Baseops.Net
-
Posts
384 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
1
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Gallery
Blogs
Downloads
Wiki
Posts posted by Baseops.Net
-
-
Don't forget to also get the LINER option for your jacket - it is a zip-in liner that adds insulation to the jacket for winter ops... makes the leather jacket a whole lot warmer!
BTW, if you go to Pops, let 'em know, BASEOPS.NET sent you!
-
A while back I saw a Description of the AETC patch posted somewhere - it was like a legend of the colors of the patch:
i.e. - Blue = the sky that we DON'T fly combat in
Yellow = for the stripe that runs down our back
etc...
Anyone remember the rest of that one?
-
A couple of things to add:
I concur - a Headlamp light comes in handy - keeps your hands free (LED if possible).
Also, a couple of caribiners (locking d-rings) are excellent to latch on your gear to your pack.
Lastly, I concur - splurge and buy yourself a couple of those $15-a-pair of socks (i.e. SmartWool, Wigwam, etc.) - they make a HUGE difference out in the woods!
-
Awww come on guys,
How's about using the good ole Baseops.net pilot shop -- http://www.baseops.net/marketplace/pilotsupplies/
[gratuitous website promotion]
:D
note: I am not going to flood the forum 5000 times with this URL...
-
flyinjunky - that was an excellent, lucid, and well thought out statement - kudos!
I just spent the last several nights trying to prune/trim/release portions of this site to meet my more than 200% breach of my memory limit. Finally, I am back in the good graces of my webhost!
The biggest reason I close topics (the other moderators can close them as well...) is when the value of the thread has diminished to near zero. That may be a subjective metric, however, that is the direction that I would like this forum to take.
When there ends up being a bunch of senseless nonsense is when users start leaving and going elsewhere.
-
Linda,
your post made me reminisce about my TWO TIMES that I broke down in Kef - each for over a week, each time checking in and out of billeting over and over and over (waiting for those hard-to-come-by E-model parts!)
One of the times I broke there was in the dead of winter and I did not even have a jacket (we were returning from Saudi) - I remember trudging through that large open field between baseops and billetting - running through thigh-high snow to stay warm (no crew bus to be had).
I ate ten or eleven straight meals at that Wendy's - never wanted to eat at Wendy's again!
Last thing I remember was coming out to the plane - which we had chained down - and seeing it bouncing up and down clear off of its nose tire in the heavy, steady, 50-knot (surface) winds that had shifted to 90-degrees off of the nose.
Does it still take about 2 hours each time to check into their crappy billeting?
Good to see that nothing changes!
-
ACES,
It is NOT possible to hijack this site's flight planning resources. Why? Well, for the official resources: NOTAMS, ASRs, FCG, METAR, TAF, etc... I simply provide a link to the official (government) site - i.e. the DOD NOTAMS website.
All of those sites are at least 128-bit SSL encrypted (but allow access outside of their firewall). Even if you were on base, you navigate to these sites by going outside of your firewall, then back in (as if you were at home).
So, in short, for a large part of the homepage of baseops.net -- all I did was provide a (current) directory of external links to mostly official websites for flight planning purposes. Additionally, for security purposes (having designed several DOD and AF.MIL websites myself), I kept such things as cookies and javascripts, frames etc. to a minimum (monkeyplan uses frames).
What bothered me wasn't that there were individuals out there with questions regarding the site and/or its security -- what I considered insulting was the acrimonious and vindictive way in which the matter was pursued. I think that any of us that have spent any significant time in the military can recognize when authoritative figures are taking it "over the top" in trying to quell a good idea from an innovative volunteer such as myself.
'nuff said.
-
1
-
-
I was approached by AMC - and volunteered to buid AMC their own website (last year). Instead they decided to hire an independed computer firm for probably hundreds of thousands of dollars to create a subpar product (designed by non-pilots).
