viper154
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Posts posted by viper154
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Couple month trip to the sandbox and some tax free income or 18 years of responsibility for another person and all the hardships that come with children. Unsat on SA/Decision making. Please, get prego and stay home if that’s how you make decisions, I don’t want you anywhere near me in a combat zone.
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On 7/4/2020 at 9:06 AM, Clark Griswold said:
From the article:
it’s time to build a platform that meets the needs of our SOF operators from scratch. New aircraft with the right tools to provide just what the operator needs on the ground, wherever they find themselves. If we don’t do it now, we will have to react aggressively later to meet the need and likely come up with something less capable and more expensive.
Buy the Scorpion.
What is the Scorpions dirt/short field ability? The powers that be want a aircraft that can land on on a short dirt strip, grab some gas/munitions and go. TOLD would have to be in the PC-12/C-208 range for it to be a player. From some info I got it seems this is a primary factor/requirement to the powers that be. Who knows if this project is ever going to actually happen, but I’m guessing if it does it’s going to be a prop.
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With anything in life there are downsides and sacrifices, but from the time we walk out to the flight line to the time we shut the plane down it’s absolutely awesome, only thing in the world I would trade it for is my family, they always come first.
I didn’t do great in high school, mainly a motivation issue. Keep busting your ass, don’t take no for a answer, and never give up. If flying is your passion and military flying just isn’t possible there are lots of other flying options.-
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19 hours ago, Uptapplicant2019 said:
Currently at Vance about halfway through T-6s and recently hooked two flights in a row resulting in being put on flying CAP (commanders awareness program). Getting off altitude from poor trim and being task saturated in the pattern drove the unsats.
I’m just hoping to hear some stories from guys that got their wings after struggling during UPT and what actions did you take to improve?
I spend hours chair flying every day, but something just hasn’t clicked yet.
I hooked my first T-6 checkride, up to that point in my short aviation career that was the first thing I hooked. Next ride went fine, and so did the next phase. Come end of block I got so nervous about my next check ride, and after my first hook I was sweating bullets, and not my normal relaxed self, mentally it messed with me, and sure enough I hooked the next one. 3rd checkride I flew with a great IP, who was a total bro in the brief and not asshole like the previous two I had. It got me to relax, which paid off, once we got in the air the airport I was going to for my instrument checkride had shut down, I heard ATC tell this to someone a couple minutes ahead of me and made the decision to go to my back up plan. Worked out fine. For awhile I always got super nervous for a checkride, more than most people, especially considering I’m pretty laid back most of the time. That mostly is gone now many years later, but to get over that anxiety I realized the biggest thing is just to relax and have fun. Fly it like you stole it everyday, find some good pump up songs or airplane porn videos and take a 5 minute pump up session before each flight, get stoked to go fly, and don’t sweat it. As said above, if you are struggling a bit CAP isn’t a bad thing for you. Hopefully they get you with some great IPs that can get you the tools you need for success.
Also, what Danger said about the pitch and power, makes life hella of a lot easier, once you get it down you can look like boss and shack your perimeters everytime. I do not recommend the VSI/roll indicator thing, never had heard of that before, not sure if he is serious or trolling. Only time I ever look at VSI is during a decent to gauge if I want to increase or decrease my rate to make a point, also helpful for a nice stable non precision step down. Other than that a pretty much forget it’s there 95% of the time
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I got some stuff when the gyms started closing. Squat Rack from amazon, $350. I found a gym equipment rep that runs a side business selling the used stuff he pulls out of gyms when he is installing new stuff. 4x45 2x35, 2x25, 2x10, 2X5 for plates, $100. they were rusty, I power washed them real good and sprayed them with metal spray paint. Held up good so far. Olympic Bar, EZ-Curl bar, adjustable bench, TRX bands. Real nice spin bike, used, but he charged me $300, retail was something like 2 grand new. Some foam mats from amazon to put under everything. I check Walmart every trip for dumbbells. Everywhere else has been sold out. I’ve been able to get 10s, 20s and 35s. Oh and a box fan, it’s hot in the garage.
I love it, no waiting for equipment, crank up my speaker, I can get everything I need done. Lost about 15lbs so far.
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10 hours ago, Breckey said:
I'll dissent as well. The fabric fades very quickly. There are more sizing options than the A2CU but the fit is still poor. The belt loops on the pants are also too narrow for me to thread a cobra buckle through without unfastening it.
