FourFans

There are some baffling results on that list, including a golden nugget APZ with a P an no IDE (seriously?!) who got picked up, yet there were multiple DPs NOT picked up. The lesson is: Go Guard/AFRC...but I digress... I know the pain of getting passed over and that game sucks any way you play it, especially with a DP. Sorry man. The good news is, this isn't the end, and if you don't make promotion later, the USAF REALLY needs you. It's weird, but it's true. Your commander should have a full data download and fact finding mission of his/her own...I'd be pissed if you were in my unit and this happened. However, the individual (my experience is 3 years old, so take it with a grain of salt) that conducts all the passed over counseling is a Miss Autumn Fowley (I don't have global, so i might be spelling that wrong) at AFPC. Passed over counseling is a one-on-one phone interview with her where your record is evaluated against a sampling of records from your board. She should give an assessment of what's different in the passed over record, and what items stand out as different and might have contributed to not making it. At no point will you get a 100% answer as to why you didn't make it. You will never know who was on the board, nor what was said about your PRF. Great process, right? (For frame of reference, Marine officers know who will be grading their board before they even turn in their PRFs, and are encourage to ask individuals why they didn't make it) Ask your commander what the current process is regarding continuation. That shouldn't be a player unless you get passed over 1 APZ though. If you are a flyer, you should get continued, but stranger things have happened. Ask your commander and don't quit until you have solid answer on the current process. If you don''t get an answer, consider skipping your commander, it's that important. The last thing you want is a surprise letter saying you've not been continued because of some form that wasn't submitted correctly (I've seen it happen). Again, this should all come from your commander. However, having experienced no support upon being passed over, I don't want you to suffer more frustration in this moment. PM me if you've got more questions.

Excellent work on the crew's part and really glad all involved came through ok. I hope that ATC controller gets an opportunity to tour the crash site, review the tapes, and meet the crew, so he can expand his SA bubble a bit.

I second that motion! Seth is easily one of the best in the business.

If I may offer a completely different perspective. Friend, you haven't lost your drive, your desire, your motivation. You've lost your heart. If you think that you'll be able to jump to the Navy, Marines, Air Force, Coast Guard, Homeland Security (all of which have flying) and that said flying job will stir you back to who you want to be by scratching that itch, you're wrong. Oh, don't hear me wrong. The itch is real and so is your disgust with your current situation. Very real, very valid, very potent, and very very treacherous. From what I can hear, the solution you are seeking isn't the real antidote...it's a band-aid...granted, it's a very comforting one, but a short term solution none-the-less. Unless you get your heart back, you will get bled dry by a thousand other tiny cuts that any other institution WILL inflict. The USAF did it to me when I was about 27, and many other's on this board will attest to the same. You need to get your heart back so you can endure that course. My recommendation is to definitely go snowboarding. Take some time to clear the perspective...preferably without a smart phone. Decide about quitting your job afterwards. Take a book with you too: "Becoming a King" by Morgan Snyder. Only 200 pages. It might help you re-discover the real fire and where your heart went. Without your heart, nothing you try will succeed. Rediscover it though, and you're in a whole new ball-game. What I hear about your work situation could benefit, in the short term, from an adjustment of perspective...the cubicle is not the prison, it's the enabling water-fountain and or spring-board to finance your real career/adventure/commissioning. Endure only as much as you have to. Don't jump early, but definitely don't jump late. Leverage it until you don't need it anymore...and it sounds like you still might need it...but I'm just guessing on that last part. Afraid of money mistakes you've made? Ok, don't make those mistakes again. It don't mean you're dumb, it means you've had an experience and learned from it. What you've done DOES NOT define who you are nor what you will do in the future, unless you let it. Go get your heart back. You want a change of career into flying and you won't take no for an answer? Ok. Blitz through your instrument and commercial ratings like you mean it, and start flying night cargo. I'm being completely serious here. Do it. Quit your job and hang it out there. Do it, live in squalor for season, make some mistakes, learn from them, and move on. If that's what it takes to get your heart back, it's FAR better than moving from bad situation to bad solution. That road...the one where you fix today by jumping to what looks like greener pastures in the military...(as several here have alluded to) will only lead you right back to the discontent you feel right now, only it will be worse, because then you'll be saddled with a 8-10 year commitment to the military that you have no choice about. Go get your heart back (pro-tip, let your wife know what's going on, but do not look to her for the answer of finding your heart), then go get your flying career. If those goals coincide, all-the-better, but measure the cost first. You may decide to wait, but don't stand still. Standing still is indecision. Waiting has purpose, meaning, and a trigger to end it. Whatever you do: Don't stand still. FF

Congrats brother!

Pretty sure that flight sim recording is meant to reference this real event from a couple weeks ago.

I say again...any functioning adult...

FFS. Any functioning adult...just one, please run for President! Dan Crenshaw? Colin Powell? Mike Rowe? Keanu Reeves? Anyone? Please?

