brabus

There's nothing wrong with putting the throttle to MIL around 285C on an AB takeoff if gear overspeed is in question and you've already gone as high a pitch attitude as your comfortable with (more of a player in IMC). I don't know what the point of your post is, but it's T.O. procedure (and common sense) to take the throttle from AB to MIL after an AB takeoff - there's no reason to be afraid of a stall, etc.

It's not hard to avoid a gear overspeed - increase pitch attitude/reduce power as required. A plan of "raise the gear as soon as I break ground" is not a good plan for overspeed mitigation; sounds like that thought process may be fairly widespread in the Raptor community. This should be something briefed in motherhood to a young guy when an AB takeoff in cooler weather is planned. Also worth bringing up to the squadron at large at a pilot meeting as winter flying approaches.

Culture difference I suppose...I've met a few good dudes who were SEALs, but by and large I much prefer working with the Army and other agencies. They're all good at their jobs, but SEAL-level "shit show" seems to be rarely matched by other teams. The only thing I can think of is it comes back to their culture and what they value/think is OK.

Never heard of a fighter pilot being told the same. I'm sure it has happened, but like I said, that situation (and your's) is not the norm in the CAF...at least not in the fighter world. Some people have bad timing/luck, but I don't believe the majority do. For every shitty "I hate life in the AF" story told, there's a 100 that had a pretty good time overall. I think Viper's last line above nails it - it's not all good, but in the end, totally worth it for the vast majority of us, at least the first 10ish years anyways.

That kind of bullshit (Chida's post) rarely, if ever, happens in the CAF. In my 11 years, I never saw anything that even slightly amounted to the careerist bullshit that all of my MAF bros told me (and I've read on here). Sure there's the occasional CC who's not great at flying and has turned to perfecting queep, but it's minor when compared to the MAF. It seems like the cultural cancer across the street is so bad even the few good bros who make it to CC are unable to affect change. Grassroots guys - stop playing their game and the game will eventually subside (I know, easier said than done).

Dream big is spot on. But I still recommend not passing up AD if that's your best bet to fly (i.e. pushing age while trying to rush guard/reserve units). I'm glad to be in the guard, but I also had a great time on AD for 11 years FWIW.

I've heard that WOM off and on for a few years now. Doesn't seem to be true since I know/have seen tons of guard dudes get hired over the past few years. Take a look at the ARC in general and tell me you don't see a large portion already at the airlines/soon to be on their way. The airlines would be crazy to bypass any qualified pilots nowadays, let alone "highly" qualified mil pilots.

What I have never understood is why preliminary info (when known) can't be released via safety channels ASAP (i.e. within hours or days). There should be a process that enables the local safety guy to release known info in a debrief style so other aircrew can learn immediately. Caveat that info is subject to change based on the ongoing investigation. Bottom line, there are so many accidents that primary contributing factors or even root causes are essentially known within hours, but said info is withheld from everyone for over a month. Not sharing this info immediately for the purpose of preventing similar mishaps in the near future is assinine.

I wonder how much of these supposed allegations were millennials butt hurt over things that didn't even come close to matching a Kunsan Tuesday night. "I didn't feel safe" translates to, "some guys had a couple shots AND a beer, and the CC didn't send them straight to ADAP - leadership failure!" This whole thing still smells like a witch hunt driven by PC leadership.

At least a few years ago Memphis (flight school and DPE) had no issues with overseas part.

I agree with Jice - pick the mission you want to do and don't look back. If I wasn't a fighter pilot, I'd fly helos - they're pretty badass. During the preceding 6 months to my last deployment and throughout the 7 months of my deployment the 60s had zero rescues. That's a good thing in the big picture, but I understand that can be frustrating for the bros. That said, they still flew missions and I had a blast hanging out with them and getting to work with them. They still took small arms fire, so it's not like you go to AFG and never get to do anything...you're still flying a 60 through crazy terrain and doing some shooting. In the end, you never know what the future holds...we could very easily be back to a large scale war where the Army cannot organically handle all of its CASEVAC/PR needs.

The 43rd (FTU) is going to Eglin, but not the 95th (CAF)...or at least that's been the WOM that this PACAF statement gives credence to. I don't know why they wouldn't just put both squadrons at Eglin, even if that meant a slight reduction in sorties. There's a ton of room at Eglin and the airspace factor is unchanged.

Send a bunch of people OCONUS 6900 miles away who have homes they're trying to rebuild - classic AD move.

CAF yes, but at least 12 years ago they were never seen at a 38 stud naming when I was there. Sounds like nothing has changed based on what duck said. And turns out there haven’t really been any major issues that whole time. It’s just a UPT naming and as such isn’t a big deal like a CAF naming - I can see why DO+SQ don’t feel the need to go to one (until now maybe). one asshat shits his pants, 3-4 dudes get their career ruined. That math does not check.

