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Never allow movers to touch your firearms. And never register a firearm.

Prioritize your finances to allow for consistent training (at least 2-3 flights per week). Any less of a rate and you’ll spend more time and money over the course of getting your license. Look into student loans specifically for flying if you’re not generating enough money with a side job, internship, etc. I’d say $7-8k should be about right, +/- depending on where you live.

You might get a discounted hourly rate if you manage to get a job at a flight school/FBO.

So to summarize, if you’re at the end of your commitment and you like what you’re doing and where your career is going and the lifestyle fits your family, sign the bonus and enjoy the ride. If not, there is no miraculous turn around on the horizon, punch and be proud of your service. The future fix is production, higher ups are looking at the data and it’s too long gone to pump resources in the outflow to right that ship. They are betting ops tempo turns down and the pivot to near peer brings more tdys and training to places that aren’t a worthless sandbox so us sheep don’t complain as much. All those things that tactical level value ie experience gained from real world application is just an FTL or K code on a spread sheet to them. Need more? Waive the requirements increase production. Production solutions stands as the easiest to them and most profitable to the defense industry and will be the mantra as long as they have a budget friendly to them.

You’re welcome C-17 USAFA grad who has T-Mobile, dad went Stanford, and enjoys Euro cars.

I'll add one thing for the near term- if you can spare about $100, go do an intro to flying flight from one of the schools you're looking at. Usually about an hour, just to make sure it's something you really want to do. Or have a buddy take you flying. Either way, just get up in the air. Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

All super good advice and I want to double up on a couple. I worked at an FBO and was able to get discounts and even some free flights under the guise of something else that the chief pilot logged for me. The biggest one is the pre-study and very solid grasp of the “control and performance” concept. Once you understand that if you set up the airplane to do a certain maneuver via specific power setting/bank angle/etc, you can make much smaller and better corrections to fly more precisely. I can’t tell you how many students I had as a CFI and AF IP that treat every maneuver as a surprise and are constantly fighting the airplane to do what they want. Last piece of advice is you can do odd jobs for lessons, as well. I epoxy’d the garage of a local Chief Pilot and ended up getting 5 hours of instruction in a King Air out of it. Similar stories on helping do roof repairs, yard work, etc. Good luck!

Medical officers are completely necessary, but it’s not called the Doctor Force.

1) Make your lessons count. Know what you need to know, know the maneuvers, youtube them before you go. Getting you license in 40 is possible, but not easy. 2) Start when you have enough money to finish. If you string it out over a long time, you will need more hours. 3) Know your knowledge, if you ace the oral the DPE might overlook some flying issues. 4) Look at someplace that charges based on tach time instead of Hobbs. This can save up to 50% in pattern work - which will be a large part of your private ticket. Look for flying clubs that might offer this. 5) Compare apples to apples -- if one place quotes 10k and another 6k, one might just be more realistic than the other. How much does an hour of flight cost? Dual? Ground? When do you start paying for the flight instructor for a flight (ie flight time is when they get paid or when they show is when they get paid)? Tach/Hobbs? 6) Look at getting a glider license first and then adding on aircraft. Depending on your area and how quick you can switch to powered it _may_ be cheaper.

The cost will depend on your performance and learning curve as well. Plan between 6-10k. Closer to the bottom number if you study early, and on your own, which will allow you and your CFI to focus on mostly flying. Remember, that guy/gal is on the clock when you show up at the flight school and continues getting paid until you walk out. With that in mind, come up with a plan to minimize your dependence on said CFI outside of the airplane. Most of all, enjoy yourself and learn as much as you can along the way. It’s a blast! Good luck dude!

I'd recommend the following: Knowing all your ground info before you start your training. You can use the FAA PHAK as a free source Flying as often as possible (5+ times a week if you can) Some (most?) FBO's will give you ~5-10% discount if you prepay Good luck!

What has your research on the subject turned up so far?

Not me. I'll discuss it all day long.

Home of record doesn't matter. Where you have it does. What state do you plan to store it in?

“Empire Building”. Like the old guy at Charleston AFB in the 80’s and 90’s whose sole job was to sit behind a window and hand out pubs to crews. God forbid your chart got ripped or you needed a new chart or approach plate. I made the mistake of walking into the pubs room and grabbing a chart I needed! He almost called the SP’s on me!

This is the kind of junk you get from someone that works hand in hand with fingers. We won’t get anywhere with Fingers at the helm. Quick someone give him a private sector advisory job that gives him the label VP, gives him 250k a year, and allows him not to show up for work. (Pretty much what he does now). Schwartz still owns some blame for a lot of this backwards culture we have now.

It's just a gift that keeps on giving

You’re 100% spot on. I spoke with Chief Wright recently and was underwhelmed. He genuinely believes that quote. Results don’t matter, only attitude. It’s based on the theory that a proper attitude will eventually produce results, but he can’t articulate that and within a bureaucracy lacking accountability the quote is correct on its surface. Gents, the USAF will not improve the way it treats people. It doesn’t care about you. They hear your comments, and don’t care enough to pay you better or change their policies. People on these forums are generally aircrew with a culture of caring about results. The Air Force does not care about your results and they don’t care that you care about results. They just want you to act happy and smile and have a thin waist, they do not care if you lose wars. The sooner you grasp the nature of our service culture the sooner you can be at peace with your decisions within it, or your decision to leave it.

Please don’t rush to judgment on the Mueller report, people! We need to wait and hear the opinions of Alyssa Milano and Robert De Niro before we can draw a final conclusion! 😂

Well this post didn't age well...