Anyways, the AMC Portal is of the typical LOW QUALITY that defines AMC... (no hard feelings). You also can't hit it from outside the firewall (unless they fixed that).
Overall bust with lots of taxpayers dollars going to the contractor instead of buying more spare parts for our planes.
SHEESH!
----------HERE IS WHAT HAPPENED------------
Approx 1 year ago, a Gen at 15th AF decided to go for his once-a-month flight. So, naturally, he stepped with his crew (KC10, I think) to baseops to do some flight planning - they went to www.baseops.net and checked NOTAMS, ASRs, etc... then they went and flew their sortie. Never having seen this website before, the Gen. certainly was interested. However, instead of simply asking the IP what was the nature of the website, etc. the Gen. waited until after the sortie to ask his staff about it.
Well, in their naturally pragmatic-staff-way, the staff (Col.) started a huge email chain (I have a copy of the enite message) essentially starting a Spanish Inquisition regarding the baseops.net website. Of course the easiest avenue would be to simply contact ME the webmaster, but instead vitriolic emails were sent out by numerous persons that knew very little about how the internet works and even less about how to perform flight planning on the internet.
In the end, the email chain - vouched for by numerous O-6s and below, blasted anyone that used non-official (non-dot-mil) websites to do ANY sort of flightplanning, and went on (in an insulting way) to actually claim that such websites could be terrorists posting false and detrimental information on the internet for us silly pilots to use. I am not going to go into the details on how this theory is flawed.
The end result was a long chain of YES-MEN emails to the tune of:
"yessir, I can't believe that any USAF Warriors would use that website to flightplan!"
"sir-yes-sir, that website could be hijacked by terrorists giving us the wrong NOTAMS and ASR information"
etc. etc. etc.
After all that, an AMC-wide FCIF resulted (see post above).
Of course, I spent ample time 'negotiating' with 15th AF/STANEVAL to work out this situation. In the end, AMC flushed their toilet and out the pipe came their "AMC Portal" website.
Questions?
[ 25. September 2004, 17:41: Message edited by: Baseops.Net ]
-
sorry - the censor filter was set too tight.
**** is censored.
however, cockpit should go through now!
-
Whether it's a PCS or enroute TDY depends on how your unit back home wants to pay for it. They will cut your orders and they own you once you graduate. Best thing is to call back to your ANG/AFRES unit (orderly room) and find out.
Either way, your unit pays for the PCS - to include the packers packing up your belongings and shipping them BACK to your home station (home unit).
Hope that this helps.
-
When is that change of command again?
- I am kind of busy wakeboarding down here!
-
Fellas,
Thanks for the kind support - it's times like these that make me just grin and laugh!
I would send y'all free subscriptions to this forum.... but it's already free!
-
You will wear blues for a very short time in Phase One - once everyone gets issued their flightsuits, and gets patches, etc. you should move to flightsuits.
As far as BDUs - you may (if you want to) wear BDUs during your egress/parachute training, survival school, etc... Most guys do prefer to wear BDUs for such events as your flightsuits will get TORN UP (you only get issued 3)...
After Winging, you decide when you want to wear your BDUs - what I mean is you can wear flightsuits as your duty uniform but sometimes it will be more practical/comfortable to wear BDUs - various ground duties in the desert (you can remove your BDU Blouse to stay cool)... etc. I wished I had brought my BDUs to Germany (in the summertime) because the damn bunker was so freaking hot (Germans don't have Air Conditioning)...
-
NAS Corpus X-Countries:
--Fly anywhere CONUS, From Seattle to Maine to San Diego to Key West... and even sometimes you can go to Canada!
--Land and/or refuel wherever you want, Mil, Civ, Unicom, whatever... (gov fuel required).
--IPs can fly them as many times a month/quarter/year as they want (i.e. everysingle weekend like some guys do)
--Fly out Friday, NO FLY Sat, Return Sun night. If you plan early enough you can even scuba dive on Sat and still meet the 24-hour rule for Sunday!
