tripilot

Did a search for this but didn't find anything. I'm 24, single, male, pilot select. I won't be starting OTS for another 6 months so I want to get a dog to have throughout my career now. Anyone have any recommendations on the best breed for a single service member like myself? I'm pretty athletic, so I want a larger, agile animal, intelligent and a good companion. But he also needs to be able to cope with change and new situations well, because of all the moving around. Any of you guys got dogs you find are really good with your lifestyle?

Haha. Irony. Lost.

I recently bought my first bike as well. 1986 Kawasaki 450 LTD. A cool $950 on Craigslist. I ride it every day now.

Maybe more like... <5 months? (quoted from post on AirForceOTS.com) Fellow Airmen: Secretary Donley and I are proud of the tremendous contributions you make every day to secure our nation. We recognize and appreciate the sacrifices that are asked of you and your family. Now, the Secretary and I must make a difficult decision for the health of the Air Force family. Air Force retention is at a 15-year high, despite an incredibly robust operations tempo. We are nearly 5,000 Airmen above our authorized, funded end strength ceiling. Career fields are overmanned in certain year groups, while at the same time, we have critical manning shortages in some of our most stressed career fields and mission areas. We must correct these overages and skill imbalances by sizing and shaping our force within our authorized, funded ceiling. As you know, in November 2009 we offered a variety of voluntary measures aimed at reducing personnel numbers. Unfortunately, not enough people took advantage of those programs. Thus we had to make the tough decision to move forward on a plan to shrink the active duty force by almost 3 percent. Although it will be a challenging time, our goal is to minimize the impact on Airmen currently serving. We are reducing accessions for both officers and enlisted Airmen while expanding voluntary separation and retirement programs to try and protect those currently serving. Where possible, we will cross-flow Airmen from overmanned career fields into those that are undermanned, and, where appropriate, we will implement involuntary measures. More information on this multi-tiered force management effort is available on the Air Force Personnel Center website. Voluntary programs will allow personnel to leave the service immediately; non-voluntary programs will start this summer with departures targeted for no later than April 2011. I encourage all of you to go to the AFPC website and review the programs that may impact you and your families. Please know the Secretary and I have carefully considered every option, but in the end, arrived at the conclusion that these force management initiatives are necessary. We must operate within our means. Our commitment – and the commitment of leadership at all levels – is that we will do everything we can to assist those transitioning to the next phase of their careers. NORTON A. SCHWARTZ General, USAF Chief of Staff

Isn't assignment night after "you complete UPT?"

I'm not a "humanitarian aviator," but I'd be willing to take a crack at the AFOQT file. I scored straight 99's a couple months ago, if that means anything, and know most of the common airforceots.com controversies by heart. I've been drinking, though, so I'll do it tomorrow. Or the next day, if I'm drinking then.

I have a psychological disorder in which all I can think about, waking or sleeping, is flying the A-10. And I don't even have an OTS date yet. I don't know what I'll do if I get to UPT and don't even have a chance at it. Head will explode, most likely. At least that will void my contract.

The problem with government contracts is systemic and self-reinforcing. During the bid phase, the contractor has a vested interest in bidding as low as possible. And so they justify, to the government as well as to themselves, the low bid. Everyone knows the bid will balloon; but there's no other useful metric by which to gauge the bid other than estimated cost, which must be pushed as low as possible. When it times come to deliver the product, especially when you've got flight-capable units already prototyped, everyone knows that the project can't be canceled. So the issue is no longer money, the issue is technical competence. This is the point at which costs get out of hand. Because there is no longer loyalty to the bid. There is loyalty to building the best product (which is how it should have been in the first place). The problem with the F-35 program (and every other contract in aerospace that the government has put out in the last 50 years) is this disparity between the bid phase and the production phase. The motivations are entirely different. The cost estimations aren't meaningful in the first place, and by the time that becomes apparent, it's too late to bail. I have yet to hear a good solution to this. ETS. Holy hell, that SNAP under my avatar finally went away. Let my shit-talking commence.

I don't know the first thing about this guy, but even I had to laugh at "The Enemy Fears Him". Even in a video dedicated to making him look good, the man looks like Gumby in a flight suit.

Word. Also, bump?

Also, she threw a wad of paper at that one dude. Seriously, that could have caused a paper cut.

Russian beer:

If you're ever in China, Yuengling is literally cheaper than water. We used to buy 750 mL bottles for something like 50 cents, go back to our hostel to get blitzed, and then stumble around eating crawfish and letting chinese girls take pictures of our beards. For the elitist happy medium beer, however, I say you can't beat almost anything by Sierra Nevada. Quality craft beer taste, relatively reasonable prices, high alcohol content almost always.

The original epic beard man video is the best reason for the internet to exist. Or maybe this: That guy's the Sun Tzu of ridiculous fights on public transportation.

die

Wow, that's crazy. When I was reading that story, I was thinking to myself "this kid must have gotten a gold sticker and a raise for saving that airplane." And then... Article 15. I suppose it makes sense. You don't want dumbass students getting themselves killed because they think they know better than the instructor. But it's certainly something about the culture that isn't, at first glance, intuitive.

This thread is great! Thanks for sharing HiFlyer. War stories are a nice break from bitching about bureaucracy and politics.

Word. ...sudden and uncharacteristic respect for a person shitting himself...

Holy mother of God those are the funniest clips I've ever heard in my life. I almost shit myself at work from laughing. What, exactly, could cause a pilot to shit himself? Although everyone on the radio thinks it's funny, they also just seem to sort of take it in stride.

Sure that's the argument... but look at the picture. Does that look like someone that takes up one Southwest seat? More to the point, does it look like someone who wouldn't be in the way if he was crammed into one seat during some kind of emergency?

I agree with this statement. And anyone who read the Augustine Commission report would likely come to the same conclusion. That said, I work at NASA currently, and a lot of people are firmly convinced that with the new funding profile, Constellation is indeed going to grind to a halt entirely. Paranoia? I don't know. I've been arguing about it for 2 days now and frankly am I bit fed up with the speculation. We'll see what the actual budget looks like on Monday (not in the State of the Union, as the Sentinel rather daftly put it). Even then, though, it may be hard to say exactly what will happen with NASA internally.

I just watched that video like six times. The reporter's face is priceless.

Bahaha. This thread is awesome. Mattp, three recommendations: (1) don't take pills, (2) don't feel the need to tell everyone in the world everything you've ever done, (3) webcam in your sister's shower.

The video of Buzz Aldrin cold-clocking that dude in the FACE is an epic, instant win. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOo6aHSY8hU

Looks like I'm going to have to be #1.