Dupe

Maybe, if the weapons system involves fused EO and IR sensors, a data link or two, UHF, VHF, FM, and Satcom radios, net-enabled weapons, multiple J-weapons, and LGBs...you just might want an expert in those systems in your trunk. CAS/COIN has changed since the Bird Dog days, so the crew duties and roles have changed as well.

Even when operating entirely within a MOA or other SUA, its relatively common for pointy-nosed aircraft to cause a RA/TA for traffic surrounding the MOA. TCAS simply doesn't deal with the rapidly changing headings, airspeeds, and vertical velocities that pretty much any fighter can generate very well.

If you've got access to the SIBs, read both the SIB and AIB for any particular mishap you're interested in. Its always interesting to see the different conclusions the two boards make. Sometimes, the differences are slight. Other times, the two reports are night and day. Some of the difference is the quality of testimony to the two boards (safety privilige vs lawyers in the room). Probably a much bigger difference is that it is very difficult to conclude *exactly* what happened on a particular mishap. Given mostly the same evidence, there's an entire spectrom of conclusions that can be made about the causes of a mishap. A/SIB reports represent that particular board's best judgement of the the cause of a mishap, but they don't capture well the board's confidence or Pk of their judgement...know that when you read and read critically.

Who will man the Creech school house in 3-4 years? Who will be the "been there...seen that" second assignment flight commanders? Those jobs are what I'd do with a guy with a 10 year commitment and qualified in the most rapidly growing community in the Air Force. What I would not do is allow my experienced folks to leave the community while trying to sustain exponential growth.

Do you really think there will be a follow-on? I know of no human yet who has escaped the graviational pull of Creech. I know one guy who was able to get to a B-52 TX-course following a Pred assignment...but he got pulled mid-way through the course. He is now in his second tour at Creech. The numbers simply aren't in favor of AFPC's follow-on promise at this point.

Remotes and 365s are now a 3 day policy. 72 hours to make one of the most important decisions of your life...awesome.

Here's some Aeroclub facts: -AFI 34-217 is a broad-brush description of what Aeroclubs are. Note that many Air Force safety and maintainance regs also apply to Aeroclubs. -AFMAN 34-232 is the governing document for Aeroclubs and is much more detailed than AFI 34-217. -At least at my Aeroclub, CFIs are not NAF employees like the club manager and chief pilot are. Instead, they're private contractors. -Aeroclubs are required to be part 141 schools -You can use Tuition Assitance to cover any Aeroclub ground school and the Montgomery GI Bill (but NOT post 9/11) to partially pay for training beyond your PPL. -You can use an Aeroclub aircraft for TDY travel. It is sometimes more beneficial for the government to have you and a buddy drop you off and pick you up TDY in a GA airplane than it is for the government to pay SATO for our rediculous full-fare fully refundable airline tickets.

Bigger picture: if CO was only on your PCS W-2 and you're a Texan for every thing else in your life, you likely didn't earn enough on that PCS to be required to file taxes with CO. Look up the filing requirements for CO to decide if you want to go through the asspain of getting an ammended W-2.

Here's some random thoughts- -There are no part 91 IFR take-off mins for GA pilots. -KPAO has an ODP that calls for a turn to the East (over the bay) -The mishap power lines are West of the field.

The other competitor for KC-X doesn't exactly have a sterling reputation for defense contractor ethics.

In the F-15E world, its only really possible to homestead at Seymour because it has the FTU. A pretty typical career for a Seymour homesteader is Ops at Seymour, FTU instructor, short tour/365 while the fam stays in Goldsboro, then return to SJ for another flying assignment. I'd imagine that flow is similar for Bone dudes wanting to stay in Abeline or some AFSOC types wishing to stay at Hurby.

