Vito

Mooseag03, A little perspective from an “Old Guy”. I went through UPT in 86, back then all the Tweet IP’s were excited about the T-46. One or two actually took a T-37 assignment in the hopes that they’d be flying the -46 before long. None of it panned out! It was a nice aircraft, but the program was so mis-managed by Fairchild that the AF axed the whole program. Then a few years later the AF conducted the JPAT’s competition. Most thought the Cessna jet was a shoe in since it was the only American built jet. The other Jet contenders were foreign built, much like the current T-38 replacement competition. Everyone wrote off the turboprops (T-6, Tucano IIRC) because the AF would never train it’s pilots in a prop!

As goofy as the original Top Gun was, it was a great time to be going through UPT! I was at Columbus in the summer of 86 and after Top Gun premiered, a lot of young pretty faces started showing up at the local bars (both of them! "Good Times, Bonny and Clydes" remember them?). We milked that dumb movie for all it was worth with the ladies. They loved it, and we tried not to disappoint them!

I found this page in our Class history . It's slightly misleading in that the final number of grads includes students who washed back into our class. My class 87-04 CBM had 3 washbacks, so we started with 52 graduated 26 of the original class. We were told we were above average too😀 Class 87-06 was an Academy class, and it sure seemed to some folks that they treated them much better.

We had 2 students who busted a standup and were washed out for it! One guy got so nervous that he passed out, the other screwed it up so royally that the Flt CC and all the IP's went on a rampage against this guy and he busted his next 5 rides, and washed out of 38's. Previously he was a strong student, so they gave him a extra ride or two, but he was shell shocked and couldn't recover...CBM 86-87l. And none of the IP's were our "Bro" they were actually not allowed to fraternize with students, even off base over a beer etc.. a different time for sure.

Think he's related to the famous P-51 ace of WWII Don Gentile?

I was flying outbound from the sandbox, and I called my wife who informed me that my Son had just soloed in his Cessna 152! I was on cloud nine the rest of the flight.

Great point!

My son is a CFI, has all the required quals to enter into this program, and he's currently flying as an F/O in a regional jet. After spending the last 5 years following his progress I can tell you that there is a clear difference in the way civilians are trained versus the Military. I witness the differences every year at my airline job when it's checkride time. The difference is, civilian training is low threat, train to proficiency. Unless your a real flight safety threat, they will give a student many chances to pass a phase, or checkride. If you screw up your V-1 cut, "let's try that again, and this time remember to step on the correct rudder". Each year at my airline, I am 110% prepared for my checkride, I have all the gouge, intel, and scenarios. Yet every year I'll run into a civilian guy and I'll offer my gouge, and his response is, "I don't want to know what's on the checkride, I rather see how I'd do without ithe intel" My reaction is always, "What alternate universe did you grow up in!" Many of them were trained to proficiency, so check rides are considered a non-threat event. This breeds a more lax, less prepared, less aware , mindset in my opinion. If this program succeeds the civvy pilots that succeed will have to be very good, highly prepared, and the type who goes above and beyond what's normally expected. It myay be an eye opener for many of them when they find out you don't get 4 or 5 strikes before you strike out.

Back during Desert Storm, MARS radio was 24/7 entertainment. You'd have 15 guys waiting to make a phone patch to call home and there was always some doofus who would have a 20 minute conversation with his wife , not realizing everybody was listening in as well. I used MARS all the time, even in the C-17. My kids loved hearing from me and the guys who handle the morale calls are great!

Quick question, and please refrain from the " Jersey jokes". I notice that over the past few years there are very few McGuire C-17 assignments dropped. I know other bases have more airframes, but I'm just curious why.

Azimuth, I'm just curious, what was the issue that caused the FEB in your post...you can be General, but I'm curious how bad an event needs to be to warrant the FEB. My only exposure to a FEB was a 130 dude who could not transition to the C-17. He was asked nicely to take a non-flying job or risk an FEB..he chose the non-flying job. Some of my airline buds who knew him at his old C-130 unit said he sucked at flying the Herc as well.

Back in the day, 1987. We had no idea what the drops were. We did have a strange scenario that affected my class. We graduated in March of 87. During the summer of 86, there were a few F-16 mishaps resulting in a temporary halt of F-16 assignments to new UPT grads unless they were the #1 graduate. Our Class Advisor told us, essentially, that if you were FAR'ed (fighter qual'ed) you'd probably become a FAIP since fighter assignments would be rare for our class. He wasn't kidding..started UPT with 52 studs, graduated 24, 2 fighters, an F-4 and an A-10, zero Vipers Top 3 guys in the class got an A-10, a 135 and a C-130..strange times.

Sad thing is last week in two separate videotaped discussions, 2 CNN producers and Van Jones were both taped basically admitting that the whole Russia collusion conspiracy was BS, and they were only pursuing it for ratings. Also they retracted two stories alleging Trump associates were colluding with Russia (Anthony Scaramucci). Yet they get upset over attacks against them?

"If You Ain't a Pilot" by Ray Wright. Hands down the BEST book written about UPT. Hilarious, witty and every Air Force Pilot can relate.

Was in San Diego once for Comic-con, the women , not models, were pretty scary there too.

I left law school after my first year and joined the AF to fly. Never, never regretted that decision once. Saw things, and did things that 99.8% of people will never do. You will forever regret NOT attempting to follow your dream..you'll always regret not trying.

I'm sure as soon as that hornet pilot trapped he was whisked away to debrief and media quarantine! No high fives and parties topside.

I remember hearing about how tricky the 38 was to land. One day I parked my car near the runway and noticed that it came in nose high and if you didn't do anything you'd hit hard but no flare was really needed to change the deck angle. On my first landing all I did was take it down to about ten feet, slowly pull power and flare slightly...easy.

As an airline guy, how do you plan on keeping AR pilots current? In the AF I had to get a plug every calendar month...in the Airlines, especially for long-haul widebody flights, it's difficult for pilots to get landing currency. Also, seniority rules in the Airlines, so your young hot shot sticks won't be refueling, it'll be the old fat guys, who may may have the seniority but not the skills....the whole idea is untennable for a passenger airline...maybe cargo, but as a UPS pilot, you'd have to pay me a big premium for any AR mission!$$$$$$$$$$$

Thx TreeA10, what flights were you an IP in? I was 87-04 Orion, Dowdle was the Flight Commander

That Snuff Puppet video is twisted, like Burning Man meets You Porn meets Sesame Street back to the T-38, I do remember a bunch of Columbus IP's got into trouble for landing on super-highway under construction in the 1980's. Rumor had it that they turned off their transponders and did touch and goes on the highway. They even made a patch for the "Club". Anyone else hear this story?

Need pics of this girl to give you a proper response

Guineapigfury, whether they were valid or not the Press portrayed Reagan as a dolt! They still regard him as more lucky than good...

The Left, and media said the same things about Ronald Reagan when he became President. They called him a dumb actor who had no experience. What they didn't realize, was Like Trump, Reagan was a leader....

"Are You A drug addict" I agree, I got to fly a T-45 sim two years ago and was not impressed.