tac airlifter

was in the USO at HOU yesterday and was unimpressed. Don't get me wrong, the poeple were great and took good care of their facilities; but for an airport the size of HOU I was suprised at how small the USO was. Basically the size of a one bedroom apartment, although it did have a nice selection of kids books for my 3 year old.

I'm not sure I understand what your post has to do with what I sad. After a long sentence in the dungeon of the sqadron training shop I am well aquainted with the shenanigins of the MPD program. What you may not fully appreciate is that at the Ops squadrons, these guys are not being allowed to fly L seat at all without an IP, even though they are fully qualed to do so. The FPH vs FPQ thing really is not relevant; right now the burden of upgrades falls on us, not the schoolhouse. Most of us are still totally befuddled by the program. But the bottom line is that we aren't saving money, we are just flying less. So what's the point?

I think the term "savings" is a little deceptive for how this program actually works. The "savings" according to AMC is that we no longer need a schoolhouse dedicated to upgrading these guys, right? But instead we take away our local training lines at the Ops level to have dedicated 'AC upgrade lines.' The net effect is less training going on at the unit, because the unit is shouldering the burden of upgrading these guys in addition to our regular training duties. So where is the savings? We still fly the same number of lines since AMC is not providing more tails, and instead of having a schoolhouse where these guys go we have a local line dedicated to them... at the expense of a local line that would have gone to our proficeincy training. I understand that money is saved, but it is saved by not flying our regular flights. So to paraphrase, AMC is saving money by flying less. There is nothing magic about the training program that inherently makes upgrades cheaper, AMC is just throwing this onto the Ops squadrons and telling us that we'll get even less regular training since we now have to give up local sorties for these guys. This whole program is "do more with less" and it's that simple. I was an old school copilot and there are things about the MPD program I like. They do three engine stuff and no-flap and we weren't allowed to. That is an improvement. But the truth is there is no reason at all why they should be in the left seat until it's time to be an AC. At my squadron, these guys can barely keep their L seat landing currency because we don't let them fly L seat without an IP anyway.. so whats the point?

Just thought I would provide an update. I went into Leadville with a herc yesterday and it was pretty badass. I highly reccommend anyone who is off station and looking for a challenging approach to stop in.

thanks for the replies. I'll let you guys know how it went.

Thread revival. I'm attending the day/night course with an H3 in early March and am looking for feedback from crews who have been. I've already been to their website and this is the only thread that came up in the search function (and I assume that when this was written no one had yet attended the exact course I am going to since there is nothing substantial here about it). So, does anyone have any feedback on the new day/night course or any good stories or any clue of what I can expect? Anything in particular I should look over before attending? The schedule says to expect a 3-3 test our first day. One last thing. None of the information I have seen on the website lists a weather backup in Ft. Hauchucha, but weather.com tells me that the ceilings there can drop during these months. So, has anyone had weather problems there? Do they fly any SKE in that case or just cancel the day? Thanks in advance.

Where is my bad logic? The original question was "Two aircraft, one heavier than the other, descending at the same airspeed. Which aircraft will have the greater VVI and why?" The answer to the OP's question is the lighter aircraft will have the higher VVI. Although I could guess, the truth is I don't know why.

In your hypothetical situation, the lighter aircraft will have the higher VVI. Look at penetration decent tab data, you'll find that a 105K C-130 takes less distance to lose the same amount of altitude as a 150K C-130 if they both maintain the same airspeed (250KIAS). The only way to lose equal amounts of altitude at the same speed in different distances is if one aircraft is losing more altitude per unit of time.

Thanks, that was just the kind of information I was looking for. We're taking a slick herc, and it turns out one of the FE's from my squadron has been there before as well, so I think all my questions will be answered.

Leadville, Colorado has the highest field elevation in the United States and the third highest in the world. It sits at 9927' MSL. I am thinking of taking an OST (off station trainer) there in mid march. I am curious if anyone here has been to the airfeild. I tried a search but turned up nothing. The webiste for the airport has some interesting info, but I'm looking for firsthand military experience. Thanks!

I guess I'm to ######ing lazy and stupid then, since about 25% of my travel vouchers on DTS are screwed up for some reason.

