ACE 2.0

[ViperMan]

1 hour ago, Clark Griswold said:

I’m not arguing against OHWS, if this prevents injury / promotes pilot health I’m for it.

I’m arguing that there is enough money in all the different areas of the AF, cobbled together, to provide a decent, equitable level of training, if it can’t be in a resurrected Phase 3 then a resurrected ACE.

Baffling that if one institution (AETC) is unable, unwilling or indifferent to that which should be done, arguing for an alternate method implemented by other institutions (AMC, AFSOC, AFGSC) to achieve the same effect?

That part makes sense, and I'm glad other people are recognizing and trying to solve the problem. This one is particularly frustrating though because it's so obvious what the solution is, and also so painfully obvious what the cause was. No doubt the whole circuit will get promoted. One half for "solving" a production problem. The other half for "solving" an experience problem. Everyone wins I guess.

13 minutes ago, bfargin said:

My godson finished UPT (abbreviated T-1 only). Graduated with way less than 80 hours and just now finished FTU recently. I guarantee he’s not comfortable in the seat with such an abbreviated training program. Now his squadron is going to have more work to get him up to speed (sharp kid but still he got less than 1/2 the hours we got back in t-37/t-38 UPT syllabus).

There is no doubt an ACE type program would benefit the individual pilots and the AF as a whole.

It's called UPT.

[HuggyU2]

On 11/11/2025 at 8:23 PM, ViperMan said:

 

This is from the cheap seats, but everything being discussed in this thread strikes me as the whole point of pilot training. What am I missing? What is the USAF missing?

Is this a serious proposal? We cut pilot training in half, but then add a program like this shortly thereafter? WTFO?

i totally agree that UPT cuts are seriously degrading the quality of the product. 

But don't conflate the UPT syllabus cuts with a need to create a new ACE program:  even with a robust UPT syllabus like I went through many moons ago, the ACE Program was extremely beneficial for the new co-pilots.  

 

Story time:  I remember back in the 2005-2006 time frame, there was a Langley F-22 at Hill AFB whose crew chief lost control of the landing gear pin during ground ops, and the pin got sucked down an engine.  IIRC $6.8M in damage.  

That year, at Beale, our T-38 CT Program was run on a budget of around $6M for ~3700 hours of flying time.  

Think about that.  That's around 3,000 SORTIES in a T-38... for $800,000 less than the cost of a single Raptor FOD incident.  

My experience in the Beale T-38 CT Program has made me such a better U-2 pilot and overall aviator than I would ever be without it.  A magnitude better.  

There is so much that could be done to make our USAF aviators "that much better"... but the AF leadership will simply not invest the pennies... and I do mean "pennies"...  to make it happen.  It's no longer a priority.  

I hope I am proved wrong on my last statement.  

 

 

Edited 2 hours ago by HuggyU2