HeloDude

Dude, not to be negative, but I think you'll be in for a rude awakening if you hope you can have certain relgious holidays off, etc. I'm a pretty devout Roman Catholic, try to attend mass every weekend, and there have been many times I haven't been able to go due to TDY's, flying on holy days, etc. However it doesn't interfere with my personal relationship with God because I'm not tryping to skip out of anything...it's just that my duty in the Air Force comes before me getting to go to mass. You can always see if your sup or cc will let you trade certain days off for weekends or something like that, but you can't 'expect' them too, especially if you're in a high demand job. At best you can hope for a pass on non-weekend holy days to be off or put in for leave, but that's about it. And it's not just against religious days...I once flew with a guy when I was the scheduler and he would be asked not to fly on certain days when it was his kid's birthday. Now as the scheduler I could maybe help him out, but if I needed him to fly, he was flying. He disagreed once and I told him that unless he was on a pass, on leave, or at a legitimate appointment, if he didn't want to fly, he had to go through the DO. For the meal part, I doubt it will be too hard, but again I've never had to worry about what I could eat (except meat on Fridays during Lent). I used to fly with someone who was a vegan and it didn't seem to be too big of a problem. Maybe I'll ask one of the TCN's at the DVAC here at dinner if they have kosher meals...on second thought, maybe I won't, but if I hear something I'll let you know. As for the girls thing, dude, you do what you have to do. Most people are going to be pretty cool with you, but you'll come across 'that guy' who maybe just jokes with everyone or doesn't know your situation and might poke fun at you. Just be a good sport about it, tell him what your situation is, and there shouldn't be much of a problem. Just know that everyone gives people a little bit of crap for some things...just how we let of steam. The most pressing issue I have with the whole thing is the wanting days off part. The US military is setup primarily around Christianity when it comes to religion and with that, the majoirty of the Air Force works around the Mon-Fri standard work schedule (unless it's 24 hr ops) and everyone is expected to follow that schedule. If you're not going to be able to adjust to that, I'd strongly reconsider your desire to be in the Air Force. A squadron can't be changing things around all the time to help just one guy out. Hope this helps bud, and best of luck in whatever you choose to do.

Isn't there one just outside the Tweet MOA's at Laughlin at like 14,000' that makes the Emeregency Safe Alt for Del Rio some insanely high altitude for that area?

Conversation with a girl I knew about flying N model Huey's Me: We have 2 engines Her: No you don't, you have one Me: No, we have 2 Her: Look up top, there's only one prop thingy' Me: Hmmm, and the other day I could have swore I started 2 engines Or a good airshow conversation: Kid: Does this thing have any guns on it? My friend (while flexing and pointing to her biceps): Just the ones I take on the helicopter with me

Man do I love bombs...especially a splendid pair like those.

There's been talk about replacing the N models for a quite while. I know what has been thrown around here was to replace the N models with the Huey 2's. Unfortunately I'd be willing to bet that the N model will be hanging around for a while for this main reason: They don't deploy, and for what we use them for, they work. As for the discussion of what will replace the 60...I'm thinking the 101 (which would be my first choice for the reasons already noted). In my opinion, if the Air Force was all about purchasing 47's with the idea that they will also be used as a SOF platform, then they would have never moved all the CSAR units back into ACC.

I'm a fan of using 'Mannequin salesman' (borrowed from one of my FE's...thanks James ). When they ask you to explain, just give them a silly mannequin pose. Just be prepared to be able to bullsh*t their questions. For example, once in Destin, I told a girl I was a 'rodeo clown' and she then asked me what circuit I was in. My response "Ummm...the main one'. Needless to say she wasn't too impressed.

Where do I get me one a dem' ?? Ahh, I'm just joking....but seriously...

Let me help you out in understanding how a few things work...it's cool, you're casual and just learning. -On the T-1 side for the drop, you get a list of airframes and bases that are available to ALL of the UPT bases for that specific class. For example, if the drop initially contained a C-21 to Wright Patt, the class at Laughlin might never see it because it got dropped to a guy at Vance in the same class. The 38 guys just list and rank all possible airframes and obviously where you go is determined by where the FTU is located, ie Viper selectees go to Luke for FTU and will get their follow on base from there. As for the the Corpus and Helo side, you pretty much get told what's available in terms of aircraft and bases and you just rank them as such. -As for the timeline at UPT, I'm surprised you haven't figured it out yet if you're casual at a UPT base but here it goes: You track roughly 6 months after starting UPT, drop 3 weeks before graduation, graduate about a year after starting UPT, and as for when arriving at your next base for follow on training...that all depends on what you dropped (ie fighter guys have to go to IFF, FAIP's go to PIT, 135 guys go to Altus, etc), when you can get to those bases for initial qual, as well as when you can come here for Survival, yadda yadda yadda. -As for choosing an assignment, I'd say look at the mission first and foremost. If you love your mission, then you'll be happy regardless of where you get sent because you're truly enjoying what you do. However, if you hate the idea of flying an E-3 but love the idea of living in Oklahoma City, well then you'll only going to be as happy as what you're personal life can give you from living in Oklahoma City, not to mention you'll probably be deployed/TDY most of the time anyway. Also, just because you can get a KC-135 to Mildenhall your first assignment doesn't mean you won't get stuck at Grand Forks your next assignment, something else to consider. Hope this helps you and some of the younger guys out in getting a feel for how things work. Also, don't forget the most important thing...you're going to probably end up loving whatever aircraft you get, so don't sweat it.

All helicopters use flight engineers...and believe me, I'm VERY glad to have them.

