Leaderboard

If we can get students to land the hang glider on the moving target, they PA to Thunderbird lead.

They’re not even really trying to throw more money. $35k/yr barely brings the bonus in line with inflation.

Ironic on his part.. inflation adjusted, we get paid less than he did to fly.

So will the O-5 board results take another six months, too? The board itself already had an extra week...

Capt Roger Victor? Is that you? link for context:

Or you cheat on your wife to marry an millionaire heiress.

Dam inspector: The dam is leaking and it’s losing water Dam engineer: well we need to find the holes and fix them so the dam doesn’t break Dam General: just keep adding more water so the lake stays at the current level

Specifically, enough distance for Sandy to mow down shitheads around you just before Jolly drops in. The effective range of the GAU-5A (considering barrel length, twist rate/bullet stabilization, muzzle velocity, ammo specs) was carefully compared to 'distance' data from friendly weapons to set a minimum threshold. The max was limited by available space in the seat kit. We sent a weapons SME and AFE tech to a conference a few months back to ensure the GAU hit all those requirements. I'm only familiar with what one MDS had to give up in the seat kit to fit the GAU, but given the ground picture in CENTCOM I'll gladly take the GAU over those other niceties.

Google TSA missed weapons. It won't improve your opinion of TSA. My favorite are the stories of people that traveled with a weapon, realized it after the trip, and then notified, through an attorney, Congress or TSA of the TSA buffoonery. TSA is kabuki theater.

They asked for $60k a year and were denied. John McCain thinks we get paid enough.

I think a better example would be a USAF O-6 would be an excellent manager of a Radio Shack...

Sounds like chasing the golden rings down the glidepath on "Pilot Wings" on the Super Nintendo, circa 1992.

@dt92 Typically the age limit is 28 or 28.5 for guard units. I have never seen it at 27. Plus, some units, even fighter units, are willing to do age waivers. Since you are in the guard already, it should be pretty easy for you to get a FC1 knocked out at wright pat. Having a cleared FC1 will def help your chances. If you have already taken the AFOQT and TBAS and your scores are ok then apply with what you have now and plan on retaking it. Also, get as much flight time as you can. Additionally, I know some dudes that got picked up at fighter units past 30.

Yeah exactly, they were better than the Tweets, now we have something better, so let’s use it. The one I saw had gates to fly through to help you learn to fly patterns or instruments approaches. Pretty effective for showing what the correct sight picture looks like.

Just remember we could still be part of the Army.

Worked out great for Maj Nidal Hasan.

Wait you have had days that this wasn't true???!!

What? Does anyone except for this guy actually think that's why there is a pilot retention issue? ACC and AMC/AFSOC are suffering a biblical exodus right now - this is the first I have heard that ACC's is more pronounced because they have single pilot airplanes and the others have copilots. Lord help us if he is the one trying to figure out the why...

Raise your hand if many of the days you drive into work, you dread the fact that your day will be littered with stupid unimportant bullshit that has no tangible meaning.

I’ve never strapped into one of these VR contraptions, but so far, my experience has been that nothing replaces your ass in the seat of a real airplane.

I just love this interview...this guy has future senator written all over him. Totally incapable of answering a simple question. Just an example: "AIRMAN MAGAZINE: When did the Air Force start noticing pilot manning issues in the fighter community?" Seems like a pretty simple question...when did you notice it? "BRIG. GEN. KOSCHESKI: The fighter pilot crisis manifested itself because when you only have single seat fighters, it becomes a cockpit training capacity issue quickly compared to larger aircraft with multi-seats, where you have an aircraft commander and a copilot. You have a little bit more flexibility to manage your pilot training. The crisis happened quickly in the fighters because of that very reason. But what we’re seeing is the same dynamics are in place for other career fields, and also because of the fighter pilot shortage, the mobility Air Force has been carrying some training shortfalls and pilot training to cover the shortage of fighter pilots. So, their effective manning has been hit and they’ve been doing more than their fair share, trying to help out while we heal the fighter pilot crisis." Okay...but WHEN DID YOU NOTICE THE ISSUES?? WHEN, not HOW or WHY. WHEN. It is a time-based question, sir. The answer should have some kind of chronological reference, like "in 2008 when Gen Welsh was going around USAFE asking fighter pilots why they aren't staying in", or "last week when one of my staffers left Baseops.net open on his computer and I started reading."

Don't forget that we forced a bunch of officers and enlisted out less than 5 years ago, and the younger dudes who watched that happen don't have a lot of faith the AF won't do it again.

A little grammatical correction yields the truth: “Mission first, people! Always!”

We received a briefing this morning on this, and I think it did a lot to dispel some of the complaints voiced in this thread. For the last month, an OT&E team has been flying sorties breathing ambient air and undergoing endless medical analysis before and after each flight, NASA has been involved sampling cockpit and mask air quality, and maintenance has been tearing down OBOGS to try and find a source of the issue. Below are some of the highlights from that briefing. 1) Only TCTO compliant aircraft will be flown with OBOGS operational as normal. Breathing cockpit air was not approved by AETC nor recommended by the OT&E team. To answer those who wondered why this was such a big deal when other aircraft fly unpressurized without oxygen, it is an FAA airworthiness certificate issue. Without the OBOGS, the T-6 would not be considered airworthy by the FAA without an amendment. 2) The TCTOs are a "millimeter by millimeter" (their words) inspection of the OBOGS from the engine air inlet all the way to the mask. It replaces parts to make the system as close to factory new as possible. 3) This is not the end. No causal factor was found, but the OT&E unanimously agreed that returning the OBOGS to a factory new state made them comfortable flying the jet. Flying is still volunteer only at PIT. 4) The top six of the T-6 SPO were fired due to mismanagement of the program and a fly-to-fail mentality. The zeolite bed maintenance interval has been aggressively reduced from 4,500 to 700 hours, and the new SPO is re-evaluating other fly-to-fail parts on the T-6 to possibly set replacement intervals. 19 AF is also using this debacle to highlight the ISS and EFIS issues. 5) The future: The team considers this only the beginning and are still trying to drill down to a single cause. From what the briefer said though, the OBOGS on all of the jets inspected were absolutely horrendous (kinked lines, valves stuck in the open position, evidence of water in the lines, general dirt and gunk, etc), and 79% failed the inspection, so there might not be one silver bullet. The incident T-6s are all still impounded, but an Edwards AFB test team will begin inspecting those independently and in parallel so the two teams can compare notes. Honestly, I was pretty impressed with what the team has been doing this last month. There were a lot of really smart people helping with this, to include a NASA test engineer who has made a career out of OBOGS issues. It also received visibility all the way up to the VPOTUS. My biggest misgiving is that they never found a single causal factor, but I am not surprised given the fact that the entire system was basically never inspected since the plane left the factory. I think the 19 AF initially fumbled at the beginning of this grounding a month ago, but since then a lot of good things have happened to make up for it.

Why again is there not a thumbs down on the baseops app?