Leaderboard

Here at a major airline, if I think about flying my flight duty period has started ....

A credit freeze won’t stop their inquiry.

This change is going to work people to the bone and possibly kill them, what a terrible idea.

No bro, if you’re just having coffee and waiting for brief time to start. Am I not allowed to look at mission slides before official brief time? some of you guys are so official it’s amazing anything gets done.

Maybe I'm confused as I've been a (ret) for a while now, but in this situation, didn't showing up to brief and look at mission slides effectively start your duty day and end your crew rest anyway?

Sorry, missed the first part of your question. The number of pilots getting PRK/LASIK is not that high. Mostly, it's because it's hard for them to take the time off. Around 40% of pilots wear glasses/contacts. That amounts to around 6,000 pilots in the AD pool. Of those, probably 50% could be PRK/LASIK candidates. We see about 150 getting surgery annually. The biggest hurdle is the ops tempo.

AF policy is that the minimum DNiF is one month. Average PRK DNiF is around 3 months, and average LASIK DNiF is around 2 months. These are averages. I've seen many pilots flying again well before then.

Has no impact. Go to whatever doc you feel is right for you.

and now it won't stop you from making major!

I like this change. I've asked for crew rest waivers and been denied. If the SQ/CC and AC want it and judge the mission benefit worth the risk, it's dumb that someone disconnected from the mission can deny it. I guess every corner of the AF is different but our waiver authority is MAJCOM A3 who is not tracking daily missions and will always say no, even for TIC support. So to me, this is a good change because it removes obstacles to the mission. If you're worried your leadership will now bully you into accepting missions you aren't safe to execute, well that sucks. Say no, that's always your right.

I interviewed both of the widows of the two pilots killed in the Constant Peg programme. Their stories are heart wrenching and their emotions were raw even after the passage of so many years. It took 30 years for one of them to find out how, where and what her husband was doing when he died. The other had a pretty good idea what her husband was doing, as I suspect the Schultz family does, but that's not the same as knowing for sure, and it's not the same as getting real answers. "Doc" Schultz may have made the ultimate sacrifice, and I doff my hat to him, but his wife and five children are the ones who must live with the consequences. In my mind, they are the real heroes. My thoughts go out to them.

It seems to me that there is a problem with the understanding the definition of the terms here. To get a clearance, you first have to have a completed security investigation. Certain types of investigations are necessary for different levels of clearances, and the type of investigation is determined by the anticipated clearance level of the projected duty . For instance a NACLE will allow up to Secret, while an SSBI will allow up to TS and above (i.e. SCI accesses). The investigation type is determined by the sponsor depending on level needed for your anticipated future job. A completed investigation does not give you a clearance, only the eligibility (assuming adjudication is favorable) After the investigation, the report is sent to an adjudication authority, who evaluates the report and decides if the results warrant giving you a clearance (i.e., decides whether or not you are a security risk or not). If the adjudication is positive, you become eligible for a clearance. Eligible doesn't mean you have a clearance, only that you are allowed to get one if needed. For rated officer entry selects, an SSBI investigation is normally done, although in today's backlogged system, for OTS people it is sometimes not completed prior to graduating. For ROTC it depends on timing but the investigation should be complete by graduation and commissioning. But, you still don't have a clearance, only the eligibility for one. Somewhere down the road you arrive at your first duty station. There, you will be placed in a specific position on the unit's manning document, and each position has a clearance level associated with it. For a UPT student, the positions are coded for a Secret clearance (or used to be) so upon arrival you will be given a Secret clearance. The fact that your SSBI investigation makes you eligible for TS does not matter if the manpower position only requires a Secret clearance. By the way, an IP coming in from another unit where he/she held a TS, will be downgraded to a Secret in most cases because an IP has no need for TS clearance in an IP slot (unless he/she will also be doing some addition duty for the Wing that has a higher clearance requirement, which is probably fairly uncommon). That may be different for CSO or ABM training if their syllabus works with more classified content. For the rest of your career, your clearance may go back and forth as you move from job to job, even within the same unit on occasion.. As for the "inactive" comment, if you move to a job where no clearance is needed (get out of the service, for instance, or leave ROTC (commission, but do not go directly onto active duty) your clearance would be suspended (inactive), but can be regained quickly when you return to active duty as long as you are within the period of your investigation's validity (i.e., if the SSBI requires a re-investigation every five years, and you've been off active duty/ROTC training status for only a year, the original SSBI would still be valid and allow for your unit to re-establish a clearance when you process in...no additional investigation required.

Hey y'all, I was a little more active on here a few years back when applying to guard units but have lurked off & on since then. I live in Houston where, as most are aware, we had some pretty gnarly flooding from Hurricane Harvey. As shitty as the situation has been for so many in the area, it has largely brought out the best in people. My wife and I were lucky enough to be spared from anything serious, but homes just a few blocks away were inundated with floodwater. Watching USCG helicopters snag folks from rooftops just a few streets over was pretty surreal. The other day, I watched a -130 refueling a couple pavehawks directly over my neighborhood. I grew up around AF bases, so seeing aircraft overhead is something I'm pretty used to. Watching them putting in serious work to help save lives was something new entirely. With that said, I'm sure more than a few of you on here have been involved, either directly or indirectly, with rescue, recovery, and aid efforts in response to the storm. On behalf of everyone in Houston and SE Texas, I just wanted to say thanks. If you've ever in the area, let me know and beers are on me.

Oh wow. This will end well, I'm sure. Guys who are topped out at O-5 with over 20, with an outside airline gig, who are just staying around (losing money!) to fly the mission and teach the young guys, are going to bail in droves. Probably 20% of my squadron fits this demographic, and I promise you none of us will do a 6 month deployment.

Hope you had fun during that casual year! Because it looks like you blew about $10k a month doing it! hahaha. That's a shitload of hookers and blow. Or so I've heard.

The issue isn't wanting to be a leader, its dudes bending over backwards to check boxes and play the game when they should be studying and becoming lethal in their airframe as Capts. I've seen FAIPs/wingmen burning midnight oil to finish their AAD and people climb all over each other to be the Asian Pacific Islander month POC, no shit. We want leaders. We don't want tools who just play the game. The best solution: change the game.

Why does the AF/military think it has a monopoly on "leadership"? If anything, very little real "leading" happens in the AF- mostly just management in a leadership position. Plenty of opportunities to "lead" outside of the AF, despite what it wants you to think.

He recently completed his 3 acceptance flights...currently in U-2 training. Hail Dragons.