BQZip01

When I took it, we had three failures and 6 marginal passes. No one was out of shape, they just didn't do much lifting and were the runner types. We had a few "Clydesdales" (as opposed to "thoroughbreds"), but they passed pretty easily because they did a lot of lifting. Why don't we water it down a little bit: Evaluate your own fitness and at least try to do the test top to bottom in one sitting some time well before you take it so you can improve in certain areas if need be.

WSOs go to training in Pensacola. Navs and EWOs come out of Randolph. It isn't based on your performance in training, it's based on your assignment. If you get picked up for WSO, realize you're going to have to pass the FACT. I've seen a bunch of guys who can run a 9-minute mile & a half not be able to pass this. Make sure you start sooner rather than later. I don't care who you are, it requires a bit of practice to make sure you can do it.

This was was relayed to me by a retired IP at a UPT graduation ceremony. Seems this guy was an F-86 driver and was talking about his night training. A/C: "Tower, Strike 66 holding at 3000 over the Habuu beacon" Tower: "Copy, Strike 66" Unidentified A/C (in a panicked voice): "Hold on there! That can't be right. Tower, I'm holding at 3,000 over the Habuu beacon too!" Tower (in a frantic voice): "Uh standby." About 10 seconds pass A/C (holding back laughter):"Strike 67 knock it off. Yer my wingman."

Next thing you know they'll be driving cars and voting!

Los Angeles Center reported receiving a request for clearance to FL 600 (60,000 ft). The incredulous controller, with some disdain in his voice, asked, "How do you plan to get up to 60,000 feet? The pilot (obviously a sled driver), responded, " We don''t plan to go up to it, we plan to go down to it." He was cleared. And few more from Brian Shul, an SR-71 pilot, taken from his book "Sled Driver" (this guy was blessed with far more aeronautical and literary skills than I could ever hope to possess): The predominant radio chatter was from Los Angeles Center, far below us, controlling daily traffic in their sector. While they had us on their scope (albeit briefly), we were in uncontrolled airspace and normally would not talk to them unless we needed to descend into their airspace. We listened as the shaky voice of a lone Cessna pilot asked Center for a readout of his ground speed. Center replied: "November Charlie 175, I'm showing you at ninety knots on the ground." Now the thing to understand about Center controllers, was that whether they were talking to a rookie pilot in a Cessna, or to Air Force One, they always spoke in the exact same, calm, deep, professional, tone that made one feel important. I referred to it as the "HoustonCenterVoice." I have always felt that after years of seeing documentaries on this country's space program and listening to the calm and distinct voice of the HoustonCenterControllers, that all other controllers since then wanted to sound like that... and that they basically did. And it didn't matter what sector of the country we would be flying in, it always seemed like the same guy was talking. Over the years that tone of voice had become somewhat of a comforting sound to pilots everywhere. Conversely, over the years, pilots always wanted to ensure that, when transmitting, they sounded like Chuck Yeager, or at least like John Wayne. Better to die than sound bad on the radios. Just moments after the Cessna's inquiry, a Twin Beech piped up on frequency, in a rather superior tone, asking for his ground speed. "Ah, Twin Beach: I have you at one hundred and twenty-five knots of ground speed." Boy, I thought, the Beechcraft really must think he is dazzling his Cessna brethren. Then out of the blue, a Navy F-18 pilot out of NAS Lemoore came up on frequency. You knew right away it was a Navy jock because he sounded very cool on the radios. "Center, Dusty 52 ground speed check." Before Center could reply, I'm thinking to myself, hey, Dusty 52 has a ground speed indicator in that million dollar cockpit, so why is he asking Center for a readout? Then I got it -- ol' Dusty here is making sure that every bug smasher from Mount Whitney to the Mojave knows what true speed is. He's the fastest dude in the valley today, and he just wants everyone to know how much fun he is having in his new Hornet. And the reply, always with that same, calm, voice, with more distinct alliteration than emotion: "Dusty 52, Center, we have you at 620 on the ground." And I thought to myself, is this a ripe situation, or what? As my hand instinctively reached for the mic button, I had to remind myself that Walt was in control of the radios. Still, I thought, it must be done -- in mere seconds we'll be out of the sector and the opportunity will be lost. That Hornet must die, and die now. I thought about all of our Sim training and how important it was that we developed well as a crew and knew that to jump in on the radios now would destroy the integrity of all that we had worked toward becoming. I was torn. Somewhere, 13 miles above Arizona, there was a pilot screaming inside his space helmet. Then, I heard it. The click of the mic button from the back seat. That was the very moment that I knew Walter and I had become a crew. Very professionally, and with no emotion, Walter spoke: "Los Angeles Center, Aspen 20, can you give us a ground speed check?" There was no hesitation, and the reply came as if was an everyday request: "Aspen 20, I show you at one thousand eight hundred and forty-two knots, across the ground." I think it was the forty-two knots that I liked the best, so accurate and proud was Center to deliver that information without hesitation, and you just knew he was smiling. But the precise point at which I knew that Walt and I were going to be really good friends for a long time was when he keyed the mic once again to say, in his most fighter-pilot-like voice: "Ah, Center, much thanks. We're showing closer to nineteen hundred on the money." For a moment Walter was a god. And we finally heard a little crack in the armor of the HoustonCentervoice, when L.A. came back with, "Roger that Aspen, Your equipment is probably more accurate than ours. You boys have a good one." It all had lasted for just moments, but in that short, memorable sprint across the southwest, the Navy had been flamed, all mortal airplanes on freq were forced to bow before the King of Speed, and more importantly, Walter and I had crossed the threshold of being a crew. A fine day's work. And a few more amusing comments: Yea, Though I Fly Through the Valley of Death ..I Shall Fear No Evil. For I am at 80,000 Feet and Climbing! (Sign over the entrance to the old SR-71 operating base Kadena, Japan). "You've never been lost until you've been lost at Mach 3" Paul F. Crickmore (SR-71 test pilot) The three best things in life are a good landing, a good orgasm, and, a good bowel movement. The night carrier landing is one of the few opportunities in life where you get to experience all three at the same time. (Author unknown, but surely someone who's been there) Basic Flying Rules: Try to stay in the middle of the air. Do not go near the edges of it. The edges of the air can be recognized by the appearance of ground, buildings, sea, trees and interstellar space. It is much more difficult to fly there. How do you know when you've landed with your gear up? It takes full power to taxi They can keep the crew positions straight even on a 20-person crew and the pilots can't? Yeah, I know plenty of navs like that too...