--5000'x100' is all you need.
--Stay on OR off-base - simply meet perdiem rates and you are full-reimbursed for lodging + meals.
Overall the absolute BEST X-Country policy in the military.
-
C17Wannabe,
Don't take the flak personally, think of it as constructive criticism. My posts, specifically, were not to target you, but were meant as advice for all those on their way to UPT. The specificity of my posts pertains to the fact that COMMS is a current "trend item" at UPT right now - and I am trying to beat it out of the studs! I add my personal 2cents for the multi-piloted guys because poor COMMS goes hand in hand with poor CRM in the cockpit.
Not to beat the already dead-and-bleeding-horse... Personally, I consider "REACHXXX, LEVEL 250" to actually be more abbreviated and concise than "REACHXXX IS WITH YOU AT 250"
Anyways, good luck in your endeavors and keep a good attitude.
-
One thing to note,
Most of our discussion has been based around CONUS flying (albeit some congested Class-B airspace...), however, one needs to give serious consideration to Comm habits when flying overseas.
Most likely every pilot will be flying overseas at some point in time - more than likely in the Desert. For those unfamiliar, let me tell you that slang, abreviations, "corporate pilot lingo", etc. won't work. You will probably simply get ignored or penalized (i.e. go direct to Rudesheim and hold).
As far as the controllers in the SWA, other than the UAE guys, there is a serious language barrier. Not to mention the differences in ICAO verbage (dependent on theater) and FAA verbage - for example: "Line Up and Wait" = "In Position and Hold"... Start your good habits early with strict radio discipline - those same Comm habits translate to formation / operational radios too (i.e. interplane, AWACS, drop zone, CCT, etc.)
So, the moral of the story is take seriously what your text books and IPs teach you and remind yourself that there is a whole lot of flying out there beyond UPT...
-
Thanks to valuable contribution from a loyal member, I have added a new ENJJPT section to the Military Pilot pages - due to popular demand and frequent ENJJPT questions.
Please critique these pages for me and let me know what y'all think.
HAPPY FLYING,
BASEOPS.net
-
None of that stuff is considered appropriate in the Air Force - specifically Pilot Training.
Abreviations are frowned upon. We like the good ole formal, disciplined radios. Emphasis items are students not reading back instructions, clearances, simply responding ROGER or COPY (to instructions)... Pilot Training will have its own pet peeves and radios is probably one of them. Avoid slang, speak clear and concise, and for the 923993th time, READ BACK CLEARANCES! (sorry, day by day by day by day, I have to tell the studs this...)
-
Having also sat on both sides of this, let me give add to what Toro had to say.
-As a student, don't dwell too much or stress yourself out on this process - concentrate on what you have control over - your own performance. What I mean is stuff outside of the cockpit. It's all common sense, but to reiterate: have a good attitude- be positive no IPs are going to put up with a bad attitude or a whiner. Also, be a BIG team player - help out your flight, pass on the gouge, help the weaker guys, etc. Lastly, put out a BIG effort - never, ever, let it seem that you did not give over 100% whether it be for a test, flight, additional duty, snacko, whatever - what I mean is that perception is everything -- you do not want to be perceived as the guy that doesn't give a crap or that puts in minimal effort... I know this sounds trite, but it is dead on accurate.
I have seen the whole spectrum of "bad attitudes" as a student and IP -- complaining about being behind (i.e. not flying); whining about the leave policy; backstabbing classmates in order to beat them; disrespectful / unofficerlike; late for class/flights; the list goes on and on. Hope this proves helpful...
-
1
-
-
Just to add - I have a section about life in UPT - typical day - and life on a UPT base --> please check out that page for additional info.
-
Iowapilot - it is true that the USAF will pay for your PPL, but that is AFTER you get selected for UPT. There is this new program called IFT (Intro Flight Training) that pays for your PPL after you get commissioned, but prior to you going to pilot training.
