Leaderboard

I was a crop duster for years in central CA and other states and we got complaints all the time about flying too low, too loud, too close, too early, too late, too stinky, etc. My favorite was the woman who called to complain that we had caused her teen daughter to miss her menstrual cycle and the bosses wife told her it wasn't any of our pilots as they all had vasectomies.........

several great points made in the last couple of pages, though I think we're all just circling the Root Cause. Service? Yeah, Hacker, I'm leaning toward the EABOD crowd on that one; if you want to drive the "service" point home, give Randolph a call, I'm sure you'll have a RIP before you hang up the phone. Well, no, I don't really think that you should do that. Why not? Because right now no pilot in his right mind should volunteer for this black hole. That takes us a step closer to the point. I've spent the better part of the last three weeks getting at best 4-5 hours a night, waking up several times with one central thought every time: "I'm going to UAVs". That thought really sux. But wait, what sucks about it? The mission? Schedule? Stress? Learning/broadening/advancement opportunities? Nope, all of my friends who've been or are there have nothing but great things to say (caveat that they DO want back into a jet), and truth be told, this nerd is actually a bit motivated overall. Getting warmer. So why is every rated Officer that’s worth a shit avoiding this assignment like The Plague? I’ll throw a “service” spear—right at AF leadership. Their actions over the last 5 years have been self serving, myopic, and damaging to this mission. Self serving because their only concern has been to give their Masters short term solutions that were flagrantly flawed over the long term. TAMI-21? Permanent MWS assignment? Non-vol? No ALFA credit? Return to flying boards? YGBSM!!! Where does the buffoonery end? At this point, Leadership and AFPC have ZERO credibility with those in the field who are getting, in, or even considering this assignment. I personally think the RTFBs are a red herring at best, if not completely disingenuous. We’ll see. Here’s two steps toward fixing this problem and giving this a permanent place in our assignment system: 1: this field will be 100% manned. Already been stated by leadership. This IS an important mission: press. 2: this will be a CONTROLED ALFA tour. Exceptions will be voluntary. No compromise. It has to be no compromise, as a contract, made by AF leadership to those that they should want to fill these positions: the best and brightest rated officers. Not the unwilling, kicking and screaming crowd that they have DESIGNATED by design to fill this field right now. 3: You want volunteers? Guaranteed TX course follow on. Assignment of choice for a 1 year extension. Add up #1 and #2 and you have a real personnel problem reaching across the CAF. Not insurmountable though. The rest of the assignment system will be strained by manning and assignment length. The UAV community itself will suffer those same stresses; RTU will go into overdrive in the short term. At some point the 18X AFSC should dovetail to help even things out. The way we’re going right now is toward another bathtub. Oh yeah, there is absolutely no reason that this problem should have ever reached this point. Side note: IMO, 18x aside, this mission should NEVER be completely devoid of rated participation. Separate discussion. BL: Leadership is trying to sell this as a great experience, with great opportunities, while every real action and policy has treated this asset/mission like they don’t really believe in what they’re selling. Leadership doesn’t believe that a promising officer should even want this as a “broadening” tour. From what I’ve read and discussed with friends, this mission is a valuable broadening experience, on par with ALO or UPT/IFF, if not more so. Meanwhile the mission has suffered from the “min qualification O2-converter” mindset of current manning policy. Leadership is treating the “ALFA” poker chip as a personnel management tool, they’ve completely lost sight (or just don’t care) about their greater responsibility to shepherd the development of future officers (at least within this narrow scope). OPR signed, another assignment, another star, UAV manning: forgotten. Those in place right now (Leadership): put your $ where your mouth is.

I know what your point was, but I think you really underestimate the dedication those lowly Army NCOs display when they train to operate their lowly Predator. I also think you really over estimate your training. Yes, you graduated UPT, congrats it's a hard fucking program. On the other hand all it really qualifies you to do is learn the next level. You seem to have a huge chip on your shoulder about being a Pred pilot, how hard is it to actually fly a modern aircraft from A to B? Not very fucking hard. The hard part is learning to employ that aircraft to get the mission accomplished. I bet you I could safely fly a Marine Cobra from A to B with about a week of training. Does that mean I could do the Marine CAS mission? I could probably learn to safely fly a predator from A to B in a week, could I be a successful armed ISR pilot in that time? Flying the stupid thing is not the hard part, being a good tactical aviator is the hard part. I get that you're pissed about not actually getting to fly an actual aircraft. I sympathize. But seriously, what you're doing is very valuable to the grunts on the ground, are you saying you don't feel any pride about the peace of mind you provide them?