Leaderboard

Rumor has it that Banzai flight has the highest washout rate among all 4 UPT bases. Those few that make it thru on average receive their 13th assignment choice. Just kidding man. With IP turnover at UPT, how a flight is for one class can be 180 out a month later with a new flight commander or IP makeup. Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile app

BAE's Small Agile Battlefield Aircraft (SABA). Was the 1987 vision for surface attack and COIN "of the future". I find the concept from back then to be pretty on point for the design proposal vs. what we know works based on recent history. Bonus points for the proto-Ospreys in the background. (If this was already posted earlier in the 60+ page history of this thread, I apologize and will Q3 myself)

No? In my experience T-38 studs perform much better and have stronger hands than T-1 trained folks; another argument for single trainer for phase 3.

Looking back UPT was the simplest and some of the most fun times I have had in my Air Force career. No paperwork, OPRs, EPRs, dealing with Airman snuffy and his financial or marital problems, building PowerPoints or briefings. All I had to do was study, fly, grill and drink beer with the bros and not be a douche. It was awesome! To the OP, take it one sortie at a time and enjoy it.

And there are C130s. 7 month FTU, 3-4 months of it is tactics, formation, and airdrop. Are students from the new system going to be ready or is it going to be on the FTU to teach some of this basically from scratch? I had the benefit of going to Corpus, which was designed as a C130 prep course taught completely by C130 pilots on the AF side. So honestly I don’t know what right looks like.

Sixty years ago today, Gary Powers flew the last of 28 Russian overflights in the U-2. The first was flown on 4 July 1956 by Hervey Stockman, the 17th pilot to fly the U-2 (Powers was #25). Here's to those great Americans that put it all on the line to do what the nation needed, to keep the Communist enemy in our sights. 🍺 https://www.coldwar.org/articles/50s/early_u2.asp For those of you at Laughlin AFB that haven't been to the Laughlin Heritage Foundation Museum, there's a fair amount of good U-2 history there. James Long runs the place... tell him hello and that you're stationed at DLF. https://www.laughlinheritagefoundationinc.org

Never never ever speak to a FBI agent without your lawyer in the room and never never ever hire a law firm where Eric Holder is a partner if you work for a Republican President. Spent 5 years in DC , I hated every second of it. Disbarments and indictments for everyone. But will not hold my breath to see perp walks of key members of the last administration. Two tiered justice system, if you think this would never happen to you but they went after a retired 3 star General our country and Constitution is doomed.

Jetpower, recommend you ask the person who told you that you’re in that flight who your SRO is... They will have the info you need (Liverpool). Otherwise call the 71 stus and ask your question to ppl that can actually answer it. If you can’t figure out how to contact the stus then I recommend finding a good truck driving school.

Spoiler alert: no one does.

Oshkosh airshow cancelled. Sucks. Was going to be flying in for the first time this year.

Look what happens when you actually log in and make a comment rather than just lurking all the time! The Crate died in 2009 when it got hacked and I just didn't have the time to try to get it off of life support and back in the air. I restarted another blogsite over at Thunder and 30mm via wordpress (because any spare money goes to one kid in college and my young 'un in softball, so it's free and that's for me) https://thunderand30millimeter.wordpress.com/ There's a facebook mirror for all things A-10 and CAS specific under the same name as well. The Sandy stories are there, plus a Walking Dead fan-fiction I started (and am trying to get going again) that walks through the initial zombie apocalypse via a group stationed at DM when it all goes down-- there's a small Facebook page for it that has some of the art I did for the story as well. On the Facebook, I've kept some cartoons going via a couple of pages: my personal stuff is over at Crate of Thunder Productions-- some youth sports cartoons and caricatures, and starting to compile my nose art / A-10 ladder door collections. With eDodo going the way of the bird it was named for in 2009 also, I've kind of putzed around with a Dodo heritage idea on Facebook as well (The Dodo Campaign: Underground Commentary, Extinction and Resurrection); some cartoons occasionally going in there, including another hair-brained idea to revisit Stract Wars... as if I've got time for that! So, in short, once the Crate's own site fell apart, I scattered all over the place. But it's free, so there's that. Cheers, Zero

I’ll preface this with being a poor soul in ACSC 7.0. I finished a class and signed up for another thinking I’ll get some poop done while teleworking. But apparently I missed the deadline (Which I couldn’t even see until I finished the last class to sign up for the next. Standard AF catch 22) and now I have to wait a fvcking month. Anyone have the topics for the papers for Leadership part 2? I’d like to at least get this garbage done. I appreciate the help.

The shit you find on Facebook... 💩💩💩

People usually fuck themselves by not knowing that they are the target. never pass up the opportunity to shut the fuck up.

That is a nice, little invalid analogy I’ve seen going around. Cloth masks do not remotely stop spread as compared to jeans stopping piss.