I agree with Tiger - choose your major based on what you want to study and what you will get out of it. With that in mind, the USAF used to have an affinity for technical majors for pilot selection, but that has diminished in the last 10 years or so.
As far as the PPL, too many guys on this board seem to be only concerned with whatever it takes to simply get selected to UPT - but not what will help them prepare for and actually complete the program (approx. 15% washout rate). There is no doubt that prior flight time will help out tremendously in UPT. It is a zero-hour program (as I proved when I went through pilot training with zero civilian time), but a good foundation in civilian flying (i.e. basic aero, landing picture, basic flight maneuvers) pays off tremendously.
Generally speaking, from the student pilots that I train, the ones with more flight time will perform better. Obviously, there is still the anomaly in that there are high-timers that washout of the program, but flight time helps - there is no doubt there.
Your flight experience plays a much larger role in ANG/AFRES selection as stated above.
Bottom line, if you can afford flight time, get it - even if you may only be able to get a few hours.
-
Ladies and Gentlemen,
First, I would like to say thanks to all ardent supporters of Baseops.Net, and to all the loyal customers of this site. I do appreciate everyone's concerns regarding the "AMC BAN" on Baseops, however, it does seem that several people listed in the email were inundated with phone calls, emails, complaints, and possibly death threats. Since then, the email and message threads have been removed. I do hope that the recipients of those emails, etc., understand that they were the result of our overzealous supporters fearing that Baseops.Net was being banned. This was not meant to be an attack on those individuals.
Baseops.Net is however, trying to come up with a good solution to continue to allow this website to help over 12,000 aviators a day plan their mission. We are in contact with AMC at this time. We will keep you updated with the latest information. At this time, I leave you with the latest AMC message (distributed in some locations as FCIF). As always, fly safe.
----attached AMC message-----
:mad: THIS MESSAGE IS APPROVED FOR RELEASE BY USAF, HQ AMC/DOV.
SUBJECT: USE OF COMMERCIAL MISSION PLANNING WEBSITES
1. THIS IS A HQ AMC/DOV FCIF 02-12-17, IT APPLIES TO ALL AMC AND AMC GAINED CREWS. OTHERS TAKE FOR INFO ONLY. PLACE IN FCIF VOL 1, PART "B" AND RETAIN FOR 60 DAYS.
2. THE USE OF COMMERCIAL MISSION PLANNING WEBSITES (EG. BASEOPS.NET, MONKEYPLAN.COM) FOR OFFICIAL MISSION PLANNING IS PROHIBITED. THESE SITES ARE NOT REGULATED/PROTECTED AND MAY CONTAIN OUTDATED INFORMATION (PERHAPS MADE SLIGHTLY INCORRECT BY PEOPLE WHO INTEND TO DO US HARM). AMC AND AMC GAINED AIRCREWS ARE WARNED THAT USING THESE UNOFFICIAL WEBSITES COULD RESULT IN INACCURATE PLANNING AND IS POTENTIALLY DANGEROUS. DO NOT (REPEAT) NOT, USE THEM.
[ 26. September 2004, 10:02: Message edited by: Baseops.Net ]
AF Acronyms
in General Discussion
Posted
Hello,
I see a fair amount of questions regarding the acronyms of the military aviation / USAF. I thought it might be worthwhile to conglomerate such acronyms in one concise section (a glossary, if you will...) Us old heads tend to talk like an alphabet soup, but I think the newbies can get lost in the mix... I know there are other glossaries out there, but this one could be aviation specific (unique).
i.e. JSUPT, MAJCOM, AETC, SIE, HOOK, IP, EP
Do you think this would be of use to the new guys, etc.? If not, let me know as well.
If so, please start adding to this thread with the acronyms / slang that you would like to see included - and I will add them as soon as I get some time (include the term as well as the definition). Please stick to USAF / military aviation terms and avoid the spam. Thanks in advance!