DTS is a mess. Has anyone ever had any training on it at your squadron or do you all just figure it out along the way like I do? Right now I am sitting on a 2 month overdue bill for my GTC because the DTS guys won't pay me for a TDY. We spent 24 hours in a hotel in Reno, and they should have charged us for 2 nights. But. being the friendly folk they were at the El Dorado, they decided to only charge us for one night. Now the airmen who approves my DTS TDY won't pay me; why you ask? Well, I only have a reciept for one night in Reno, but my voucher indicates I spent 2 nights there. I tell the guy we were only charged for one night, thus I only have one reciept (although reciept does show i stayed 2 nights). The airmen tells me he cannot process any of my voucher unless I am charged for that night and have a reciept. So now we're in a stalemate, I can't get a reciept for something I wasn't charged for and he can't process my voucher unless I paid for something I didnt pay for. To top it off, he only works 2 hours twice a week for my squadron, so I have to be available in that tiny window of time; which is incidentally when all the staff meetings are scheduled for.

he asked and i think he supports me (but he is new and doesn't really know any of us). he said i should ask again and i probably will since it is what i really want. but i don't know if i will be beating my head against a wall and never allowed to leave. i see guys leave and do other things, so i just don't understand what "not releasable" means. i am asking if that is a blanket statement and if i really try they'll let me go, or if those are magic words that lock me in place. i don't understand the system or the process.

what exactly does AFPC mean when they say I cannot be released? do they mean I can never leave my current airframe, or that right now I can't leave the airframe and i should ask again later? I have another unit that i want to go to and they want me, and despite having 3.5 years time on station, AFPC won't let me go. so i don't know if i should try again, or if this is a permanent thing; anyone else face a similar situation?

wow, that is one of the most absurd things i have ever heard. fake military pictures for folks at the deid? as bad as some of the other spots are in the AOR, i do believe you'd get you ass kicked for doing that around the army.

with 4 deployments to balad i have several ridiculous sky cop stories. but that article reminded me about the amnesty boxes all over balad and i thought of a funny story. one night we peeked inside a big box in H6 and saw all kinds of goodies, porn, booze and a ton of 9mm rounds and even a dildo. i'm totally serious. well my loadmaster had been getting into building stuff in the woodshop to pass the time, and after looking at all the fun stuff in the amnesty box he said "i'm going to build my own box and people will start bringing all the contraband to ME!" well sure enough he built his own box, and after a few days people would start leaving stuff in it. he mostly got trash or rifle rounds, i think he was going to empty it when someone deposited porn. after a week or so of watching the box everyday and giggling at the pure genius of the idea we came home from a flight and it was gone. i guess the man found it and took it away. there was a small scandal on base while they tried to find who built the box and a flurry of emails to '332AEW all' threatening all types of punishment if the culprit was caught. in the end we left without incident but building your own amnesty box still ranks as one of the best ideas from this war, in my opinion.

"I wonder if I will have the balls to get out before I become one of the morons. If I stay in, I will become one of the marginalized, burned-out field graders that is just there for the paycheck, or one of the morons who supports crap like this. Is it possible to be anything else?" thats the best question yet. i dont know what the answer is, ask me again in a few years.

the one washout story from my training days worth telling was our class leader at corpus. he goes out drinking with some of the guys, gets totally shit faced so they decide to take him home. so they take him back to the apartments (we all lived in the same building) and leave him on the floor of one guys apartment with his keys on the table in front of him; the logic being when he wakes up, he'll have his keys right in front of him to go sleep the rest off in his own apartment. sounds fine right? well they get back when the night is over and this guy is gone and his car is gone from out front. oh shit, where did he go? multiple calls to his cell phone were not returned. maybe the guys should have done something else, but they were also drunk so they figured "we'll just let him sort it out and see him in class tomorrow (it was sunday)." so the story picks up the next morning while we are in academics (remember that gay 5 day class they used to have on PFPS?) sitting around waiting to start. the class leader walks in and informs us that he is washing out of training and also being forced to leave the AF. he said the last thing he remembered about the night was being dragged in the door of our friends apartment, and then he blacks out while they are covering him with a blanket. an unknown amount of time passes and he wakes up at the controls of his car with the guard at the front gate of corpus NAS shining a light in his eyes. so this guy drove around for who knows how long while totally unconscious and for whatever reason his brain decided to go on base. keep in mind they were out on the island, so thats a significant drive while blacked out drunk. i felt bad for the guy. i don't know how they forced him out, whether he was dishonoably discharged or if they did some drug deal thing to force him out. either way his dreams went down the crapper and that is sad. but if ever someone brought it on themselves, that was it.

