viper154

Most of us that spent time manned flying are bitter because we were non vol to the RPA gig and miss our manned job. A lot of the guys that only know RPA flying enjoy it quite a bit more than us prior manned guys. You cant beat the mission and outside job opportunities once you have a qual are rather lucrative, $1800 a day lucrative. The guard/reserve schedule is also much less soul crushing.

No, we all still have 6-8 years left on our commitments depending on timing. UPT-D dudes got non vol to drones, did 2-3 years in drones and now all have to go back manned, some guys wanted to stay in drones for whatever reason, and were told no and are now being non vol back to manned. Im not one of those who wants to stay, but we are all about at that point we are getting upgrades to instructor and experienced in the community. No one really wanted to go drones, most of us tried are best and had good attitudes , I can’t immagine getting non vol to community, end up liking it and do really well, just to get non vol back to be a basic co pilot at square one. What are yalls opionions on the new my vector site? Us UPT-D guys are basically doing a FAIP drop to determine our futures, curious how this new system is being used.

It was a real kick in the nuts to wait almost 2 years after commissioning to start UPT, 2 weeks before assignment night to get told 2 of your 7 AD T-1s are going drones, spend more than a year in the drone pipeline, (I’ve been praying for the day to get back to a jet) but they are kicking us all out now. AFPC denied waivers for the UPT-D dudes that wanted to recat and stay drones. The gross mismanagement of people was very much apparent to me before I was even on active duty. UPT was a shimmer of hope, I loved flying almost everyday and raging with the bros. Now a mid level Capt, every time I see a step forward soon after there are two steps back.

Mainly property crimes, several bros have had there cars/houses broken into. There was a rash of spouses being harassed in town last year (creepy dude/s asking them to get into cars). The new on base housing is a good option if you are worried about crime, that also has it’s downfalls IE the company running it are sticklers when you move out. Wife did the stay at home thing with the kids, which was good. The area is deff not the best, but like anything else, if you try to do things and make the best of the situation it’s not horrible. That being said I’m looking forward to my up coming PCS. I wouldn’t let location turn you away from a MDS. Only caveat is for AC-W Navs/CSOs. They seem to be stuck much longer than other aircrew.

I have a “Make Africa Great Again” shirt with a Reaper on the back. It gets some amazingly awkward looks

I was rather disappointed the 27th didn’t follow, talking with the wing king last year it seemed he was all about eliminating queep, I figured we would do the same as the 1 SOW.

I was wrong, deleted my post, haven’t had my morning coffee yet, ran upstairs and checked. Right side is flag and command patch, left side is squadron patch.

It will be a shit show. Especially with all the AFSOC/COCOM sups that already out there. AFSOC is starting transitioning to coyote, going to be pissed if my new boots are out of regs. My AFSOC unit lets us choose what uniform you want to wear, hopefully the Air Force does the same, depending on my mood, how big my beer/pizza hut is, and what I’m doing that day having the choice is nice.

We just had two bros get T-6 and T-1 waivers/instructor slots, they were A tour dudes who didn’t recat though, and only been out of manned for 3 ish years. I’m a UPT-D dude from the 2015 round, just got my drop sheet for my new assignment, expecting a return to manned at the end of the year. They denied waivers for 3 of the latest UPT D guys to recat. We are all getting forced back. Dont give up hope brother.

There is a entire forum dedicated to NAV/CSO things. The job varies significantly depending on airframe. Get good grades. Be a bro, drink booze, smash plenty of ass of you’re preferred gender, and the rest will fall into place.

I had a crew chief run out last week to taxi us wearing one of those inflatable dinasour costumes, myself and the crew about lost it, it was hilarious, good for morale, I was deeply sadden about .69 seconds after I saw him and the second thought in my head was “my god, please don’t let anything bad happen happen on this flight and the tapes get pulled” with this puppet incident in the back of my head. The AF has done a fine job of making us to afraid to have fun.

Also not in either, but I have good friends in both. Mission sets are slightly different, but can overlap. AFSOC does a better job of utilizing the jet as a MWS, (just my opinion). AFSOC also has more follow on base options. I’m AFSOC biased though, and Cannon does suck.

Even that’s a reach. I know almost nothing about the RQ-4, but the global hawk is the only place there are enlisted pilots, and from what I’m told it’s more “systems management” than tradional pilot type things. Im just spit ballin from my little corner of the AF but I would say it would take 5+ years of enlisted guys proving themselves in the MQ-9 before they saw manned slots, and I haven’t heard anything about that happening. I wouldn’t be surprised to see it soon though, you heard it here first, but in 12-18 months the drone pilot shortage is going to be just as bad if not worse than the manned side. Alpha bros and UPT dirtects are all being sent back manned, initial 18x commitments are up and they are all punching, and the 18x pipeline for pilots and sensors can’t keep up.

We got the government to fund the WiFi bill at another location/aor. Have to have WiFi to sync the pubs on our iPads. Boom.