TLDR: kill IFF Not read up on the plan for UPT 2.5+; assumptions based on the discussion above. We’re all treating IFF as a sacred cow. Let’s be real; it’s an eight week top-off. A program like that can screen, but it’s not enough time to teach much beyond vocabulary and how to fake it for those who don’t have it. I know, I know... the fighter pilot attitude, aggressiveness, intangibles, Excel spreadsheet bombing! More on that later. It sounds like we are downloading expectations for basic airmanship to the basic trainer (reasonable) and at pretty much the same time phasing out our T-1 and T-38 fleets as we field the T-7. What if we killed IFF or, said another way: expanded its scope? All studs who require the T-7 (I think there’s a lot of merit to a single trainer track for some airframes, having not flown them) would start in one squadron, per UPT base, for transition to the new airframe, eventually being selected into a fighter or non-fighter track after two months. The non-fighter studs stay in the jet transition squadron and finish a syllabus similar to current phase III. 3 more months. Basic form and nav focused. AETC, AMC, ACC/ISR and AFGSC have equal seats at this unit’s post-track syllabus development table. Syllabus tailored to airframe with multiple off-ramps for each community’s needs. The jet transition squadron is manned primarily with AFGSC/MAF/ISR backgrounds. T-7 FAIPs start here. The fighter tracked studs finish UPT phase III in what was formerly IFF. Manned by fighter pilots, syllabus written by ACC/CAF and AETC. 6(+) months. Single syllabus to create a what would be a T-7 CMR wingman if the T-7 had real weapons. Begins with advanced formation and progresses to the limit of the T-7, or as deemed appropriate by ACC. No more trying to fix bad habits from a six month phase III in an eight week course. IFF is no longer screening, they’re building the product. Don’t like the intangibles? You’ve got six months to instill the fighter pilot mentality. It’s no longer a program that studs are just trying to get through, they actually have to absorb to survive, and contribute to the squadron. There’s room and time for truly valuable events to build confidence and airmanship. An ADAIR TDY to Nellis could be the capstone. If we’re going to stay ahead of the world, it’s time to rethink the model they copied. And oh yeah, VR and shit.

For the HIANG, I got an interview about a year ago and I am not a Hawaii resident. But I did 'rush' the squadron and visited on my christmas break. I asked if there was any preference for locals and was told no with the caveat that one should come prepared/have a plan financially because Hawaii isnt cheap, especially oahu.

Haha, not a big fan of SKE, it is merely a tactic that we focus too much on. But I have to roll my eyes anytime a cocky young AC tells me “oh we will never have to do x, y, z.” Then I ask them what are the odds that the Buffs or B2s have to execute their nuclear mission? Does that mean they don’t train to it hard and seriously? As to your example, there is historical precedent for a JFE. Twice they were recalled but it is definitely an arrow in the NCAs quiver so let’s not suck at it?

That's where SKE comes in. C-130 pilots are well-positioned with the skills of yesteryear, ready to knock out the enemy with a surprise invasion of 60 airplanes providing mass on DZ. When the time comes just get behind us.

Alright ya'll figured I'd offer what I have. I spent at least a couple weeks trying to get in touch with a pilot at the 199th fighter squadron. Finally managed to get one of the AD pilots who passed me the email of the squadron DO Lt Col Horton. I emailed him and he informed me that the HI ANG does not keep a set schedule on their boards and the only way to get board information is indeed to go through the recruiters. He put me in contact with the recruiter that deals directly with their boards MSgt Manalo. PM me if you are interested and I will give you her contact info. I sent her an email and she reached out to make sure I had all the prerequisites done (AFOQT etc.) and then she sent me the requirements for the application package. She has a database started and will shoot out a mass alert to submit your package when the submission date drops for the UPT board. The 199th, 203rd, and 204th run joint boards so she will be the gate keeper for all 3 if you are interested in something other than the F-22's as well.

Embrace the changes people. Technology has improved safety, efficiency and lethality therefore we can update our training to match. Half the stuff I grew up getting hammered for learning to fly fighters 18 years ago is N/A today. That’s the stuff that is getting cut and I support it. Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile app

The T-1 Nav Check was by far the longest friggin day in UPT. It was all downhill from there.

Sad to hear how much of UPT has eroded. I can understand the immediate logic behind cutting sorties for T-1 students but the reality is the AF always made better pilots slightly above the cut of the civil sector because we focused on building good airman (in the occupational sense of the word) first. You may never do a loop in your RC-135 but the concepts behind energy management and visual ques translated over every platform in a multitude of other skill sets. More than that, you instilled fierce confidence that graduates were able to take airplanes and fly them at their performance envelopes. Simply put, there was a time where the Air Force cared about making great pilots first, and then finding a weapon system for them. Now the emphasis seems to be getting them to a weapon system, and we'll worry about the pilot stuff later.

Although not an assignment option for anyone here, this a good video of Dean "Gucci" Neeley talking about the NASA ER-2 mission at Palmdale on Earth Day 2020. Gucci has an incredible flying background, including the B-52, T-37, KC-10, T-38, U-2, and F-117 in the USAF.