viper154

That statement tells me everything I need to know. What a piece of shit.

I watched them load up as I drove by the runway on my way to work. I was wondering why a few hours later a 130 was circling so low over the gulf. My buddy was in the air as the search started, the amount of help and support was pretty humbling, fighters, bombers, tankers from all over the south were overhead almost immediately (relatively speaking)

Our OCP MASSIF jackets came with the Velcro set up like the OCP tips except the rank Velcro was above the name tape like the old Velcro for the ABU fleeces. Somehow I got one with the flight suit name tag Velcro and being the jackets are $550 a pop I just rocked my flight suit name tag. I couple asshats made a comment about it and getting rank sewn on if I was to wear it like that. Eventually my SQ/CC said something to me, my reply was always the same. “Sewing on additional Velcro would ruin the fireproofing/shell of the jacket” No idea if that has any truth but that seems to keep people at bay, successful tactic for 4+ years now.

Sounds right, my bill for 2 lines of unlimited talk/text/data is right around $100 a month.

What’s the return on investment on a global empire though? Sure, we pay a fuck ton for our bases scattered all over the world but we should be getting a return on that investment with global security and leveraging our interest to our economic benefit. Ya OEF/OIF were debatable investments, I don’t really want to go down that rabbit hole. What’s the return on investment if granny lives to be 80 instead of 75? Or you get the sweet air cast and not the old school plaster one because that’s all you can afford. Paying for everyone’s healthcare is not a good investment, Europe is a great example of that. At the same time it’s not great to have a section of the population with massive medical debt, but I would debate that is a better option than investing trillions for “free” health care.

I read it as they had 0 hours at the time of the annual inspection in January.

Not sure, but about a year ago AFPC announced that any 11 that had been in RPAs longer than 5 years was being involuntary recat to 11U. Most those dudes planned on ridding it out to 20. Also, a lot of the initial 18X guys just came up on their commitment and most of those guys/gals were prior E or crossflow that we’re planning on staying to 20. I’m guessing this is affecting the percentages.

I flew for a deployed unit a few years back that used a excel workbook. Worked decently and color coded and all that fun stuff. I’m not smart enough to make one but that is a direction you could pursue. Big thing was that it was at a step desk computer. I know different communities handle the step desk differently, Ipad/file sharing between your crew might be a better route.

I’ll chime in with my worthless opinion. The Air Force wants a way to cut the cost and time required to train new pilots, and I think that is the biggest downfall of PTN. There is huge potential for these devices to be awesome training tools, not just for UPT but for IQT/MQT, upgrades, CT and all the other training programs out there. I honestly think VR would make the most difference in advance training, after pilots have a foundation of airmanship, studying, chair flying etc. I’m currently in a IQT program for my 2nd MWS, I have amazed myself at how much more efficiently I can study and chair fly than back in the day going though UPT and my first IQT/MQT program, I attribute it to having a good foundation of airmanship, study habits, and just knowing what is important to study. Having a VR device I could run though profiles with on my own time would probably take me to that next level in the jet. Problem is it’s going to require a massive investment of $$ and time to make the VR of a high enough quality to provide great instruction. Money and time are exactly what the AF is trying to cut, and I don’t think the AF is smart enough to realize a major investment on the front end will pay dividends on the back end. I’m curious if we left the old UPT amount of flight hours and 12 month syllabus timeframe alone and incorporated a high quality VR program how much better quality of stud you would get on the back end, subsequently reducing 87/88/89 rides, failed IQT rides, mishaps etc.

217 v1/2/3 are now AFMAN 217. All one volume. The old guidance required you to verify the course and distance between your points for a RNAV. That verbiage was removed. NVG stuff got moved somewhere, some other minor changes. Point being, the bobs are saying “look, we eliminated a bunch of pubs and rules!” When in reality they just combined some pubs and reduced redundancies. All the rules are still there.

I’ve noticed almost 0 difference in my day to day operations/flying. Honestly the only thing I can think of off the top of my head is not confirming my RNAV headings/courses in my GPS with my plate. Maybe I was just already ignoring all the stupid shit they “got rid of”. Oh, I now have additional guidance about having to have flight gloves.

