HuggyU2

The Blues are still flying their practice season as a 6-ship. Therefore, Blue Angel 1-6 have probably not been suspended. There are other officers on the Blues. Your conclusion that it is an enlisted member has no basis... assuming the article is even correct. Have you been on a demo team, or in any way been involved in the production of an airshow? I'm guessing not. That said, it would be unfair to assume these events are related based on what has been reported. By all accounts, SiS is a fine fighter pilot who has done a lot more for her country than most will ever consider. Irrespective of what happened... short of her murdering someone... I'd put her head and shoulders above Hillary, AOC, Kamala, Mazie Hirono, and a host of others that we read about daily. Be glad you're not the one in the spotlight.

Rogoway should go to work for TMZ. Every time he requests an interview with anyone in DoD, they should simply forward him his article and say "Uh... no".

Really sorry to see SiS relieved. Post the video. If he doesn’t like it and cannot laugh about it, too bad. And post part 2... too.

Although rare, I believe it is possible to go beyond 35.

His logbook shows 340 hours of "time". However, he was paid for the equivalent of 850 hours.. So he made 510 hours of credit without actually flying. I have a friend that sits reserve at home on wide bodies. Last year, he worked around 23 days. So he probably logged about 100 hours of actual flying time (probably less). However, he makes a minimum of 75-ish hours a month as a guaranteed minimum, per the contract with his company. So he made around 900 hours of flight pay (credit) last year, while only actually flying 100 hours. There are a lot of permutations and ways to get "credit hours" but hopefully you get the idea. For example, deadheading: when the company needs to send you somewhere to go fly a plane, you are in the back as a passenger on a company ticket,... but you are paid like you actually flew the jet. Two weeks ago, I deadheaded from SFO to Honolulu. Sat in 1st class, worked on my computer, and slept for almost 3 hours. It was almost a 6 hour flight. When we arrived, I got in the cockpit and flew the jet back. That was about a 5 hour flight. So I logged 5 hours of time... but was paid for 11 hours of time for a single day out-and-back. The contract between the pilot and the company is a very important legal document. It defines how you will get paid, and for what. And vacation, number of hours per day guaranteed, reserve rules, et... I know corporate pilots that make bank. Big bank. However, the actual dollars that show up in to your account are only one piece of the puzzle. The contract defines all of those pieces. In the military, I was proud to be the guy at the top of the 30-60-90 day flying time sheet posted in Ops. In the airlines, it's the complete opposite.

Go get your AMEL Commercial Instrument FAA certificate, for starters.

I’d pick the one that would prevent me from commuting. Having commuted for 18 months, I know how much better it is when you don’t.

UAL goes from $91/hour on 1st year, to $140/hr second year. American isn't much worse. I'm guessing Delta is as good or better than those numbers. Not to mention profit sharing. How much more than $140/hr does it need to be to "instantly get better when second year pay kicks in" in your world?? Do you fly for Air Kazakhstan?

For the U-2 guys: Col Jackson was Solo #42. That's just 13 numbers before Tony B and 4 months before Tony. I just spoke to Tony this morning about their time together at "The Ranch" (Groom Lake) in '56-'57 for their U-2 checkout. Like a lot of those guys, he came out of F-84's at Turner AFB. If any of y'all attended the past 4080th Reunions at Laughlin AFB, you probably met Joe. Hail Dragons. https://www.military.com/daily-news/2019/01/14/air-force-medal-honor-recipient-joe-jackson-dies-95.html?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwAR27FcRUwZPS4-RU4n0tINrYqnH5hmUAWiLaHw1MKP5GpdwORlH9LWstAlQ#Echobox=1547498512

Guard Eagle Drivers: What's the story on the F-15X from what you're hearing?

The bird Colonel in there is Marcus Anderson. He ended up as a three-star. I hadn't seen that video. Thanks for posting.

JeremiahWeed's post alluded to the harrowing combat flown by our brethren from past decades. I believe many of you will enjoy reading this WWII debrief from 1Lt Cherry.

Spoken to? Yes. More than once. I retired 4 years ago, and never... ever... had a GTC issued to me. As such, I couldn't use one. Yes, I'm an extreme data point. But where there is a will, there is energy to find a way.

Whether he deserved it or not based on his comment, I was very glad to see him get fired.

Sounds like something Peterson has said.

Uh... it was executed to perfection... well beyond the DLO. Even the Russian judge gave it an "Excellent". (BTW, isn't "Fair" a 1?) In any case, I know these things. I was a FAIP... and I saw the video. So I got that going for me.