Three stories from Nav Training: 1. We're flying the mighty T-43 and the squadron commander's going to be on board. The nav students get a head's up on it and are told in no uncertain terms to make sure we practiced our radio calls the night before (cut us some slack, it was early in training and some guys kinda clammed up when they had the radios) so we don't screw up on the radio while calling the commander's call sign. Well, the flight goes smoothly and the students don't make any significant mistakes. Then we get to the last 4 miles of the approachand give the comms back to the pilots. These contract guys are having a blast and they request a closed pattern (kinda interesting to see a Boeing 737 pull closed). Pilot: Randolph Tower, Gator 01, request closed Tower: Gator 01, closed approved, call when established downwind We pull up into the closed pattern and the next thing we hear is Pilot: "Tower, Gator <long pause while he tries to remember what number we are> FVCK! <another awkward pause> zero-one, closed downwind" The navs are howling in the back. 2. Not really a radio story but an interphone issue. In the T-43, each complex has a single TACAN with two guys facing forward and two facing aft. Each pair has a switch that says "active" when the channel you have inputted is being displayed on the compass. The problem is that you have to coordinate with the other 3 guys in your complex when you want to change it. In addition, each student takes turns "taking lead" and actually directing the pilot to do something. The rest tell their instructor what they'd do, e.g. "I show us 1.2 miles left of course, I'd correct 4 degrees right for the next 2 minutes." The rule on our jet was that lead had enough to worry about and that he could change to whatever frequency he wanted at his discretion. So I'm sitting in student position 12 (S12) and the guy next to me is S11, both in the back facing aft. We're both doing pretty well and we're quite bored with simply monitoring what's going on. S10 has lead and is way behind the jet and is frantically trying to catch up. S11 and I decide to try and help the guy out a little bit and dial in the next TACAN frequency for him. "Aft complex, S12, any objection to switching to the ### VORTAC?" "S9, Nope" "S10, No" "S11, I've got it" and he switches it to the ### VORTAC "### is now the active" I say About 15 minutes later, S10 is finally catching up to the jet and he asks, "Can we switch to the ### VORTAC" S11 and I exchange a look of confusion wondering what he's been navigating off of and then bust out into laughter. "You can switch it, but we're already on that channel." <pause> "Really?" "Yep." S12 keys up his mic "Welcome to the here and now". 3.So I have lead for a bit and we're heading right for a VORTAC at 6 miles a minute. I'm directed to pass lead up to S2 (some rollback from another class who was having troubles with the Nav program) Me: "S2, are you ready for lead" S2: "S2 is ready for lead" Me: "S2, you have the lead" S2: "S2 has lead" Just then, the pilot comes over the interphone and says, "We've got a B-52 passing under us at 500 feet low on the left side, in case anyone is interested" "S1, off headset" "S5, off headset" "S9, off headset" "S7, off headset" "S6, off headset" ...and a few instructors too. And I thought I felt the plane turn slightly to the left as everyone crowded by the windows for a look. I was sitting S12 and didn't really much care. Well, the B-52 passes underneath us and I see it on the right side as the tail goes underneath us. I spend a few seconds looking at the jet and then look back at my instruments. The TACAN is showing that we are 8 miles from the TACAN. I'm thinking, ok, so we're 4 miles up and with slant range that means we're about 3 miles out, so I'm looking to turn in about 30 seconds. I look back up to see how far away we are now and the TACAN shows 9.7 miles and climbing. I think to myself, "wait a minute I thought I was 8 miles away and now I'm 9 miles away. That can't be right unless..." At that point I realized we'd passed the TACAN almost 30 seconds prior and were proceeding to truck outside of our celnav track rapidly and I keyed the mic." "Pilot, Lead, turn left 170, max rate!" Then I realized, hmm, I'm not lead right now "Uh, pilot disregard last. I'm not lead." Now the poor guy who had lead heard everything, but the instructors were all off headset or were talking to the pilots, whom I interrupted, but they couldn't make out who it was. S2 panics and tries to figure out where we are and a few seconds later turns us back to course, but not until we flew outside our 10-mile-wide corridor by 12 miles. Since no one knew who it was that botched the radio call, I didn't get downgraded for it and got firewall 4s for my gradebook; my best flight of training.

