the bucket above the 200 hour max for the PCSM. The other thing is that you'll have to get yourself spooled up to at least solo status: most instructors don't want to hang around while you work on your thermalling techniqe for hours on end. At any rate, www.ssa.org will help you find a local outfit.
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Viper (F-16) Q&A
Here's an interesting one: stuck throttle (Mil), night, bad wx... https://www.codeonemagazine.com/f16/semper_viper/viper00.html Here's HUD video complete with (unfortunately) cnn commentary https://www.cnn.com/US/9606/29/spectacular.landing/
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What Type of Vehicles Do Fighter Pilots Drive?
Uh, if this is what you call "not trying" then you might want to consider a career in sales... I'm with everyone else on this one: if you can afford it, more power to ya--must be fun to ride around in.
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What Type of Vehicles Do Fighter Pilots Drive?
https://www.collegehumor.com/?movie_id=24993
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Now that's how to fly formation!
Looks kinda scary to me: ya never know what the computer in the Airbus will decide to do at any given moment...
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T-6 acronyms
Haven't flow the T-6 but I do have some time with the PT-6 series engine. If you can visualize the reverse flow, compressor section spooled directly to the first stage turbine. There the spool stops and right next to the first turbine is another turbine: a power stage turbine which is geared to the prop. N1: the speed of the first stage turbine and compressor section, in percent of rated rpm. Np: the speed of the prop, typically in rpm's (IE 1700-2200 normal range for an early model King Air -90), but not always. ITT checks as C-21 talked about. As far as EGT vs ITT, it all depends on where the designers decided to stick the probe (STS). For the T-56 that's on the Herc, it was at the turbine inlet (TIT), PT-6 it was around the interstage point (ITT), J-69: you get the picture. PMU: sure, what C17wannabe said...
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Information on PIT (Pilot Instructor Training)
Per diem rates. Randolph = $44 per day unless you are on base, then $28 proportional rate.
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Wisdom Teeth?
Mine have been impacting since high school. I was first encouraged to have them removed at boot camp. This encouragement continued up until one flight physical as a reservist when I caught the dentist (06) on a particularly bad day: threatened charges. Needless to say, my FC1 went through without a hitch. Heck, I even figured I'd get them pulled during my 3 months of casual. The tech at the front counter gently disuaded me from doing that here, though. Don't know why, just took her word for it: I'll get it done after wings.
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Computers and UPT
PAB, I like the sim for the same reasons: I even use it for some contact. It gets kind of sketchy at that point: mostly a "one potata, two potata, three potata, TURN" method in the pattern... It's money for the instruments, though: I'd flown both of the main profiles used here at CBM before we ever strapped into the jet: a big help. And I'm flying each of my I-sims beforehand as well. There's a double edge to the sword, though. I've been playing flight sims since I was a kid, so for me, it was no problem setting it up and making it work (control wise and such). I've tried to bring in folks that were having trouble and the control issues were too distracting at times.
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Computers and UPT
A computer is useful for UPT, but no special capabilities are required. I'm running a T37 sim on mine, which is pushing the envelope on my laptop that was built for size, not speed or power. Other than that, M$ Office is about as far out as you really need. No real use for portability (laptop) so a desktop is adequate.
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Buying a Car Before Commissioning?
Young, single, 2LT UPT studs: this is what my bud did, I personally think it's the gouge and would follow suit if I wasn't years beyond single. Drove his college ride through UPT and on to the FTU. Saved his money in the process and a few weeks prior to shipping overseas, bought something that would be, well, uniqe where he was going. Needless to say what it lacked in trunk pace it more than made up for in muscle. And with the money he saved by using a little restraint during UPT, it's anything but practical ($$$). More power to him. I hope to be in that position while I'm still young enough to enjoy it.
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?s on logging flight time
If you touch concrete 50 miles away, log the XC. Every bit will help if you end up in a non-road tripping airframe come ATP time.
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Recreational Drug Use (Marijuana)
Tough one: I really have no idea. Since this involves your medical record, you might bounce this off of Flight Doc or F16pilotMD in the Aviation Medicine forum. The answer could be not a chance. Otherwise, how did your enlistment go and did you ever CC for anyone who now wears a star?...
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Over-G
If my understanding of legend is correct, over-g is where we get things like static displays and aircraft at maintenace schools.