It’s an “aileron roll”! Sheesh!!

I flew the MC-12 for 13 months... and the rampant enlisted aircrew that felt they were in change (and leadership that didn't fix it) helped make that a shitty assignment. Of course, there was plenty of other things in the MC-12 that were FUBAR.

You simply schedule with for the 67% that are there. Same way we do it in the U-2, where the 99 RS been deployed non-stop to the Arabian Peninsula since Saddam invaded in 1990; Osan for over 40 years; and our other location for over 40 years. Yes, continually to all three locations, simultaneously. If an event like a Naming is well done, people will show up and have a great time. As alluded to, "namings" may not fit a particular squadron or mission culture. And one thing to note is that, in my conversations with U-2 pilots older than me, they didn't have callsigns... much less "naming ceremonies"... in earlier years. This includes guys that came out of pointy-nosed jets in the Vietnam era. To digress into a historical context... I went through UPT in '85-'86, there was definitely no naming ceremony at Laughlin back then and very few IP's had a callsign. I was an exception since "Huggy" had been what people called me since middle school. One example, the current AF Vice Chief of Staff General Steve 'Seve' Wilson was a young FAIP in the squadron then, and I'm guessing he got his callsign after he went to the B-1. I only recall a handful of MWS guys coming back to ATC/AETC with a callsign during my FAIP years (86-89). One of the few I recall was a guy named "Buc" due to using the BUC Start on an F-16 that lit off at less than 100' AGL. Cowboy Keck (F-4, F-15) was another... but those that know Cowboy can probably assume he was given that callsign in the womb. When I arrived at RAF Alconbury in 1990, there were two A-10 squadrons there and a fair number of those guys had callsigns. I have no idea if they had big naming ceremonies (I've posed the question to a couple of old A-10 guys I know), but callsigns were certainly established. I would guess that actual naming ceremonies in fighter squadrons began to occur a little before my time (circa 1982)... but that's just my impression from talking to old-heads. The bottom line is that "naming ceremonies" are a relatively recent addition to the USAF pilot culture. Personally, I think they are a great thing and I've had a great time participating in them during my time. There's probably a great story about "the history of namings" that some academic at Air University should write a paper on, using lots of taxpayer dollars to research it.

When I was furloughed by my airline... both times... they were line bidding. So I’d say your theory is false. A strong airline needs to be profitable. Efficiency aids that profitability. If we only need 1000 pilots to meet flying within the limits of the collective bargaining agreement, I don’t believe we should have 1200 pilots. That doesn’t help. From what I’ve seen, the bigger problem in this industry are Captains that just don’t give a shit. They are wasteful. And they do nothing to engage with the people that get me my salary. They just don’t get it.

He pulled out the lines for January that he was carrying and just kind of walked me through it. He said his ability to get specific days off is reduced, and that finding a trip without a one-day and without a redeye was difficult. However, with PBS he was able to specify his criteria and had much better success at getting the specifics that he needed. I'll admit that it seems that the System Scheduling Committee should work harder to push the company to build better lines, and that I was at a loss to understand why it couldn't be much better. However, the entire thing just looked cumbersome and inflexible. The PBS interface is terrible, no doubt. In this day and age, there should be a much easier way to input the data.

I'm still scratching my head at your post. "More productivity" is a bad thing for my company??? I wasn't a Business major, but I'm all for "productivity".. But hey, if you think hiring 2000 more pilots below you will fix your woes and increase your pay through quicker upgrade times, then I don't know what more I can say. Having extra pilots hired below you is worth very little. If/when the recession comes, they will all get furloughed... just like I was after 9/11. Don't blame PBS for your ills... blame the negotiating committee that gave you the contract that you have. If your company is more productive, you should reap the benefits. If that's not happening, your union has to fix it. I won't waste my time trying to convince you that PBS is good for your pilot group because I don't know enough about alternatives. But I find PBS works quite well for me: I am able to specify what I need (unlike line bidding), and I generally get it. As for line bidding... three days ago, I flew LAX-HNL with an Alaska Airlines Captain in the jumpseat. He said they just left PBS and are going to line bidding. He wasn't impressed, and went through a number of reason why it was inferior. He had a shitload more experience in this industry than I do, and I simply listened and took notes.

Hmmm... I wonder how the Swiss military handles arming their soldiers, aircrew, etc...

Nice find! I will forward this to the Wing Commander at Beale: maybe he can make it part of the "Commander's Required Reading" list.