I keep coming back to the CRM bit. Upsets happen, whether crew induced, automation mismanagement, turbulence, or spacial-D. Doesn't matter how it happened, any crew member in the seat should always be aware and ready to take the controls. In multi-place aircraft that have a small enough flight deck, NOTHING communicates "I have the aircraft" and snaps the offending dude out of it as quickly as physical contact (i.e. backhand to the shoulder), ESPECIALLY when the guy on the controls is unconscious of his error. The flinch mechanism is strong when you're stressed, and usually works quick. I have yet to fly with a kid that A: didn't want me to smack him, or B: failed to appreciate it's effectiveness afterwards (a memory check says I've used this avoiding 2 pattern stalls, 3 unrecognized spacial-D's and 1 bad habit of calling the gear down before they're down). People may not like it, but there is no denying the effectiveness of physical contact as a confirmation or intervention reinforcement. My question for this 777 crash remains: what was the Captain doing, especially when flying with a known low performer? The audio makes is sound like he was completely unaware. As for stall training, I find it laughable that we as professional pilots going back for refresher training would NOT want to explore upsets and deep stalls to a PhD level. I personally see no reason to ever delay power inputs in these situations (ALL engine have a spool up, even if it's 4 seconds). I also advocate pilots exploring the effectiveness and energy saved by unloading the aircraft before maneuvers in upset and stall situations (constraining this type of training to the sim only). Amazing how quick an aerodynamically unloaded aircraft responds to inputs, regardless of attitude or energy state. The only hard and fast I stand by: Recognize, Confirm, Recover. Beyond that I don't believe any recovery should ever be rote.

Probably true as the Deid is now considered enough to the threat. I'll retain my editorial on that one. Also, bear in mind that any Turkey or Africa lines you've got in your logbook MAY qualify as combat support, depending on the destinations and flight routes. The 37 AS front office awards and decs shop used to keep very good tabs on those details. Look them up in the global. I came out of my Ramstein time with an unexpected aerial achievement medal. I know it was a big deal for the E's due to promotion points from medals, but I think those points went away recently. YMMV FF

Concur.

Good info and thanks for that update. I didn't realize that FedEx was that tapped out. What do they say in the investment world? Past performance is no indicator of future success? That said, I'd be surprised if they all of sudden hit a wall and demand evaporates. ...though, I have been surprised before...

Input from a different view: I'm in a very similar boat. 17 years, O-5 (unexpectedly APZ), not hirably current (API-6) in a staff billet. I had a regional job lined up and ready when COVID hit. I could have pulled my separation papers, but chose to delay them 3 months instead. Now I'm separating in August and going to a not-FEDEX-or-UPS cargo carrier. I'll also be joining the AFRC as a traditional reservist. Not ideal or low-stress, but it's the right path for our family right now. Prayer, petition, timing, and luck will dictate a unique path for you. Had I chosen to stay, I'm sure I'd have 365 or 179 orders very soon. Our family is tired of an impersonal organization that demands loyalty, then responds by treating people like cyphers and not caring 6 pence what it does to families. I will still be gone a lot with my new job...which won't pay a lot. I will still deploy with my AFRC unit. I might even volunteer for a 179 BACN deployment or some such. But it will be on our family's terms, not AFPC's. That is worth it to us, and that's the path that we hear God sending us down, so we're stepping that way in faith. Don't let big blue paint you into the "it makes sense" corner with a bonus and 5 more years of servitude unless you WANT that road. "It makes sense" really reads "it's really helpful to have bodies that AFPC can put where ever they want" when the Air Force tells you "it makes sense" to take the bonus. Carefully weigh the cost on you and your family before you take that money. IT IS NOT FREE. It's an 'easy' road to go down. They intentionally make it so. Don't let the ease of that road influence your decision making. BL: Your path may not conform to "common sense" as found on the internet or in mentorship relationships. Tailor that path to your situation, you financial goals, your family's desires, and your own skills, calling, and goals. A 15 year O-5 is very hirable in the ANG and AFRC. Just yesterday I saw a 3-6 year AGR job open at the 601 AOC in Tyndall (1+15 hour drive from the Eglin bedroom neighborhoods) for an O-5. There are opportunities everywhere. Then again, your path may take you down a road that keeps you in...it's your path. You already know the uncertainty that comes with 5 more years about 2-3 more PCS...especially if you are a non-command O-5. Command O-5s get even more PCSs. There are VERY FEW roads as an O-5 where you get to homestead for 5 years...they exist, but they are rare. Remember this, in 5 years, you're going to very likely be done with the USAF and be starting another career...and the USAF will not care at all about you or your family then. Good luck with the decision.

Bwaaaahahahah!!! Unified NATO...countering Chinese influence...oh man, that's rich...that's good...tell another joke.

