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DirkDiggler

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Posts posted by DirkDiggler

    Does flying start feeling like a job after a while?

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    6 hours ago, Bropofol said:

    Hello! Mid twenties working in healthcare with few logged hours under my belt. Been considering a career change and try for a guard spot. Current job is somewhat interesting and rewarding, but it just feels like a job and like I am putting my life on pause until I clock out. Does flying ever start feeling like that? I have read enough from pilots leaving service to understand there is a lot of desk work and duties outside of flying, but at the end of the day you still get to do some amazing flying, with amazing people, wear flight suits, and all the prestigious things that come with being a pilot. It just feels childish to quit a stable career I built so far to start from 0 with no guarantee it would work out. Cheers in advance for any advice !

    I'm getting ready to retire after 21 years and change AD; the flying never got old for me, loved every minute of it and would do it all over again in a heartbeat.  Like Four Fans said, it's all about perspective.  Anyone can find a reason to be unhappy in any location or career field, likewise you can almost always find the good in most situations.  Best of luck to you.

    • Like 2
    • Upvote 1

    Esophageal issues

    in Aviation Medicine

    Posted

    Honestly appreciate the replies, they were helpful.  I was considering pulling my retirement request and staying another couple years but in the end I've decided to proceed with retirement so this won't be an issue (at 21 and change total years).  Once again I appreciate the info.

    Track Selects and Assignment Nights

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    55 minutes ago, H_G said:

    What is the possibility of dropping B-1's out of T-1's? I am of the understanding that it has been done before and it possible, though extremely rare. How has the career of those who did this pan out? 

    Girl in my class FAIP'd to T-1s (her husband was a couple classes ahead of us and FAIP'd T-6s), they were both T-1 students.  They both tracked B-1s after their FAIP tour was over.  Both made major, she was an IDE in-residence select but decided to separate at the end of her commitment.  

    History Friday

    in Squadron Bar

    Posted

    Wasn't really sure where to put this but on 21 April 2024 LtCol (ret) Sam Galloway flew West.  Sam was the Navigator on the lead aircraft of the Operation Eagle Claw (Desert One) mission.  Post AF he trained almost every MC-130H front ender that went through the FTU at Kirtland until he fully retired in 2011.  Sam was a phenomenal instructor and also a genuinely fantastic human being, he'll be missed.

    Galloway, Sam | Gathering of Eagles Foundation (goefoundation.org)

    • Like 3
    • Upvote 2

    Esophageal issues

    in Aviation Medicine

    Posted

    Thread bump.

      Anyone have any recent experience with getting a FC1 waiver for eosinophilic esophagitis?  According to the AF waiver guide it's a DNIFing condition but waiverable.  Was curious if anyone had any data on likelihood of waiver, how long it would take, etc.  Appreciate any help anyone can provide.

    WTF? (**NSFW**)

    in Squadron Bar

    Posted · Edited by DirkDiggler
    Additional info

    On 4/25/2024 at 10:24 PM, Boomer6 said:

    Word on the street is the commandant of SOS has outlawed pen tab patches, name tags with call signs and last name on them, and not zipping leg pockets (where one would place their cover) when outside. Dudes have already received paperwork for "offenses" and are buying extra covers for their pockets when walking outside. DAFUQ indeed.

    Ole Buddy Lee isn’t someone you should casually trust/turn your back on.  He’s one of Dag Andersen’s boys. 
      On a side note, he went to the MC-W program right as it as standing up.  AFSOC really fucked up the rollout of that; most communities in AFSOC used that as an opportunity to get rid of individuals they didn’t want in their respective communities (not all, there were some real good dudes that got sent as well).  Don’t know if that was the case with Lee, but he was bounced between a lot of different communities, which is odd.

      Edit to add, he’s also at least DOS adjacent, he went to IDE out of the 27 SOW when Slife was the Grp/CC out there, if that helps paint the fuller picture.

    • Like 1
    • Upvote 1

    Unsolicited T-1 Replacement Proposal

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    2 hours ago, Clark Griswold said:

    At this point anything that is flight time for guys going multi eng heavy would be fine but if the Navy can find the resources (granted fewer pilots to train for their heavy community) the USAF can too

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/first-t-54a-trainer-jet-arrives-at-naval-air-station-corpus-christi/ar-AA1nHW9c?cvid=9bde1b3471da4db689e9e85ad188cb6c&ei=4
     

    USAF buys 120, send studs to a civ multi course after T-6s, then to Flight Safety for a type course or AF written syllabus, then a flight syllabus in the T-54 to teach Air Mobility basics (air mob mission planning, transport aircraft form, simulated air refueling & delivery, NVGs, etc…

    Syllabus NOT focused primarily on repetitive basic sorties but heavy military airmanship, reasonable length, shooting for stud grad / winging 3+ months from start.