Dude, if it's just a laptop, bring it anyway. Nellis had a wireless lobby at their new billeting building...glad to know money is being spent correctly ;) .

Round Metal Object

I've always heard you have 30 seconds to produce an RMO. Go out with your FE's enough times and you'll learn to start carrying it

From what I hear and know about guys getting 'significant' combat time, you have to talk to the AFSOC type guys if you want to get a big picture of what it's like. I'd be willing to bet that hour for hour, they get shot at plenty more often than most fighter guys do. But then again, I'm just a Huey driver, what do I know. [ 25. April 2006, 14:14: Message edited by: HeloDude ]

I'd be cautious about sticking all of my investments/savings in a 'tax option' Roth IRA/TSP. Don't get me wrong, I max out my ROTH every year, however, you do want some liquidable savings let's say for an emegergency, someone in your family needs quick money, etc. I put this portion of my savings in taxable mutual funds and money market accounts. If you have all of your savings in an IRA or in TSP, if you try and make early withdrawls, you pay penalities.

Would they release any of the Herk guys to fly a C-12 assignment when they're so undermanned? (so I hear). There are some overmanned airframes I would think that would be better able to release some pilots to fill C-12 tours. Just my thought.

I remember the first time (and so far only time) I overspeed the rotor on the N model. It was on my second ride during initial qual and my IP said 'Don't worry, there are those who have and those who will'. With high DA, especially at Kirtland, it's not a hard thing to do. And I never met anyone who doesn't crack the throttles, even your most experienced IP's, when flying tac.

I love this logic. So what do the bean counters consider 'necessary sorties'? I technically see that as actual missions (other than training) as well as the minimum amount of training sorties needed to maintain currency. I guess we don't need to be proficient anymore...current will do. As the flight hours as well as manpower are cut throughout the Air Force in the near future, it will be interesting to see if there will be an increase in aircraft mishaps as well.

I left XL in early June of 03' to head to Rucker. There was a time when I was there that we weren't allowed to cross the border and later the wing king made the 0130 curfew...however not many of the students as well as IP's followed it. As for the show, we all heard that had gone away in Boy's Town. Though we still went to Boy's Town to watch their shoe shows.

You can take the long 2+ hour drive to Del Rio and then go party in Acuna across the border. They let just about anyone in their bars as long as they have $$$. Fun times hanging out with the Mexican girls (and we never had any clue how old they were). Hey, it was Del Rio, what the hell else were you going to do? Also I've heard that the border town across from Laredo has a donkey show that's pretty how do we say 'interesting'. Me and my buddies were going to watch one back when we were at XL but were told Acuna got rid of theirs...ahh, good ol' Boy's Town.

Not too sure when/what you're referring to bud. I went through when it was still half Army/Air Force and we never got to do anything like NOE. Maybe the old school Air Force rotor guys got to do it back when they did all their time at Rucker vs flying half of UPT in the Tweet. I wonder how the standards are with the contract IP's now that it's under an Air Force syllabus. I remember that no matter how bad me or the guys in my class flew, they would never hook you. Now flying with the Air Force IP's...that was another story. [ 13. March 2006, 23:33: Message edited by: HeloDude ]

The word is that very few Paves will be given out anymore to Rucker studs...though you'll prob see it on an occassion or two depending on the individual and AFPC needs. As for the CV-22, my guess is you won't see those being dropped out of Rucker for atleast another year if not two. Still waiting to see if the idea of every Rucker guy going to Huey's first is going to take effect in the future or not.

"...Why didn't I take the 'blue' pill??"

They can. One of my IP's out at Kirtland flew C-12's in Pakistan and then came back to the Huey. I've also heard of guys from Andrews switching airframes from the Huey to E-3s, etc though I'm sure that's a rare exception, not the norm. It will be interesting to see what they're going to do with all of us. The Huey communtiy is well overmanned from what I hear from our leadership.

I guess I'll weigh in on this issue since this is the airframe I'm currently in. Hueys are a lot of fun to fly and from what I've heard from people who have flown multiple airframes, pretty tough to fly since we don't have any of the newer systems that the other helos have (it's all hands). Having said all that, the mission is where the Huey lacks. We are the only MWS that does not deploy, ie you can spend your whole career in a UH-1N and never go overseas. Other than the school houses, the only missions for the Hueys are space/missle support, flying DV's around DC or Tokyo, or flying for the survival school and doing civil SAR (I'm biased but by far the best Huey assignment). The leadership here at the survival school (who are all tactical helicopter guys) always tell us to get out of the Huey. They tell us of you want to make rank, have a chance for upper level staff posistions and commands, etc then you need to crossflow to a tactical airframe or another airframe. On another note, a lot of Huey pilots I've spoken to love the flying (flying a helicopter is a blast regardless) and love being home almost every night with their family as well. So basically it all depends on what you want to do. A lot of us in the Huey community are keeping our fingers crossed for a tactical crossflow. Others as I've just mentioned are perfectly content with bouncing around the other Huey bases, never seeing anything overseas or being involved in anything tactical, and being content with the fact that it will be tough to make O-5. Hope some of this helps. A lot of the information the other guys have given is great info as well, not to mention most of them have been in many years longer than I have. I just thought I'd give my $0.02 as well. [ 24. February 2006, 15:35: Message edited by: HeloDude ]

If you want a change from the typical bar scene downtown on Central (though Maloney's is actually pretty decent) try going to Billy's Long Bar north on San Mateo and Horse and Angel (really hot waitresses) that's northeast of the base I think near Montgomery but I could very well be wrong. Those places are pretty cool and the crowd sometimes is a little better than dealing with the typical Albuquerque locals you see downtown.