dream big

Just like their AWACS are not equipped for airshows!

That and a few CBT should cover it

She said warrior

I am pretty sure I am intimately familiar with DTS, more so than half these finance "troops." How do they not know what a C-130 is, especially considering it "brings them their mail" while they are slaving away, deployed, working in air conditioned offices from 9-3 with a one hour lunch break?

I met him while I was on ops air force as a cadet (go ahead laugh,) when he was the wing king at Misawa. Stand up guy, invited us for dinner and drinks at his house. Best mentoring session ever. He is now the three star here in Japan, everyone seems to like him.

I am from Schenectady and I must say , buzzing around there in a 172 , if you mistake the two airports for each other, you have no business flying an airplane.

Also, understand that if you get T-38s out of whiting, you may be behind when you start 38s at Vance. In most cases, you will not have flown for several months while your air force counterparts would have just finished their last T-6 flight when you join them. They have also done double the formation flights (a significant portion of the 38 syllabus) you had done at Whiting (unless the Whiting syllabus changed,) and have been flying under air force rules for six months. Can you catch up? Absolutely. Several Whiting guys end up at the top of their class at Vance. Just realize it is an extra hurdle for many.

If it meant I will have the opportunity to actually help employ my herc in combat instead of being voluntold to plan parties and ceremonies because it will "look good on my OPR" then I would absolutely stay in.

Yokota is pretty calm, you might fly 5 hours a month and you will have to fight for a 2 month deployment , which may happen once while you are here. You are probably gone a few days every few months. Just FYI incase you were pondering base choices for 130s.

Good quote from one of my UPT instructors: "yeah you can use the EGI to determine your runway offset, or you can be a man and just look outside the canopy"

Interesting, in a time where the air force is being asked to slim its' budget down.

Perhaps... I have yet to lie on a training report, especially because the only reason I do fly is because I have beans left. To clarify, other copilots are sometimes told by higher ups they fly with to pencil whip their beans being told "this is the way it is done." To some higher ups, on paper, as long as we are beans complete we are "qualified." Maybe we should show some balls and refuse to log beans we didn't fly but we must also walk a fine line between being honest about our training and stepping outside of the "dumb copilot / Lt do what you are told" stigma that some of the higher ups in the sq create.

I think another problem alluding to the post about additional duties is that in a lot of squadrons, we just don't fly much. Copilots in my squadron are averaging 5 hours a month. Yes 5, that's one training sortie. A lot of people are forced to log beans that they didn't fly so that they can be "current." I would kill to fly as much as possible, deploy and become an "expert" in my airframe. I just study the pubs as much as possible (on top of masters, pme, etc) and hope that when our time comes something like this (or worse) won't happen.

I made the corn without jalapeños today

Hey now, Mongolian BBQ is kick ass.

Just an update.. The C-130 squadron is almost 60% overmanned. Guys are averaging 5 hours a month if they are lucky. 3 UAVs just came down to our squadron and two of them went to brand new copilots who got here just a few months ago. On top of this, they are denying extensions for everyone, some people had their extensions taken away (which means single guys will be here two years and married guys three instead of three/four years respectively.) Drunken nights in Tokyo are great but in terms of flying, grim outlook for any pilots coming in.

Only when they are voluntold to...

Actually there is a disadvantaged American group these days : "White American Male"...

It's 'Mercian !

Sarah Palin!

You will do phase 1 and 2, as well as single ship ops on the flight line. The only thing you won't really do is formation. You will get most formation training at Kirtland.

3. As a LT, these forums have been invaluable pieces of information through my first few years in the AF. I take the negative with a grain of salt, focus on the positive; focus on what I can change, and not worry about what I cannot change.

I would highly recommend living in Pensacola and just dealing with the commute. Governors gate apartments is where a ton of student pilots (and hot, spoiled college girls if that's your thing) live. Or, room up with some friends closer to the beach. Governors gate is about 35 mins to Whiting, 30 to NAS Pensacola and only 15 minutes from downtown. While you're AF counterparts are enjoying the wonders of Columbus, Enid, Del Rio and Wichita falls, often being stuck in the dorms- you get to go to pilot training in an awesome beach town and all the spoils that go with it. Live it up!

For slick aircraft commanders who cross flow into the gunship, do they upgrade faster to an AC once in the gunship? Or do they spend significant time as a copilot learning the new mission?

A buddy of mine who was going to go to the MC-130W but got his assignment changed to a papa model since apparently the whiskey is going to become an AC-130W. Is the whiskey really going to become strictly an AC-130 now?