Everything posted by Tonka
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Cancer Research for Flight Crews
Another survey, not mine: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSflP_wbAKZvjpl-nsedOaQPjCTmkPVK_3sGg6epAGqvriFMGQ/viewform Straight, forward, to the point. Smart guy, I've seen some of his work and it has a good chance of getting attention.
- Military, Aviation, Spacecraft Technology that won't necessarily replace us
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Pilot Shortage Deepens, USAF is SCREWED.
YMMV, but I know a good amount of O-5 through O-7s that at one time claimed they were getting out... some were disingenuous, many more really weren't as decided as they presented, and some just had major changes in life. Some are pessimistic and are concerned of another 911 and layoffs... all depends on your crystal ball. That being said, the more examples of positive outcomes for folks to look at does not bode well for the AF. But there will always be a regression to a mean, there will be layoffs at some point...
- VA Loans
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VA Loans
Looking to buy a house with VA and the carpet is trashed and the seller has a lower price because of it (and some other mostly cosmetic stuff) will large chunks of carpet missing stop the appraisal/inspecroon? I don't want to ask him to fix it, because I'd rather do it when I own the house.
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Pilot Math
If you mean because someone will burn you as a result? Maybe... but there is some margin built in for making corrections. If you drifted down wind you'll need enough control power margin to correct for that error... if you were downwind (porking it), not correcting, and then got a gust then you might be hosed... depends on the width of the runway and how white the knuckles are on your ungloved IPs hands.
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Questions on TPS (Test Pilot School)
Some speculation, some more pertinent than others: MWS is better than a white jet, IP in an MWS is better than a white jet IP, especially UPT base, AC in an MWS is PROBABLY better than a white jet IP, especially UPT base 2 aircraft are better than 1, 2 MWS aircraft are better than an MWS and a white Jet... IMHO: I would try hard to get the MWS IP, and wouldn't consider going white-jet (unless there is some other compelling reason, i.e. family life). There is a reason we make make first assignment IPs in the training jets... for you it wouldn't help the resume much. But you probably need to be an IP to be competitive as a heavy bubba. But those are really secondary to: Can you handle the academics of the course. There are minimums for the above, and which of the above is better might only come into play if everything else is pretty close between you and the next guy (look at the application reg and see the break down of requirements, flying experience isn't overwhelming). If you can't get the minimums or you can't get out of a white jet (other people reading this thread), do something academic and impressive somewhere else. Get something with "test" in it, go test a new flare load out (that the last WIC guy wrote a paper on), go "Test" a new procedure in the sim, go "test" the new urinal, etc... tell your CC and DO what you want to do, tell them you want anything "Test" that comes down the pipe for your aircraft, etc, etc... Even if something is ground based-only, show the initiative, the willingness to learn and try something new. Job titles matter too, Exec and "Chief of X" are PROBABLY better than assistant chief of flight safety. Show leadership. When you're young put it on your OPR -"Our Best candidate for TPS"... shows you didn't just start thinking about this last year. Non-technical Masters is PROBABLY not helping you dramatically... especially if it is a "Box-filler" school. If it is an MBA from Harvard-sure that helps. Last note: the board, like the school and AFMC, has a higher percentage of fighter dudes then anything else... just like you don't speak fighter, they don't speak heavy. Even within those community, the same terms have different meanings. They don't care that you can do something special in your MWS unless you help paint the picture of it... no one but other E-3 pilots know how hard something is to do in the E-3... There is not a high chance that an E-3 knowledgeable person will be on the board.
- Airbus A320X add-on for Lockheed Martin’s pro-level Prepar3D Contains Possible Spyware
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Questions on TPS (Test Pilot School)
It depends... they choose the best from those that apply... if no one applies except you, you are the best. (This goes for the rest of the AF!) Age waivers don't happen much, degree waivers depend on a lot of factors... might as well try.
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KC-46A Info
All the important ones do.
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KC-46A Info
AKA "boom strikes"... boom hitting aircraft outside UARSSI.
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Stop over point
We really are a bunch of dicks...