I've loved being a F-15E WSO. However, comparing the F-15E world to AFSOC is like comparing apples to ox carts. Its easier to simply talk to the pros and cons of each and let you decide. Pros: The biggest pro to the F-15E is how the AF has continued to add new technology and upgrades to the platform. The F-15E started as a "one-pass, haul-ass" replacement for the F-111 back in the late 80s, but has since grown to become one of the most versitle fighters in the Air Force. Mother Blue has added one new sensor or weapon to the F-15E once a year since 9/11. As a result, WSOs entering the B-course at Seymour now have to go through a "sensor employment" course before touching or talking about the mighty Strike Eagle. The F-15E can drop most of the munitions in the Air Force's inventory. If your idea of a good time is to train to drive an AGM-130 through the second window on the top floor of the enemy network center, employ 28 small diameter bombs at one time, guiding a laser guided bomb to a motorcycle in the Afghan mountains, or rapidly target insurgent positions using a sniper pod to JDAM coordinate hand-off, then the F-15E is your airframe. Fighters, due to their increased need for complicated maintainance, are limited to deployments no longer than about 5 months. As a result, your deployment schedule is very predictable and pretty much capped at 5 months. There are always other TDYs, but the "pack your bags...you're leaving at 5am tomorrow" phone call is rare at best. Cons: A fighter squadron has much higher expectations of you than the rest of the Air Force. It is pretty much expected that you will work for at least 12 hours a day and work a half day on the weekend. There's no time-clock at the entry to the squadron and nobody tells you when to show or leave other than what's printed on the daily schedule. Still, to be effective in the jet and capable in your non-flying job, you'll really need to give up alot more of your life than others in the Air Force do. The fact that the finance office is only open from 9 to 2 while you managed to be at work from 6am to 8pm will be a never-ending source of frustration in your life. The F-15E only has three bases now: Seymour-Johnson, RAF Lakenheath, and Mountain home. There's no gigs with the guard and the few reserve jobs that exist only exist at Seymour. I saw the few bases availible to me as a con, but the ability to camp out at Seymour for nearly half a career may be a positive for some. Follow-on Assignments: It was mentioned that "Ops-to-ops" assignments were rare in the F-15E. That's true, but in our world, an "Ops-to-Ops" assignment is one where you go from one comabt fighter squadron to another. It is easy to spend an entire career flying if that's your desire. Outside of the line squadrons, instructing at the FTU at Seymour Johnson is a very common second assignment. Others include teaching at P-cola, flying Prowlers, and doing an ALO gig. The needs of the Air Force are changing rapidly, so I'd expect the second assignment picture for dudes of your age group to be very different than it was for those in my age group. I would expect the NSA/U-28/OA-X type asignments to expand for F-15E WSOs as we simply have more and a larger variety of sensor operating experience than our AFSOC counter parts.

Let me make it more clear: The TPS board does not give a flying shit about your MBA. For rated applicants, a MS is "desired" but certainly not required. More than half the dudes in my TPS class (including me) did not have a technical master's degree. For engineers, a technical master's is effectively required to get selected. If you do not genuinely want to go on to the PhD level, then the AFIT-TPS program is a bad deal. It takes you out of flying for two years and gives you a masters on top of the one you'll get from TPS. You will have more work to do at TPS because you will be managing your thesis project on top of every thing else. You'll have to hang around for a few months after TPS to write then defend your thesis. After its all said and done, you will have been out of your airframe for three and a half years then you will return to test the most cutting edge changes to your platform. It will be very difficult for you to have meaningfull input as a tester when you last flew your MDS 3+ years ago.

I just got a slightly more in-depth briefing today on ACSC opening their online Master's program to captains. SOS is required to be complete, but it doesn't matter if its just by correspondence. The first class (beta test, if you will) will have 100 captains randomly selected. Those that don't get picked up on this first round are encouraged to keep applying and they will eventually be enrolled. Applications will be purged at the end of each application period, so keep reapplying. For questions, the ACSC hotline for this program is DSN 493-7902

Air University has opened up one version of it's ACSC online master's program to Captains. Here's the eligibility requirements: Active Duty USAF O-3s who: -Have Total Active Federal Commission Service between 6 and 7 yrs as of application date -Completed SOS -Do not have a masters degree A former squadron member of mine took this course last year and said it was relatively painless and it took him about 15 months to complete. The bonus is that its free so you don't have to dick around with tuition assistance or your GI Bill. The first round of registration closes 9 Dec 09, so act fast! You can find more information here: AU Distance Learning Homepage EDIT: punctuation error

The small one (20 x 12 x 12) fits cleanly through the travel pod door, but its about the same shape and size as many other gym bags on the market. The medium (24 x 15 x 15) and the large (28 x 16 x 16) both require some shoving, but they fit nicely once inside the pod and are easier to lug around than an A3 bag.

For the most part, the leadership positions at the flight test squadron level all the way up through ops group, wing, and center levels are TPS grads. By contrast, program offices are very rarely led by a rated guys. Instead, civilian or military acquisitions professionals traditionally lead those groups. There may not even be a rated guy in the program office, which explains why sometimes the acquisitions officers don't understand our requirements. The AFMC/CC is a Viper pilot (non TPS-grad) while the vice is an acquisitions officer. I think its the right mix for my command. I work with these folks quite often. They are super-smart on how to manage a program and pull all the contractual strings and levers to keep a program on cost, schedule, and performance. However, they are in no way educated on what your particular airframe or system does other than sometimes a quick capes brief. If you ever find yourself in a flight-test position (OT, AFOTEC, DT, etc), going to the requirements and planning meetings is the most valuable thing you can do as a flight tester. Sure, it may be boring as all hell... but it adds the operator's inputs early in a program's life cycle to ensure that you don't get garbage out in the end. There are all kinds of flight test jobs out there, and many don't require any flavor of patch.

