Zippy

You forgot to mention all the Sundays we flew as well to make up for T-6 production/ transition issues.

As one of the golden-winged I'll put it this way: With all the wealth of knowledge and experience on both this website and airwarriors.com, you can probably get the same, and better, information and support for free...

Yeah, Lucky... The T-6B is a cool plane and all that stuff about it doing a better job prepping you to succeed once you get to big blue sounds nice and once all the kinks are worked out in the program it will be a good deal for all involved, but when you have a greater chance of failing your initial check ride then passing (recently the pass rate has been 40%... up from 20% initially) and are half way out the door of flight training before your initial solo, the studs getting sent to T-34 are the lucky ones. The issues aren't so much with the plane as they are with the program. All things being equal the T-6B is a better bird, but the T-34 program is a proven one, and its students are currently having greater success in flight training. Can't get back to big blue if you wash out of the program.

Don't think they've started to plan that far ahead yet. The guys I know they were sending to the other squadrons are API complete already and stashed while waiting to class up.

Before anyone asks for or offers amplifying information on the subject-this is a friendly reminder to take care not to disclose privileged information regarding aircraft mishaps and investigations.

There's no gouge for the T-6B yet. Hell, they are still working on an FTI. Its going to be up to some enterprising student(s) to create the gouge. The way things are done changes so often that some of it is going to be outdated within days of posting. The way the program is running, things are "interesting". They only had seven years of prep time to get ready for the first T-6B landing at NSE- they might have their heads pulled out of their asses four years from now since they are flying them, but probably not. The AF studs getting sent T-34s because of the backup are lucky. They just don't realize it yet.

I figured I'd bump the thread since the word just came out the past couple days that they are shifting Air Force students to the other VTs at Whiting and starting them on the T-34 to alleviate the pool of students waiting to class up in VT-3.

Unless things have changed drastically in the last few years (its the Navy so even if it was the wheel was probably reinvented back to the previous standard), NAS whiting has a policy where its mandatory for single students to live in the BOQ until it is at 90% capacity, and then they can live out in town. In recent years they have let students room together and live in Officer housing off base (right down the road).

My father was a DOD civilian so I spent a good portion of my youth around the military (primarily Navy but some Air Force) and I knew I wanted to be a pilot. When It came time to apply for ROTC programs, I applied to all of them in addition to some of the academies with the hope that I would be able to get into one of them. With each of those ROTC applications came applications to different schools so I ended up applying to over a dozen colleges overall (I quickly learned about the "common application" and decided to limit the schools that I applied to the ones that took it to save time and effort on the process). I ended up getting a partial scholarship from AFROTC (its been 10 years so I don't remember the "Type") and a full Scholarship from NROTC. Even though I spent more time growing up around the Navy I didn't like one service more then the other- both flew aircraft, so I took the NROTC scholarship. If the tables had been reversed and the AFROTC scholarship was a full scholarship then I probably would have went with that. Am I happy with my decision? YES. Would I be happy with my decision if i went with the AFROTC scholarship and ended up as a pilot? YES. Regardless of which service you ultimately wind up in you are in the military. There are going to be draw backs where ever you go. The quality of life is all relative. For example: QOL in the Navy is not bad when your land based except when you end up living in a tent, and being on a boat is better then living in a tent. There are politics and BS in EVERY service- pretty much equally. UAVs are currently the future, but that future is getting closer and closer every day. the Navy has its own UAV programs and like the Air Force, those programs are expanding. I would say both services offer you unique travel opportunities. The enemies of this country are going to happily kill you regardless of the uniform you are wearing. You are trying to make a decision between two great services by zeroing in on trivial aspects of them that you likely wouldn't have known about if you hadn't seen them mentioned in an online forum or heard from a guy who knows a guy etc. Are there differences between the two? Yes, but those differences aren't important enough to take either option off the table by not applying to their respective ROTC programs. Apply to both, even if that means shelling out more $ to submit applications to more colleges for the respective programs, take the better deal and don't look back.

Kaman, we still have the same capabilities we did when you were an A'dub. We've probably added a few more over the years as well...

Just to add to the Target based fund list, USAA just began offering their own Target based mutual funds.

There is some word on the street in the community, but most people are pretty tight lipped since its an ongoing investigation. But yes, that plane is done. There are now some very in depth examinations into pilot proficiency training (PPT) hours going on throughout the fleet, as well as changes to Standardization notes. The chain of events leading up to this incident could have been broken with better ORM, CRM and use of NATOPS procedures. The P-3 itself is a very forgiving aircraft- it took a series of mistakes for things to end up this badly, but the crew is alive- and that is the most important thing. I will say that if the rumors are correct- Great job by the FE getting #1 restarted in the spiral- that was probably the thing that saved the crew.

As a member of the P-3 crew that flew as part of the SAR operation - Thanks. We showed up at Anderson with little notice, hardly any information and not much more then our "bingo" bags, six maintainers and their tools- but everyone on the base did a terrific job of giving us the logistical support we needed to get out there and help out with the search. We were very impressed with the help we got and only wished that our interactions were under better circumstances and that things turned out differently for the crew. Thoughts and prayers to their families...

