169FE

11 days until Fundies, hooah!

HAHAHA, now that is awesome; classic one-liner right there.

Off to fundies and BFE here soon! SERE to follow at some point... By the remarks in this forum here it should be a BLAST! Any advice other than the run of the mill stuff?

Definitely can't argue that one; valid point. Well, hopefully I can keep the old school mentality going in to training and then with my National Guard Squadron. We fly H3s and I pray to the God of C-130s they stick around long enough for me to get some good time in the old bird. Like you said, it seems like the old school mentality is disappearing, back shop work is being farmed out to OEM manufacturers, and trouble-shooting now is basically, "If something does't work swap, drop parts and put a new ones in until the problem's fixed." That, or the little black box is doing much of the trouble-shooting for you. Anyways, what do I know what I'm talking about I am just a new guy. Hopefully it's possible to still be a respected old-school type of FE!

You aren't even kidding either. I've came from 10 years background in maintenance (not that this is a lot, but it's better than someone from a non-maintenance background with no knowledge of aircraft sub-systems or theory of flight, etc). I'm not quite sure when the powers that be decided to take pipe-liners in to the 1A1 field, or if it was just a brief exception due to the ops-tempo in the early 2000s, but anymore I believe the USAF is back to only taking FEs in from feeder AFSCs or those who have AP license, private pilot's licenses, or similar. I wish it would have worked out for you Prosuper. Crew Chief is still an essential role, hold your head high. That's true too. Common sense just isn't so common any more. Younger troops now are just not as hands on as they used to be it seems; everything is becoming automated, automatic, and it doesn't require any actual hands on work, trouble-shooting knowledge, and so much of the backshop stuff is being passed along to depots or vendors. I work as a Field Service Engineer in the civ world in addition to the Guard as an FE and it amazes me how much backshop work is farmed out now. Turnover is high, and all the 5-level worker bees or above seem to be hard to retain.

Two months, twenty-seven days until fundies! Can't wait.

Thanks for the input, Azimuth.

This might be a dumb question, but I don't know the answer and am looking to figure out: When I'm at training for FE, what all entitlements for pay am I provided? Of course regular pay... how about stuff like BAH, flight pay, family separation, etc. I don't leave for any of my training until September, but it'd be nice to get a beat on how my income will be effected when training full-time away from my full time job as a civilian. Thank you!

Sweet, this should be a blast!

Sounds like I've got nothing to worry about at SERE even if I'm in relatively decent shape after reading these replies about people not passing the course; haha. It should be an interesting few weeks! I've heard mixed reviews. Some say it's hard. Some say all you do is hike and sleep in the woods and get a little hungry. Some say the winter SERE is horrible, some say it's better because it's not muggy and hot and you can dress warm. I suppose it's all in the eye of the person who is there and how they handle the situations they put you in.

That's actually a really good point man, I really appreciate the insight. Though the cold and snow might seem bad you can always dress warm (or warmer and try to stay warm). I heard that the instructors are rather liberal in what you wear when out in the field, no? I imagine ground pounding longer miles in the summer or spring when it's rained a lot and your boots are caked with lbs of mud and that does seem pretty crappy like you are mentioning. Regardless, I'll push through either summer or winter SERE. How do you like flying on the -135? There's an old Crew Chief from Fairchild who works on my shop floor now. How do you like using the wingtip pods on the -135? I imagine most of your stateside refueling is done with the boom since almost all USAF birds are boom refuelers and Navy/Allied forces are the hose and drogue. Since I deal with the -10 in my full-time job quite a bit now I've always wondered how the boomers on -135s like the laying down style you use while refueling. Thanks for the replies man I appreciate your insight to the training.

Makes sense Azimuth, just thought there was an outside chance. BFE is a washout course crammed into a month's time. I hear it's a fire hose of information coming at you the whole time suited to weed out all the chumps who just want to wear a flight suit so... Well I'll continue my wait, be patient, and be ready when the time comes in Sept. It's look more and more like I'll have the absolute pleasure of doing a winter SERE out at Fairchild (yippy). Are you a Boomer on the -35, -10? Currently I'm a Field Service Engineer for the center line on the -10. Cheers.

