Seriously

was once told by a transient guy that I had to hook up the fuel hose to the airplane because they (transient alert) weren't allowed to touch another wing's aircraft for liability reasons. I couldn't help but laugh in his face at the absurdity.

It was an F-35 joke.

I'd say it's a very good idea, actually. As long as he can separate the wheat from the chaff, I'm sure some of the responses will be valuable.

Ha! We had a conversation the other day at the squadron level about how much risk HHQ is buying with the reduced experience. It isn't just less experienced b-coursers these days. We also have very inexperienced IPs (technically experienced by the AFI).

I bet our international partners would be interested in that as well. Hell, they could even help in the development to help keep costs down for everyone.And not everyone would want or need a flexible AR capability or a short field capability. So you'd have to make different models of it. And with the capabilities you described, it could probably replace multiple aging airframes in the fleet. If only the Air Force had thought of this joint strike fighter concept...

The wave is just hitting MQT, so IPs and flight leads are getting as much time as normal.

In the article, Gen Spencer says, "Every one of them told me the same thing: ‘I don’t like telling you this, and it’s not right,’ but they felt like they had to work harder than their peers to get to the same point,” Shit.... I've felt that my whole career. I'm willing to bet that most people think they're working harder than average. You see your own hard work, but you rarely see everyone else's. Just a thought... Maybe the noticeable lack of diversity in the higher ranks creates a self-perpetuating perception that there are barriers to entry. Because they think those barriers are there, they are less apt to even try to advance. Why play a game you know you aren't going to win? The U.S. has a history of repressing the black population, so it's not a big logical leap to assume that the military will also harbor racial biases. There is no reliable way to determine whether that bias actually exists to a level significant enough to affect promotion, so we're left to assume there is an actual effect.

Roughly 10% of pilots are FAIPs. Not sure what percentage of old dudes were crossflows, but I'd guess it's fairly small. Obviously, it would take a lot of time to do some actual research, but there are numerous guys that have gotten far even when they were "late" to get to the CAF. The last 4 of 5 CSAFs did not start their career in their primary MDS. http://www.af.mil/About-Us/Biographies/Display/Article/108013/general-david-l-goldfein/ http://www.af.mil/About-Us/Biographies/Display/Article/104966/general-mark-a-welsh-iii/ https://web.archive.org/web/20070509075634/http://www.af.mil/bios/bio.asp?bioID=6545 http://www.af.mil/About-Us/Biographies/Display/Article/104697/general-john-p-jumper/ http://www.af.mil/About-Us/Biographies/Display/Article/108121/general-stephen-w-seve-wilson/ Some more examples of 2nd assignment CAF pilots. Over the course of a 20-30 year career, getting to the CAF 3 years late isn't that much of a delay. In most MDSes, you're even able to get to weapons school (if you bust your ass). So I don't buy this nonsense about crossflow being a career killer.

People always talk about a certain paths requiring specific jobs. I have yet to see such a proven path to success. A small sample of previous FAIPs or crossflows that did fairly well: http://www.af.mil/About-Us/Biographies/Display/Article/1090912/brigadier-general-james-r-sears-jr/ http://www.af.mil/About-Us/Biographies/Display/Article/466837/major-general-barre-r-seguin/ http://www.af.mil/About-Us/Biographies/Display/Article/104909/general-gary-l-north/ http://www.af.mil/About-Us/Biographies/Display/Article/107922/general-robin-rand/ Even... http://www.af.mil/About-Us/Biographies/Display/Article/104642/general-robert-h-doc-foglesong/ ha!

Many years ago, someone posted a chart showing each component of the order of merit and correlated to success in pilot training. The only negative correlation (albeit slight) was commander's ranking. The most positive correlation was the BAT/TBAS. Hopefully, once we get rid of the T-1, ENJPPT won't get any more or less fighters than UPT bases.

It's better than nothing, but red air isn't blue air. Even IPs returning from an aggressor tour, in the same jet no less, have significantly atrophied skills. If the air force goes this route (and they are already sending inexperienced guys to aggressor sq's now), they can't expect the same level of proficiency from their pilots. Like everything, it's a trade-off.

LJ, thanks for sharing that. Round and round we go. The article gave good insight to the culture of the AF in the early 90s, but was almost all sport bitching with no real solutions given other than platitudes like "Leaders, not managers are the key to success" and "Let's use 'RL'--Real Leadership!" Yawn... tell us what that actually means. I love the plug for Marines and their strong heritage vs our so-called confused heritage too.. So funny how all this shit still gets repeated today.

