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Time to retire the F-35. Amiright?

I ended up buying it, flew it home from Iowa the other week. Insurance $980/year, hangar $230/month, and however much MX ends up costing. Far from the best performer on the airfield but still faster than a J3 Cub, had to keep flaps down for this one to keep up with me.

Should definitely look at putting a stop to night landings on training sorties. Too much risk.

Pyro was my student (Cadet, ERAU ROTC Prescott) and I returned for his commissioning 23 years ago. He stood out as one of the brightest, kindest and most engaging people I'd ever known. Over the years, we stayed in touch and visited often; the last time being at his final role call at his AZ ANG unit last year. Remarkable but not surprising, the outpouring of admiration, respect and affection displayed by the standing room only crowd, many who'd traveled great distances, and included 2 General officers. An inspirational, larger-than-life type, he became a mentor to my son, taking him up in the -16 sim, giving him a tour of the flight line and ultimately guidance and advice throughout ROTC and UPT. We were able to attend the beautiful ceremony for Matt, and as expected, countless friends and fellow admirers came from all corners to pay their respects. Matt may have been a student at one point, but I probably learned more from him. Nickel on the grass

So I have never met matmacwc in person. But hearing that we lost him made me cry. He was extremely kind and helpful, always answered my questions, reassured me to try again when I was ready to quit. I just got picked up as pilot on the Active duty UPT board, but I can’t stop reflecting on how great a person he was to take the time to talk to me when there was nothing in it for him. Since I can’t message him and say thank you, I am saying it out here - loud and public. If there is a soul and god, may yours rest in heaven! RIP sir!

Bump. Callsign Chaos I can't underscore this enough: All leaders NEED to read this book. Mattis demonstrates the integrity and intent based leadership that could heal most of the problems our current military structure faces. Not many people have to integrity to innovate themselves into unemployment (he shut down Joint Forces Command, which he was in charge of, because it was basically useless). He also cuts straight to facts about decision making and how not empowering leaders below you hamstrings operational effectiveness and efficiency. Great book.

The OG is a good dudette. Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile app

Lots of countries have mandatory mask wearing policies. We don’t want to be like them. Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile app

Bobsan, I saw that plane on Barnstormers and it looks like a really nice plane for a screamin' deal. Congratulations on joining the "owners ranks". Nice picture over the AF Museum. 👍

Lol

Those are the main two. The only other ways I've had some success in info on UPT boards is the squadrons website and facebook. A decent amount of units have fb hiring pages for their squads and good many also post updates on their websites. I would recommend reaching out though. Even if cold calling the unit is not your thing, just shoot the POC a quick, friendly email and they are usually more than happy to pass along the latest info.

https://www.stearmanflyin.com and https://cessna120140.com/convention/ around Labor Day

Make sure you're wearing pants when they ask you to stand up.

I'd assume your recruiter means that in 2 days they're going to start setting up a MEPS appointment to have you swear in. The first time you swear in, it's just to DEP (Delayed Entry Program). You're not obligated to much other than meeting with your recruiter and other selects about once a month for DEP calls and getting the ball rolling on things like your flight physical and paperwork. You can still turn down the selection at any time. This would technically be a DEP Discharge, which is mentioned somewhere in AFRSI 36-2001 if you want to dig through the regs. I don't think that requires any sort of waiver to reapply, but you will have to disclose the fact that you applied and turned down a position. It's probably anyone's guess as to whether a particular selection board will find that significantly objectionable or not, but it's probably going to be neutral at best. Once everything is squared away and you're about to actually report to OTS, you'll go back to MEPS a few days before and swear in again. This time you're swearing in to EAD (Extended Active Duty). From this point on, you're officially "in" the military and it's a more involved process to have you released. The ability to do this might change depending on particular circumstances at the time, but short of a major war and/or critical manning issues, you generally have the option to DOR (Drop On Request) while at OTS and get discharged from the military. If you do this, you'll get a DD214 since you were on active duty and it will indicate that it was an entry-level uncharacterized discharge. Because of this, you'd need a waiver to rejoin the military in any capacity (have a look for "RE code" sections of governing documents). Not impossible but not a guarantee either. Short answer: you definitely don't have to decide within 2 days.

The heads of the major pilot unions are speaking at a conference today. If there is any interest in hearing what they are saying to people outside the industry I can pass along some notes.

It was a part of the GH program in the up till 2006, then taken away as it was cheap, simple, low risk and effective. Thanks MG DeCuir.

Not a good week for aviation. This these crashes it makes me wonder what the AIB was for the rash of crashes last year. Anyone remember them all ? I remember a C model overseas. And maybe a 35 for the Marines ?