Smokin

The article mentioned the two squadrons as a temporary plus up to fix our fighter pilot shortage. I doubt that they would then send foreign students there. As far as I know, all the foreign students go to Tucson. They're experienced in that specific aspect of instruction. I have never taught a foreign student, so don't feel qualified to make a judgement on it. But the classes that were solo from start to finish at Luke had no significant issues. The only downside that I noticed was it took longer for IPs to catch poor techniques happening within the cockpit. Can't really debrief radar mech from another aircraft until you get to the debrief. I'm guessing your class starts mid to late Sep and you'll do academics exclusively while the class you're replacing is finishing up. You won't hit the flight line for a little while as you'll start with academics and sims just like UPT. The new class is usually just starting in the squadron when the old class is graduating if the timeline is working out.

You need to make B-course IPs from somewhere. Just because Holloman is already a B-course doesn't mean they have two extra squadrons of IPs sitting around doing nothing. FYI, the 6 month B-course has been underway for years and the C-model only syllabus was a success for everyone except AETC who saw it as too big of a risk to continue once the D-models started coming back. This was despite the fact that there were zero additional issues with the C-model only students and I think they actually did better. As a whole, their pre-solo emergency sims were noticeably better than previous or later classes. I attribute it to the fact that they knew that if they couldn't hack it, there wouldn't be an IP in the back to save the day. Makes perfect sense to me that a single seat fighter should only be flown single seat from day one.

Won't change a thing. Base commanders/managers are going to see allowing concealed carry on base as a high-risk/no reward scenario that will jeopardize their careers. When previous Chief of Staff was asked about concealed carry at a base visit following the sea port shootings in CA, he spouted off the standard BS answer of 'how will law enforcement know who is the good guy and who is the bad guy when they arrive?' Easy sir, the bad guy will be the dead dude laying on the pavement and the good guy will be the guy standing over him with a holstered firearm asking the cops what took them so long to get there. Instead, we'll just have more of the same training about hiding under your desk and only confronting the bad guy when the barrel is on your temple.

Luke was the main Viper FTU, but other locations have existed for some time including Tuscon, Kelly, and Holloman which started up about two years ago. Luke is in the long process of drawing down the F-16s there. Once a base/state gets a shiny new penny like the F-35, they couldn't care less about a 4th gen fighter, despite the fact that the F-16 has, and will be for some time, one of the primary workhorses downrange. At the end of the first year of the F-35s being at Luke, you wouldn't even know there were still F-16s there if you only looked at the base media, WG/CC calls, etc. In the base paper's end of year review, there were nearly 40 pages of F-35 pictures and literally a single F-16 picture. And that was with basically one super squadron of F-35s and 4 full squadrons of F-16s. On the bright side, I don't think I ever saw the WG/CC in our squadron. Even the OG/CC was only there a couple times a year. Sometimes its nice to be the ignored kid in the family.

It's official, two more squadrons to the middle of a desert for an undetermined amount of time. Best part of the article: “In choosing to relocate these F-16 squadrons to Holloman Air Force Base, the Air Force has made a decision that will enormously benefit our national security, our service-members and their families, and New Mexico’s economy,” Udall (NM Senator) said in a press release. Wait, here's a more accurate version: “In choosing to relocate these F-16 squadrons to Holloman Air Force Base, the Air Force has made a decision that will enormously benefit our national security, our service-members and their families, and New Mexico’s economy," Good thing we have plenty of fighter pilots, it only took almost a dozen guys 7-day opting orders from Luke to Holloman before some guys didn't/couldn't 7-day it. Mind blowing the senator has the balls to say that this decision will enormously benefit our members and families. President Eisenhower was slightly off target when he said we should fear the military-industrial complex. Political meddling into what should be military affairs causes far worse consequences for our country.

I lived between the mountains and the south gate. Most are smaller yards (most are around .2 acre lots), but if you're willing to move into an older house, there are lots of options a little over 1/4 acre. Nice area, short commute, good schools, and still quick access to the mountains. Exactly 30 minutes from my door to the ski lift. Even if you live in Morgan, you're not going to be walking distance to the lift or trails, so much less time than that didn't make much difference to me. That being said, if I moved back, I would primarily look in east Layton (east and SE of the south gate) and maybe some in Morgan.

Go to a 3 day cycle and squadrons will treat the debrief like the msn planning (i.e. sending one or two reps). Try enforcing flying once in three days to a traditional guard/reserve buba who wouldn't get his RAP even if he went the full two weeks and see how that works out.

Get rid of half the white force, especially the "wing commander". He generates a bunch of useless PIA queep like the day before MSN/CC brief. Also, he has way too much power. How is it that some random O-6 can sit a squadron because they didn't show up for a practice brief when the MSN/CC cleared them off? 100% true story. Stop letting a dozen guys speak at the end of the brief and debrief. I got it, you have birds on your shoulders or you went to WIC when I was in elementary school, good for you, now sit down and stop talking. Info-aggressors - complete waste of manpower. If the bad guys are attending our briefings, the war is over anyway. Stop with the absurd scenarios. I get that if we train to harder missions than we'll execute in wartime, we stand a better chance of everyone coming home. But launching F-16 blk 40 units to do DCA against the hordes of Su's with better ECM pods than we have is absurd. In combat, we'd have FR busted like a big dog, retrograde as fast as possible, and let the patriots target them.

