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Simple solution, instead of every officer being a line officer unless you are a doctor or a lawyer we divide it out like the Navy. Unrestricted Line Officer and Restricted Line Officer. Quit comparing a services officer to an aviator / operator.

Anyone know about this course down at Randolph. I know it's probably gay, but I had a good time down in San Antone during PIT and I'm looking to revisit some hos down there.

Only minor errors...They read the Whiteman RPA wrong..both are to Creech. The KC-10 to McGuire is Reserve. And most importantly, the Guard C-130 on the "East Coast Somewhere" is actually Reserve to Maxwell. Why most importantly, you ask?? Because it was me!

A 2011 update from AIS. Everything from the last post is still good with a few additions. The class is still at the FAA MMAC complex (gated area) at an Air Force detachment-type building. Rental car is mandatory - not optional or recommended - because there is no way on the base with any kind of shuttle or anything from the hotels. Hotels - about half of the guys stayed on Meridian Avenue. The Fairfield and Embassy were very nice. Courtyard was a bit older. The good thing about Meridian is that it takes 17 minutes from my hotel door closing until I was in my seat at AIS. That allowed me to go home for lunch almost every day. The other half of the guys stayed downtown at the Hampton or Sheraton, I think. The problem was that it added about 10 minutes on each end of the trip, which made it nearly impossible to do lunch at the hotel. The plus side is that they were right there near the bars in downtown Bricktown (there were also a few pubs on Meridian by the cluster of hotels). Either part of town was good to stay in - just personal preference with regards to being near downtown or near work/airport. The class - it hasn't changed much from the previous posts. There were modules on all the basic topics - circling, departures, RNAV, weather, TERPS, Spacial D, Oceanic, Approaches, Airspace, Jepps, etc. Pretty good stuff. We also flew the FAA spacial D trainer, which was pretty neat. Instead of flying the Airbus sim as in the past, they now have a large MS Flight Simulator mockup that runs like some sort of learjet. You had two, one-hour sims where you flew some of the crazy approaches and a Jepp that was flown by the mishap crew of one of the case studies. On the final day of class, each group of 5 students gave a 20-30 minute presentation on a topic of their choice; our groups presented on CRM, airborne weather, and self-contained approaches (can't remember what the other two groups did). Free time - there was definitely plenty of it. On Tuesday/Thursday of the second week, the one hour sim was the only thing on the schedule, so you had almost two full week days off in addition to the weekend off. On the last day, we were done by 1130 or so (they say not to book until 6PM, which I did, then I could not catch an earlier flight because they all sold out the night prior. If I could do it again, I would have booked a 3PM flight out and then caught the later one in the rare event that we got stuck there that long). A bunch of the guys in my class decided to use their free time studying for some of the FAA written tests since the knowledge was sort of fresh. Someone found out that the Tinker Education office offers the FAA written tests for free, instead of paying $150 each through Lasergrade, or whatever. A bunch of guys took the MCI (military competence instructor) to convert their IP status to civilian CFI (Sheppard Air's website has the details - have to see the FSDO with your test score and a Form 8 saying you are an IP). Other guys studied for their ATP written over the weekend and took that after their sim. To each his own. A few more things on free time - the OK City Bombing memorial is a must see. Powerful, very powerful. Also, the Infantry Museum was a lot better than I thought. I wound up spending the better part of a Saturday there. They must have had 2000 different guns in there from every era of American military history as well as dozens of static tanks, artillery, helicopters, etc. Finally, I spent an hour visiting the state capitol. It is apparently one of the nicest capitols to visit. It was a lot more interesting than I thought it would be - plus the free guided tour was very cool. Overall, the class was good. Low-stress, and I learned a bunch and networked with some pretty good dudes. The one thing I would change academically was perhaps not spend 3 full briefings on RNP/RNAV. It was good to see, but half of us don't do RNAV approaches and most of the material in those briefings didn't apply to us.

You both have to be present. As there is no required waiting period between obtaining the license and getting married, you can do it the day of or the day prior. Suck it up.

Whichever program you attend, IMO, the best approach is to acknowledge your aviation experience, however do not give the IPs/flight commander a reason to believe you think you don't need to be in UPT. In my own UPT experience, students with extensive flying experience/ratings who think they (or do) know more than the IPs are targeted for extra scrutiny/harassment, and in some cases wash out. It's usually never skill and almost always attitude. Just get along with everyone in your class, mentor them, and always appear to have a willingness to learn from your IPs (especially FAIPs), even if you know your IP is full of s&it. The Air Force does things differently than the Army and you'll pick up some good nuggets/techniques through your program. Good luck!

Me. I can say 100% that I would not greet the para-rescue team with my M9 waving around.