How could someone with a perfectly in regs mustache do such a thing?

I think Trump is successfully smoke screening this scandal. I haven't seen it in the news since...

Pile on: Promotion board experts will tell you that letters to the board should be avoided completely unless explaining some anomaly in your record. Why you got a DUI, didn't receive any strats, etc. does not constitute an anomaly and will be viewed as whining.

If sensor fusion and some background automation/integration can take the place of a 2nd crew member, I would take that every day of the week over having 2 guys talking back and forth. Humans are an inherently weak link. Communication and decision making speed up tremendously when one person is processing the information.

[comment cut down to reduce the wall of text, not to speak directly to the words I left in the quote] mb1685 nailed it. I don't have much to add except to say the point I was trying to make earlier is that you're missing the forest from the trees if you think "liberals" are the problem with America right now. As a very specific example, while Republicans are busy fighting Planned Parenthood over abortion, Comcast is gobbling up all of the information channels and chomping at the bit to crush competition as soon as net neutrality is repealed by the incoming administration. The whole Republican branding of Democrats as dirty, misinformed hippies was probably accurate 20-40 years ago, but isn't true at all anymore. I wouldn't have been a supporter of the liberals back then, but today, it's hard for me to support candidates who promote corporate welfare while cutting benefits for the average American, or blame immigration for job loss when it's actually a combination of technology replacing jobs, workers not receiving education/retraining for new jobs, and soaring university tuition costs. And I'm with you on your indifference, though. I barely have feelings in real life, and I definitely don't have them on here. I do like to reading different opinions though. I agree, but Trump pretty much created the media on his own with his Tweets and general behavior. I don't have a defense for Hillary. I think she has the personality of a cardboard box. Thanks dudes for the good conversation. This forum is boring when everyone agrees.

Sidebar conversation... What is up with all the "liberals" slurs on this board. Every time I see that word, all I can picture is Rush Limbaugh foaming at the mouth while a bunch of curmudgeonly middle aged men smugly laugh. It's unoriginal. It's devoid of thought. And it seems you've forgotten that the majority of voters did NOT vote for Trump. The idea that there is a nation-wide rejection of "nationwide rejection of transgendered, trans-fatted, trans-national, 'we know better than you' attitude of the current Administration, the majority of the media, and the well-insulated liberals in the coastal enclaves" is preposterous. Tiny sample size, but about half of the pilots in my fighter squadron say they, "lean left." Like most Americans, myself included, we tend to lean left on social issues and conservative on financial issues... but it isn't black and white. It isn't the "us vs them" mentality perpetuated by Karl Rove and co. Stick to the facts instead of sweeping generalization and political non-sense. Put some arguments back into these posts instead of the Facebook standard "liberals... blah blah" "Obama... rabble rabble" etc.

The more classified information you learn, the more you learn you don't know what you don't know. Without actually seeing any of the information, speculation is worthless.

Could be. At most bases, I've seen it correspond with the letter of the base name... Luke and Tucson being an exception.

YY-#$% YY - Year # - Letter of class # from A to Z (First class in the year is A, last is Z) $ - B = Basic Course (as opposed to transition) % - First letter of base assigned.

What's shitty about it? The flying, the community, both?

The last 2 sources on this Facebook copy/paste don't work, and the first source is a link to a short and irrelevant biography of John Bonifaz. That said, is it not extremely obvious that the recount attempt was made because Jill Stein doesn't like Donald Trump? She's the green party candidate for crying out loud. There might... might be some legitimate arguments in favor a recount, but the political bias in the attempt is fairly obvious. Regardless, Obama, himself, has said the election results should stand. http://www.businessinsider.com/audit-the-vote-recount-jill-stein-election-hillary-clinton-trump-2016-11 In other words, this is a non-story. The real story is Trump's bombastic approach to foreign policy, deeply concerning choices for his cabinet (with the except of Mattis), and unpresidential/unprofessional use of Twitter (among all of the other things wrong with him as a person). This post of yours is just another shout in the echo-chamber.

Please tell me he was an aberration and not the norm.

Do we have any contract officers on this board that can shine some light on the contract creation process and why it always seems to suck?