SocialD

The inboard spoilers were up, you can see them stow as he starts his turn. Not sure if the outboards were supposed to deploy on the 145. Either way, hate that for the crew. Full video.

Coffee...whole bean if able. Coffee grinder is on my list of essential packing items. Just because we're in a war zone doesn't mean we have to be barbaric on coffee drinking. As far as games, all you need is a deck of cards and 3 other midwesterners who play Euchre.

Range Control Officer. A former squadron mate is doing that after hanging up his G-suit and he couldn't be happier.

CWAS is authorized in the 2903 so your AFE Chief can pound sand. We wear rank on the name tag as above. Winter time is the best because I always wear a beanie and nobody knows what rank I am. Yup, with a beanie cap we are always incognito. I believe the issue is we don't have rank on our name tags. He merely said that it was supposed to be for flight duties, after that it's up to us. In fairness to him, he's a good dude and runs a great shop. Dude always is getting us newer/nicer stuff without prompting and he keeps taking the heat from AD inspectors about them sewing rank on our flight suits. Apparently AFE isn't supposed to do that, which I'm sure is more about giving business to the alterations place on an AD base (which we don't have), than it is about the actual job. The only issue I have with the MASSIF jackets is that our HMCS and CRU-60 harnesses rip up the seems on the arms. This happened with our old flight jackets but the AFE shop was able to sew patches of leather on the sleeves which stopped it.

We don't have rank on ours. I recently heard that our AFE Chief has said we're only suppose to wear them during flight duties (due to no rank), but we wear them all the time and we've never heard a thing. Then again we're a stand alone ANG base, so not too many uniform NAZIs running around...

Between the additional AFTPs taking months to pay out (with no real clarity and jacked up taxes when they do pay), and them not figuring out how to change some 1s to 0s for our updated flight pay, I'm just happy that they're actually paying me (somewhat) correctly. I recently promoted to O5 via PV and was told I wouldn't get back pay, but my DOR is backdated. I'm all ears if someone knows more. Sadly, I'm at the point that another battle just isn't worth the relative pennies I'll get.

Pretty much the only time I ever see the flight doc on our Guard base is for my yearly PHA. The PHA will cover all the essentials (Dental, contact lens program, etc..) and pretty much all you'll need. Profiles will be worked through your local Flt Doc (when there are actually any on base). Everything else is off base with your civilian doc, unless you want to truck it to the nearest military treatment facility. I have a waiver that requires a minor out-patient procedure every 5 years, which is all done through a civilian specialist. If I wanted mil docs to take care of that (for free), I have to option to drive 3 hours to the nearest military treatment facility, but no thanks. I'm a DSG that uses Tricare.

Last year, I met a Reserve Major that was the D.O. of an AD fighter squadron. Might be more common than I think, but it struck me as odd.

In all fairness we can't always blame the "crazy chick"...although the last 4 divorces in my squadron have certainly been met with ridiculous court/lawyer costs due to unreasonable fights/vindictiveness by the wife. As I have an aversion for asking permission to buy stuff with money that I earned or to do things I want to do, I've just come to realize that it's actually me who probably isn't cut out for marriage. I'm certainly not against long term, monogamous relationships, I just don't think that marriage is a necessity for a long/happy relationship. If I ever decide to marry again, it will be with as solid of a prenup as I can buy...and hopefully someone who out earns me lol. My state doesn't recognize common law marriages anymore so that isn't as big an issue with long term partners.

Glad you're finally finishing up with this stuff Duck! The more stories I see/hear about divorce, the closer I get to 99% certainty I will never get married again...I just see no real benefit of it anymore. I feel very fortunate/lucky that my divorce was easy as we didn't have anything together, she was sane and she didn't want anything.

Ya, I can't remember when the change happened, it may have been after your visit. At the most basic level, the issue is we no longer have the ability to log our own UTAs in AROWS. For the average Guardsman who are not pilots and only show up to drill every month, it's not a bid deal. But for us pilots who show up 4-5 days/month and not always on drill weekend, it's a royal pain to log/track. It used to be that I could log in and certify a UTA and that was it. Now I have to log into my email the admin folks when I made up X drill. They then have to go into AROWS and input that card. I then have to log back in and get into AROWS and sign it. Throw in the fact that for the part-timers it seems like every time we log in, we have to wait on some other update or for the email to "connect to the server" (if the network isn't down that day) and/or the admin guy being off work that day...it's often weeks later that you'll finally get back to sign that card.