    3 bases, east-central-west, near major airports / airline domiciles to develop operational experience and entice Reservist support

    This would be a good idea.  I thought my TC-12 training was a good feeder for the Herk.  It would give the student a more complex airplane with more than one engine to worry about.  At this point anything is better than the ridiculous idea of T-6s straight to whatever heavy the student tracks.  Would probably be fairly cheap operating cost wise too.  All those are reasons why the AF would most likely never go for it.

    • Like 1
    • Upvote 1

    Changing/Switching airframes

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    On 4/5/2024 at 6:07 AM, The46IsntThatBad said:



    Also, there are some communities that can tell AFPC to get bent. Test Pilot School is one of them, and if you ever receive a vaguely worded email about meeting the criteria for a "selective assignment", they can also tell AFPC to pound sand.
     

    Facts

    This is no longer true anymore and hasn’t been for awhile.

    Russian Ukraine shenanigans

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    1 hour ago, Danger41 said:

    This thing is really confusing me. I don't doubt that these people are all getting seriously fucked up. But the official position has been crickets and natural causes? WTF is the actual answer on this crap. Or is this the next generation in upping your disability rating? I'm personally going the Navy Chief route and gaining 250 pounds, getting sleep apnea from morbid obesity, and earning my 100% disability but this is creative.

    Highly recommend getting in the SCIF for additional information on this, there’s multiple reasons you’ve heard very little open source.

    IL-76 shot down

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    This was all that was left of that Silk Airways IL-76.  If you blow the pics up you can see part of horizontal stab, besides some other small debris and the black impact mark that was all that was left.

    DSC03532.JPG

    DSC03533.JPG

    • Like 2

    IL-76 shot down

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    1 hour ago, FourFans said:

    Got that same experience back in OIF.  Also had one of our crews watch one fly directly into a mountainside near Bagram.  Apparently ATC told them there was co-altitude terrain and they responded "we see everything" shortly before merging with said terrain.  That's why US troops were never allowed to fly on them.

    I had just taken off from Bagram when that happened.  Explosion lit up the whole valley.  I tried telling ATC that I thought I’d just seen a plane hit the ridge out west, ATC comes back with “are you sure you’re not seeing the AC-130 tweaking on the range”.  We had a mission to fly and I didn’t feel like arguing.  
     

    Couple days later we found the crash site and orbited a couple times to take some pictures.  Nothing but a hole in the ground with tail laying nearby.  Nobody from Silk Airways, the Afghans, or the US ever went up there to my knowledge.

    World War III Updates

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    2 hours ago, Danger41 said:

    Not a mobility guy but what’s the elevator speech of who is responsible for what in an airdrop? Who rigs the chutes, QC’s them, etc? AC ultimately responsible for that or not?

    Most DZ Surveys have a blurb on them that states "Supported unit commander accepts responsibility for damage to equipment, property, and/or injury to personnel on and around the DZ."  So if I drop a bundle that lands on the DZ and it crushes some poor solider/HUMVEE/civilian that happens to be running towards an aid bundle, that not on me.  If I toss a bundle off DZ and it's something I screwed up, and it hits something bad, that's the fault of the crew.  An Air Drop Review Panel (bod bomb board) investigates, will figure out what happened, and assigned responsibility as required.

    44 minutes ago, uhhello said:

    From what I have read and seen mentioned here is the type of 'rigs' used in this drop were throw-away chutes and have a high failure rate.  

    Looking at the video it looked like LCHV or Low-Cost High Velocity chutes.  Them and their cousin Lost-Cost Low Velocity were developed during Afghanistan due to the high numbers of airdrops we were conducting.  They're basically a trash bag factory chute that's plopped on top of a pre-formed container; they do have a high failure rate compared to other types of chutes (though I've personally never had one burn in, I've had lots of LCLV fail).  All of the container and rigging materials are thrown away after airdrop unlike a standard CDS where most things are reused.

      I've dropped LCHV around half a dozen times in Afghanistan and Syria; they're actually pretty good at going where they're supposed to (at least in my experience and unlike LCLV, which can blow all over the place) but you wouldn't want to be anywhere near where they're landing.  I think the Rate of Fall on them is around 60 feet/second, which is screaming in for a bundle.

    • Upvote 2

    Promotion and PRF Information

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    31 minutes ago, Danger41 said:

    I’ll tell you this that the AAD thing is back with a vengeance. I BFM’d that requirement to O-5 DO gig and then went from top Strat to bottom 1/3 for next rack and stack. When I asked why they said that since that’s a requirement for O-6 and not having one shows you don’t want to be an O-6, they don’t want you to be a commander since that’s a step to O-6. Sigh.

    Thats fucking horseshit.  AF leadership has already stated they're having/going to have a problem producing & retaining qualified people for Sq command; now they're back to levying an artificial requirement for command that will drive more good people away.

    • Upvote 2
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