I had that problem on the A2CU with my belt as well. Concur that they fade fast. Also my knee board velcro tears up the pants. As a taller otherwise average guy I find the fit much better. The real selling point for a 2 piece for me is the removable top. I take mine off in the plane, makes life much more comfortable. If we are on fire to a point I need sleeves to protect my skin I’m dead anyway.
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8 hours ago, elvis said:
Anybody's units paying for their MASSIF? Or still out of pocket?
AFSOC, it’s the only thing my unit is issuing.
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2 hours ago, StoleIt said:
Anyone have any experience with the ejection seat approved OCP? I saw one recently and it looks way better than the current A2CU/2PFDU/WTFISITCALLED.
I really hate the current version with my collar velcro getting stuck on my massive shoulder velcro, it fitting like a bag of ass, etc. I'm projected to move into a new job with some pull on the purse strings so hoping (if warranted) to try and get all the aircrew the new version rather than the current turd.
Might be the MASSIFs? Same company that makes the new awesome flight jackets. Not a ejection seat guy but we been buying them in my corner of the AF. They are about twice as much but they fit much better, don’t have random velcro everywhere, ass is much less likely to rip, and the pocket functionality is much better.
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35 minutes ago, FLEA said:
So I'll admit I asked your opinion and got exactly that. That's fair. But I was hoping for something more empirical. Two of my best friends are JTACs I worked with in Al Tabqah and Manbij and their opinions are exactly opposite yours. So you'll have to pardon me when I don't weigh "guy on the internet" as highly.
I'm personally impressed by what we've asked the RPA enterprise to do and what they've accomplished. I do think there is value in investing in their enterprise. Specifically training, which for the last 15 years has been made a third tier priority because of the ground forces. Much of your complaints would be absolved if the community was allowed to train.
RPA is a great asset. Not to specifically answer your JTAC question, but to address why the light attack won’t be drone.
Manning-the RPA enterprise can’t fill that bill. They are doing everything they can to improve manning in their current posturing. Cross training the entire U-28 community would tax the system to much. Long run, it could be be done, but it would take a large amount of assets. The 18x community is trying to become a pure 18x community with minimal 11s, so it would go against that long term plan.
Hardware-satcom delay makes comms a ass pain, especially with troops on the ground. The KU delay also makes flying at low levels, as well as the “aggressive” maneuvering for gun/rockets pretty much impossible to do safely for both ground guys and the aircraft. Lastly is the requirement for austere ops. You need a ground team to land the 9 at the airfield/farp point, this takes significant time/security to set up. Also the several million dollar camera is on the front of the aircraft real close to the ground. It’s a recipe for disaster landing on anything not paved and maintained. There are some additional considerations but this is not the appropriate medium for that discussion.
I’ve flown both manned and unmanned ISR aircraft, each are both great at what they do, and have made serious TTP improvements in the last decade. Both also have their respective weaknesses. Can a drone fill these low block CAS mission sets in the future? Probably, but those technology gains aren’t going to happen in the timeline laid out by SOCOM.
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1 hour ago, Kenny Powers said:
So I'm paying ~$330/mo. for full coverage on 2 cars (pretty new, nothing exotic) and homeowners insurance on a $350k home.
I was previously paying ~ $180/mo before the move but the old home value was around $280k.
Does that check or are you guys seeing way better rates? Good driving records with no accidents/tickets in the past 15 years or so and great credit.
Wife and I have both vehicles, fairly new mid end cars fully ensured with Geico for $75 a month, clean records, good credit. We switched from USAA, they were charging $125 a month. Local company for home owners, live a mile from the coast, not in a flood zone, $1600 a year for - $270,000 home. USAA wanted $2800.
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Current environment you aren’t going to palace chase until the last 6 or so months of your commitment. Who knows in 6-10 years from now. Family life is tough all around. Everyone deploys, goes TDY, etc. MAF seems to take the cake with being gone the most, including 130s. I’m a AFSOC guy, we are gone a decent amount as well. I’m not to knowledgeable on current fighter schedules but I’m going to assume they are also gone a bunch. If being at home is really that important FAIP is probably the best option.
I would just put what mission set/air frame type appeals to you the most. The rest will all work out. Just because a community has a good or bad schedule now doesn’t mean that won’t change. Especially so with recent developments and geo political activities.