:salut: :salut: :salut:

FINALLY! Someone figured out how to tax stupid people...and this stupid tax has 5 zeros!!!

That is friggin' awesome!!! Next time someone gripes about comm remember the signal corps bought the first airplane...

Third generation military flier Grandfather on Mom's side: unable to pass the physical to be a pilot due to his eyesight, so was given a slot as an aerial photographer...go figure: :rainbow:ness back then too I suppose. Grandfather on my Dad's side: PBY pilot in WWII Father: UPT washout (60%+ attrition then though); later an EWO on the BUFFs, worked FB-111, Cobra Ball, U-2 program, and other MWSs too My brother: unfortunately lost a pilot slot and any chance of flying spot due to migraines Me: Pre-Nav Training at ENJJPT then to Nav school and EWO. Now training on the BUFF AlphaMikeFoxtrot, I'm here and in EWO training. Good luck in UPT!

Excellent suggestion! It might be the academy as the only reference I could find stated that the first class was in 1957 and was referred to as "cadets" (58-01 somewhere?) HOLY COW! I just realized that's 50 years!!!

3

The patch there was actually authorized by Warner Brothers (trademarks and all!) Maybe something like "Wast one out tun out the wights" with a picture of Tweety bird. As for historical patches at ENJJPT, go down to the historian's office and they have high res pictures of EVERY patch at ENJJPT. Or a sad picture of a Tweet taxiing off into the sunset with "You don't have to go home, but you can't stay here..."

WE also KNOW how to spell "know" (not "now")... ...Oh yeah...I went there... :-)

I would assume 6th SOS too or something like it. Obviously, the mission is classified, so I won't speculate on anything specific.

It is a law with no prescribed consequences for breaking it. If it did have consequences, the law would be thrown out by the Supreme Court as suppression of Freedom of Speech. The same goes for the Pledge of Allegiance and proper display of the US flag.

for spouses: www.cinchouse.com is a pretty good site. My wife uses it and seems to get answers/help pretty quickly

powerful powerpoint presentation, dude.

The singularly worst advice I got was from a F-15 GIB who told me, "I've flown with a head cold before. Yeah it sucks, but it's no big deal. You guys [nav students] are flying in a 737. You should just suck it up." I don't care if you are going up in a T-43 or a passenger jet. Coming down rapidly in altitude can cause some major problems. DON'T DO IT!!!