The normal release has been early to mid-spring, so I wouldn't hold your breath. Whatever max amount the budget gets approved for will tell you most of what you want to know, but any up front numbers and duration won't be reliable until the actual AF release. I'd guess late March.

PM sent, not comfortable airing which might be considered dirty laundry on a public forum.

Just for expectation management, many fighter squadrons are seeing as many as a dozen current and qualified applicants for every opening and even more guys who are non-current. The exodus is well under way and the guard/reserve is going to be hard pressed to able to accept even a portion of the influx of guys leaving AD. When a handful of current instructor pilots are applying, hiring a guy the same age and rank (bigger deal in many units than you'd think) who basically is only 13 months timeline-wise ahead of their off the street applicants would be a tough justification. As matmacwc said, you'll really need to focus on some of the units that have a tougher time keeping guys. Even then, it would be pretty long odds of getting picked up, so I'd have more realistic backup options available.

Except for the fact that there are AGRs resigning to go to the airlines. Seen it multiple times in the last year.

I don't think they give you the actual 214 until you've separated. Mine was not a retirement, but was available online the next day.

Shouldn't the title of this thread be "AI beats simulated fighter pilot in simulated air combat"?

I understand you may be talking about another aspect of the article, but Northern Syria is not high threat CAS. Yes, it is higher threat than Iraq or Afghanistan after the initial invasion, but I don't think our (all allied air) losses over Syria are considerably different than our peacetime training losses. I also completely agree that true 'high-threat' CAS is an absurd concept. Ground forces have grown over-reliant on CAS on call anytime they get in a real firefight. In a high-threat war, anyone on or near the front is going to be a TIC. Even if you ignore the threat, physical airspace alone is practically prohibitive to CAS. A standard CAS overhead wheel would encompass an entire division's airspace for 5027. The best machine ever made to kill enemy tanks is not the A-10; it's the Abrams. With few exceptions, airpower in a high-threat war is better used further downrange and will save more lives in the long run.

Nice work putting the jet into an empty field (assuming it was controlled). My worst fear of flying fighters is putting an explosive pilotless glider into someone's occupied house (a crowd at an airshow/graduation would be even worse).

General Chang simply serves for love of country and service before self, so he doesn't need BAH. He just sleeps in his office. His lights are even powered by his sense of self-worth, so saves the government money there too.

It is our future and our lives which is why people are upset. Rather than contemptuously dismissing what pilots are saying about their career fields, maybe you should listen and take to heart what the people who are the closest to the issue have to say.

Have you tried using a sinus rinse? Life changing as a pilot. Doing a sinus rinse every day really helps cut down on sinus issues as it flushes out most the allergens and junk that can lead to a sinus block when you don't have a cold.

Some units I interviewed with said that the gentlemen's agreement is two years as an ART before going part-time. If you went part time before that two years, they'd try to put you in a TR/DSG position, but no guarantee. The airline hiring is going to eventually make the guard/reserve reevaluate the ART position entirely.

Sounds like there are a lot of miserly squadron commanders. A better question would be 'of everyone on this forum, how many have been officially recalled for a no-kidding non-exercise, non-training scenario where a specific leave distance was a factor?' I can only think of two instances where I've heard of this over my decade in fighters. And even then, neither were really that much of a surprise. Maybe more common in other airframes, but perhaps commanders should look at opening it up a bit rather than tightening the restrictions.

Fighter squadron commander in USAFE defined it as 6.5 hrs drive or if you were taking a train more than 3 hrs (ability for a buddy to come pick you up and make it back due to the frequent train strikes) or flying anywhere. But that was prior to the new leave reg edition.

If the time is completely taken up by necessary TDY classes, unlikely you won't get any time off. But any break in classes or showing up early you can go pick up your car. Picking up your car is a normal duty day, not permissive, not leave. You don't get per diem, but when you file your PCS travel voucher, they'll pay you round trip mileage from your duty station to the nearest port. From a TDY station, you'll probably get the lesser of round trip TDY to port or PCS base to port.

Depends on the overseas location on if they can stay. The AF can't tell your family where they can stay, but the host country can pull their visas when you leave. I had this exact situation from Italy and staying was not an option because Italy would not allow their visas to be extended after I left. They can then pick a designated location to move to. Key highlights for your plans, you get PTDY (can't remember if travel allowance is covered or not) to move them and get them settled into the designated location. Also, if your departure from your OCONUS base and your arrival at your remote allows less than 10 days of leave in CONUS, you get Continuous Overseas Tours travel allowed. Meaning, if you can work your dates to only have 8 days of leave in CONUS between your tours, the AF will pay for your ticket round trip from your remote to your home of record (I think your HOR, might be the designated location, check the JTR). Depending on your remote tour, this could save you $1K in travel costs for your midtour. If your travel between your current base and your remote base does not take you through CONUS, the COT travel should be automatic. Double check your orders when you get them, the travel authorization should be listed in the remarks. Edit to add - this data is based on memory from my experience with the older JFTR, not sure what the new JTR changes, so make sure you look it up. I guarantee the guy making your orders won't volunteer this info.

Pay may not be the only issue, but it never hurts. For me it was a large combination of factors, for some (like dudes stuck in preds) its a single issue. Pay is also one of the easier problems to solve from a bureaucracy standpoint. I doubt many here who are coming up on their decision could honestly say that pay was not a consideration. Maybe not the single consideration, but at least a consideration.