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KC-46A Info
yeah, but we're extrapolating data to say it'd be something we'd want. Being a great platform in civilian airspace with maybe a half dozen receivers doesn't mean it'd be good at what we need it for. The control surfaces on the boom are probably too small for our range of receivers... it'd take us 5+ years to certify all our mds, assuming we could. Want defensive systems? Another couple years. 46 sucks and Boeing will deliver a useless, non - mission capable aircraft to meet the contact... I bet it sits 6-9 months after the ferry flight. If we're smart, we will renegotiate the contact and fix everything now and take our losses. But we won't. We don't want it unless it's fixed and Boeing won't fix it. Boeing walks away and then we start all over.
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KC-46A Info
Catching up is valid, but the KC-30 is not amazing either... and it was late too. It still has problems... Here it says it just reached FOC after they contracted for the aircraft in 2005? https://www.defense-aerospace.com/articles-view/release/3/181585/raaf-declares-final-operational-capability-for-kc_30a-tankers.html It still doesn't have an impressive list of receivers yet. Don't get me wrong, it is light years ahead of the KC-46, but I wouldn't buy the KC-30 either.
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Engine out procedures for Cessna 172-P
I'd say those are pretty good odds, what are you going to do... not try?
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IRR opportunities....points
Can we earn enough from these programs to eventually receive an Active Duty retirement? Say 18 years AD and I pick up an IMA job that provides 91.25 days a year, it will take me 8 years to accumulate the 2 years of points... but will I receive the Active Duty retirement with $$ in my pocket immediately? Same for CAP and ALO?
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Accelerating a waiver?
How did the waiver go? Time frame? Is multi-level replacement waiver-able, or just single level?
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That Cyber Thread
How recently? What details can you provide, if any?
- Military, Aviation, Spacecraft Technology that won't necessarily replace us
- Military, Aviation, Spacecraft Technology that won't necessarily replace us
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Boeing unveils its T-38 replacement
Mod note: 2 other T-X threads, one linked below and here. AVtech (thread) went bankrupt and Stavatii picked up there design (link). Planning on making a run for the T-X. link The Stavatti Javelin maintains many exterior characteristics of the original Javelin design but benefits from structural improvements to increase maximum load factor to 9-Gs, more powerful engines, greater internal fuel capacity, increased maximum external warload, higher maximum takeoff weight, a cockpit designed for the T-X mission that satisfies JPATs flight crew accommodation cases 1-8, and a maximum level speed of Mach 1.36. The result is a very affordable, next generation supersonic trainer.
- A Toast
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C-145A Combat Coyote/6 SOS Info
The UH-1Ns were moved from Eglin to Duke a few years ago, same mission with some test thrown in. At one time CRH was going to do DT out of Duke, not sure if that is still the plan.
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Aviation Continuation Pay (ACP - The Bonus)
Win! Does anyone else see the brilliance in the way this came together? I can imagine a couple of aviators were sitting at a bar and someone made a bet... "I bet I can I get the bonus to go up... and I bet I can more than double it." That same pilot realized that the only way he could get the bonus to go up was to somehow make pilots want to leave the best job in the world. So he created CBTs. He realized he barely made a nick in the manning numbers, so he decided to turn to "do less with more". Then he decided to make them remotely control their planes... and they still stayed. He then doubled-down and put the prospect of Hillary running the country, and the pilots finally left and there was no choice but to raise the bonus... 5 bucks is 5 bucks, well done good sir, well done. As soon as the bonus is raised he has a plan to rescind all the troubles he inputted... life will be good again.
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Promotion and PRF Information
Because the "strating" system is terribly flawed... In some communities a "#3 out of 12 Majors" is better than "#1 out of 20 pilots", why? Because a pilot is your technical skill, and a strat with your rank would include your technical skill plus all the things that you would do as a major. Which has some logical sense to it, but only ifyou have the secret decoder ring. I don't agree with it either, but I've seen the discussion... So the top 75% probably had commanders with the secret ring and did a better job writing the 6-9 words in an OPR that mean anything.