tbro96
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Posts posted by tbro96
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8 hours ago, MeekTiger0824 said:
Same, it sucks, but they sent a really graceful email explaining their decision process and what they were looking for, better than the generic TBNT email.
Sorry to hear that, man. I was told in the phone interview that even if not selected we may not get a TBNT since they had so many applicants. So I think if you got one you may have been toward the top at least which means there's a strong case that with some more improvements to your packet you'd have a good shot at moving further next year/whenever their UPT apps open again.
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Anyone hear from Jacksonville yet? Packets were due April 15th, so I figure a month and a half would allow time to filter them out.
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24 minutes ago, VFL said:
Any word yet? I’m still waiting.
Nothing here yet. I was just wondering if anyone heard anything.
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Just posting an update. I've been grinding away working and generating flight time. Got about 10 hours under my belt now with no intention of stopping. Hoping to accumulate 21+ to get me to an 85 PCSM by the Mako's deadline of June 6th. Went to visit Jacksonville in person early last month, saw them at their social this past weekend, and I'm hoping to get back there at least one more time soon to keep rushing. If I don't land an interview that's ok, I'll just come back next time with a stronger packet (or I'll get nabbed by AD; who knows?). They're by far my top choice. Anyways, hope you're all doing well!
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Anyone else here go to the JAX meet and greet? What did you think? I had a great time meeting the other candidates and some more of the pilots/their families. It made me want to join them even more than before. It feels like Christmas Eve waiting to hear back from them about an interview or not.
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Don't worry about your tone. It is the internet after all, @StoleIt. I had come here originally just to ask about my chances of getting a guard slot interview, as I had just taken the AFOQT and then learned about this website. However, I've found that it's just an enjoyable forum to talk to people. This being my subject of formal education, I wanted to chime in.
I've seen that picture of how easy it is to hit the TOGA with your wrist, which is why I question its location in the first place. But you are most definitely correct in that it would cost a lot of money to change the location, and as with most things safety related, it can be dealt with pretty effectively with a little bit of training. I guess I may be a bit naïve, but I don't think the money matters if it saves lives in this situation. This type of thing isn't only possible in cargo aircraft holding a few pilots. It could happen in a commercial flight, too.
As for the crew, its hard to say for me about how the pilots reacted. Screaming "lord take my soul" doesn't seem like quite the answer to me, though.
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44 minutes ago, StoleIt said:
Just browsing through your report. Some good stuff in there...but I am curious you and your writing partners background. A lot of your "Why did this happen? This needs to be answered to explain why the events occurred" questions at the beginning are a little alarming if you and your writing partner need to ask.
Is it formal for the FO to be pilot flying on takeoff? - Yes, generally 50% of the legs.
Could this cause complacency in the pilots? - No, acft data burst messages back to dispatch is 100% invisible. Just like datalink while oceanic. It actually significantly alleviates pilot workload.
Is it appropriate to talk about while flying? - Good think you didn't hear what we normally talk about.
Is the FO allowed to monitor radios independent of Captain oversight? - That is an alarming question to not know the answer to.
Is it normal for captain to go make everyone coffee? - Granted I have FA's for that sort of thing...but sounds like a great Capt.
Could light chop have been severe in the vicinity of rain showers? - By definition...no light chop cannot be severe.
Should the plane be configured for a go around? - A go around can occur in any configuration. Slightly more frowned upon up in the flight levels, but I've been told to G/A or had approach clearance cancelled well before I was in landing configuration.
Etc etc.
Why was there not a better indication that go around mode had been activated? There is...the FMA's cycle and the big obvious one is the throttles advance to GA N1. I've had plenty of C-17 turned 737 pilots I fly with TOGA instead of A/T disconnect due to negative transfer. Each one has been competent enough to hold the throttles back instead of letting them advance to GA N1...then say ooops...then proceed to correctly disconnect the A/T. A question you never appeared to ask was why didn't this accident pilot do that?
Contributing Control Action: Improperly designed go around mode ergonomics that make it easy to accidentally turn on. - Making it harder to hit TOGA is NOT the answer. TOGA should be easy to turn on otherwise you will get a lot more airplanes slamming into the ground in an unsafe situation.
