Leaderboard

All facts.....to which I have no idea why you are being told to not speculate/discuss and being shut down. As long as you aren’t disrespectfully pointing fingers at individuals, placing blame and spreading rumors, some people seem to take the safety process “don’t talk about it” a little too seriously. I for one think this shit should be front and center in the same care and manner people are talking about the Kobe crash. People should care when service members die and planes clash and want to understand why and it should be discussed. You guys don’t think that civilians aren’t armchairing this in other forums. I like hearing from other professional aviators. What is to be gained by silence? People died in a third world shithole flying a jet that nobody hardly knows or cares about and likely never will because we don’t talk about it for some reason. Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile app

WTF does names have to do with stating the obvious from the photos? Is that gonna change a GD thing if BADFNZ makes some factual observations about the photos in contrast as to what the news was reporting? I’m with BADFNZ here and I think some of you guys are being over sensitive. He’s not getting at anything personal, just disputing the Taliban CNN claim. And he’s correct. Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile app

And you're being an idiot. Stop talking. Whatever happened, it looks like crew did well. I hope they made it.

APC started in early '05. If anyone wants to do any archaeology and learn more about their airline's past, the "new" FlightInfo.com forums go back to about 2001. If you think APC is a monkeycrap fight, go check out ol' Flightinfo's archives!

So there's the public part of an airline, and then there's flying for an airline. For example, SWA is a great company, but the flying does not appeal to me anymore. I'd been happy to get hired there coming out of the military (it was one of my top 3) but now that I'm here, I'm happy I'm not in a 737 flying domestic (incl Mexico and Hawaii) for the next 30 years. This is an example of the latter, nothing in this article affects my daily life. Sure we made less than UAL/DAL, but that's for the MBAs to figure out. And surprisingly, we still made 2.9 BILLION dollars this year. When our summer operation turned into a mess, the 737 MAX was grounded, and our stock price hit a new low, we pay a billion dollars in interest on our debt... we still made 2.9 billion. Now, you don't see Labor coming to the defense of management. We're in negotiations. Headlines are probably going to get worse before they get better. Especially with our past. But AA, the world's biggest airline, isn't going anywhere anytime soon. There's always someone at Hickam who wishes they were at Minot. My friends Miami IOE sequence has layovers in St Kitts and Medellin. Another friend exclusively bids Aruba layovers. What he said, bolded for emphasis. I also wouldn't mind seeing Alan Mullaly. But I do think AA is going to get worse before it gets better. PS: I'm posting this from my couch while on Reserve 🤷‍♂️

Go to APC and read posts from the United forum around 2012-2014. Jeff Smisek in his prime. Doom and gloom, sky is falling, bankruptcy right around the corner, liquidation inevitable, unrecoverable death spiral. Now, United is an industry darling. What changed? A new management team. If APC had existed, you’d read the same from a theoretical Delta forum in the mid-2000s. The industry is cyclical. A management change at AA could/will make a huge difference. Some think that change will happen sooner than later. A Richard Anderson or Glen Hauenstein type hire could turn AA into a monster. Youngest fleet of the majors and cheap hubs in areas of massive growth. Or, Doug Parker could run AA into bankruptcy. No matter where you end up, it will be far better than Active Duty. That place is a toxic cesspool.

Aviation accidents happen, and it’s probably inappropriate to wildly speculate.

Dudes/Dudettes, I don't know where else to turn but I'm running out of steam for this whole process. Life is getting me down. It's been my dream to fly fighters since I was a kid but there were a lot of hiccups on the way there, but I'm still not even at the finish line. I haven't landed any fighter interviews yet and I've broadened my horizons to AD to try my hand there. But I missed this board because my recruiter wouldn't talk to me or would take too long to respond. Below are my stats: AFOQT: P99 N89 AA33 V35 Q31 PCSM: 99 GPA: 3.07 (English) Flight Hours: 23 (Solo) The kicker is, I'm 31. I was so stoked to see the age limit be raised to 33 but I'm running out of time. AGAIN. I'm not doing well in my day job and it's super stressful. I'm in a Part 61 school, money is tight, so I just stopped doing flying lessons because I can't afford them anymore. I don't really know what to do anymore and where to turn. I know fighters is a long shot but if anyone can just give me some hope in my situation I would really appreciate that.

There's more info on SIPR on the CSAF daily ops brief.

You sure he’s not just trying to steer you away from AD so he can keep you for himself? 🤪

They selected 3 for Portland and 2 for Kingsley last year. They said they’re hiring 4 this year.

Are fighters a hard stop for you? What about heavies? Sure its not pointy nose, go fast, shoot bad guys flying, but its still an important mission set. I guess you need to make the choice between fighters or bust or just flat out being able to fly in the military. Start tossing out apps everywhere. Have you rushed any units you've applied to? If they allow it, that can help out with the age thing. There are 7 fighter UPT postings on bogidope right now. Have you applied to them all? Like everyone else is saying, dont stop until they tell you to. And then keep trying some more.

