frog

Welcome back. General aviation is great. Come on in...the water is fine.

This was a response to the Iranian missile attacks in Iraq last year and the realization that you can throw a rock from Iran to AUAB.

Word.

So this might be simplistic, but... Just write down what you would be happy doing. You are volunteering - you aren’t being forced into service. No career field is going to want to keep you if you aren’t a happy/willing member of it. If all you want to do is fly, just write that down and see what happens. - CE guy who was medically DQed from flying. I love what I do.

I don’t know what this means, but I am sure it should be in the next PME curriculum rollout. 😂🍺

I had a 140 for close to 15 years. The pros are that it is a simple, reliable, and “cheap” certified airplane. My wife and I flew it everywhere until our second kiddo came along. It was slow as all get out, but I really enjoyed it. If I was looking for four plus seats, I would definitely do another Cherokee, ideally an Arrow, 235, or 6 for more load and speed unless I had enough money to buy and operate a nice Bonanza. An Archer or 1973 and later 180 (or 72 and later Arrow) have significantly more room in the back. Shoot me a message if you have any specific questions. I can talk about Cherokees longer than most people want to listen.

I owned a Cherokee for 15 years that we flew all over the country until I had to sell for an OCONUS PCS. My only advice is to don’t overbuy, especially if you are going certified. If 90% of your flying is going to be for fun in the local area, save yourself the $ and heartache of having a turbocharger, retract, etc. For the other 10% of your flying, pack some extra coffee and cookies for the times when you are bucking a headwind at 120 knots and enjoy the ride. Fast is awesome, but there are some great things to see in America down low and slow. If you need to go fast with only two seats, buy a RV and don’t look back.

Complaining about having nothing to complain about...saltiness level: expert

This. Like it or not, DOD has decided that it wants O-5s to have a baseline background in national security issues beyond your tactical expertise, and that background is supposedly provided through IDE. No one in the AF can or will change this fact. The effectiveness of forcing O-4s to do this online around their work/family schedules is an entirely different (and worthwhile) conversation.

FIFY

No judging here...just curious. Did you complete ACSC or have any negative indicators? Barring anything unusual, I really hope this is a fluke and you get picked up next year. It seems to be a case study that they should examine regarding what needs to be fixed.

The difference is that Army officers expect to move up through the battalion, brigade, and division levels. Many pilots want to stay at the “company” level or below and make O-5 and O-6. I don’t think it will ever work out that way. The split line category will get more aircrew promoted, but then they are going to do O-5 “stuff” that they don’t want to do in the first place. They need to make the aviator bonus scalable depending on rank so that if you get passed over for O-5, your bonus is increased to compensate for the additional pay. Who cares if you don’t make O-5 if you get to stay in the squadron, fly, and make O-5 pay plus the regular bonus? You get paid like a Lt Col to do major’s work.

There is nothing wrong about a heritage video for support guys as long as it recognizes that they are in support of a larger mission. In many cases, bad support is a result of a lack of connection to the mission. I don’t think a heritage video will fix that, but it wouldn’t hurt either. - Support Guy

Someone correct me if I’m wrong, but promotions to Major and above must be confirmed by Congress. That means CSAF, SECAF, SECDEF, must approve all of them. I don’t envision these people going through the list one name a time, but there is certainly room for politicization over hot button issues. I’ve heard of the list being held up for leverage over budgets, controversial people (i.e accused sexual assault), etc. Even with zero issues, it takes time for the bureaucracy to grind it up and spit it out. Most of the time is probably spent either sitting on someone’s desk or in some analysts’ hands trying to figure out what issue Congress is going to play “gotcha” on. We give our our senior leaders and AF a lot of grief sometimes, often with good cause. But, sometimes I think they are just as frustrated as us because the tendency to make easy things difficult starts at the highest levels of our government.

Unsat. Del Rio or Sheppard? They aren’t rocket science...you just need a good CE dude and a decent contracting officer who isn’t going to spend hours researching why it can’t be done.

So you are basing your conclusion on the entirety of general aviation, commercial or otherwise, based on your experience at a single civilian school? Copy.

That is a pretty broad brush that you are painting with.

It’s hard to help online. Go to a meeting at your local EAA chapter. Pitch in on chapter events, and people will get to know you. Solid mil and civ folks will pour out of the woodworks to help you. That doesn’t mean you get free training, but local people that know you on a personal level will be able to help, and you might stumble into a sweet deal.

They auctioned them off when they shut down the club at Wright-Patt. They had some pretty nice airplanes. There was a pretty large membership in the club. My first meeting was the one where the wing leadership sent a letter to be read at the meeting that closed the club. People were pissed, including some retired GOs. I was really glad I didn’t sell my plane prior to the meeting.

Is this not inevitable? The boss chooses his best qualified to be the exec from his perspective. Great commanders choose great execs. Bad commanders choose people just like themselves with the same bad leadership characteristics. Then, that person becomes a commander and gets promoted early...wash, rinse, repeat. Exec duty isn’t a terrible thing (in hindsight). You learn a lot when you work for a good commander. The problem is that bad leaders find a way to propagate their flaws.

This. I know that doesn’t make the wait any easier, but I’d bet a beer you get picked up.

I got picked up three weeks from school start at a joint school. It was a great experience, and I landed an embassy job after school. It hurt to leave the squadron on such short notice, but things have worked out. I lucked out...I would probably not be a happy camper if I went to the Pentagon after school...leaving the squadron just wouldn’t be worth it. Standard disclaimer: I’m a CE guy, so I’m not getting pulled out of a cockpit to go to school.

Task managing a contractor and leading federal civilians are two different animals. You may give the contractor a task, but his corporate management is responsible for his care and feeding. Regarding the civilian workforce, there are a few of those stereotypical civilians that contribute absolutely nothing to the cause. There is also a majority who love their association with the military and are literally begging for someone to fully utilize their talent and develop them into the employees that we need. I will never forget the sight of a 65 year old wage grade civilian with a high school diploma (maybe) on his back in the frozen mud at 0300 trying to get a snowplow back online with a smile on his face. He didn’t have to do that...how can we inspire the civilian workforce to be more like that guy, or hire 10 more of him? Now, back to your regularly scheduled programming.

CE guy here. Support officers don’t want to run the show. We just want competent senior leadership. Much of the aircrew senior leadership that I have seen has been LESS mission focused than my CE leadership. I can’t count how many times I have pulled Airmen off of the airfield to make the base look better, trim the General’s hedges, etc. Regarding pilots knowing how to talk to people in order to get what you want, “especially civilians”...you probably know the least about how the civilian system works or how to get long-term production from civilians. Check your ego at the door.

BPZ DP allocation rates are much lower than IPZ DP allocation rates. Your situation is pretty common.