Thanks for all the great information and knowledge everyone. It's been a while since I've updated on here while waiting for news, but now I have some! After a little waiting, I've received all signatures and have been approved with training dates to Aircrew Fundamentals and Basic Flight Engineer at Lackland AFB starting this coming September. It took me roughly from January to April drills in the Guard to receive the final thumbs up for training dates after my packet was submitted. The packet had to be signed off by a flight doctor at both base and states levels prior to the training dates. Just for FYI to any other Guard guys looking for timeline, altogether from packet submission until I leave for fundies is around 9 months (which isn't surprising to me after all the reading I've done) I just wish it could occur sooner! I suppose this will give me some time to get my life prepared and in order to be in and out of the house with all the training at different locations around the country (as well as kiss the old ladies behind a while prior to taking off for some on AC). Hopefully my survival schools and Airframe at The Rock line up well with the training dates I have already. Questions: Is anyone familiar with or have heard of training dates with already cut orders ever changing if a slot opens up? I was cut orders for the fundies and BFE already but wonder if they could ever be bumped up. Is it possible that SERE, water, and para occur prior to fundies and BFE still or do you think they'll line all survivals up right prior to Airframe at The Rock? There's probably a usual general order they send you to the schools in I would imagine.

Still waiting on final packet approval (Status 5)! It's been 2 months 10 days since my FCIII. The wait is killing me!

You are thee man, thank you. I did have a waiver for PRK. I went through the 1, 3, 6, 9, 12 month process with the eye doc. Your points for it getting lost on a desk for a week or so are definitely being taken in to account. I completed my physical January 4 so it hasn't been that long, but I haven't heard anything back from my Chief Engineer. Since I'm National Guard, I can't get on the portal from home to check my status on there. I've got drill this coming weekend so I'm hoping to hear something. One more question. If my Ops Chief is out TDY or deployed and I need another good contact to help pushing things down the road for progress; do you have a suggestion on who else could help get answers? Thanks again.

Thank you for the explanation, I really appreciate it. I'm not sure what it all means, I just know that it means I am not in the clear yet! So, I required a waiver for PRK. I went through the 1, 3, 6, 9, 12 month checkups with my eye doc, who at my FCIII eye exam with him a month ago told me that, "you are well within the limits." The flight doc at the end also said everything looked go, so I'm really hoping that AETC sees it this way too. I know that if you were given a dollar every time asked you this next question you'd probably be a millionaire, but would there happen to be any timeline it usually take AETC to review a physical and approve it? Is there a time of the month they usually round up all packets and review them? Also, are there any additional things that have to occur prior to going from a status 3 to a status 5 after AETC reviews and approves a packet? Thank you again! Cheers.

Agreed.

I was thinking the same thing. Haha.

I've heard this about the WARPs many times, trust me! I'm pretty sure the Navy and allied forces almost always ask for the center line; if not 100% of the time. Cobham is Cobham I realize (the manufacturer of both the WARPs and the center line), but the center line is the US manufactured equipment and the WARP is the UK manufactured stuff. Since I'm US-based, the only thing I deal with is the center line. Not to mention, I don't think the hose and drogue systems gets used a whole lot stateside as it is in general, so even the center line here is pretty low-key. As far as the suck factor patch, maaaaaaan... I'm also in the Air Guard out of Illinois and we get to wear whatever the hell we want on our uniforms. Well, almost! Not really, but I wish. The pension and COLA freeze (or maybe they actually cut it?) is ridiculous, agreed. eTold for $5.00, buy us a pack of Keystone with it, and split the fries and it's a deal.

Point well taken, I can respect that! If anyone is interested let me know and we'll find a way to talk through official channels. If not, no problem. Of course, I don't support posting technical proprietary information on this forum; just thought I'd use this as a springboard to reach out to Travis, McGuire, and folks in the AOR! Tankers are important; got to have them! If not, no worries! Have a good one everyone.