Only military ID, but I’m in a rather small military town. I would think that plus whatever your state requires for firearms purchase should be g2g. Got about $125 off a G19, and of course it comes with the extra mag and night sites I bought the 42 before the 43 came out, I like it for a single stack, I have the mag extender and that helps with my grip, I am bigger guy. I prefer the double stack 19 IWB as long I am not tucking in a shirt, better grip and more lead, but I think you will be happy with the 43.

Ya good point, better wording and use of my brain and I would have said—now we have to spend more money to reissue the entire squadron coyote because tan isn’t authorized after 2019. AFSOC has been rocking OCP flights for awhile now home and deployed, seems most my heavy bros are rocking them deployed.

It’s been tan, they released new guidance that OCPs need to have coyote boots in the next year or so, right after we just spent all that money on the tan.

Airlines don’t count them, so, you are not wrong.

If so that’s scarry. Unit dependent but the average RPA MCE line guy is logging between 20-40 hours a week (or more) depending on unit/manning.

I would wait to see what the numbers for next year are. Those 12/13Us are prior navs/abms that we’re part of the pilot program for 18x career field, and the first lot of the 18 program we’re prior service types. But I could be wrong, I’m in a rather specialized corner of the RPA enterprise that has a lot of high paying contracting jobs. But hopefuly good news for those of us trying to get back to the cockpit.

Life choices, I appreciated the coffee on my recent trip to the ‘Stan, but I have readily avaible bathroom. The Stan food was much easier on my system than the Deid food FYI. Take notes kids, everyone wants to fly fighters, but having a shitter during the sortie never seems to make it into those badass flying videos!!! K-cups are amazing, never have to worry when that last batch of joe was brewed.

I think the best approach would be to go to the dwell ratio that’s been thrown around. 2 months flying the line, 2 months off. Companion trainer that’s cheap for when your on dwell, DA-20, C172, nothing crazy, but make this job fun, instead of just exhausting flying the line non stop. Leadership. I’ve been doing this a few years as a AFSOC guy, and have worked with ACC several times on TDYs, schools, and deployments. RPAs need to separate out from ACC, they will always be the red headed step child, and toxic leaders from the squadron level on up plague the community. Not saying AFSOC has everything right but at the command level leadership understands the battlefield importantance the MQ assets, their streanghts and weakness, and are more invested in the constant improvement and upgrade process. Bonus-agree, 50k at least. Locations, ya we need more, but they are working on it. Willing to take what we can get, Shaw, Tyndal, and maybe Hurlby. Brits have a pretty good MQ-9 program flying in theater with us, doubt anyone is going to contribute any more though. Rumor is is they are standing up a enlisted aviator cross training program so some the enlisted aviation positions can crossflow fairly easily between each other. Keep pressing with this program.

Anyone have any idea about the rotator back to the states? Assuming it would still be flying being dirrectly related to “war effort”

I think the bigger difference is in how we employ. Reaper is a precision/surgical/assisination strike tool, we have reallly gotten away from doing traditional CAS, which is what the light attack would be doing. I will be the first to admit, I would probably need some extra rides, I’m by no means arguing that you can take someone from a ISR/ GCS platform, give them a quick T-6 refresher and call them a expert in the A-29/AT-6/whatever. The drone is very misunderstood plane, and it draws hate easily, hell I still do hate it, but I caution against assuming it’s a walk in the park. There are some very complex environments and situations you find yourself in if you aren’t the shitbag doing transits (or forced there because you suck) and not having a window forces you to develop a lot of your senses and tools to build a solid battlefield picture. It really does help build your aviation skill set overall when you return to normal flying. Again, not trying to argue that a RPA bubba is equivalent to a 4 ship A-10 lead, but I caution people to being closed minded, I was before I went to them and have be surprised. I went to CBM, and was a UPT D, maybe in your cases they grabbed the bottom of the barrel, But I can print you my training reports, and vouch for several other bros from CBM and the other bases that dudes were getting snagged from the middle and top ish portion of their classes.

Sure, but I think the AF is missing a large pool of potential drivers by making the program a -38 only assignment though. Reality is we have a shortage of pointy nose types, and the trainer we are using to make new ones is only getting older and more expensive to maintain. Using a initial cadre of CAS experts (A-10 guys) to start off think the AF could motivate a lot of MC-12/RPA/U-28 types to stay in and utilize the ISR/attack training they have already received. Are some dudes going to wash out? Sure. Send them back to where they came from or a large airplane that needs bodies. In the end, what is more feasible, safer, and cheaper? Trying to shove even more UPT trainees through -38s to go to this program and/or replace all the pointy nose types they send to light attack, or take already winged pilots that need a home? Whatever ac they buy is going to be cheaper to fly than a -38 per flight hour, spend that money on a extended syllabus for dudes that came from T-1s. And I don’t for a minute buy the “mindset” argument. There are plenty of 18x ers that never have flown in a T-6/T-38/T-1 that have kill numbers well into triple digits (and some of them 1Lts). Just my 2 cents, and a solution that minimizes the pull the program would create on the 11F community. Disclaimer: I am biased, I have a T-1 and RPA background and would give a testicle to fly light attack.