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Holy Monday morning f'ing quarterback. 1.). If you are a USAF pilot and haven't flown an F prefix, read your post, and think carefully if it applies. 2.). If you are in pilot training, just punch yourself in the balls and go back to the correct forum, not this one. 3.) If you have never flown a USAF airplane, read your post, delete it, punch yourself in the balls, and realize we don't care, a few of your FARs are trumped by our -1's. (not that you know what that is). 4.). We don't know who is right or wrong in this situation, we will not know for about 30 days but will never share that info on this forum. The AIB and NTSB will come up with something and hopefully it is close to the SIB, but this forum will never know. Back to guessing who killed Kennedy.

And be able to drive precisely at 40mph not 39 or 41 but 40. Whatever happened to that guy?

Or OTS. Shake and Bake!

I know guys who got PC approved despite BOTH Wing/CC and functional disapproval. Edit to add: Wing and functional don't technically "disapprove", they simply recommended disapproval but the applications of the guys I'm talking about were subsequently approved at SAF level, despite the recommendations from lower levels. SAF looks at the big picture apparently.

There is a world of difference between quitting at the Academy and quitting UPT. Now for some facts: If you quit the Academy, you fall under AFI 36-3504 para 16, and you are liable to either serve your ADSC enlisted or pay back your education expenses. If you quit UPT, you never have a flying ADSC. There is even a specific note in AFI 36-2107 Table 1.1 note 2 that says you'll have either a 2 year ADSC or the ADSC for the program you quit, whichever is less. There is another section in 36-2107 2.19.1 that talks recoupment of bonus and incentive pays for non-completion of the associated ADSC, but since you never get an ADSC if you quit UPT, it doesn't apply. I personally saw one person SIE over their aircraft drop (non-RPA) in 2009 and another over their track select in 2004. They were separated with no attempt at recoupment of any costs.

It all comes down to how much do you trust the Air Force, fellas.

I have a good friend who got RPAs, C-130s, then just got RPAs again. He 7 day opted. I have another friend who got 17s after an RPA gig. She's still in 17s. Both T-1 grads. The UPT direct guys I know who stayed were all by choice. To a man they all wanted to go to WIC and RPAs were the best road to that destination from their current position. As an MQ-9 IP, I'm not sure what I would advise a guy to do if he got an RPA on assignment night. My 3 years in RPAs have absolutely been the worst time of my life. I cannot comprehend doing this shit for an entire decade. There is good money to be made on the civilian side once you get out, which is the about the only upside.

I got to fill out my seperation questionnaire this week and the bonus was one of the topics. I didn't put my thoughts into the survey because they may actually implement it (although Chang will probably push this idea) but the AF should look at pilots the way NFL teams look at players. You have players under contract, restricted free agents, and unrestricted free agents. As you approach the end of your UPT commitment you fall into the restricted and the unrestricted free agent class. For me, when my UPT commitment was in sight I was able to realistically start applying for jobs. I really didn't plan on leaving until a job opportunity became available and I started to realize it would be WAY better for my family and I to leave AD. Now two years ago if the AF would have offered me the bonus then and started paying immediate (while I was under contract) I would have signed up happily. This would have also let the AF know ahead of time their potential pilot manning numbers two years ahead of schedule. There would be a few exceptions of people who wouldn't take the bonus and still stay in but it wouldn't be many.

Not yours.

Wouldn't call them clueless but highly opinionated that sometimes keeps them from seeing the forest because the trees. I felt worthy of a repost for this august thread as it was a piece of good news for the besieged F-35 and while CMANO is a video game available to the public and only has publicly available knowledge on it, the simulation engine with the database it has available gives plausible results, just my opinion. Just my summary of the simulation results for those who want the spoiler.

Article from War is Boring on CMANO simulation of F-35B v Su-35 BLUF: shooting someone when they don't know you're there is a great tactic. https://medium.com/war-is-boring/don-t-think-the-f-35-can-fight-it-does-in-this-realistic-war-game-fc10706ba9f4