Whole person concept. Are you visiting units? There is at least one guy on the forum with quite a bit lower stats than you that got fighters (ANG I think) and he is only a couple years younger. I was dumped off a full ride ROTC scholarship at an out of state school and ended up over 80k in debt. I did bad on my first tbas. My mom's word of encouragement was "maybe it's not meant to be". Second time i practiced and nailed it. I ran out of money to keep flying after 11 hours. At 28yo I went to my parents for help. After i got hired i was denied a trip to MEPS 3 times but finally got there. I was DQ at meps for something they had in my medical history before i ever got there. I've been denied a waiver twice and I'm trying it again. Even though I'm probably going to get denied again I'm going to keep pressing on till my squadron gives up on me because I'm not ready to give up. So yeah things don't always go to plan and for our generation when we were in our prime fighters were rare. Sometimes luck and timing aren't on your side. All you can do is take ownership and make the best of it. Also you have a few years for heavies so keep that in mind. Many times the advice on the forum is its not what you fly that makes the experience great. Also after meps an opportunity came up at work but i didn't pursue it because i figured i was going to be a pilot soon so it didn't matter. After the waiver was denied it occurred to me that i can't stop flying the plane of life until i land it. Get your job in order because you need it to keep focusing on the hunt. Imagine trying to visit units while unemployed. TLDR: visit units, keep trying even after you get some no's, get your job straight. Hopefully you take something positive from that even if it's to laugh at my misfortune.

No.

Unfortunately, the news cycle is just more Kobe. And before anyone here gets butthurt, I am saddened too by that crash and loss of life. FWIW, I think it’s completely natural, as aviators, to want to know what happened and to discuss. It’s not arm chair QB-ing. For those that disagree...when you found out about this at work with your squadron bro’s, did you not discuss what you thought what could have caused this? Still haven’t heard of their status, so I’m hoping for the best.

Dude! Check this out. Right now you don’t deserve a fighter. If you have this quitter mentality then I don’t want you as my wing man. Tracking? If you want a fighter slot stop being a little bitch about it and go pursue them. The guys that tracked 38s in my class (including me) didn’t around being little bitches. Your attitude is everything. Also I know I sound like a heard ass but bro I just want to be able to get you in that fighter mentality. Don’t ###ucking give up! Much love!

As with many things "airline", beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

It was hashed around for a while years ago. When Charlotte was planned to go from C-130s to C-17s it had a little more discussion. Operating cost is a big factor with the J model much cheaper. The current and previous MAFFS systems would not work, so you'd have to design new ones which is a huge cost. The company that built the old system (Aero Union) is gone. However, since we print our own money in this country any time it feels like we're running out, anything is possible.

Tell your LNO what you want to do, why you need to do it this way, and then ask that they work with the 340th to ensure all of your dependents are on your TDY-enroute orders. If Kelly doesn’t have a suitable TLF, they will give you a non-A. Maybe JTR defines “suitable,” but I think it’s something like BR for you/wife, BR for kids (under 10 can share room or something like that), allows pets if you have them, etc. With non-A, you get $127/day for lodging in San Antonio (I looked it up). For arguments sake, even if you didn’t have a non-A, you can still choose to refuse a lodging room and the AF has to reimburse you Kelly’s lodging rate, which is probably $70/day. So that’s the bare min you would get.

I would make the most and put as much info as you can. Focus on putting in pertinent information (obviously), like your objective, work experience, education, scores, etc. I had a place for my hobbies and skills as well. i.e. Computer hacking skills, nunchuck skills... Lastly, put a picture on your resume, helps to put a face to an application. Hope that helps, good luck!

I'm not a movie fanatic nor a particular movie critic; I like what I like. I don't like being "woken," I don't like being lectured to, I want to be entertained. If stuff blows up, beautiful women are scantily clad yet somehow classy and available, and the writing is good, I'm in. The James Bond films before he got 'woke,' are in my comfort zone. I like semi-historical films as well. I have not seen, nor planning to see, most of the nominated films for this year. 1917 was a good solid movie. Well done, authentic in the details, interesting story. But to answer your question, Tarentino's "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" was a better, more entertaining move to me. The characters, the actors' portrayals, the writing, and the weird ending entertained me.

Columbus is not bad at all. There is stuff to do around there and some decent cities within driving range. Just thank God you aren’t at Laughlin. Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile app