Excellent, thank you Azimuth. Got my dates mixed up there! Definitely way off on the BFE timeframe. It being a washout course makes perfect sense. Some guys on threads were talking about using per diem down there to get a really nice place with a few other guys since you're down there a while, which makes no sense to me if you're only at Lackland for say a total of 7-8 weeks between EAUC and BFE then. When the time comes I'll probably just go to the Air Force Inns or wherever my classmates stay, and study, study, study. I'll be going through for FE on C-130s, and I do believe that the training down at Pcola takes place for us. I also think that my Chief Engineer told me shortly ago that we do have some on-base flying after all the schooling for 2-3 months too. I know that our demand is pretty high for flyers, so maybe that's why they have the FEs on my base spending time flying after; not sure. Even though I've done everything I can up to this point and my FCIII went good on base, I know better then to get all excited. I applied and was chosen to fly as a Nav 3 years ago and had it held up short due to near-sided vision after my packet went out. Since then I've had PRK and am reapplying so we'll see what happens. Thanks a lot for the replies.

Hi All, New forum follower here. My name's Austin Van Duyne. I work as a Field Service Engineer for the OEM to the FR600 Centerline Hose Reel found on the Extender. If any Boomers, FE, Hydro guys, etc. who put their hands on the CLHRs would ever like to talk technical and share their experiences with the hose reel, I'd love to talk. I know that stateside the center line hose reel doesn't get used a lot unless it's partnering up with the Navy or foreign forces, but maybe you guys still use them time to time. I know they're obviously used over in the AOR overseas quite a bit. Anyways, thanks a lot! Look forward to talking center line or even wingtip WARPs too. I don't work the WARPs but could always relay the information. Cheers.

I just got done reading through the entire forum listed above by loadsmith, and boy let me tell you; if you haven't before and want to learn a lot of current 1A1 career field information take a peak at it. A lot of it seemed to pertain to the Active Duty process in getting hired on to cross-train in to this field, so as a National Guardsmen being hired on like myself, it may not help out in detail a whole lot since our process is a little different (at least I get the feeling it is). If there is anyone else reading this forum looking for high-level knowledge on the career field, here is what I took away from the 5 years worth of forum discussion within the link: Current FE Training (may not be assigned by your base training office in this order) *please correct me if I'm wrong EAUC (Aircrew Fundamentals), 2 weeks, Lackland AFB, TX BFE (Basic Flight Engineer School), roughly 3-5 weeks, Lackland AFB, TX; NOTE: rotary and tilt-rotor material has been removed from the course, and concentrates more on fixed-wing. Come to class with copies of your Form 1042, Flight Physical, and ready to study, study, study. The training consists of 9 blocks, and most mention that blocks 3-5 are the most difficult. Studying in groups and keeping a regimen is an absolute must. SERE (Search, Evade, Resistance, Escape School), 3 weeks, Fairchild AFB, WA FIxed-Wing Parachute Training, 1-2 days, Fairchild AFB, WA Water Survival Training, 2-3 days, Hurlburt Field, FL FTU (Airframe Specific Flight Training), length of training and locations vary depending on assigned airframe OJT (On-The-Job Training), 2-3 months, this may only apply to Reservists and Guard Some questions that I still have from that forum are: Does the board at AFPC still meet at the end of every month to review packets? After going through your Flight Class III Physical for this AFSC on base and it being approved by your local flight doc, does anyone else of a medical background review it at a higher level before approval (AFPC, etc. folks)? The general timeline from packet submittal (status 3) until AFPC approves it (status 5), to when you get school dates (status 6), and then actually leave for training seems to be around 6-8 months in total. Does that sound pretty accurate to anyone with the knowledge? Many AD guys talk about being able to track their "status" through vMPF. Does it work the same for Air Guardsmen? We use vMPF as well, just don't have access to it outside of base without a CAC reader. Do the training courses listed above generally get set up for you to do back to back from one another, or can they be split over a prolonged period of time? Yes I plan on asking these questions on the forum I actually read, I just joined though and an administrator hasn't given me the rights to do so yet. I'm sure a lot of folks on there could answer these too since all the questions surfaced from my reading that forum. Thanks all!

Hahaha, this is great. Stories for life. I shall enjoy this very much when my time comes. Definitely looking forward to this. I go down to Pcola to Hurlburt to work with the 413th FTS from time to time. Love it down there.