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16 hours ago, FLEA said:
Are Bob's actually reading baseops?
The fact they think a MQ-9 can loiter for 30+ hours shows they know absolutely nothing about what they are talking about.
MQ-9 is great for ISR whack a mole in permissive environments, for a variety of reasons it is horrible for “armed overwatch” CAS, light attack or whatever buzzword label of the day is.
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1 hour ago, Clark Griswold said:
Yeah, if they’re not going to buy new iron
Sent from my iPhone using TapatalkI think even if they do buy new hardware they are going to go with something along those lines. It’s a easier transition those crews than to find pointy nose types to put in cockpits and both light ISR fleets were intended to be “temporary”. They now have been around for some time and are getting up there in airframe hours.
There is also a significant reduction in risk operating out of the small arm/manpad environment and using PGMs. It’s a trade off because you are loosing gun capes
A light gunship could be a option but cost is going to be significantly higher per tail than getting AT-6/Super T or hanging some sensors and hellfire racks on a modified already in production civilian airframe.
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5 hours ago, Clark Griswold said:
Which platforms recap’d or modified?
Sent from my iPhone using TapatalkI’m not in the know but I would guess the light fixed wing ISR fleet, King Air/PC-12s
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Stop beating yourself up bruh/bra. As said above, your job is removing more bad guys from this earth than just about anyone else. The community is making leaps and bounds in TTPs/software/hardware. You can show up to ya ops unit and go through the motions or you can bust your ass and contribute to probably the most rapidly advancing community in military aviation. I get it, I did a tour in drones, only person that can change your mindset is you.
if manned flying is your goal you can keep trying to apply to AD rated boards and/or continue to build your resume for guard units when your commitment is up. I can promise it’s going to be a lot easier to get hired with a great record/reputation. Civilian flying is always a option to.
Oh, contract LR jobs are also paying upward of $2000 a day right now, so get that qual. Your family/friends can poke fun but you will being laughing straight to the bank on your yacht.
Im not trying to be dick, but you need to do some soul searching and get some confidence. Spend time in the vault studying, upgrade ASAP, master your craft, set goals, be the hardest worker in the unit and never give up. You only live once, make it count.
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1 hour ago, Flyingmonkey said:
But what about the time between when you stop flying and are waiting on casual status to start flying again. Could it stop in this time?
Gate months can stop, I don’t remember if it’s 4 or 6 months from your last flight. Caveat is that if you are enrolled in a flying training course your gate months keep going even if you have more than 4/6 months. That happened to me cross flowing airframes, I was in academics for awhile because of a back log, talked to my SARM shop and they explained the above to me. If you are truly casual and not enrolled in a course you could loose months, or so the airman at the desk said. I don’t have pubs/references to back that up so take it for what it’s worth.
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16 hours ago, jrizzell said:
I feel like we’ve only begun to see the onslaught of PTSD for those individuals whose who operates weaponized RPA’s. It would be surreal to routinely track and ultimately kill someone during a sortie, then have to drive home but “hey don’t forget milk and bread” for the family. That type of dynamic could absolutely mess with an individuals psyche. I hope the Air Force can provide something, besides lip service, for them
It does, but as mentioned above there are resources in place, and unless you are a threat to yourself/others or to messed up to fly they are good about providing assistance and keeping you flying.
The few RPA units I were in during my time flying them were all extremely close. It certainly helped being able to punch the ICS button to your bro’s next door and chat/decompress/sport bitch while controlling a drone spinning endless circles. We always hung out as a shift on our off day’s, often it was standard drinking shenanigans but we did plenty of other non destructive things, I made some of the best friends I’ve ever had in the RPA world.
Hardest part for most wasn’t the mission, it was usually pretty clear these guys we were going after were bad and a threat. It was more so the endless shift work. There was no end of deployment, go home, decompress, normal life. Most line guys had 3-4 years of mission work, 5-6 days a week with no real break until they got a front office job or farmed out of the squadron. There was talk when I went back manned a few years ago of getting a more “normal” type of “deployment cycle” going so people got some time off the line, but manning needed a major plus up first. Not sure how that is going.
All that being said, his job stress certainly could have played a role in this unfortunate situation.
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11 hours ago, Bigred said:
Little known fact, when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor, they used drones.
Damn auto correct
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5 hours ago, SurelySerious said:
I think they might be, heard something about it in a song once.
