viper154

Has to be day vmc & flown under VFR now. Been that way for several months.

Flyin, they custom made the short bus one for me.

Anyone happen to know of a vinyl/print shop in the North West Florida area that does a good helmet wrap? Our local shop shut down, and I’m going to be in the VPS area for a few weeks, was hoping the Elgin/Pcola folks had a go to place with experience. Thanks!

There was a memo sent to commanders. Details are vague/no PDSM yet, but something about a demo program offering up to 50k a year for folks with a UFT ADSC expiring in 23/24/25. After FY 23 you don’t get the full amount if you decide later to sign a bonus. You also get an “assignment of preference” The memo did say a PDSM may be released as early as Jan 23. No details on how long the bonus offerings will be, cutoff dates for when you need to sign to get the full amount, or the definition of “assignment of preference”

With some of the recent change of commands things are expected to and seem to be improving.

Must have been nice. Draco has gone full opposite from that, and honestly most of AFSOC for that matter.

There are 4 U-28 squadrons and the MC-12 at OKC, the initial plan was to transition those aircrew to the new airplane. I would say 60%-70% of those pilots are T-1 dudes. That info is dated though. I’m not a smart man but from what I hear there aren’t a lot of excess 11Fs around to change airplanes and stand up 5 squadrons + school house.

As someone that was informed today they are heading to teach T-6s this winter, what’s the current T-6 IP life like? I’ve heard rumors soul crushing trip turns etc. Also, with the new syllabus, are all IPs still flying/teaching form, or just 11F/T38 trained dudes? Trying to set my expectations, I’ve made the last rank I will likely see, I could care less about OPR bullets or the rack and stack, hoping to add some more IP time to the resume before I GTFO, maybe even teach a thing or two to the youngins.

I’ll be totally honest, I’m probably not the most qualified or knowledgeable to answer that, but all the people that have responded seem to hit the nail on the head.

Well aware, U28 community did not do well on this last major board, well below the rated average.

Ya, you right. Link or screen shot?

I would say f it (the promotion) Focus on flying, they aren’t kicking out passed over pilots anytime soon. Get the upgrade and continue crushing checkrides. Get all that A code time you can for your ATP mins. Do what you got to do to make yourself competitive for the airlines. Depending on the timing you might need to take a regional gig for a year or two. Start networking now for guard/reserve gigs. If you have trouble getting a flying gig you can easily get a non flying job or a staff gig that gets ya that tricare. My buddy got a staff gig, only goes in a couple times a year, only does it for the tricare. If staying on AD is more your gig take the bonus when you are eligible.

It’s still a “flying assignment” So yes, reference all the 11s that in the past were sent to drones. I did 3 years in drones, about 3 years ago when I made my escape back to manned flying the 18x community was trying to get rid of most the 11s and get them back in manned aircraft. I did see Randolph T-6s on our Wings white jet allocations to fill for the Winter 22 VML. Not sure if they were to teach PIT or at the RPA training squadron.

AFSOC over the last 5 years has slowly turned into AMC lite. Talking with my AMC bros I question if AFSOC is actually worse now, maybe not on the checkride front, but just about everything else I’ve seen 4 Q3s the last couple years in my corner, 2 deserved clean kills, 2 were BS punishment. I have seen a couple bone headed things happen that weren’t deliberate negligence, in which the crew made good decisions after to get down safely, they fessed up immediacy and it went way of the public humiliation Friday brief (in my opinion as it should have) so that gives me hope.

I would trade the M9 for a 1911 all day every day.