Leaderboard

We had a dude who said no to the jab and was sent home with like 6 rides remaining in the B-Course. So now, instead of having 4-ship flight lead, he's headed back to start the B-Course over again...what was the cost to the AF on that boneheaded move to not let him finish? One of the more gratifying things I did as a SQ/CC, was sign the paperwork to wash his UIF clean and send him back to training.

I simply do not understand this statement. Constantly trying to kill me? While the T-38 is long overdue on being replaced, I will jump in one every chance I get. Formation, LL,... whatever. A wing hasn't "fallen off" since 1983 or 1984 (at Columbus). Yes, we've lost wing tips where the Jo-bolts connect them to the wing... but everyone I know of landed fine. The jet's getting long in the tooth, and that needs to be taken into account. But calling it a "death trap"? Really? As for formation landings, we will agree to disagree. In 60 years of operating the T-38, that was the only formation landing fatality. Hardly a trend worthy of knee jerk. What next? Get rid of 3G/90 deg wingwork? Or 4G/120 deg close trail? How about formation approaches? We showed THAT could end up as a fatality too. Let's just make everything a single-ship straight-in.

Well, I think we found our fix to fix nazi. That said, you ain’t shit unless you can shack a F2F directly into a holding pattern, correctly apply the Mercedes Benz method for holding entry, proficiency triple the drift on the outbound leg, call ready for the approach after the first turn, then precisely fly a DME arc, compute the proper lead radial, and roll out on the NDB final within a degree, maybe a degree and a half (I mean, the needle does waiver a bit so I’m willing to cut a little slack here), figure your descent rate, execute a complex missed with a non-standard climb, and F2F yourself right back to the IAF to do the VOR this time. No GPS. Under the hood. In the Tweet.

Seen in Beale Finance this week. Congrats to the Blue Angels for their sponsorship of Finance.

https://www.thisdayinaviation.com/tag/james-phillip-fleming/ Drink a beer for this dude!!!

Honestly, same. You can use CPTS portal to hold finance accountable and it’s very effective. No more stories about losing paperwork, digging through email traffic, or recounting phone calls with nameless airmen. You can see who worked on your issue and when, down the minute. It’s all right there with all the data you need to back it up. Nowhere for finance to hide anymore, so maybe this one should be in the “right with the AF” thread. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Im pretry sure the fat chicks at Scooters/Crappys won't care what they're flying. Lol

With the other two contenders of consequence both being COTS. That's the real criminality here. I pretty much threw out my T-7 swag already. With a first retirement eligible date of mid-late 2020s, I'm settled in the fact I'm gonna retire in my grandfather's ol timey ride. That is if it doesn't kill me first, or cost me a second divorce. The weef already got smart on the airline "trade", she's now on the "100% you're just taking a gratuitous risk now" camp. Jest aside, it's not hyperbole when I say I have more than one former co-worker who lateral'd back to the T-6 or went back to a heavy, citing these concerns. Though I never had any interest in the 121 thing, it does not escape me that the income vs bodily risk ratio went lopsided a while ago for me as a multi-thousand hour in type grey beard in this enterprise. The consideration does weigh on me at times. What I'm also confident on, is had we gone T-50 or T-100, we'd have tails on ramp last summer. It was the height of malfeasance what Boeing did with that shtick of unserious underbidding. Not so much that they threw the number, but that the AF entertained it with a straight face. I still carry the memory of Stuck with me. Human factors notwithstanding, he didn't have to die that day. These are losses squarely in the camp of the right side of the MTBF curve, aka the bathtub model. To say nothing of the fact we've exceeded Northrop's projected airframe life by thousands of hours and multiple decades, pacer classic potato or not. It doesn't have to be this way. And as much as it pains me to say this, there will be more losses stemming from *aging-structures (*term in engineering grad school for this issue) related failures, mark my words. Acceptable as it may be to HAF, it needs to be said anyways. Because for those of us who are in the community, nothing could be more personal, AVF platitudes be damned. Boeing has blood on their hands as far as I'm concerned. Everybody stay safe out there.

Pentagon loses $85 million in F-35 parts... But by gawd, you had better not accidentally use your GTC (while activated) to purchase something that your per diem more than covers! 🙄

It’s not the plane, it’s us…but I DGAF, I shouldn’t see you from takeoff until RJ to tactical on RTB!

Now you get to do finance’s job for them virtually instead of in person! Gives back more time for some 19 year old with a single digit ASVAB score to catch up on the latest rendition of TikTok videos.

New PSDM out on strats. The only way to get a good strat now is to be an exec. Everyone else is a denominator for the exec, but small enough they can’t get a strat.

I think they're busy at work designing the next software that will make life even harder on the force (pex 2.0, dts 6.9, mypay 2020???). We have a few guys trying to retire right now and myFSS certainly isn't helping their blood pressure. I'm within a month of retirement and thankfully I submitted, and received, my retirement order before the switchover. But now I'm trying to get my early retirement stuff finalized before I lose my CAC, but something that only took a few weeks years ago, now is on month 4. Reason? myFSS switchover (supposedly). Yay, "advancement..." How is myEval 2.0 working out? I've said it numerous times on here, very few "improvements" the AF has rolled out over my 22 years has actually helped me. Mostly it's just dumped the duties of others onto me and has caused me to spend more and more time doing admin, and less time on my real job. Get off my lawn!