Sounds like a dumbass Capt needed to be removed from his position, given an LOR, and a CC call with the bros on WTF is acceptable and what’s not. That’s where it should have gone. Now, if the DO and up were at the naming and said nothing/let it slide, now I can see firings. Maybe that’s the case, but not what I’ve heard. Bottom line, as a CC I don’t think it would even cross my mind that one of my flt ccs would be so retarded as to name a chick C, and even more so in front of a GO. I wouldn’t be there, would find out about it afterwards, and then do the above. That’s realistic and reasonable. All of these leaders were probably at home playing with their kids when this went down - and because they were unable to telepathically sense what was about to go down in the future, jump in their Delorean, and stop the shenanigans, they got their careers ruined. My only caveat is there could be far more to the story we don’t know about, but firings for the actions of a rogue shithead flt cc alone is bullshit.

Not disagreeing with the overall content/message of your post, but that said I've seen many solid "mission hacking"/never-worn-a-knee-pad dudes have a decent career and command a squadron and a few gone to OG+. It absolutely can be done. You may face an uphill battle if you stay mission focused, but doing so does not inherently close doors. My recommendation to any young guy is put mission first at work, don't neglect your family, and overall just do the right thing. It'll all work out...maybe you become a CC, maybe you fly for Delta after 11 years, maybe you do both in the ARC...it'll all be good no matter how it works out. As soon as you start prioritizing the rat race and neglecting the mission and your family, you're losing.

Seen it fought and lost...you will not be able to retire until the 4 years is served. If you can't stomach 4 more years in the AF, then don't transfer your GI bill.

Remember you don't have to do the next 5 years back to back...another option is get the airline apps going, grab a TR job/fly for airline X for a bit, then go on 5 years orders to finish out your 20 while airline seniority climbs. It probably will be easier to grab a TR job than an AGR right out the gate, but every unit is different. Fuck ART, no point in doing that since you already know AD retirement and GTFO of the AF is your goal.

22 is an inaccurate number. Turns out open source media is full of shit about 99% of the time, yet somehow we continue to believe a lot of what we read in the news. Not to say the discussion is invalid about how we fucked ourselves years ago by only buying 187.

Consider the extra time, money, and depot absorption limfacs to push normal phase externally. Unlikely to be a palatable Plan A. The most cost effective and efficient way forward is likely in the realm of building HAS with weather driving the design (as lawman pointed).

The guard and reserve do plenty of fighting, not sure where this idea keeps popping up that AD is the only way to "get into the fight." I know several AD Lt Cols who have never been to war...shitty timing, nothing they could do about it. I don't think this desire should steer you one direction or another...luck and timing will play out whether you're on AD or in the ARC.

The best advice I ever received on AD was from a SQ/CC who is a great dude, pilot, and officer...he was also a HPO on the rocket ship, and he got there without wearing a single knee pad or being anyone's bitch boy. He is the type of person who the AF should promote to senior leadership, so they got it right at least once. That all said, here he sat as a HPO SQ/CC with a "bright" future (and he has gone on to do great things), telling me I hit a fork in the road at my UPT commitment. He painted his career path so far, then what it could be in the guard. He then unequivocally told me I should without a doubt get off the train at that stop and not be "trapped" into said track like he was. Best decision I ever made, and I'm thankful every day he gave me that talk early enough that I hadn't made any decisions yet that may have hurt my ARC options. Bottom line, when a dude like that is saying these things, you're only hurting yourself by not listening...and this was 5 years ago, things have mostly gone downhill since.

VLPAD has opened up a lot of options (likely what Evil was referencing with the 3 yr Kadena assignment). I've seen multiple Viper guys stand their ground and get exactly what they wanted with AFPC - location they want with caveats in their favor (i.e. no non-vol deployments). As long as that program or variations exist, there will be good options to do a lot of 3 year assignments elsewhere if one chooses to do so. You also have an option to do operational test later on if you're looking for a few years change of pace (and you're the right guy for the job).

For starters, Draken's L-159 is better than a Viper in a few ways (and way better than a T-X). At a very basic level, an ADAIR jet without a good radar has limited effectiveness. ADAIR companies are already putting together 4th gen fighters with radar, datalink, EA suites. They will do it cheaper/more effective than the government could ever dream to do. Again, I think the government itself will be very limited in providing good ADAIR support until the LVC concept is actually useful (and that's a long time from now).

There's far more to adversary rep than a nice EA pod. You can't make good threat rep with just a pod - it takes several more components. And that's why the T-X in it's current state is not a great ADAIR platform. Perhaps contract ADAIR is the only good solution until solid LVC training is reality.