Not likely you'll find one either. It was a once off production if memory serves correctly. Don't have a picture, but it was a standard flight suit pen tab size. Tan flightsuit colored background with a dark brown boarder. Standard red dice angled off showing three sides centered in the middle of the patch. Rather nondescript. FF

Just re-read Flying Through Midnight by John T. Halliday as well as Starship Troopers By Robert Heinlein. Both highly recommended. If you were at Ali Al Salem in the 2005-2008 time frame, you might remember the dice pen tab patches that were inspired by Flying Through Midnight. FF

I didn't know you were a cyber guy.

If you haven't read "Space Cadet" by Robert Heinlein, you should. He wrote about this stuff in the 40's and 50's...and here we are. Absolutely incredible!

For reference, I agree with your post and think you are on point. One specific item concerns me though: Dr Fauci as our expert physician. I'm an ER doc's kid, so I've witnessed the difference between doctor who "administrate" vs doctors who "do". I'm making no judgments on Fauci, I'm simply making inferences base on his background, how he presents his opinions, and the content of what he says. He's clearly been a "do" doctor, and appears to be an "administrate" doctor now. Take this for perspective: Would you call any 4-star general in the USAF as our BEST Pilot, Cyber Expert, Personnelist, etc? I wouldn't. They lead those people. They filter a LOT of data and present it in politically and socially palatable format. These people are leaders and politicians, and they are only in their spot for 3-4 years. Fauci has been in place advising the US government for 40 years. He leads NIAID. He understands what's going on, but he is no longer the line "do" expert. What a lot of people don't know how respond to is that line expert "doing" doctors are saying different things than Fauci and the political-health professional advisories coming from D.C. That means, just like in the USAF, there are often different messages coming from the line than are coming from the front office. Any pilot watching the USAF's pilot crisis has seen drastically different stories from the Top brass and the Line flyer voices. "Pretty Darn Good", right? Fauci is a politician and knows how to package information. He also recognizes that he MUST provide advice that is palatable by the mass populous by way of the violently slanted media. The problem with that is we all now have digital access to more voices than his, and we're hearing dissonance in the message. As a (relatively) rational creature, I decide my way through differences instead of blindly trusting "experts" because i've seen FAR too many experts who weren't. Do you trust every Instructor Pilot or Evaluator simply based on credentials? Yeah, neither do I. If the "expert's" message differs from rational principles, I look for truth elsewhere. What I've seen and heard from Fauci, tells me that he's driving a personal/private/political agenda that does NOT jive with ground truth. (I get it, ground truth leads to ill informed masses making dumb decisions...that's a whole different discussion.) So I discount him and the mass media and search elsewhere. That makes me highly skeptical of any message that blindly references him based on credentials alone. I don't think I'm alone in that...not by a long shot. How do you think we're supposed to address that problem? What do we do when reason pushes us to disregard experts like Fauci when we taste the political agenda?

Bump. Callsign Chaos I can't underscore this enough: All leaders NEED to read this book. Mattis demonstrates the integrity and intent based leadership that could heal most of the problems our current military structure faces. Not many people have to integrity to innovate themselves into unemployment (he shut down Joint Forces Command, which he was in charge of, because it was basically useless). He also cuts straight to facts about decision making and how not empowering leaders below you hamstrings operational effectiveness and efficiency. Great book.

How is it that I haven't heard a single COA involving COVID antibody testing, yet I can get tested for free by donating blood. Seems like we're missing the simplest answer for a large part of the aviation population. If I can carry paperwork proving I have COVID antibodies, shouldn't I be good? We already do the same thing for vaccinations. This ain't rocket surgery. Facts, not fear. FF

Curious on this answer too.

Thanks for the good string of posts. I'm interviewing on Tuesday, and I really needed some real talk about Atlas that wasn't drenched in negative bias. Hoping to fly that Queen of the Sky with you. FF

This checks. 180 days is the standard timeline, but workable at 120. I'm in the process right now. I asked for, and got approved, a 90 slip in my separation just for COVID, but I would have been plenty comfortable for separation, and I started the process about 200 days out. It should be as simple as applying online through vMPF and digitally submitting the form requesting a change in your separation date. I had to stay on top of my local personnel flight, but my request was approved in 10 days. Getting separation orders is a different story. That requires AFPC to do things, and your MPF to do things, most of which the won't want to do until 90-60 days from the separation date...when you'll be on leave...so engage early and often when the MPF until they get the point that you're not to leave them alone until you get orders. Important side-notes: - Yes, it's uncomfortable telling an airline you'll be available for training when you don't (and can't) have orders in writing yet. It's hard to take it on faith that Big Blue won't hose you in the end, but we don't really have a choice. Set your availability date no earlier than the date you calculate to start your terminal leave (which you can't submit for until 60 days prior to it starting). If in doubt, go to finance and have them calculate it for you. - If you're separating for AFRC/ANG, engage with the in-service recruiter (ISR) ASAP. Things like getting on the scroll for a AFRC commission can take three months. - Have a plan A, B, C, D and Z, and don't rule any of them out until you're off IOE at your airline. God Speed! FF