Leaderboard

Shack. This isn't an us vs. them debate because the situations aren't even remotely the same. I lived in Del Rio for five years and saw probably three snow flurries in that time. 6 inches of snow and a week of single digit deep freeze is absolutely unthinkable for most of the state. Meanwhile, California's power grid shits the bed most summers due to completely standard hot weather. If there were routine rolling blackouts in Texas in the summer, the situations would be analogous, but that isn't a thing. I'd love to see what would happen to LA if they got six inches of snow.. likely hundreds if not thousands of deaths, complete grid failure, and almost certainly a few decades worth of shitty climate change documentaries.

Laughs in last decade and a half of flying circles in the sky, aging out our Strikes/Vipers/Bones/Hogs... just in case we need to sling an $50k bomb at a dude carrying an RPG.

"Top end virologists" Says who? I am not a fan of Laura Ingram but was scanning around and watched an interview on her show last night. She had two "Top End Epidemiologists", one a fellow at Stanford, the other at Harvard. Both were in lock step agreement that we will achieve herd immunity by April. Having had a nasty case of COVID I am especially sensitive to news about mutations and how immunity may be impacted. I have yet to see a single scientific article that says any of the mutations is more deadly. Thus far the only proven change is some of the variants have higher transmmisability. The real problem is in your first few words "from TV", it is the sensationalistic press that is driving a fear narrative on mutations. Cases in point: Headline from the Atlantic The Mutated Virus Is a Ticking Time Bomb - first line of the article "there is much we don’t know about the new COVID-19 variant" Headline from the NY Times Covid-19: The U.S. Has Its Own New Worrisome Variants - near the top of the article "It’s not clear yet whether this shared mutation makes the variants more contagious" Headline from Vox How the new Covid-19 variants could pose a threat to vaccination - but they go on the clarify "While there’s no evidence they cause more severe disease, more cases mean further stress on hospitals and, after that, a rising death rate" The BBC had a very good article explaining the mutations and clearly stated from the science "Although there is no information that infections with these strains are more severe, due to increased transmissibility" To even further demonstrate the disconnect among "Top virologists" you might look at the Great Barrington Declaration - Which has signatures from thousands of "Top end doctors, virologists, epidemiologists, scientists and other medical professionals advocating to immediately end the lockdowns and go to a "focused protection approach.

A high number of applicants doesn't mean a higher number of competitive applicants. I wouldn't be discouraged.

Mostly false parallels here. It is absolutely wrong that he's being criticized. He is a federal official that has *nothing* to do with the power crisis in Texas, and other than getting an emergency declared, which he did, he's useless. When exactly would you like our politicians to spend time with their families? When they're needed most, or when they are not? Ted Cruz is not the leader of Texas. If Abbott had run away to Mexico we'd have a very different conversation. Dodging a deployment? That's your parallel? Do better. No one had to be there in Ted's absence, hell the reduced power usage from his family leaving marginally *helps* the crisis. Generals telling people to quit? What on Earth does that have to do with anything? Acting like "giving the appearance of working" is somehow a virtue is *exactly* the problem I'm identifying. If you want a military analogy that actually applies, how about the generals that expect their staff to stay at the office till 8pm even when they could get some of that work done at home, with their families? How do we feel about that? Saying that "symbolism matters" implies that *all* symbolism matters. It does not. A graduation ceremony recognizes a particular accomplishment of individuals to the people who care. If I forced you to go to my cousin's graduation, would the symbolism matter to you then? We can and should expect our leaders to be where they are needed, when they are needed. We should stop pretending like our government officials are supposed to be superhuman public servants. For the people, *by* the people. Regular citizens engaging in the practice of self governance. We need to stop holding them to a higher standard than we hold ourselves to. This is just a case of people not liking the person first, and finding reasons second. It was nonsense when conservatives did it to Obama for golfing, it's nonsense now.

On the California vs Texas energy deals: As someone who has lived in both states, they are not even comparable. California has rolling blackouts every single summer for predictable and annual heat waves. You literally have to factor the power going out into your summer planning here. Texas had an energy issue for a once in 80-100 year cold snap. Could Texas have been better prepared? Absolutely. Has Cruz made a fool of himself during this, yes. Is comparing the Texas snow storm power issue to the decades of power grid mismanagement in California fair? Not really.

The PaveLow mafia took over again.

