Smokin

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.

I know far more guys who have been hired than guys who are still waiting for a call.

Luke held a press conference a little bit ago, Taiwanese pilot flying a BFM sortie. No indications of a parachute or beacon.

I'd like to believe that's true, but anyone who has such a lack of mission focus as to volunteer for that train wreck probably won't truly excel at much we actually expect of them.

A recreational activity.

Turkey had repeatedly talked to Russia about their bombing of that area. The Russians are bombing the Turkey (and rest of the West) supported FSA. Reference my post a month ago about Russia being more concerned with keeping Assad in power than defeating ISIS. Two things surprise me about this. The first is that the ISIS claimed bombing of the Russian airliner didn't significantly alter Putin's objectives in Syria. The second is that the Turks had the balls to stand up to Russia bombing the Turkman groups in Syria. At least someone is doing it. A little sad and unexpected that the Western initiative in Syria is now being led by Turkey.

The available ones during each VML have always shown up on the fighter porch page, at least for Vipers anyway.

Not a real sport and I'm the larger half of a decade short of 40 and grew up during the massive expansion of video games as a kid. Sports are not the same as a hobby, pass time, recreational game, or even competition. As our society's obesity problem grows, so does the number of things we consider to be a sport. Pretty soon fantasy football is going to be an Olympic event if we continue like we are now. First google return on sports definition: "an activity involving physical exertion and skill". Yes, plenty of skill involved, but pushing buttons doesn't count as physical exertion.

A slightly non-standard one, but I have the IHG Rewards by Chase. $50/year after the first year, but you get one free night a year and 60K points. The 60K points will generally get you two to three nights free (points vary based on location and room, but 15K-30K is the range I've seen with most around 25K. So, after one year you should get at least 3 nights for $95. The other big benefit is that it automatically puts you in one of their top tiers of the hotel loyalty program. Was huge for me when I took my family to Disneyland and stayed at the Holiday Inn. We reserved the cheapest room and ended up in a huge suite. I also stayed at a Holiday Inn for a couple longer TDYs and got nicer rooms then and bonus points. $50 for three nights free plus auto-upgrade is really nice. Plus, if you can work out staying TDY at any IHG chain, your points go up quick.

Longest I've heard of recently (11F) was 9 months and it sounds like the guard squadron put some work into the justification.

Minimum weight always seems to me to be a high tech problem with a low tech solution. If it is purely a function of body weight, throw a couple pounds of sand into the already crazy getup they wear or even the seat kit. Now the total weight the rockets are lifting are the same as a heavier pilot, so same acceleration.

Bronze star for playing the keyboard. Must have been one dangerous keyboard.

Maybe I'm over-simplifying the question because it's not my life, but this really seems like a no brainier to me. Take a job on active duty that people are getting non-vol'd to do and getting out ASAP from, or take a job in the reserves that guys are competing for and often do for 30+ years.

He secured himself from conventional attack two years ago with encouraging the formation of ISIS. He intentionally helped build up the tide of ISIS because that made him the lesser of two evils to the west. The only way the west truly intervenes to kick out Assad is if the FSA once again becomes a credible threat. The Russian intervention will make sure that won't happen, so Assad will likely push back ISIS a little to regain some revenue sources and then let them stay in a perpetual stalemate. ISIS is extremely useful to Assad and he won't want to see them actually defeated.

There's also currently the early eligible and then initial eligible. Early basically means you sign the bonus before your ADSC is up and then you start getting paid once your ADSC expires. Best deal for you if you know 100% that you're in for 20. The initial eligible is the FY that your ADSC expires, which means you could be a free agent (thus not getting any extra money) between the day your ADSC expires until the bonus is released and they process your paperwork.

Apparently Minnesota is so dangerous that a family sent their kid to boarding school... in Somalia... only to be surprised that he was murdered. Don't even know where to start with that one. Story

I know this might be shocking, but most of the guys interviewing you were probably not fully compliant with the drinking age when they were in college either. I'd be surprised if this was a deal breaker.

Vipers generally have 2 (some units are getting an additional SATCOM). But to say we have two radios and therefore an extra one is not valid. You are generally assigned an Aux frequency that is your intraflight freq. Far more mid-airs with military jets have happened within a flight than with stranger traffic and I would never consider giving up my Aux freq to monitor a UNICOM, especially if I'm IFR. Vipers almost never fly single ship; I've only flown single ship once in the last year. Even single ship, being able to have the SOF know where he can reach me (on Aux as my Primary is constantly changing) is probably going to be safer than a fighter guy trying to monitor a UNICOM freq while under IFR anyway.

And this conversation may have actually taken a productive turn... A relatively open invitation to local FBOs to bring their students in once a month to over the shoulder RAPCON during a busy training day might help educate some guys a little better than the standard MACA brief the safety guy gives twice a year.