By SF I mean Security Forces. If you mean Special Forces, most AFSOC folks I know avoid referring to them as SF to avoid that confusion. Of course I realize that soldiers go there (well As Sayliyah anyway) to recreate and get away, but that's like saying the guys in Guam and Diego Garcia aren't in the real war. Many of them certainly are, but they are out of reach from most countries. Please note that I said they were at the EDGE of harm's way. I guess I could have been more specific. I mean they are just outside of it, not inside it. If anything kicks off with Iran, you can bet your @$$ that they will be in the middle of it. As for Korea, I wasn't talking about Korea, but last time I checked, we weren't bombing North Korea out of Osan. According to the A1/J1 I talked with, that is the primary reason the whole base gets the pay is because the guys flying out of there fly into the kitty litter (a.k.a. sandbox): it is easier to classify an entire base than to separate those specific fliers and crew and pax and... who qualify for it. On top of that, they are running a no $#!+ war. My point was not that it isn't nice there (it certainly is and the Air Force does a great job taking care of its folks in many ways), but that we SHOULDN'T treat it like a resort. We should treat it like a combat zone. Guys shouldn't be working a 5 day week with 2 days off (at least not without approved leave). First Sergeants shouldn't be getting e-mails from other Shirts asking "We're gonna go walk around the BRA and check people for uniform violations. Wanna come with us?" (True Story!) We should be focused on the mission. If guys have some down time and can boost morale, so be it, but we are here to work, not have fun. Guys coming back to the 'Deid for R&R just goes to show how well the AF treats our troops and how desirable an AF assignment is I was the one who said it, but I'm gonna have to voice my support for this one over my own! If we can get over this mentality, life will seem easier for everyone and will be much less adversarial.

Honestly, it depends on what was on that board. I can think of quite a few things that could be written on there that would be completely unacceptable namely racist, sexual, or crude things. I can see article 15s on that if they were written/drawn by someone in a position of authority. Outside of that, um...guys at the 'deid are allegedly in a war zone. I did the calculations and the center of the runway is 2 minutes and 14 seconds away from Iranian airspace at Mach 2. These guys are at the edge of harm's way. I'm not saying chem drills and bomb preparation are necessary, but let's treat it like a combat area not some rear-echelon resort where the rules are all messed up. Treat people like adults and they will act like adults. Treat people like children and they will reduce themselves to that denominator. With the guy who stood up for us in the briefing, thank you. These "good ideas" need to be more properly vetted instead of a bunch of yes men passing ideas through staff with no critical thought attached. If the boss asks for your input, give it to him/her, but when the boss says "Go." you should back them up because it's the right thing to do. They take responsibility for the decision, right or wrong. Such is the "mystery" of command. :-) As for the SF guys organizing things, I see no problem there if these guys did it in their spare time (spare time seems to be a problem in and of itself, why are you in a war zone if you aren't there to work?). I know some people who worked 12 hour days 5 days a week with two days off. I worked (as did many of you) 7 days a week with 12 hours as the minimum.

1. UAV pilots can wear it if they are already qualified as pilots. It is a matter of simplicity: they already wear them as rated personnel. If they don't already have them, TS 2. Missileers wear what they are directed to wear...for the purposes of wearing NOMEX and protecting themselves in case of fire or fuel/other liquid leak. It is a safety issue, but a weak one. In general, though. Couldn't agree more.

That's my point. Those shoeclerks who are working 8 hours a day 5 days a week are the ones who have the "ideas" to "improve" things at the deid I concur, but for the most part the 'deid isn't the pointy end...which was my point. I'm saying I saw the cop and followed the laws to a T...and got pulled over regardless. Perhaps you misunderstood me. My point was to show that I'd been entrusted to drive the O-6's car & was therefore at least somewhat trustworthy. I've also NEVER been pulled over for a moving violation until this point in my life (10+ years with a perfect driving record). I concur that no one has the right to break traffic laws and the guys on the ground have the authority & responsibility to pull someone over who is violating them. Like I said above, I never broke the law in the first place. Hey, I agree that he should have checked the box, but the notes at the bottom of the page clearly delineated what the intent of the form was. Common sense should have told him to simply call his boss and say "Hey, I've got this guy who..." or have the individual call his/her commander and verify it. ...then again, common sense isn't all too common.

