Mountain

So in the last 30 minutes (I took a break from hitting "refresh" to get lunch), a 1405 date has appeared in my CDB on vMPF. Not yet time for completely-naked-dancing-in-the-squadron celebration yet, but certainly any one of those seems appropriate.

The SYD, when functioning properly, damps out the DR without pilot input. When it malfunctions, the DR is no longer artificially prevented. There's often a little DR when the SYD is working, but nothing major. When the SYD malfunctions the situation becomes divergent and dangerous. I guess my previous use of "exacerbated" might be misleading, so sorry about that. I don't think in this case the SYD caused the DR. It just failed to control it as it usually does. Maybe I'm wrong...

What Tnkr said is accurate. I'd also add that the opposite aileron input should happen as the airplane rolls through wings level. In other words, as the jet is rolling left through level, a quick stab of the ailerons to the right, then vice-versa. Dampens it out in a couple iterations. Well done, Tnkr.

I was an IP in the '135, and I used to teach this as my little "bag of tricks" thing. At that time, not a lot of attention was paid to the Dutch roll tendencies of the jet, because the Series Yaw Damper (SYD) was very dependable. Dependable, but not perfect. I had this happen (Dutch roll exacerbated by a malfunctioning SYD) over middle-of-nowhere Canada in the middle of the night when I was a youngish AC, and it scared the bejeezus out of me. No matter what I did, it kept getting worse--up to 40 degrees of bank either way at its worst. Fortunately, we had a graybeard IP on the jet with us who came up to the jumpseat. He talked me through the recovery technique, and all was well. It's a counterintuitive manual control recovery, and had he not been there I can't help but assume the worst might have happened to us. When I became an IP, I made sure I told everyone the story, then walked them through the recovery. I hope the community puts emphasis on this for the lifespan of the airplane. Sounds like they will.

Shit! They're onto us...

Well, now you have a NEW page to check every 6-9 min.

Oh, and that's not ignorance. That's the result of me not communicating clearly.

CDB. Career Data Brief. You'll find the link on the left side of your vMPF page.

Hey 48, Shaft had a 1405 date too. They put it in sometime last week apparently. Nothing for me yet, but fingers crossed. For those unaware, the 1405 date is based on US Code section 1405 (hence the name). It's the date your retirement pay will be calculated based upon. It's automatically entered on your CDB (accessible on vMPF) when you hit 17 years as an E, 18 years as an O, or upon retirement. In other words, if you aren't one of the first two and have seen a date show up in that block (right above your DoS) recently, SOMEbody thinks you're retiring soon.

Catbox- Nothing there either. I think they're just teasing me by playing wih it. STS.

So my TERA app status went to "Validation Complete" on 12 Mar. Since then, no DoS in vMPF, but it was updated 13 Mar, then again today. Anyone else seeing similar stuff?

Fair. Bad phrasing on my part. Q&A was with the Wg/CC. Beers were not. My bad.

Shackaroo. Had this exact conversation over too many beers last night after a Q&A session with our Wg King who clearly did not get this concept.

You'd think so, wouldn't you? Unfortunately it's just not true. I just finished a round of Congressional inquiry (8 Congressional offices, to be exact) for a different issue, and I can tell you that unless the Congressman/woman takes personal interest in your case it'll just be a bureaucratic exercise that wastes your time. You'll deal with a VERY low-tier person in the Congressional office who has no power or motivation. That person has to deal with an entire AF office dedicated to answering Congressional inquiries, and believe me when I tell you they work very hard to avoid real answers. It's like working a claim with an insurance company that doesn't want to pay out, only more shady. It doesn't matter if you're right, even with the AFIs on your side. Now if ALL of us did this, maybe there'd be some impact, but that isn't going to happen either. It's like saying we're all going to rebel against the SOS in correspondence as an informal prereq for residence by refusing to take ANY SOS tests in correspondence. If everyone does that, would they simply cancel the In-res classes? Nope. They'd fill them anyway. But there will always be the careerist douchecopter who sees the situation as an opportunity to set himself apart from the crowd and just do one test, and the situation will revert within a few weeks. In short, an email from you would be ALL OVER the AF in a matter of hours, and get lots of attention. Unfortunately, it'll also get YOU lots of attention--and not the kind of attention you want. It's as close to falling on one's sword as we can get these days. I doubt any of us consider that worth it.

Yeah, seems like you should have at least gone to "hold batch processing" by now. That said, I bet the number of people who applied in the first two weeks the window was open was pretty significant. It might just be that you're in another batch.

FFLS, when did you submit?

stract, I want to, but I'm not at work and have no CAC reader ability. I kinda doubt it though, because the other two non-19-yr guys in my Sq haven't seen a change yet. We had one guy get orders today, but he's a 19+ dude.

I'm now "Validation Complete." Catbox, is that yours? If so, see North48's post from yesterday. It sounds like Validation Complete is a step in the right direction.* *AFPC is involved. Mountain claims no actual knowledge of AFPC's process, to include: goat slaughtering, astrology, voodoo, chicken bone reading, or information gained through seance. It is recommended you assume everything AFPC says is utterly false unless it involves you or someone you love spending 365 days in a festering shitpool in some waste of a desert tribal land listening to some asshole scream in gibberish from the top of a minaret every 6-9 minutes. Because that shit's probably gonna happen. Oh, and for review, I'm a '98 11R, selectively continued guy with no ADSCs and a penchant for '70s 8mm porn. I'm "red" on the matrix, but eligible due to the selective continuation thing. Probably not the porn thing. But I dunno, maybe it helps.

Yup. So's DR.

Any selectively continued TERA folks had their status change to "validation complete" yet?

So very true. AFPC has a very "we answer to nobody" attitude when it comes to doing most things, and the attitude is throughout the organization.

Chizz- That's not the kind of team spirit we're looking for in Big Blue. Consider yourself released. PSYCH! 365, beeyotch!

This. And start with A1.

I hear they're going this direction with flying eventually too. "Who needs pilots when we have so many GS-7s?"

Hey Bama- I'd recommend waiting another week or two just to see if SAF approves the UPT ADSC waiver. My understanding is that's the plan. Still no guarantee that your application will get approved, but it might be a step in the right direction. Think of the sweet grille plumage you'll be sporting by then, and all of the stress will just melt away... That's right. T-shirts. Shhhhhhhhhhhhh. Catbox- That's what they told me originally, but I pushed back (not like, prison style pushed back, mind you). I resubmitted on 15 Jan, and they processed it. By 21 Jan I was in the "FM-Hold Batch Processing" status and that's where I've been since. An unrelated thought: Has anyone else noticed that any time Circus Vargas is performing in a mall parking lot, nobody answers the phone at AFPC?