BolterKing

I deployed with the Army for a 365. This is how they look after their people. I can't tell you how often I saw "leadership" ing over their troops like this. I'd rather spend 365 days in a Turkish prison than be affiliated with that organization ever again.

I've got probably several hundred plugs on a 135/iron maiden combo, as well as every other combo including Brit VC-10's, L1011's, etc. While the iron maiden is challenging at times, so is landing on the boat at night. One of the worst nights I had was rendezvousing with a 10 over northern Iraq, in the weather, then getting in the basket. A sine wave up and down the hose will rip your probe off just as fast as the maiden. MPR pods have their own challenges as well with wingtip vortices, but it's not hard. They're all terribly unforgiving of inattention and poor technique. That said, it works. Quite well. Harriers not tanking from the maiden is an operational and design limitation, not a matter of refusal. A five wet rhino can be next to impossible if you're single engine with the gear stuck down too. By far the "easiest" thing to tank off of was the S-3, but that's no longer an option. We need what we can afford, from there the guy in the seat needs to adapt, overcome and execute.

FIFY

This is becoming a recurring theme throughout military aviation, regardless of the outcome the crew gets thrown under the bus. Just happened to a friend of mine. Had to eject from a Superhornet after fighting it for over an hour, and the causal factor being hung around him because of a peculiar system anomoly that barely gets any mention in NATOPS (our version of the -1, I think) that no one in the Superhornet community had any clue even exsisted. Case in point, the F-22 crash in Alaska. Some how an OBOGS defect was the fault of the pilot? Robin Olds would've been kicked out for wrapping his glo-belt around some shoe E-8's neck, and Chuck Yeager would've lost his wings for breaking the sound barrier with broken ribs. More and more the best you can do anymore is break even, from emergencies to employment in combat. Give it another 5 years, they'll see what it's earned them.

It's all about perception. No one is willing to put their wang out and answer the question about how this or any flyover could be accomplished, regardless of whether it was part of a funded training sortie or not. Especially with demos, static displays, the Birds and Blues being grounded, and basically all air show/public support being slammed shut. Sad times, and it's only going to get worse.

Spoken like someone whose never been down range, under the leadership of someone whose never been down range. As for the F-15C/F-22 question, what is their back ground? If they did one tour, and the next 20 years of their career on a staff, going to grad school, planning retirement and Christmas parties, then no. If we're talking a guy that spent his entire career in the cockpit, is a patch wearer, and has gone from flying tour to flying tour, whose number was just never called to go down range then ya I'd say they still get the big picture.

Shack. Tactical badass is not a box to check on the career progression ladder.

The senior leadership in Naval Aviation is rife with senior leadership that either "survived" or stood on the backs of their peers... the witchhunt of the post 1991 Tailhook scandal. The culture shift over the last several years is reflective of this. Risk aversion over tactics/success/moral/etc. This article could very well be describing them, or pretty much any Flag/GO leadership in any branch (maybe not the Marines). This is not to say there aren't still some glimmers of hope and warriors in the Flag ranks... Not only have the GO/Flag ranks swelled to ludicrous levels, their staffs have gotten just retarded as well. We have more Admirals in the Navy than ships. Some how we managed to win WWII with only one Admiral for every ONE HUNDRED THIRTY ships.

Pinnacle/Mesaba is just a guaranteed interview. No job promise, so big D can do what they want there. The only hitch in the Compass flow plan is that the airline still needs to operate. So they have to turn guys loose to flow without impacting operations. The whole thing is curious how it will play out. Not only there but as the exodus begins at all the regionals.