Any who, just my $.02 as a student of Human Factors Engineering. Congrats on completing your capstone!
Thank you. We were both students/student pilots. We do not have experience flying with the big boys yet, so a lot of the things that you would consider "obvious" for someone with more experience are not obvious to us. This was not a thesis to earn the degree, just a project in one of our last semester classes.
I think this thread is a really cool way to dive deeper into this topic for me, as I am now working in a safety role, and seeing the different viewpoints of the subject is important. Especially views from other pilots that have flown in the aircraft.
As for TOGA, I wouldn't say it needs to be harder to hit. It needs to be placed somewhere that it is *less likely* to be accidentally hit. However I am not an engineer so it's quite possible that it currently IS in that spot.
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Lots of discussion since yesterday! This is awesome!
I'm going to attach the CAST Analysis I performed (With a partner. I can't take all of the credit. I have removed names and dates as well.) for my M.S. to this post. CAST is a Causal Analysis using Systems Theory. CAST is a newer way to look at accident investigations that is gaining in popularity that attempts to look in more depth at all of the components and how they work together. Disclaimer it's 30 pages long.
@Vito as far as Boeing, I don't believe that the issues with the cockpit design are at the same level as the Max debacle. It is more of a "How can we improve the design?" rather than a "Boeing knew and decided not to do anything about it."
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8 minutes ago, tac airlifter said:
Bro, the CP flew the aircraft into the ground because he sucked. Despite any other culture/system failures, what can you add to the incident which contravenes my first sentence?
Copy every accident has a chain, but this level of incompetence was a crash waiting to happen. I don’t like being a dick, but we shouldn’t be afraid to call a spade a spade. That dude was terrible, and stories like this help reinforce the importance of IPs & EPs holding the standard. That’s the single change which could have prevented this.
If we take out all of the other failures and only leave the one where he "sucked" then obviously there are no other reasons? I'm not saying he wasn't a bad pilot or that he has NO blame. I'm saying that there are many other entities and people at fault for letting the sucky pilot through. The mindset of "pilot error" being the main cause is a slippery slope and even when it is a contributing factor, we as an industry cannot accept that as a widely accepted scapegoat. I believe we're all on the same page with the fact that what he did by withholding information was wrong. However, where is this disdain toward whoever was in charge of putting him on the pilot watch program? Why didn't they have him go through the training again if there was a two week hiatus in his training before the exam and he had all of his home issues and the hurricane stress? His obvious lack of quality airmanship would have been caught then and there. These are all questions that I feel have answers that would be much more indicative to why this happened than focusing on the fact the pilot was sub-par.
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3 minutes ago, uhhello said:
I don't think anyone is arguing that. It's rarely down to a single pilot error. In this case, the pilot error was pretty significant though. Over and over again.
That article in particular really demonized the pilot, when I would personally say that the FAA, Atlas Air, and Boeing are more to blame. The fact that the FAA hasn't even come remotely close to finishing the PRIA mandated database should be a higher priority. Obviously the pilot shouldn't have decided not to disclose some information, but the blame lies more with the system (or lack thereof) to catch these situations before they occur. People in every industry will omit shortcomings in order to get a better job or get ahead, regardless of the morality of it and what the consequences of it could be. I guess my issue with this article lies in the tone and how it focuses so much on the pilot being incompetent, rather than all of the other pieces of what lead to the accident.
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Recently received my M.S. in Aviation Safety. My capstone project was on this flight and what went wrong. It's an incredibly shallow view to just label it as pilot error and be done with it. There were so many questionable things that happened here from the training of the pilot, the structure of Atlas Air, to the cockpit design itself.
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Any of y'all going to Jax Social on May 14th?
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20 hours ago, RocketDriver said:
You're doing all the right things then. My only advice would be to spend more time researching heavy missions before writing them off. Flying Herks or C-17s is a lot cooler than not flying for the military at all, plus you'll get a lot more flight time. If you're willing to go active duty there's already a very high chance you won't fly fighters, so it would be beneficial to look at some of the heavy guard units with interesting missions (e.g. HC-130 or MC-130) and weigh the certainty of flying those birds against the uncertainty of getting stuck with something even less appealing to you if you don't do well in UPT.