It's complicated. It's important to know the background of AA. It's a four headed beast of Legacy AA, TWA, America West, and US Airways. Everyone has been screwed over in some form. US Airways and America West merged in the early 2000s. The Nicalau Award, infamous in aviation and airline history, was extremely controversial. It said that the two pilot lists will be blended in the same relative seniority, so if you were 30% on the old list, you'd be 30% on the new list. However, US Airways was a very old airline, and AWA was a very young airline. Therefore, you'd have pilots who had been on property 5 years, being put over pilots who have been on property 20 years. As you've heard, seniority is everything. The unions refused to ratify the arbitration decision, and instead concentrated their hate and distrust between each other. This lasted for almost 10 years. With no ability to ratify a new collective bargaining agreement, neither union could move forward and it got nasty as each one blamed the other for their woes. For the line pilots, it mainly meant frozen pay rates and work rules for a decade. Management played off this and rode the cheap labor for years, as the airlines operated as two separate companies under one paint job. TWA was on the brink of complete liquidation. Not a normal bankruptcy where you renegotiate debt, but at the point where the metal was going to be scrapped to satisfy the debts. Instead, AA bought them, but the pilots list was simply stapled to the bottom of the AA seniority list. One guy I talked to lost 12 years of seniority overnight. So they were pissed. Legacy AA had something called the B Scale. In order to get a new contract, a contract was signed where for the first 5 (?) years, you were paid less than the A scale guys. No difference in equipment operated or work rules, but you'll get paid less so the pilots already on property could get paid more. "You'll be senior someday" mentality. Then came all the bankruptcies, frozen A funds (pensions pilots were banking on) and pay cuts. The moral of the story? EVERYONE on property got screwed over in some form. Some pilots cannot get over the past. So why do Pilots hate Doug Parker? Is it deserved? Yes and no. Keep in mind, he was CEO of America West and rode the CEO wave to the top of AA. Some pilots here are so bitter, they want the world to burn. They have been on the wrong side of the airline industry for 30-40 years. They've lost houses, their domiciles closed, been through multiple divorces, owe(d) child support and alimony, did not have the military, and have always had an awful relationship with management. There are no saving this pilot group, you can never make them happy. Then we have our contract. The 2013 contract was written to include programs that didn't exist yet. Long story short is they turned off some stuff that was made obsolete in the contract, the replacement sucked, the pilot group wanted it back, the company said OK but we can't program all the stuff in the new contract. Pilot group said we don't care, and thus everything was put on hold to re-activate programs that had been de-integrated and shut down. A scheduling mistake in 2017 solidified the non-implementation, as the pilot group got HUGE work rule changes in agreement for dropping all grievances against the non implementation of the contract. BUT management has implemented items that help them, but none that help the pilot group. So, now we're in my personal opinion. Should DP be fired? From a leadership point of view, he's lost most, if not every work group. Ed Bastian and DAL have figured out labor relations. Oscar Munoz has figured out how to do it at UAL. AA seems behind the times, sticking with labor and negotiating tactics that the worst of the industry invented. They preach a "new American" but hired the same company negotiator that has been at the center point of all the awful combative labor relations (Jerry Glass.) So you have a bitter pilot group, and a management philosophy of more of the same. So the CEO talks a good talk, but actions are pointing towards another long, nasty "same ol same ol" company culture. Nobody believes we're going to overtake UAL or DAL with Doug in charge. Motivation isn't low, it's more like do your job and go home. There's no real reason to go the extra mile, or go above and beyond. And it seems like management is OK with that. So again, should DP be fired? Probably, but only if we can guarantee his replacement is better. And then the new guy needs to clean house of the middle management that still operates like it's in the early 90s. Overall, I do like it here. They've treated me well. I live in base, bid reserve, and worked 5 days this month, for 76 hours of pay. I've been on property for 2 years and can hold Captain later this year. But I do union work in Contract Compliance and new hire mentor, so I see a lot of the management-first solutions often, especially in Crew Scheduling.

They didn't use an HH-43. As Jim Moulton would say: 2 demerits.

The Human Performance Team (HPT) in the MQ-9 enterprise is a great support mechanism for the Pilots, SOs, and Intel. It's modeled similar to Medics and Psychs in the SOF world. The mental and spiritual pros are have the same clearances as the operators and make regular walk-thrus during ops for site visits. You can see the visible change in someone when they realize that it's ok to talk to someone, that they can find a room in the SCIF and just really open up about the stress to someone.

I don’t have a picture of it but I was sent to Beijing when I was refragged after show time and had to deal with a high level pax. Of course the J model is not GPS approved in China so now I’m the only aircraft shooting the non GPS arrival and it is about 15 step down segments in meters switching between headings, multiple VORs and NDBs and various speed restrictions. It was a little chaotic. Add to that gusty winds so I’m supposed to fly a 144kt approach speed, but I overspeed my flaps at 145kt. Most of the time it’s when you are going into a field with no radar service using procedural deconfliction, probably some place like Africa or the Balkans, and you look at the approach plate and even after years of flying think what the hell is this. Luckily you usually can look over the approaches the night before but not always, and ATC seems to be good at getting you to join the arrival/approach in the one way you weren’t expecting. The more experienced you get the less this happens and the more you laugh at/teach the young guy struggling, but as the young guy going into some interesting fields in the middle of no where at mins, it’s everything to keep your SA up. I’ve shot multiple circling NDBs at mins after I was told in pilot training NDBs were going away and I’d probably never have to shoot a real one. I’m sure there are plenty of other guys on the forum that have had some ridiculous foreign approach sprung on them at the last second.

I'm a day late in posting this... But on 29 Dec 1845, The Great State of Texas allowed America to join it. You're welcome.

First, they haven’t released the names yet so there are probably plenty of people here with a vested interest in the form of friends over there. Second, I don’t give a shit if civilians are armchair QBing this. When NOK notifications are still going is probably not a great time to throw out random bullshit. You want to look at Twitter and draw your own conclusions? Go for it. You’re probably a semi-educated individual and can figure stuff out.

No, you’re fucking speculating. Stop quibbling.