MTW

http://www.katv.com/story/25470725/air-force-captain-indicted-on-child-porn-charges

While we're on the topic of bringing back dinosaur crew members, can we just agree that the Air Force also needs to bring back radio operators to all aircraft? How can we expect a copilot to possibly tune the radios and fly the aircraft at the same time? I kinda miss the eng from my E/H model Herk days and they were generally incredibly good and professional at their jobs, but they are completely unnecessary on modern aircraft, and would be completely unnecessary on the C-17. Same with the nav...oh wait, navs were always unnecessary. There have been plenty of incidents where the eng did not save the day. There may be a solution to the recent problems the air force (most notably the C-17) have been experiencing lately, but adding an eng would not even be close to effective. I hear a lot from leadership about "being professional" and how it means having a sharp haircut, well pressed uniform, dotting every i and crossing every t when you write an MFR etc... They almost always fail to mention that part of being a professional aviator involves being in the books almost constantly, chair flying your next flight, and having your airframes mission down so well that you dream about it. We imediately take young copilots from the schoolhouse and they are instantly thrown into 50hr a week shoeclerk style jobs in the squadron. Then they see awards being given out not for flying missions well, but for planning the Christmas party. That is the problem, and until the leadership culture un######s itself and says focus on flying we will continue to have these problems. And no, publishing a new FCIF or AMC special interest item will not solve the problem.

That cartoonist has his head up his ass. What they don't show on the "traditional war" side is a soldier coming back with his legs missing (or in a flag covered coffin), the multiple divorces caused by endless deployments, or anything about being a POW. I find it amazing the number of self righteous assholes who can criticize the way we now wage war, yet would never consider joining the military.

I've never heard of it being illegal to move your stuff into a storage unit while deployed or TDY. Its spelled out in this article from the AFtimes that it is legal,the article is from 2003, so it may be a little dated. http://www.airforcetimes.com/legacy/new/0-AIRPAPER-1643323.php

Ya, pretty ridiculous that Js can't fly GPS approaches yet. There are a shitload of them out there, and they are a lot easier and simpler to fly then the ol NDB. Js in general are just kind of having problems doing stuff in the WX.

I don't think anyone will ever question that Corpus training isn't better suited for herk guys, it was a program designed from the ground up to train turboprop pilots. T-1s train you very well to go into any non-fighter airframe, and I believe that when I filled out my drop sheet I had 51 different choices of places I could go. The herk community is going to lose a couple of months of training in turboprops. In the grand scheme of things this probably won't hurt our community much. Little Rock does a very good job of taking people from any airframe and turning them into great herk crewdogs. I won't deny that Corpus is great deal with some great training aspects, but those aspects with regards to training are minimal in my opinion, and easily caught up during Little Rock. I really wanted to go to Corpus at some point, but it looks like that opportunity is dissapearing. Areas where I was behind due to T-1s were analog instruments and some of the approaches like NDBs etc. I understood how to fly an NDB, understood how to read some of the old ass stuff we have in the herk, but just needed a little bit of practice doing it. I may have been behind in this, but the T-44A/TC-12 guys who never used an FMS, a flight director or a GPS are probably behind in the J models in regards to their T-1 peers. Instead of doing NDBs, T-1s spend a lot of time on GPS approaches, which will be a big help in the J model and AMP(if it ever happens) transition. Rudder use was not a factor despite what everyone jokes about. I thought I would be lightyears behind the Corpus guys in my class in flying the C-130. I was behind in some regards, ahead in others. Really not that big of a deal. 3 months isnt much of an exageration. Some guys show up the same day as their Corpus peers, some guys are showing up almost a year later than the T-1 guys. The timeline from start of phase III to mission ready has so many factors that its probably nearly impossible to predict when a T-1 guy will be MR vs a Corpus guy being MR. I personally would have had a 2 month head start on a bud of mine a class ahead of me who went through Corpus. However, the speed at which I got done with T-1s was wiped out by having water survival delayed due to the gulf oil slick. This delayed my RNLT 2 months. I would have made it to the same base as him significantly earlier despite the fact that I washed back a class, and didnt do water survival before starting phase III. BP had other plans though... From my UPT T-1 class of 11, there are 4 of us flying Herks, 1 flying MC-12s currently, and 1 T-6 FAIP. 1/2 of my class is flying a prop aircraft. I don't think any of us had any problem transitioning to a prop, or were ever at a disadvantage because we flew the Tone. T-1s vs. Corpus tends to come up a lot in discussion. I hope that the T-1 program can incorporate some of the best parts of Corpus training into it. I never went through Corpus, but I am now in a community where 90% of the pilots around did, so I get to hear plenty about it. I went from the T-1 to the Herk, anyone out there go from the Herk to the T-1 or another jet aircraft care to chime in?