What’s been the ratio of non 11F/B that have sucked as bad as your examples compared to those that have done fine or needed just a little extra with Tac form/other 38 specific things?

It's pretty great, actually. Pays the same. Spend a lot more time with your family and are a lot less stressed to.

From what I gathered the HRT program was getting a bunch of money for its own equipment/space. Not sure what the program was called, I walked in rather late. To be clear, POTFF does a wide range of things for members and families, similar ish to the family readiness center, but their pot of money comes from SOCOM. Not sure if this aircrew program was associated with POTFF or not.

I was a flt/cc is a squadron that was half enlisted aircrew. The amount of young kids that failed PT tests was surprising. Many of them were pretty thin dudes that I would have thought wouldn’t have had issues. They just didn’t care or didn’t want to put the effort into physical training. On another note, a got a brief last week from a new program AFSOC/SOCOM is standing up later this year. It’s going to be a staff of physical trainers, physical therapists, dietitians, dedicated to only aircrew. They are suppose to have their own gym, and biometric equipment for analysis of improvements. Any aircrew on base can walk in and get help, and their services are suppose to be oriented to help aircrew better operate in their crew position. Having back issues being in the seat? Expect them to help get you on a training program to strengthen back muscles and focus on making it more comfortable. They were getting fam rides on the jets to become more familiar with our operating environment to better help us. I walked in late but it sounded pretty awesome. It’s based off what the Army/Navy have for their spec ops teams, and the money is from SOCOM, so for now it’s only going to be a AFSOC thing.

Slide says current as of 29 April. Downgrade for SA

Pretty much a one stop shop for everything. Only hard copy pub we have is the abbreviated checklist Incase of iPad failures.

Did that finally happen? Been hearing rumors now for awhile. I just can’t wait to be back from leave.............

Pretty sure some kid on here (or someone with a story of him/her) failed out of the B-1 FTU for academics and got sent to B-52s. I also remember someone in the FEB board who got booted from B-1 FTU and was being sent to scan IDs at the gate for the next 9.69 years. How lucky you feeling? Be patient, things might change, you might just have to fly that desk for awhile until things get fixed or you can get a white jet tour.

I’m surprised E-3s and E-8s have such a high take rate. I would think all that 4 engine Boeing time would make them super easy hires to make 2-3x pay for half the work/no deployments.

Flyboys makes some good stuff in different sizes and configurations. Not sure if they have exactly what you want. I have 2 of their bags, a bigger bag with multiple pockets for multiple headsets, water bottles, iPad, lunch, center was big enough for for several binders of UPT pubs back in the day. My old squadron issued me a smaller bag for alert, just big enough for a iPad, headset, small water bottle and little pocket for flashlight/pens/multi tool. I like it for locals around the flagpole or compliment a backpack with snacks and such. Good quality bags. No issues with tearing/zippers/ etc and I don’t do a good job taking care of them

Bunch of people sent me the link when I was flying today, it was rather surreal walking off the flight line watching the trailer for Top Gun 2. The original was really what made me want to be a pilot as a young kid. After a really fun flight today and seeing that trailer was a awesome feeling. I hope the movie is as awesomely cheesy and filled with sweet flying as the original, and that it inspires and sparks the dream of flight in some of today’s kids like it did me.

Possible. Sure. First focus should be on becoming the best C-17 pilot/new guy in the squadron you can be. Having a good standing with your squadron cc can go a long ways when assignment time comes around. As always, wants and needs of the air force always come first, and luck and timing is everything. If C-17 manning is good and a AFSOC airframe is hurting for guys when it’s time for your second assignment that’s your best chance. Edit to add-I’m at a AFSOC schoolhouse with quite a few prior MWS students from different airframes/backgrounds including AMC.

I know a T-1 guy that went to heavies that was offered a T-38 IP slot last year, to the Rio though.

You need both the two week safety school hands on course in ABQ (looking and wrecks and doing investigations) and the safety admin course (I forgot the name, but it’s more of a how to be safety guy day to day) that is 4 ish days. Mostly done at ABQ but they do road shows every couple weeks. There af.mil site has the schedules