I could probably write a book on this topic; it’s an interesting question. My short answer is...a student pilot pays a civilian instructor, so there is an inherent conflict of interest there. A student never gets the 100% unvarnished truth (typically) because the CFI doesn’t want to bite the hand that feeds him. IPs at UPT don’t have that worry. 😂 My second thought is that the expectations are just higher in the military, as pilots are allowed access to far more advanced equipment with far more challenging missions with very little experience. Example...250 hour pilots flying F-22s solo or globe trotting on a C-5. Hell, even a KC-135 is the size of a 757. Not many opportunities for a low time pilot to fly something that big/complicated (relative to GA).

UPT select. Second time applying. 91 pilot/92 PCSM/ 80+ hours & PPL Prior rated CSO

As an aside..being LEO (or a teacher for that matter) in any kind of minority community is likely going to be nearly impossible before too long. With a camera under every swingin pair the one with the best video wins. So one key might be to just let whatever it is slide. Ignore it and move right along. Answer the calls. Cook up a little activity for the books. Don't be cooking up trouble. Keep management happy.. After all, every contact with anyone by def. involves the presence of a deadly weapon...might as well minimize. To change things, training is of course the key, but so is how a newbie gets socialized into the police system. From the top down , Inspectors, Captains, Lt's, Sergeants, detectives all come up from the ranks (usually, outfits differ) soooo If there is misbehavior, poor judgement, drinking, nasty activity in general, the honchos know what's going on and tend to ignore it from top to bottom..since they were brought up the same way. Unless the hammer comes down from the top thru the ranks and hard, the way the average officer is socialized to the job will never change. Remember the old adage "a policeman's life is not a happy one". Join the Fire department.

You've got to be kidding me. Words do matter. This is a textbook example of hypocrisy. Cruz ridiculed California's energy planning and his state was equally unprepared. How many times it happened in one state versus another is immaterial. Even Cruz himself acknowledges this. I've listened very closely to Dan Crenshaw in particular as I think (thought) that he has the potential to be a great President. He focused on wind turbine icing as if it is an inevitable problem and a major factor in the grid collapse. Icing is easily addressed. In my view he's trying to score some easy, though inaccurate, points with his base. I encourage you to be objective rather than just reflexively supporting "your guy" as the first instinct. Politicians don't deserve blind loyalty. Hence why I'm an independent. Politicians have to earn every one of my votes.

That's all well and good, except the most regulated parts the the country still have grid failures. This is where conservatives start talking themselves into knots. Do I want my power costs to go up so I can avoid a blackout every one or two decades? No thanks. I'll spend a few hundred bucks on a generator. Obviously ERCOT fucked up. But the measure of a fuck up is not how far it is from the perfect hypothetical. It's how far it is from other functioning systems. By that measure, not much to see here. We don't need government regulation to weather proof a nuclear reactor sensor that government wouldn't have caught beforehand anyways. That sensor will never freeze again, no red tape required. The beautiful thing about government is they can blame failures (that government also failed to recognize) on a lack of government. Then they claim the addition of government, not the usual process of identifying a new problem and solving it, was what prevented a reoccurrence.

Been lurking on here, but just got word that I'm an RPA select. Wasn't my #1 choice but I'm still excited for it. Good luck to everyone who hasn't heard yet! 95 pilot/63 pcsm/0 flight hours

'They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.'

!RemindMe in four years...we will look back on 2020 corona virus as the most disastrous government intervention in the history of American public health. total disaster and fear based response amazed how easily americans can be lied to, deceived, freedoms taken away, businesses shut, schools closed, travel stopped...all in the name of "keeping them safe"...and most americans WILLINGLY are giving up their freedoms in the name of "safety" really is incredible. fear is a hell of a weapon.

Recovered safely.

The sins are not even in the universe. Ted Cruz went on vacation during a snow and ice storm. As a senator not much he could do more than symbolic gestures. Optics bad, yes but he didn't kill anyone. Cuomo is DIRECTLY responsible for many deaths, withheld information from the Justice Department and lied about. Come on man. When dividing the "sides" of the media at least be relative and honest. On the conservative side of televised media you have one player FoxNews (although newsmax is growing an audience). On the liberal side is the VAST majority of CNN/MCNBC/CBS/ABC/NBC. It is David versus Goliath which is why Foxnews gets higher ratings than all of the left wingnut networks combined.

The liberal mainstream media largely excused Cuomo and the conservative mainstream media largely excused Cruz. I'm not saying their sins are equally mortal but those are the immediate examples. We've got two sides of the mainstream media now with roughly equal viewer/reader/listenerships. Conflating mainstream media with liberal is passe. That might be a good thing although the two sides are getting further apart. They want us to choose R or D and obediently stay in our little boxes.