Acquisition officers typically don't deploy...especially at her level. Some Lts are going down range, but AFMC is actually somewhat smart about arguing that these people, for the most part, serve no usefull purpose down-range. That's alot more than can be said for most of the dudes stuck at the CAOC. There is a fate worse than combat for an Acq Officer...that fate is Defense Acquisition University classes and continually required Career Learning Points on top of all the other crap that everyone else in the AF has to do. The grass isn't neccessarily greener for Acq Officers....

I'll throw in a opposite opinion just to stir the debate a litte. Some of these changes, much like our most recent BRAC, really are needed. -Britain does not need three bases to train all its fighter pilots. Surely all the Hawks could move to RAF Valley or Leeming to keep fighter pilot production the same while having less infrastructure costs. -It is a 12 mile drive between the two of the largest RAF bases in Scotland (RAF Lossiemouth and Kinloss). Maybe the operations at those two places could be combined. The threat is no longer comming from over the North Sea anyway. -Sadly, the usefullness of the Tornadoes (both the F3s and GR4s) has virtually come to an end. The GR4s do decent work in today's low-intensity conflicts, but the reality is that they are past the end of their tactically usefull life. Thankfully, the RAF has Eurofighters on the way and is quickly replacing its swing-wingers with Typhoons. As is probably true with any super-fighter...the UK isn't buying enough. -Much that is true for the Tornado fleet is also true for the Harrier fleet. Unfortunately, the STOVL F-35 won't arrive on English shores for a few more years. Every RAF dude I've met has been awesome, but I think this plan to trim the RAF may be exactly what the doctor ordered to trim costs while basically retaining the same medium to high intensity combat capability.

There is no time on-station requirement to apply to TPS. I know a couple guys who got an assignment RIP, then found out they got picked up to TPS. They then PCSed to the original projected assignment only to PCS to Edwards shortly thereafter. I also know a guy who got brought back from a Korea ALO tour to start TPS. There was a late-rated guy in my class who had no trouble. There was a pilot with a PhD in my senior class. He also had no trouble. I spoke with the TPS Commandant a year or so ago about how they pick people. Here's the basics: they score you with respect to flying record, officership, and education. Some years, the board values education more than your flying record. Other years, they want IPs and don't care as much about post-undergrad education. As with all things in the AF, luck and timing are key. Like others have said...you'll never know if you don't apply.

If you're a pilot, you already know if you made the fly-off. Engineers and Navs/WSOs/CSOs don't have an interview or a fly-off, but the results will be published at the same time as the future golden-arms are. That list traditionally gets released either right before Christmas or the week after the New Year. Sometimes it takes longer because of food-fights either on AFMC staff or at AFPC.

Simply putting the spent brass in a sand blasting box gives them a nice polish and removes all of the caked in powder. Its not nearly as polished as a chrome fininsh, but it keeps the "authentic brass look." Any metal shop should be able to do it in the $20 / case of beer price range.

Other ideas: -Frame or somehow display his first LGB lanyard (surely he got one at the FTU) Much like sex, that first one may not have been good but it was memorable -A set of "sticks". Esnacko link Someday he'll be briefing a chair. -An arts & crafts kit complete with the following: -string -white-out tape -large eraser -combat plotter (Google "PLU-6C") -Dry erase pens & eraser -Wet erase pens -Good mechanical pencils -Skillcraft pens The F-15E community seems to be the most arts & crafts intensive community out there. The C-model dudes don't know what the hell we're doing. The vipers don't get that complicated. Bomber dudes give mission planning a whole day so they have the perfect computerized products. Strike Eagle bubbas regularly pull a rabbit out of their hats in about two hours of mission planning time. -North Face Base Camp duffel bag This bag is extremely durable, yet fits perfectly in a travel pod.

There are quite a few Home Owner's Associations, covennants, and deed restrictions that restrict the flying of flags. I hate that crap.

I like Dogfish Head's 90 and 120 minute IPAa over virtually every other super-hopped IPA on the market. Unfortunately, the stuff is somewhat over-priced.