Ya they got it all wrong though, it wasn’t a F-16 that started WWII, the mother fucker was a drone.
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4 hours ago, LoveDumpster said:
I love the enthusiasm and the positive attitude, but I haven't really seen this on the tanker side. Unless you're picked up for some special program like Phoenix, you're not being released unless it's to pay UPT bills. I'd love to go fly a strike aircraft or something more tactical, especially after watching those guys rain hate in the sandbox. But from what I understand, if you didn't fly a T-38 in UPT that isn't happening - unless you somehow work a board like said ex-135 driver did.
I'd love to be proven wrong, though.I’m currently in a B course after a RPA tour, over the last 6-9 months I have met probably 6-9 other crossflows dudes, some from RPAs, couple mil to mils, couple dudes just wanted to do something different and asked, couple were voluntold.
Not saying you can move from C-5s to F-22s (easily) but I would say there are more opportunities to move airframes than 6-9 years ago.
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12 hours ago, GoodSplash9 said:
Haven't dealt with an accompanied TDY enroute to a PCS...The plan (confirmed with my functional and commander) is to outprocess/move, head to Altus for 6 months of training with the family, and PCS to Fairchild. I'm confused on what my orders should look like (formal training & outbound assignments were clueless).
I received a RIP for the training course to Altus (and a change from status 1 to 3...PCS enroute), but it didn't mention anything about my report date to Fairchild or my family. Ultimately, my immediate concern is getting orders squared away so I can setup the move with TMO. Here are the questions I have:
- Should I expect a second set of PCS orders with my report date to Fairchild and my family? Or does this RIP for the TDY enroute training to Altus need to be amended to include my family and Fairchild as the destination?
- With my family on the orders for the TDY enroute, will this change/increase the lodging per diem at Altus? Either way, we have a family crash pad setup. I'm just curious what the official number is going to be and what the source document is.
What DI said is correct. Your orders should have your family on them but only for the PCS to Fairchild. Unless you have a rather outstanding circumstance your family won’t be included in the TDY. However, you will still receive BAH for wherever you were living when you went TDY, so no, your lodging won’t increase but you can bank that BAH.
So you will get one set of orders, with the TDY enroute box checked, and the family accompanied on TDY box blank. It should have a RNLTD on there, expect it to be a week or two after the course end date, and don’t sweat it if the course goes long, you just need to get a amendment to orders after.
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2nd recommendation for the Trident crew, did a refinance a little over a year from my initial loan, rates were almost a percent lower, and it cost nothing out of pocket. Couldn’t have been easier either, couple emails and signed the paperwork and that was it. If you are in the market at least give these guys a call when shopping. Couldn’t be happier.
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Just now, uhhello said:
As far as I know the highest medal you can get not in combat operations is a simple Airman, Soldier, Navy Medal.
I’m curious if the Purple Hearts being awarded in TN is going to set a precedent. (As reported above, I’ve done no fact checking into that) Does it matter if a terrorists attacks you on US soil or overseas? I would say no. I know plenty of people who received much more for way less that what the Ensign and maybe others did.
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I’m very interested to read the AARs when the investigation is over. Reports are the Ensign that lost his life jumped a desk and engaged the shooter, and later made his way outside to assist law enforcement with location/description of shooter. I’ve heard vague reports that others might have attempted to disrupt the shooter as well. A Navy contract officer was shot and two deputies.
My thoughts after a few drinks on Friday, a week to reflect, and living just a few minutes away. This asshole went to inflict mass damage. He encountered resistance from some absolute heroes and perhaps a building that was locked down by the time he overcame that resistance that saved lives. The simple fact the asshole engaged a soft target, and 3 people lost, 8 wounded (3 being law enforcement) I would say the assholes objectives were thwarted. (I in no way am down playing those lost/injured, but whatever happened in that building saved lives).
I really hope when everything is over everyone who deserves recognition gets it. Engaging a shooter unarmed and sacrificing your life to save others in my opinion deserves a highest honor. The police (both military and law enforcement) that responded did their job absolutely honorably, they went in to saves and accomplished that mission.
I hope we learn some lessons and don’t let the lives lost be in vein and unrecognized
cheers 🍺🍺
To Them. 🍺🍺
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What's wrong with the Air Force?
in General Discussion
Posted
The SIB has some more insightful information.