The first 4.5 seconds are my favorite lol

Facts. Even more than the applicability to gps/alien doomsday scenarios, solar storms, raim issues and internal electrical malfunctions can totally hose GPS and moving maps.. I've seen the little airplane icon on the moving map glitch around or move backwards more than a few times. In those instances, control and performance instruments + a legacy navaid are basically all you've got. But even more than that I just believe if you can't figure out how an HSI works you have no business operating an aircraft. It's like learning to make your bed in boot camp. Shows you have the wherewithal and aptitude to master basic tasks before you get bigger more relevant tasks. Why should I trust you to manage an autopilot coupled approach to mins in a state of the art aircraft if you can't figure out two needles and a DME readout.

The Congressional staffing happens after public release. Two sets of boards have been released that convened after the 04 board. This is completely the AF's/DoD's fault at this point.

I graduated UPT in 1987. I can tell you the F2F was the cause of a large percentage of checkride busts. Take a look at the Tweet cockpit and try to do a F2F using the RMI only. Doing them in T-38’s was so much easier with a proper HSI.

To name a few: -The relatively common occurrences of airframe mounted gearbox failure -wings de-laminating -extreme susceptibility of the engines to birdstrikes -century series fighter era TOLD on runways that are irresponsibly short -low altitude compressor stalls which PMP was supposed to fix

I don't think it's ok. My point is that it's not limited to this administration. It isn't a GOP vs Dem thing... it's a giant bureaucracy that thrives on getting money from congress for perceived threats, with very little oversight on how the money is actually spent.

I’ve heard it’s possible but rare to switch to an airframe in another command. For example, switching from Air Mobility Command to Air Combat Command. I’m interested in flying fighters at some point in my aviation career: any fighter or being an instructor in the T-38 or T-7 when that comes out. But, I tracked T-1s. I’m happy and excited to fly heavies but it’s always been my dream to fly fighters for a little bit of my career at least. Would it increase my chances of switching over to a fighter if I dropped a special operations aircraft or an aircraft in Air Combat Command like the EC-130 which is switching to the E-37 soon, MC-130, HC-130, RC-135, etc? I’d also be interested in possibly switching over to bombers if that allowed me to fly the T-38 or T-7 or being an instructor in AETC or some other command for the T-38 or T-7. I know the Air Force is short on instructor pilots. Is it easier for one of the commands to switch aircrafts in your career? I would like to fly 2-3 or more aircraft in my long time in the Air Force if possible.

Absolutely possible, but low chance of success. How: Rush units and convince them to hire you and secure the required T-38 TX, IFF, and B-Course training spots. Why it’s hard: well why does a unit want to risk a heavy guy making it through all that when they can hire dudes that don’t need any of those courses and are already fighter experienced? Also, that’s 1.5-2 yrs in a pipeline as an “old” guy that the unit doesn’t get shit out of you. Then when you’re done with training, you’re a “pretty old” guy basically starting at the beginning and less useful than the 25-28 yr old LT/Capt. Rush less desirable units (location, politics, etc) and you’ll have a better shot, but that really probably means you went from .05 PK to .1 PK. Thats the reality - not saying don’t go for it, but chance of success is very slim.

Anything is possible. People on this board have made similar mid-career pivots. The things that matter: luck, timing, valuable contributions as a pilot & bro, and playing the game well. I’ve seen U-28 guys end up in vipers, KC-135 folks flying Strike Eagles, and C-17 dudes fly fat Amy. Most pilots never change lanes (in that direction), though. Work hard, contribute, play the game, and be judicious in who you trust with your career. You’ll know if the moment comes. As an aside, I’m sitting here a little jealous of your clear road to an HC-130 (what a cool mission!) or EC-37 (fresh paint; big changes) Lots of neat options for you out there.

This is the best advice you’re going to get. I’ll also offer - do your best to love the one you’re with / bloom where you are planted. Once you start learning your mission set it becomes easier to become integrated with the community and enjoy the mission without looking back. Please don’t be the new guy who shows up day one telling everyone he doesn’t want to be there. It’s really hard to recover from that, and many communities even in the mobility world are quite proud. I am not saying you will do that but I’ve seen it rather often with young bucks. I was a 38 to mobility guy. At first I was pretty disappointed but I did my best to accept it and move on before I got to my first unit. If you do not like your mission, still knock it out of the park and there are many options to try something else.

Pick based on mission and you’ll be happy. And even if you don’t get your choice, you’ll love where you end up unless you’re just a miserable person then it won’t make a difference where you go. If you’re interested in single pilot flying out of the T-1 track, I’d lean into U-28 because that community is going OA-1K and that’s only going to have a single pilot.