I understand that sentiment, and I don't want to come off as arrogant or cocky or anything like that. But I am going to fly fighters. At this point in time I simply cannot envision myself doing anything else. Even considering an alternative feels wrong. I would rather gamble with the uncertainty of AD and bet on myself than have the certainty of something I KNOW I do not want.
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40 minutes ago, 7thokage said:
The max PCSM at zero hours is like 90 right now. Before the change it was in the 80’s
Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile appAccording to Bogidope,
"Empirical evidence seems to indicate that a PCSM score of approximately 70 is now the highest achievable with no flying hours."
https://bogidope.com/upt/the-pilot-candidate-selection-method-pcsm-score-explained-part-2/
This is what I am referencing. It was the only thing I have read. Where did you find out it was a 90?
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15 hours ago, RocketDriver said:
If you are absolutely sure this is what you were put on this earth to do, have you considered active duty? Or heavy units? Or enlisting in an ANG unit to gain experience and get to know the squadron better? You're self-selecting to the most difficult group to be hired into and you're already fighting an uphill battle compared to many of your fellow applicants.
Having a PPL is 100% a gateway because the Guard loses the pilot slot if you wash out of UPT. They can afford to be picky with who they select, and they should be. If you wash out they don't get a chance to fill your slot with an alternate, that money is gone. Think about this from the SQ/CC point of view, are you willing to wager the one or two slots per year you get on someone with zero flight time? Especially when you're getting 100-200 applicants per year for each pilot slot, many of whom have 90s across the board on AFOQT/TBAS, great GPAs, and a PPL in addition to a good work ethic? Active duty is where the Air Force can afford to take chances on people because they own you and can send you down another career path if you don't make it. The Guard doesn't have that luxury.
If you want to bump your chances with guard fighter units, find a way to make the PPL happen.
I am absolutely 100% sure this is what I'm meant to do. Heavy units don't interest me. I have considered the possibility of enlisting with a unit to gain experience and get to know the squadron. I understand totally about their money being a wash, so it makes sense they would be more choosey. I had a 94 Pilot AFOQT and everything else was high 80's. My TBAS w/ 0 FO was a 65, and although I'm not sure what the max is as they keep the equation secret, I'm told the max is a 70. I am applying to AD Navy and AF as well. My GPA for my M.S I finished in Dec. was a 4.0. I recently started door dashing for extra money *after* my normal 8 to 5 job and on weekends for extra cash for flight training as well. So I like to think the work ethic is there too. I'm doing whatever I can to make a PPL happen. There's no crying and "why me" going on here. I understand my position and what I need to do to be where I want to.
I'm banking on my physical attendance to the units and introducing myself well in order to get an interview by explaining much of these things. Then, if I land an interview, I'm hoping the passion shines through along with my dedication. Are my chances slim? Yes. But that's not going to stop me from giving everything I've got. And if I need to apply multiple times to each unit until I get picked up because for some reason AD doesn't, then so be it. I'll come back each time with more flight hours and a better packet.
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I've just been informed I'll be allowed to visit an ANG base before I submit my application. I was wondering a few things. Hopefully one of you that's currently in can help me out.
1) How do these normally go? Do you just sit around and chat for an hour or something? Do you get to see the aircraft? Grab a beer? Get a tour of the base? I am going to go into it expecting more than just myself there, but who knows.
2) What questions should I make SURE to ask to leave a lasting positive impression? If you are currently an ANG pilot, what would you like a prospect to ask you? What do you wish you asked? I figure that way when they see my name on my packet, this positive interaction will increase the odds of being selected for an interview.
Any help would be very much appreciated!
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Anyone know about the Hawaii ANG? When do they usually have their board? Will this one be rated or UPT? I can't seem to find anything regarding their boards. Maybe I am looking in the wrong places?