Honestly, everything you mentioned was what I hoped to get out of T-1s, some of it happened, some of it didn't... The T-1 is limited as to what you can do like the T-44A did with its god-box. I believe that the T-44C doesn't have a god box, so the navy upgraded itself out of that sort of training. Also most of the emergencies were taught in the sim. Learning how to handle an engine out in the T-1 with runaway rudder trim while flying an ILS down to mins is probably best left for the sim. Honestly, I don't think the lack of emergency training in the air during T-1s hurts me, or any other toner herc pilots out there. Is it cool that Corpus does it? Yes! 100% Necessary, maybe not, but once again, my experiences are incredibly limited. Almost everything is done in the sim nowadays, and the training in the air is fairly benign in regards to EPs. Is this hurting the C-130 community? Maybe, but I don't have enough experience to say so. My single most memorable flight in T-1s was with a former Talon II IP who had us doing all kinds of crazy(for a T-1) tactical stuff through one of the low levels. Form solo in T-6s was cool, but this was the flight that solidified in me that I wanted to fly true tac airlift. A lot of what we did in T-1s didnt really fit in with what we do in the Herc, but the T-1 has to satisfy a lot more customers/airframes(sts). The plans we made and the cards we filled out in T-1s were similar to the 280s that hercs use today. Corpus and T-1s aren't identical in what they did during the low level phase, but they seem to have many similarities, and I felt confident when I got to Little Rock and began the tac phase. T-1s are incredibly GK intensive, much more so than Corpus. I know I didnt go through Corpus, but just in discussing this with the guys around the squadron who did, I feel it isnt a stretch to say this. T-1s don't tell you exactly what you need to know for every flight, they just say "know the 217, 202 etc". You get grilled on GK every flight. Generally the IP would ask you about your plan, and then have the GK session center around that. If you didnt know what you were doing GK wise, they usually either wouldn't let you do it in the air, or would downgrade you on the procedure item and the overall GK grade. There were some IPs that would throw the book at you day 1 and then crucify you for not knowing it. Was it fair? Probably not, but it happened, and you just got ready for it if you knew you were flying with that IP. By the time Nav check rolled around though your standard T-1 stud will have a pretty amazing understanding of EVERYTHING in the 217, 202, AP1B, IFR sup etc. You also still have EPQs in T-1s, so you get your weekly fill of random queepy ass questions that make you feel like a rockstar when you guess the right answer, but these were pretty worthless and could probably just be eliminated. I felt as if I was treated more as a big boy in T-6s then I was in my flight in T-1s. I felt this was backwards and was a BIG weakness of the program. This just seemed to be my flight however, as other flights had very different experiences. I knew it was bad when my class got to have a 1.5 hr stand up GK session 2 days before our drop. We're about to graduate from the program and the BS still hadn't stopped. T-1s also do aerial refueling, which honestly had nothing to do with flying a normal slick, but for any of the herc variants who do handle AR, it will be a big help to them. It gets you used to doing a shitload of math quickly in the air, and hashing out some sort of plan to try to get gas. Also getting to fly formation at FL310 is pretty cool, and will probably be your last chance to be up that high if you drop a herc. I would imagine if not through Corpus then through good ol' T-1s. Don't worry, the T-1 is a great airframe for training future C-130 pilots. Yes, it is a jet engine, but it still handles very similarly to a C-130. The plane is a beast to fly due to not having ailerons (gotta love spoilers!) and is honestly less forgiving than the herc. The plane is a bitch to land due to dutch roll, and is very unforgiving if you have no clue what you are doing (ie your standard student). The T-1 program could probably benefit from having a lot more emergency stuff in the air, and I feel that was the training at Corpus' best trait. But the EP training at the Rock was pretty good, and definitely prepares you to handle the many emergencies you will see in the 62 E model hercs you may get to fly at the school house nowadays. You do also get an introduction to a prop in T-6s, it's nowhere near what you get at Corpus, but you still get the basics of a prop, understanding how it can help and hurt you etc. By far, the best part of the T-1 program was getting to still be in a flight and class, still get to show up to work with 10-15 of your best friends. I know that is something that my Corpus buddies lost out on, but they gained easy access to a beach and those fine Corpus women, so its probably a wash there...

As far as I know from my buds who did go through Corpus recently, the review stage still exists. T-1s don't have anything comparable. T-1s just have their standard transition - nav - mission fam. During normal flights students are encouraged to make them fairly benign with the almost standard ILS to LOC to the same runway to 1 engine ILS to the same runway to a GPS to the same runway to a few VFR patterns, hold on the way out of the airfield, then RTB. I hope they bring a student-solo sortie back to T-1s. Would have been a great confidence builder, and a good time.

Jeez, sorry, long time lurker finally making a few posts... sorry If I came off as a troll. If Corpus truly does end, what parts of Corpus training do you hope to see the T-1 program pick up? Its probably a pipe dream to think that anything would change, but you never know. I can say that I wish the T-1 program would have been a little more "big boy", show up to fly, know your shit then, then leave. Being back on formal release for the majority of phase III blew, and really added nothing to the program other than forcing us to be in our flight room for 12 hrs a day.

Because T-1s and T-38s don't teach their studs to shoot an ILS down to mins? In my Little Rock class there was a good mix of guys from T-38s, T-1s and T-44s. My experience is limited as I am just a lowly LT, but there wasn't any big noticeable difference. I would have killed for a Corpus spot, but didnt earn one in T-6s. Still ended up in a herc and love it, but was glad that in phase III I got a mix of experiences from a wide variety of airframes. Also getting my wings almost 3 months ahead of my classmate who did go to Corpus is pretty awesome. Only big difference I did notice was that I had only done 2 NDBs prior to getting to Little Rock, where as the Corpus guys had pretty much done a couple million of them it seemed.

All I can think of is buzz lightyear whenever I see the new cyber wings. Here is a contest for those of you who are more artistic than myself. http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/04/design-the-air-forces-cyberwarrior-badge-cause-the-real-one-sucks/

There has since been a deleted post that she left making a judgment about who got the UAV out of a class at XL. If a wife came on here and started talking shit about someone in my UPT class I would be kinda pissed. Wives aren't in the flightroom, in most instances have never been in the airplane, and in general shouldn't be passing judgment on something that I'm sure they just heard second hand from their husband/other wives. Passing on what happened at a drop is 100% ok, showing that you have knowledge of what your husband does on a daily basis even better, talking shit about someone because they got a UAV, not so cool.

The 4 herks for XL were: C-130 dyess C-130j dyess C-130 little rock EC-130 DM Lots of happy faces all around at Laughlin tonight for class 10-04.