This is exactly what was echoed by our finance chick. Not surprising, especially since it doesn't impact those who sit up on the staff (sts) or at DFAS. We work for them, they don't work for us... Seriously, thanks for the words. Did they give a reason why we can no longer control our own UTAs? Zero system limitations on this...one day we could could process our own UTAs, the next day we could not. When I could process my own UTAs, I never had a problem getting paid. At the end of the day, the job of the full time force (something I once was) is to ensure the part time force is trained and ready to go when we're needed. When I'm spending one of my limited work days just trying to get paid, they're seriously failing. Honestly, I used to bend over backwards to get the mission done, but when I see them just say fuck it, deal with it...I'm done with throwing them a bone. You're going to make it harder on me, fine...but don't be surprised when I blow a pay card just to get paid, or you see me not make RAP because I spent one the few days you have me, just trying to get paid.

Update: Another gotcha. Once your extra AFTPs are submitted via a CMS case, they can not process additional AFTPs until the previous CMS case is routed AND paid. One of our guys was paid this week for AFTPs that were submitted 1Sep.

It's actually worse than that. Last week I had an extensive talk about this with one of our finance chicks (who is actually damn good at her job). You can't process more than 16/qtr or 48/yr through AROWS. Once you hit those system limits, you have to open a CMS case for these to be paid out. Catch is, these CMS cases can only be processed on the 1st and 15th of the month...you can't make this shit up! You have to use digital 105s because apparently wet signatures are old fashioned and we must now digitally sign everything. We have guys whose AFTPs were submitted in July that still haven't been paid. She also said the part timer flight pay issue is not going to be fixed because they're supposedly rolling out some new pay system in January of 2021. We'll be lucky if that thing is operational by 2025. I've honestly just given up trying to keep track of the flt pay and I just hope they're doing it right. So to recap. - What used to take less than a minute with a pen/105 card, is now a 15-20 minute affair (minimum). That's if the computers are running good AND "the network" isn't down that day. - For some fucking odd reason we can no longer process our own UTA cards. - Additional AFTPs, while nice, have created a fuckton of extra work. - Flight pay is still a rusty coat hanger abortion and will be until Jan of 2021...checks in the mail. - Last week I spent pay cards just to unfuck all my rejected AFTPs. Ha, getting paid to get paid! - In my 18 years in the ANG, damn near every new "advancement," has made life harder on the DSG.

*shrugs...near the coffee pot.

Ah gotya. In the F-16 it's exactly the opposite. I'll calculate an approach speed and QC that it generally matches up, but I'm really only concentrating on holding a particular AOA (via a "staple" in the HUD).

Don't most Air Force aircraft fly AOA?

Nah, you just let your security peeps know all the countries you fly to and roll with your assigned trips. Not a big deal.

It's as inevitable as them wanting more control after a shooting.

Depends how awesome you are if you'll have time. A fellow GA nut classmate and I occasionally hung out at a local airport on the weekend and help build some planes. We became good friends with an IFF sim IP who had a few planes out there. He told us about a stud that took every award in training, AND built half an RV-8 while in UPT 😳! That said, the rest of us normal, non-water walkers didn't have much free time during the week. I will say that it did ease up toward the end of each phase, so you might be able to sneak some time then.

A much better version of the speech.

Crew Resources decides where pilots are needed based on a myriad of reasons (marketing/fleeting/etc...). Every so often the airline will have a bid for guys to move aircraft. Anything that isn't bid by current pilots is left over and then can be offered to new hire classes. After that, it's probably dolled out to newhire classes based mostly on sim availability. Within the class, you get to pick based on class seniority which is decided differently at every airline. At AAL it was based on age. At DAL it was based on your last four...the higher the number, the better.

Lol, just a bit. It's almost like she's been coached in acting (her family is full of actors) and regurgitating what others are telling her to say... Right! They found a perfect combo here, a person you "can't criticize," and parents perfectly willing to let their child be used as a puppet. In fact, I have no doubt her handlers/funders were counting on her being attacked. Her family is set to release a book next year, so I'm guessing her handlers are not the only ones who will be lining their pockets off this publicity. As always, follow the money.

Best deployment...Tallinn, Estonia. Even better if you score it in the summer!

We have a squadron mate who has been dealing with a doozy of a DFAS fuckup from his AD time. They want him to pay nearly 10k for taxes they inappropriately paid for him, which DFAS admits to being their fuckup. They say he needs to pay them back and that he'll just get it back when he files his taxes. He's like fuck off, I'm not coughing up that cash because of your incompetence. The fight has been going for nearly 3 yeas now and he left AD 5+ years ago. I think he's already talked to his congressman, which hasn't done much. I'm not sure if you can file an IG complaint against DFAS, but I would have been there long ago. IDK, where you go next...national new outlets?