This series of articles highlights the "Animal Farm" that the NYT - our supposed paper of record - has become: https://nypost.com/2021/02/10/ny-times-defends-1619-project-creator-after-she-doxxed-reporter/ https://nypost.com/2021/02/11/read-the-column-the-new-york-times-didnt-want-you-read/ https://nypost.com/2021/02/10/the-woke-mob-now-utterly-rules-the-new-york-times/ https://nypost.com/2021/02/09/war-erupts-at-ny-times-after-donald-mcneil-ousted-over-n-word-controversy/ In short, Nikole Hannah-Jones doxxed a journalist because she didn't like his questions about her previous (perhaps appropriate) use of the N-word. The questioning led her to delete her entire twitter history and post some nonsense about how she "routinely" deletes previous posts. I'm not personally surprised by this, because she is ultimately one garbage person, but the disparate response by the NYT decision makers is "problematic" to say the least. At the same time, another NYT journalist, Donald McNeil, has been summarily ousted because of his use of the N-word. If you read into that situation's background, you'll find it wasn't used maliciously. What's more, is that the NYT scuttled a critical, though valid, piece of its own handling of that situation - which drew attention to how context matters and is being fully disregarded in this case. I can't say I'm actually surprised by them not self-publishing an article airing their own dirty laundry, but it is important for us to understand the filter that anything the NYT publishes has passed through. Even more important, though, is that instances like this highlight the growing institutional acceptance and normalization of mob rule, arbitrary rule-making, and unprincipled application. Rules for thee, not for me. This is the type of power "1984" warns us about.

A Fucking MEN! Liberal media needs a reason to NOT report on Cuomo so they focus on Ted going on vacation. You want to talk about lies...thankfully DOJ and the FBI are investigating the joke that is the NY Governor and his staff. Over at the joke that is CNN Brother Fredo Cuomo has been absolutely silent about a controversy that may have caused 1,000 unnecessary deaths.

If The Media Had Investigated Cuomo’s COVID Response The Way They Did Cruz’s Cancun Trip, Thousands Of New Yorkers Could Still Be Alive

Excellent press analysis on how journalist use emotion to influence your perception of a topic.

Not again...

It’s a nonsense talking point developed to generate outrage by people with no basis for comparison. Look just to give you an idea how dumb this idea that 400 hours and we give you a gun... the deputy program in my counties Sheriff department was 6 months working in the jail. You were ineligible for work as a road officer until you passed that hurdle, which was after you met the state required course provided at the collegiate level (most places have gone to this model instead of individual academy programs outside major cities). If you actually looked around plenty of guys had been working the jail for as much as 18 months because of a limited number of field training officers so intake was managed to avoid deluding the road training. After that time in the jail where one could find themselves permanently because they were deemed unfit for road work, you went to a field training probation period... that was typically another 6-8 months before you were certified for individual patrol. The city metro program was similar, with higher qualification standards for immediate hiring, so while you skipped the jail per say you also had to show more quality to even get in. So yeah as some have pointed to, this nonsense you can be a cop easier than you can be a hairdresser is just noise from the same people screaming all cops are bastards. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

You sure? Pretty sure you spent most of that post showing reasons he should die, and 1 line saying he shouldn't. I've watched the whole video before it was removed from everywhere. I disagree with your assessment of "truth."

Plus, the fact he lied again about how long he was going to be gone, and said it was his kids fault. Oh, good. I thought he was a US Senator or some other kind of leader. Tons of those in TX. Not like he could organize help in his neighborhood/city (instead of planning to flee for a week while leaving the dog), or raise some funds to help those who'll have massive bills coming, or home repairs. Nope, only thing he could do as "just a normal guy with a pretty bland, do nothing job." Pray tell what you're going to do when you run out of gas. Yep, nothing could be done in this situation. Just gotta deregulate more, and disconnect from the power grid...more? Didn't work for El Paso at all.

Finally was fortunate enough to get picked up off the street for a fighter unit in the fall, starting my own timeline: Hired: Aug 2020 MEPS: Dec 2020 (initial processing was delayed due to miscommunication on COVID protocols, had to go back for a vision consult in Jan 2021 which required a waiver) Enlistment: Feb 2021 FC1: ? OTS: ? UPT:? Good luck to everyone out there, COVID certainly isn't making anything easier.

Good stuff. You got any tricks/tips for the Reserves route?

It's not hypocrisy if you're not doing something that you said others shouldn't be doing. California has had rolling blackouts for decades, as far back as I can remember. Texas had them once during a once in a generation storm. Not much of a parallel. Words matter. And I actually just listened to Crenshaw's podcast on the power crisis. The fact that wind turbines freeze is not the problem. The fact that they get preferential selling priority on the grid is. For all the ceaseless babbling about renewable energies and the green new deal, no one on the left seems interested in discussing exactly how renewable energy would have made the Texas power crisis better. Spoiler alert, it wouldn't.