I recommend making them get renters insurance prior to moving in (put it in the lease as a stipulation if you have to). Also I encourage you to increase your liability coverage on your homeowners policy if you are going to have renters.

Thats been gone for a while now- it was one of the few events they could axe in an effort to "trim fat" from the sylabus. One of the benifits of the "big boy" program... the beach and the free time were also nice.

Gotta love it. Airnav copilot was the best duty to waiting to get winged... except when they sked you with an Italian student "He's the A/C for the flight, but you signed for the plane so its your ass if he F's it up." "And why don't we get soft winged here???" By the time i was out of there, I was one trip away from the free Freebirds Burrito.

Hah, hopefully for you 31 and the wing haven't got ahold of this. If they have, then don't be surprised if they forward it to Little Rock. My friend's sister wrote a letter to CNATRA (the admiral himself) based on his venting about P-3s... something about rusty buckets. They put a copy of the letter behind his winging certificate with "CC: VP-30" on it. 3 Months from wings huh... you should have been able to find yourself some SNAGs down there by now. If not, take some friday nights off from Utopia and go hit up Ferrah's and the Islander... stay till closing and bat cleanup. And of course, there is always Wiskey River Weds.

This is an air force forum. We are only pilots, not "artists."

Following along here as best I can (I think SIE = DOR, and Have no idea what 62 is other then maybe intel...), and for the most part I'm with Bender. There is nothing wrong with having second thoughts about being a pilot before you start training- plenty of people do. There are going to be days in training where you'll have those second thoughts again... I'll admit that there were times prior to showing up to flight school that I had second thoughts... At one point I questioned whether I would like being a pilot for 10yrs (I had zero flight time at the time). Went through Navy IFS, and liked it,but didn't really miss flying when I wasn't. Got stashed for almost a year working for a government agency doing some pretty interesting things and really liked what I was doing and wasn't sure I'd enjoy flying as much as I liked the type of stuff I was exposed to there. To those of you whose motivation and dreams have never waivered and are really die-hard, good for you but I've seen a lot of guys like that really suck, wash out, or quit... I think a lot of it had to do with the reality of where they ended up not matching with the fantasy they had built up their head. Hopefully you all have some true understanding that life as a military aviator isnt all Top Gun and Iron Eagle... Anyways, I showed up to primary and I really liked it far more then any of the GA flying I had done prior to comming here (granted it wasnt that much). I'm far happier during the phases of training where I'm actually flying the plane- even on those days where I've had a shitty event. As for the "doesn't mean you're constantly walking around thinking this is the greatest job on earth. It's work." comment, I'll agree to the first part, but say that it's pretty ****ing cool life, and my friends and I have yet to consider what we do as work... in fact, we don't associate what we do with the paychecks we recieve... and yes I know you AF studs live in misery in flight school compared to us. To jake, above is one perspective. To answer your question, No- where I am now is not where my imagination placed me most of the time growing up. I have friends that are living my dream- I am living the dream of some of my other friends. Dreams and reality don't always get to match... at least not right away. (Remember folks, no matter what NEEDS OF THE SERVICE outweigh all other considerations... which is, if I remember correctly, what caused the original poster to be in his position in the first place.)That being said, it's still pretty bad ass. [ 02. May 2006, 00:55: Message edited by: Zippy ]

There are a few coasties at http://www.airwarriors.com they might be able to answer your questions if you don't find what you want here.

If your going to primary at whiting, live as clost to whiting as possible and suck up the drive to NASP for your time in API... You might be able to find people to car pool with, or people in your class who have a couch you can sleep on when you have early show times the next day, or late nights before a test. [ 09. April 2006, 11:14: Message edited by: Zippy ]

Try these links- have the discuss items maneuvers op limits etc. http://www.navygouge.com/primary/gerber.html http://www.bryanweatherup.com/gouge/Primary/ As the saying goes: "live by the gouge, die by the gouge."

I think the deployment perception has to do with the time spent deployed.(Serious question here) How long are your deployments? I've heard 60-90 days... Is it anywhere near the 6+ months (often a lot longer these days) that the Navy/Marine Corps typically does? Navy has different terms to describe smaller amounts of time away (2 month "det" or "underway" for example). If Air Force deployments are less then the 6-x month norm these days then they don't "deploy" as the Navy knows the term... hence the perceptions. [ 16. March 2006, 00:17: Message edited by: Zippy ]

Yup, those thoughts are common. Here are some more common perceptions about the Air Force from the Navy side. (Note to those who get defensive easily... these comments arent ment to increase the flame war- he asked a question and hes getting an answer.) Doesen't ever deploy (this was a very prevelent thought during peace time)-These days its more like "doesn't really deploy". Good at wasting money ("Never have so many done so little with so much") Unable to think outside of the box/on their own. Ass backwards with the way they do things and generally ****ed up like a football-bat. A bunch of homos- all of the time. [ 15. March 2006, 17:58: Message edited by: Zippy ]

Come on man, you can take the trim whore to 4.5 no problem- stop selling yourself short.