This isn't directed at you, but in general... you guys can "target" airlines all you want, but you have zero room to be picky unless you're independantly wealthy or have a wife that can shoulder the financial burden while you job hunt. I know several guys at my unit think they're just going to wait around for FedEx to call after they separate. They're probably going to be waiting for years. Apply to everyone, and take the first one that offers you a job. Competition out there is going to be fierce for a few years until movement really starts to happen. Everyone is getting all spooled up that Delta announced hiring, guess what? Off the street hires probably won't happen until spring of next year and even then you'll be behind all the flow-throughs, and Pinnacle/Mesaba guys that have deals. In a new hire class of 25, estimates are around 5 of those will be off the street guys. Then you're competeing for those few remaining seats with about 10,000 other guys from military/charter/corporate/regionals/expats. WRT SWA, don't expect to see them hiring for a few years. Not to be Debbie Downer, but some guys need to start managing expecations. As far as the ATP goes, get it yesterday, whatever it takes.

Badass. 'Nuff said. http://www.navytimes.com/article/20130711/NEWS03/307110007/Rescue-swimmers-receive-DFCs-HMS-Bounty-rescue

If you have ATP mins, you should've had your ATP done yesterday. If you're getting out in the next two years and don't have ATP mins yet, the written should've already been complete. Procrastinators will feel the pain.

This is accurate. While the OP has finished Primary, you haven't "graduated" until you get your wings. In the jet pipe that means carrier qual'd. To the OP, keep busting your ass, hit the sims (drag your LSO over kicking and screaming if need be), and keep a positive attitude. If you attrite from the boat, having the command in your corner will be your best chance at moving to a different pipeline (P-3/8, Helos). Also, have your LSO go over LSO NATOPS with you, and show you just how the lens works. i.e. Just how big each cell is at the start, in the middle, and at the ramp. You'll realize just how small/fast your corrections need to be. IIRC full high to full low is 21' of altitude at the start. Yours would be a messy situation in the fact that you're already commissioned, so you'd need to be able to lat txfr (basically resign, and swear back into the Guard)... and if you don't have your wings be able to pick up a UPT slot. Age restrictions will be a player as well as whatever service obligation remains and getting big Navy to release you. If you already have your wings, it makes things easier as you can apply for an ARB board but getting your wings will require you to fulfill whatever service obligation your pipeline yields. In a word, I'd say ANG is a far fetched option if not impossible in your situation. Final thought, ball flying (yuck it up fvckers) is an aquired feel. Get the jet trimmed for on-speed prior to the abeam, make sure your abeam distance is consistent, and use the same angle of bank off the abeam to get you to a good start. 450-500' at the 90, 380' at the 45 (I haven't trapped in a few years, my gouge may be a little off). It's all left hand. You should be checking your altitude wickets all the way around the turn to KNOW where the ball will be on the lens prior to ever rolling into the groove, it should never be a surprise. Total instrument turn, velocity vector "tail and wing" just touching the bottom of the horizon bar is a good place to start for your rate of descent around the turn increasing to 600-700 FPM as you come through the 45. When you roll out in the groove, make your power off correction to establish your rate of decent (remember you're rolling wings level, lift increases, so a power off correction is needed to keep the ROD. The velocity vector is gouge here) and then reset to your neutural power point. Get/keep the lens one ball high, bring it down to the middle, then push it back up again. Small, quick corrections. A cenetered ball is destined to go low so never leave it there. Your happy place is 1/2-one ball high, if you get under powered it will settle centered and you push it back up again. If you go high, pull power. If the ball stablizes high, that's your neutual point. Pull a little more. The second it starts to come back down stop it, and recenter to your neutural power point. Three part corrections, all the way down the groove. Remember every line up correction requires power as you're losing vertical component of left. A line up correction without a touch of power will result in a settle every time. Look long for line up (end of the LA, the "T"), and back to the ball. "Ball, ball, lineup. Ball, Ball, Lineup." Say it out loud if you need to, lots of guys do. 4.0 ball flyers never fly a centered ball, they crest it and bounce it off center. Fly the ball, don't let it fly you.

