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Whether it's easy or hard to get away on the weekends or not, life in the USAF with a spouse/loved one is all about expectation management. Set her expectations now that it is unlikely you will be able to travel to see her very often at all -- anything more than that and you are her hero because in her mind you pushed he limits just to see her. If she wants to know what time you'll be home, tell her 8pm even if you think 6pm is possible. Tell her that two 365s could happen before you hit 20yrs. If you only do one, or even none, she'll feel like she's won. Words to live by from a fighter pilot in my first squadron. Expectation management.

I went trough UPT in deal rio. I was never there on the weekends. In fact, I was in Austin so much I rented and apartment there with a few other guys to save on hotel bills. However, my situation was slightly different in that I am the best pilot to ever grace AETC's program and I didn't show up to a formal training course worried about my long distance relationship. YMMV. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Given that we're taking B-52 guys now, better than you think

As someone who was TAMIed and still around I'm sort of laughing. Not really laughing but sort of thinking of calling the B-1 desk tomorrow and asking what my chances are Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

He should just edit his post, "I think I should be allowed to transition to fighters because I'm a good pilot. And stuff."

Is that like the starting point guard for St. Marys School for the Blind and Death?

As far as the plane goes - a buddy in my class who is a civilian crop duster had 2 planes stashed at GTR in Columbus during UPT and we utilized them frequently, mostly to fly to Biloxi on weekends and hit the casino. 11F hit the nail on the head for training - expectation management. Mainly yours, in that you should expect her to break up with you while you're gone. If you think it's going to happen and it doesn't, you win.

Well, he said "no offense" which lies somewhere between "with all due respect" and academic non-attribution. Sounds legit.

Truth be told, they're so unorganized at ARPC, you could probably run the conditional release thru your local chain and as long as no one there raises any objections, you're probably good to go. If you start asking too many questions, you might not be allowed to leave. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

LOL. Who said they balked because they didn't want to work the hours? They balked because it's dangerous to put guys through a even more shortened RTU. It's already a shadow of what it was just 10 years ago. Get some perspective before you bash on the guard. Talking about people "working for the better good" false on deaf ears when you're referring to a lot of people who've already served 10+ years on active duty.

Hey WayUp, while I appreciate the effort to keep your bro in line (though you're too late to keep his post from getting kinetically posted in the U-2 bar), there are some other issues here: - You want the CAF to wait until the GH is ready to get the party started? What if there's icing? Or weather? Or Satcom jamming? Or an IADS? Or a credible cyber threat? The GH won't be operating for very long in those cases. The CAF fights with or without you because they shouldn't need a handful of "special" jets (including the U-2) to make the mission happen. The job of both our airframes is to enhance their fight (in different ways) without introducing chaff. - While on one hand you believe the CAF needs you, you also don't care if you get shot down. You want to use GHs as SA-XX sponges, go ahead, but at least remove the expensive parts first; the U-2 would be glad to have more spare ASIP bits for test and training. Joking aside, there's a bigger problem here. GH operators really don't seem to care as much about their jets as their manned counterparts, and that's a problem for more than just them. I've watched them on multiple occasions not really GAF about their own buffoonery and equipment malfunctions even when they physically threaten the safety of others. As for why, my personal opinion is that millions of years of human evolution makes people just not care that much when they're not physically co-located with a jet or operation. - "...multiple times in the last year where the RQ-4 was more reliable and capable than the U-2..." I'll go ahead and call bullshit if you're referring to operational missions; if you're referring to how we did with a cobbed together jet in 16-1 I'll acknowledge that our stateside Ops-MX-DGS-CFSR team underperformed. 16-3 was pretty good, though, and I know of at least a couple pretty important Ex events this year where you guys were completely unable due to WX or equipment. - "...it's not a secret that we can replace the U-2 in what it does." Make no mistake, the GH will never be able to replicate what the U-2 can do. The U-2 has twice the thrust and electricity, which means it can haul more powerful sensors (particularly the radar kind) higher and faster that a GH ever will. And it'll do it in kinetically and electromagnetically contested airspace with a co-located pilot and a kickass defensive system. The GH's big programmatic mistake is that it's still trying to be a U-2 replacement. It will always fall short of that due to the above reasons, so the program relies on NG's political donations and book-cooking to get continued funding. Where it could really shine, and make itself much more useful than it currently is, is enhancing and expanding the BACN role. A bunch of networked GHs flying around outside of threat rings relaying IP-data is where the money could really be at. And as SAM sponges.

Take it from this stupid 0-1 back in 1992....when my first training command 0-5 told our class: "...you can always find another girlfriend. You get three yellow sheets in your training track, you won't find another place to become a Naval Aviator". It all comes down to priorities and managing expectations (already mentioned above). Be honest with yourself and those around you....and live them. Break Break Side lesson: Don't sit next to the douche that asks the Commander if he can take leave to see his girlfriend every weekend during training. To this day I can't believe that question came from the mouth of a "boat schooler" (aka: Naval Academy). ATIS