At least Cruz is making an effort to own his hypocrisy. I give him sincere credit as such a thing is rare for politicians on both sides. https://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/2021/02/17/cruz-says-he-has-no-defense-for-mocking-californias-past-power-outages-as-texas-grid-falters-amid-historic-freeze/ Let's see if Crenshaw and Abbott admit they greatly exaggerated the impact of wind turbine issues during this recent cool weather spell.

Like I said, if we value symbolic gestures, we get symbolic leadership. If we value leaders who chose symbolic acts over their families, what hope do we have of getting politicians who place value on the American family? You don't have to give weight to a bad argument just because the opposition is making it. He does not "deserve" irrational criticism. If the only problem with what Ted did is optics, then there's no problem at all.

Because there’s nothing a federal politician can do for his electorate? You start battling for disaster relief bills to help pick your constituents back up. You figure out why the help didn’t arrive quicker or more effectively. You think of how you can help through economic relief. You at least try to be smart enough to not be a giant hypocrite at doing what you spent a lot of time calling out other politicians for doing. Yeah, maybe it’s symbolic, but it’s a douchebag move for a political voted to represent the people and be their leader to bounce the hell out or not follow the same rules they espouse. Same goes for Austin Mayors, California Governors, Texas Senators, any elected official on any shade of the political spectrum. You’re a leader; lead or at least act like you GAF when the people who asked you to lead need help.

I really don’t think an AC-208 can replace the U-28. That’s like trading out a Ferrari for a Miata and saying they’re similar. https://www.defenseone.com/business/2021/02/new-plane-key-special-ops-vision-africa-general-says/172092/ The AC-208 is a great low cost ISR/Strike aircraft for third world countries but the US needs better for the ground troops.

UPT non-select, Got RPA instead. P 93, PCSM 82, 41 Flight Hours. 1st time applying. Most likely declining and waiting to make my package stronger.

ABM Select PCSM 84, Pilot 95, 15 Hours 2nd time applying (CSO select last time) I'll be declining, so good luck to the alternates out there

Completely disagree. The AT-802 with the L3Harris mods is a GENERATION beyond the IOMAX Archangel...think U-28 on steroids. Also, the 802 factory is still churning out aircraft for the commercial market at a record pace (over 800 802s have been built.) IOMAX is in bankruptcy and was bought on the cheap for this endeavor. 75 airplanes is a substantial buy and having the logistical backbone to support is just as important as building the actual aircraft. Also, the IOMAX mission management system is a joke. The Bronco II is flawed in MANY ways. I have seen it out flying in my local area (they are doing U.S. based development and testing at Crestview.) The aircraft is fragile in my opinion and will carry about half what the 802 can carry with a much shorter duration of flight. While they make a big deal about taking Bronco II to the dirt, having done the dirt, a pusher prop is the LAST platform I want to take to an unimproved strip. Every rock, chunk of dirt or debris that airplane kicks up is going straight through the prop. Also as you mention the lack of U.S. production is a huge political concern, are we really going to send up to $2B worth of aircraft production to South Africa AND rely on another country for logistical support (one of the reasons we are walking away from the A-29). The FAA cert is another hurdle that is both high and expensive. The IFR cert alone is a $10M piece of paper. To date only two Bronco II's have been built and flown...there is much work to do.

Truly amazing content and interviews, although one or two of his guests have been a bit specious 🙂

People laugh but I would love to see a split ticket as the third party in the next POTUS election. Tulsi (D) with Crenshaw (R) or Haley (R) for example. Completely bi-partisan and able to pull the more independent and centrist votes away from the two major parties.

I'm glad that iron is finally arriving on the ramp, fingers crossed they actually get the other two. Interesting idea to make them a middleman node in the datalink architecture.

URT. Wanted pilot. 80 PCSM / 98 Pilot / PPL / 1 of 3 General push / LOR from a 2 star. Invest more into more flying hours to get a higher PCSM? Congrats to those who got what they wanted!! 🙂

UPT Non-select, URT select. First time applying. No PPL, 20hrs Pilot: 97 PCSM: 81 If anyone's got info on the RPA career field shoot me a mesage

It's like playing a sport with some friends for fun on the weekend, versus playing a sport competitively. Higher standards and expectations, you're on someone else's time/schedule, more time studying ahead of the flight, and more focused debriefs following the flight (again, on a timeline). So it can be a lot more like work than a leisurely activity. Especially compared to flying as a private pilot going out to go sightseeing or get the $100 hamburger on your own schedule. Not to say it loses its excitement or can't be fun; you'll still find moments where you look out and take in the view and enjoy having one of the greatest jobs you can have. But then it's back to the mission/work. Big thing is to keep an open mind, and learn the techniques the AF wants you to use (for example,max relax roll vs relax level power for stall recovery, or time-turn-throttles-twist-track-talk for IFR turnpoint actions). But the air sense from your previous flying will help, and a lot of it is adjusting to operating at the pacing in the cockpit expected of a military pilot.