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1 hour ago, LAW428 said:
I have no idea what gaming PC's sell for but flight training will usually case $150 per hour. I got picked up in December, and i don't think anyone that interviewed did not have a PPL. Even at 99.99% of heavy units a PPL is a minimum even if not explicitly stated. Getting a PPL is crazy expensive ($6,000-$10,000), but realistically anymore getting an interview without one is very unlikely even with your great scores.
It'll just be a few grand for my whole setup, so definitely not an entire PPL. I understand a PPL is an easy way to filter people, but it seems to me that it filters out a lot of people that may be a great fit/great at the job, but cannot afford the training. It's basically financial gatekeeping. I've put in just as much effort as the next guy with studying for exams, being an upstanding citizen, etc, but I won't even get a shot at an interview because I don't have the financial means to get training on something that I would be retrained on anyway? I'm not whining, or trying to come off that way. Like I said I understand it's a decent filter - so I'm doing what I can to get the money together because I'm not going to let that stop me. But I'm certain there are other people that are worse off financially than I am, but are just as - if not more - qualified, and that bothers me.
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2 hours ago, ryleypav said:
Shotgun apps even if you dont think you'll get an interview. You may be invited you may not, but you most certainly will not if you dont even submit the application.
Do what you have to in order to get some flight time, but dont get yourself in over your head either. Try to find some mom and pop flying school where they are a little on the cheaper end, even if you have to drive an hour away for it. But like its been said, a PPL is usually going to be a hard requirement these days, if not even just a soft unofficial one. With the shear volume of applications fighter squadrons are receiving now, its a weed-out tool.
That's my plan. I'm selling my gaming PC in hopes of being able to finance at least some training and get the ball rolling. I'm hoping if I can at least get an interview with my AFOQT and PCSM scores, then I will be able to say "Hey, since I've submitted I've been able to get x amount of hours under my belt." This way it shows I'm serious.
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17 minutes ago, DFRESH said:
If it's your future career, and you can pay money to help get yourself there, would you? To me, even $1500-$2000 to help ensure my future career seems worth it. I would get the flight time.
Yes, I agree. My main concern is that some of the squadrons I am applying to have deadlines coming up very soon. Both of which are at the top of my list for squadrons I want to be in. So I guess some of my post only applies to those I apply to before I get some hours. Do you think I have a good chance at getting at least an interview?
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Hello everyone,
I'm a 25 year old (almost 26) looking to get an ANG pilot slot with a Fighter Squadron. I just recently received my AFOQT and PCSM scores back, and they are as follows:
Pilot: 94
CSO:87
ABM:87
Acad Aptitude: 78
Verbal: 89
Quantitative: 59
PCSM: 65
Flight hours: 0
I am currently trying my best to save up for some flight time, but it's just getting more expensive for training, and more expensive to live with inflation, and my area is blowing up recently so my COL in general is going up. I am considering taking out a loan but I am apprehensive, as I would be taking on a lot of debt to learn something that I would be payed to learn in UPT. However, I understand the flight time increases my PCSM to potentially an 89 with 41 hours of flight time. So I am torn.
Also, if asked a question along the lines of "How do you even know you want to be a pilot if you don't have any flight time." I'm not sure how to answer. I do have my student pilot license, and I've got some time behind a stick (less than 1 hour and not logged) in a 172 as well as a light multi-engine jet. It's hard for me to describe the feeling I get deep in my soul of how amazing it is to be there flying. I just *KNOW* that I want to do this. Like it's what I was put here to do.
My undergraduate GPA was a 2.68, and I recently obtained a Master's degree in order to show I am capable of more. I finished with a 4.0. I was not focused during my undergrad years, and just got a degree because "that's what you're supposed to do." Whereas my M.S. had the purpose of becoming a fighter pilot behind it.
I currently work for an aircraft OEM as an SMS analyst, if that has any effect on how I would be viewed. I have a letter of rec from the Chief Pilot in my org, as well as the Director of Flight Operations.
Any and all help would be very much appreciated. This is my dream, and I want to do everything I possibly can to make it a reality. Thank you.
Monkeypox - a friendly discussion.
in Squadron Bar
Posted
What about straight butt-stuff?