holy crap, is that girl for real? how do you know she washed out?

dude, we were just doing the VOR A at LIT thursday in the weather. my co had never done it, and i warned him "man this comes pretty fast if you circle south to 4R, you need to decend at 2000fpm and immediatly turn left to 220 within 1.7 then perch immediatly after that." we did a total of 3 go arounds because he couldn't align himself fast enough. finally his EFI displaying his HSI went tits up so we called it quits.

we did complain and were told that the inprocessing push for transiets is being made by the qataris themselves, so there is nothing we can do. apparently they get more money the more people inprocess. same thing with the flight plans, qatar is requiring the refile in person, not the USAF.

funny that you mention that fozzy bear, i also found out the hard way they changed the rule in august while transient there. we used to show up on the ramp, offload our cargo and send some guys to the grab and go (great concept, by the way) to get food for the crew. we found out that you can no longer leave the ramp if you are transiet unless you first inprocess with persco there and go through the whole briefing. you know our ground times there are fragged for 1+30, so after the obligatory reconfig there really isnt time to do that. so i say to my guys, lets just get out of here and hurry back so we can make dinner at balad (no 24 hour chow halls there) only to be told holding short that they cannot process our ifr clearance and we have to taxi back and refile in person. 2 things here of importance: first is that they could have easily put this info in the NOTAMs or ATIS so we dont waste all that time. second and more importantly, guess where baseops is located? outside the designated ramp area, which means my nav had to deplane and go inprocess at persco in order to be allowed off the ramp area to flie our flight plan. the worst part of the goat rope is that AMD fragged us for a 90 minute ground time knowing it would take well over 90 minutes and then gave me shit for having to cancel a leg because the deid soaked up so much of the crew day. since we're all limited to the 12 hour tac day at balad, there is a lot of pressure to take the waiver to extend the duty day to complete misisons that AMD fragged improperly. luckily the leadership at balad does in fact provide top cover for us in these situations. still sucks that my guys get no food in the morning because the chow hall is closed when we alert, no food enroute because the grab and go requires inprocessing which we dont have time to do, and then no food when we land because, you guessed it, everything is closed again (there are flight lunches available at balad, but we could open a whole new thread about that bag of shit). oh, and if you are transient and you feel the call of nature, you guessed it, you have to inprocess to use the portapottie just off the ramp. i just looked the other way while my loads left a stanley steamer where we were parked. so if you're walking on the ramp at the deid and you think you might have stepped in shit.... you probably did.

everyone i know carries a knife while flying, although i have never used mine for anything. a leatherman and a flashlight is all you will really need for hercs, in my opinion.

new guys should want to deploy. this is what we all volunteered to do, if they are already looking for a way to stall before even having any combat time, they probably should not be doing this.

never been stationed at the deid but foolish people make their way onto every air base in the AOR. a few months ago i was walking to chow with my crew in balad, and a SUV rolls up on us and we hear a whistle. it was a first shirt from the fighter squadron trying to get my engineers attention. well i walk over there with him, and this guy says "hey airman (to my eng) i dont think the reflective air force logo on the back of your PT gear is as reflective as everyone elses. did you buy counterfit pt gear?" its one of the stupidest things i have ever heard. long story short, being the AC i had to handle this guy before my eng said something to aggrivate the situation. what the shirt wanted was for us to call little rock clothing sales (where the offending uniform was purchased) and ask the manager to be sure they are only purchasing pt gear from an approved seller. needless to say i responded "ok shirt, we'll handle it" and walked away. people don't complain about long days and hot ass sun, mortars and not having enough food. people complain about having to deal with bullshit like this.