I laughed

Herk, I read the entire thing (over 3 days). I get the basics of the "shoeclerk mentality" out there. While I was there, I worked 12 hour days (absolute minimum of 12) seven days a week. I may have been a Comm weenie at the time, but I was well aware of where the pointy end of the spear is located. While Al Udeid is a critical node, it isn't directly the point end...though it can certainly be the thrust of the spear (pun intended). I was also intimately aware of the lack of common sense out there when it came to regulations. Hell common sense when it came to LAWS seemed to go out the window too. I was once pulled over in my commander's vehicle (an O-6) for not stopping at a stop sign. The problem was that the line for the stop sign was about 20 feet from the sign. I even saw the blue & red light party patrol across the street in the ditch watching traffic. I came to a full 3 second stop at the sign. A truck at the intersection had his wheels turned as if to turn right (towards me). Since I was turning left, I went at the same time he did, but he turned the wheel and went straight for about a second before jerking the wheel right. I started to go, but then slowed down until he turned. The airman (straight up buck airman) pulls me over and says, "You didn't stop at that stop sign there." "I certainly did, but the line is way behind the stop sign. From where you guys were sitting [almost eye-level with the ground], you couldn't possibly see it." "Sir, you didn't stop. End of story. I'm giving you a ticket." Internally, I'm thinking "You idiot. Way to give 40% on your job instead of 100%. I'm glad you're the cannon fodder if we ever get overrun" I take the ticket back to my boss and tell him the whole story. He states that he's glad I didn't make a scene and that he'd take care of the ticket with the Wing King the next day at the staff meeting. He did and no one else got hassled for my entire tour out there. I met that airman later on my tour at the bra. He took one look at me and walked away. I kinda felt sorry for the guy. He was just doing what higher ups (some SSgt) told him to do. I found out later he got chewed out by the SSgt who told him to do it. The SSgt should have taken the brunt of this, not the Airman. Another related story about SF (why is it always these guys?): A couple of our Captains (I was with a tenant unit at the time that didn't fall under CENTAF) was going to pick someone up at the airport in Doha. The guy walks up to the desk to check out and the SSgt on duty says, "I'm sorry, sir, but I can't let you go. You'll be out past curfew." "Uh...we're picking one of our guys up at the airport" "Is that official business or R&R?" The captain looks at him questioningly. "Official business" "Uh huh. Well, you didn't check the box marking it as 'official business'." A little frustrated, he says. "Ok, then." takes out a pen, grabs the paper, and checks the correct box. He then hands the form back to the Desk Sgt. "Sir, I still can't let you go." Flabbergasted, he says "Why not?" "Well, you commander signed this before you checked that box, so I have no way of knowing if he knows what you're doing." "Did you read the block where it states what we are leaving to do? It says we are going to the airport to pick up a person in our unit. He signed off on that." "Well, I still can't let you go. You'll have to get another form and get him to sign it." "Listen, buddy..." Now, if there's one thing I learned from this, it is that "buddy" is apparently some sort of key word you don't use when talking to SF. "Sir, step back from the counter and place your hands on your head." "What?" "Step back from the counter and place your hands on your head NOW!" He complies and the Sgt steps around the desk and begins to cuff him. Meanwhile, the other Captain says to himself, "Whoa! I ain't getting involved in this!" and quickly steps outside. Using his cell phone, he calls our commander. The commander (an O-6), whom everyone in our unit knows has a fuse about a quarter of an inch long, goes ballistic. He grabs every officer he can find, pulls our SF personnel off their shift (except one to guard the gate), and heads out of our compound at a high rate of speed...ok, they were going 35 in a 25 zone. Apparently we were going to war with the US Air Force! He rolls in with the 5-vehicle convoy and disembarks from the vehicle with a posse of 5 Lt Colonels and a lot of majors & other officers, plus 5 SF troops and strolls into the shack. Fortunately for the desk Sgt. the Captain supervising them saw the convoy leave and beat them to the guard shack by cutting across the taxiways. She released our guys and they were halfway to the airport by the time the Colonel arrived. She explained that the Desk Sgt would no longer be working that position and would be pulling pit duty for the next month for his actions. THAT was the appropriate action for this schmuck! I think the problem out there is that people have too much free time because there are too many people out there. If you're in a combat zone, you don't need to be working 8 hour shifts 5 to 6 days a week. You're getting paid extra to be out there, so earn it! Bosses can allow extra time off to run errands (i.e. run to the BX during lunch, go to the Bra to relax, heck even allow time off for those poker tournaments if there is nothing to do). We did it and it made for a VERY relaxing working atmosphere with everyone going in the same direction. Currently, I work under the American Educational Toy Company (a.k.a. AETC) and they don't have it much better, but it is still in a lot of ways better than the 'deid. Yeah. We can't have policies where people are using directly effective prevention techniques as opposed to responsive techniques. In all fairness though, they aren't the primary line of defense, they are the poor SOBs that have to clean up after the mess. Yeah. Wouldn't want someone in command who follows orders and speaks out against stupidity...