This is an emergency procedure, when you're out of gas and have no other options. I've done it more times than I can count in VFR conditions, coming in for the over head, paint the field, designate the end of the runway (if you can break it out) and then see where it actually falls when you roll out in the groove on final. I'd say 9 times out of 10 it's not even close. Sure it may be on the field somewhere, but it's not a confidence builder that doing it in acutal IMC you're not going to hit something, or that breaking out at 200' you're going to be in a position to make a play for the runway. It's a big planning factor for XC/ferry flying. It's more of a problem when operating from the boat. When your divert doesn't have a TACAN/PAR approach, or the weather is below mins the boat is basically blue water at that point. Like Buddy Spike said, we're constantly asking for it, and it's always at the top of the list but no one is even talking about us getting it. It's not a huge limitation to training, we can plan around it but when the weather goes down unexpectedly everyone goes into panic mode trying to recover jets in the air, with the limitations of approach having to administer a PAR to every jet vs just stringing them into an ILS chain.

Read gravedigger. We do DME arcs on a daily basic at night around the boat. The only two approaches the Hornet can even shoot are TACAN and PAR. Our ILS is boat specific and worthless anywhere else. NDB hold? Really? Go hold in Marshall off a tacan fix, that's moving at 30 knots. And hit your timing +\- 10s, because the guys in front of you and behind will hit theirs and that timing is critical to everyone having a clear deck to get aboard first pass. GPS? Ha.

Anyone else feel an overwhelming urge to punch that dude in the face standing on the vertical stab?

She's actually doing time.

That was gay. Much respect to the AC that may pluck me out of the drink some day, but without the pilots they seem to loath, the best they can do is stand next to the bird in their mall ninja gear and try to impress the B-squad airshow floozies.

Hope in one hand, shit in the other. We're going on year 12 of this ######ing "war" flying/operating equipment that was already decades past it's initial service life, and now we're gutting funding from the military because no one has the balls to turn off social entitlement programs, in order to save us all from proffesional voters. ######! Rant off.... prayers for the families of the crew.

Imagine holding a 5 # weight out straight. Now put that same weight on the end of a 10' stick, gets harder to hold up right? Leverage and all that? Now imagine a 40K # MRAP breaking loose and sliding to the rear of the airplane (maybe all the way back). Make sense now? Simple math for CG, weight x position aft of datum = moment arm. Take a 40K # MRAP, if it slides back even 10 feet.... 40000 x 10 = 400,000 ft-lb moment arm shift aft.

He's averaged less than 2 points per game. He played what, 32 minutes in his last season? The guy SUCKS. This is purely a desperate career move by a hack journeyman.

My ATP DPE endorsed my logbook after the check ride. Same story as you, PVT through CFII/MEI I'd never seen that done. Did my CFI with the local FSDO and they never said anything either. Last check ride I'd taken prior to my ATP was back around 1999 though so it may have been a recent thing they just started doing. He hadn't filled out my ATP temp certificate yet, and it wasn't my best performance so I wasn't about to start asking him WTF he was doing. For those on the fence about shelling out the cash for an ATP... you're competeing for a multi million dollar job. WTF is wrong with you?! Competition is fierce, and even with the coming hiring spree/wave/hiccup/whatever there aren't enough chairs for everyone when the music stops. If there is a box on the app to check, you want it checked. I'm not saying drop $5K to go out and get a float plane rating just so you can fill that square on the FedEx app.... but it's there for a reason. They value diversity of experience, as well as quality. Go ask/beg for that Stan/Eval/NATOPS qual. If you're a few years out look at the applications, see specific line items are on there (Safety Officer, SEFE, DO, etc) and start getting those qualifications. Each one of those you click will put you that much closer to the top. That said there are several companies such as FedEx and SWA, that have a question section on the first page of the application. If you can't click "yes" to every question you can't even get into the application and start a profile. One of those questions is "do you have an ATP?" You can do it in a weekend if you try. If you're really strapped for cash, MGIB and 9/11GIB will cover a good portion of it (varies between the two options).

Pierre Sprey: "From front to back, they're warping every fact you see in that thing, to make sure they will call it pilot error and not to blame [F-22 manufacturer] Lockheed [Martin] or not to blame the Air Force or the airplane," Sprey told ABC News in May. "Here you have a superb pilot and an airplane that wasn't designed to take care of him. And now they're blaming it on him and he shouldn't have died in the first place… The priorities are hardware first, people second." Wow.

Ya, fail.