CSO select 98 pilot, 98 CSO, 86 pcsm w/o ppl (~12 hours). #1 Wing candidate and Wg strat as a group exec. Sounds like it was a tough board this year. Congrats those that got it. interested to see the final breakdown of career fields from those selected.

Congrats to those who found out so far! I don’t plan to accept my CSO slot, but will start working packages for Guard units. Side note to everyone, I suggest networking with your fellow CGOs on base! It came in handy for me with our base closure. I asked around for our MPF commander, then asked him to check for me. He was able to check from home and forwarded the results to the wing. Then I asked the group exec to reach out to the wing and expedited the process. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have found out until probably next week.

Top 3 guys in my class had 200+ hours and their commercial. Top guy had 200 hours of formation time on top of that in jets. I saw other guys with a thousand hours struggle. the key is to have the hours as a baseline but attack UPT like you haven’t flown before to build military habit patterns. The air sense you already have from hours will show through. If your set in your ways though it will get ugly, and those are the guys you usually hear about. Finally, some guys just can’t think quickly and having 1000 hours won’t fix that and they will struggle.

Here's my perspective as someone who entered UPT with few hundred GA hours (CPL w/instrument rating) and currently a T-6 IP. For starters, ground ops (walking out to the jet, the preflight, getting the aircraft started and taxied) sound benign but in reality, the AF wants them done quickly and accurately. You won't have time to sit under the canopy in the heat or cold and go through the checklist item by item, especially when you're in a formation and you have a VHF check-in time. You'll need to create flows to make sure everything is in order and it helps to do things the same time, every time, so something will hopefully seem off to you if it's forgotten. The struggle between speed and accuracy is what some students struggle with, to include those with previous flying experience. One large difference in UPT is the vastly different traffic pattern. In the GA world, you're used to a single rectangular box pattern. In UPT, you have several different patterns (overhead, straight-in, low pattern, high pattern, breakout/reentry, etc.) controlled by the RSU within the Class-D and things happen fast. You'll have close to a dozen other T-6s moving at 200 knots at its busiest, and you have to listen on the radios for every little detail while precisely maneuvering the aircraft. It's not uncommon to routinely pull several Gs in the pattern to follow the precise ground tracks. It takes several flights to build your SA bubble enough to be comfortable to solo... this is something you can't really prepare for in the GA world. It's also a blast once used to it. The formation phase is obviously entirely new to most. As someone who occasionally flew formation with buddies in the GA world before UPT, it was nothing like military formation. For most with prior hours I'd say, this is where the playing field is generally leveled. I was a strong student in contact and instruments, but perfectly average in the formation phase and it was similar to learning to fly all over again in some ways. How so? Like in the pattern, things happen fast and you're maneuvering in relation to someone else while keeping up with precise, timely, and correct comms. As lead, you need to make the appropriate decisions for the formation and you're constantly under pressure to do so. But again, it's also a blast once used to it. Also, unlike on a GA training flight where you just fill the fuel tanks and typically don't have to worry about fuel, you will always have a set amount of time/fuel to accomplish each sortie in UPT. You simply won't have the time/gas to mess around. You need to be quick to accomplish your profile within these constraints, whether single ship or for the formation. It's added pressure. Those are just a few specific examples and I'm sure others will chime in with more. What helped me the most in UPT was having good stick and rudder skills from GA flying and my instrument rating. This allowed me to fly/trim the aircraft so I could focus more on what was going on outside and build an SA bubble. Previous flight time will set a foundation in terms of some basic general knowledge and hopefully some stick/rudder skills, but you will have to much to learn in terms of AF procedures and applying them while inverted/under moderate G/potentially being yelled at by the IP. Did I mention that it's a blast?

Well, my leadership messed up i got a CSO slot not a upt slot PCSM: 90 Pilot: 95 PPL w/83 hours

URT select, really wanted UPT though but might just take it. 86 PCSM no PPL

They’re still broke due to hydro at Ramstein. Original ETIC was parts plus 45 years.