Leaderboard

I’ve taken “personal quality” out of the equation. They’re all shit, so it doesn’t matter. What are the policies (past and expected) and what are the outcomes (real or projected). Do they support general American principles or not? Thats what people should be voting based on. Voting for person X solely because it’s not person Y is fucking retarded. If that’s how you feel, just don’t vote.

Trump says a lot of off the cuff dumb things. Also, you’re an idiot if you think he is actually going to try and terminate the constitution.

I can think of many times when I would have much rather been killed than had to endure pain for a very long time. Recent trip to in-laws is a great example.

Corporate / MAJCOM policy to craft SIIs was at the time to scan OG SEB minutes for common items across all MDS plus Special Tactics. SIIs were approved by the A3…BGEN. I’ve also enjoyed the convos in this derail. As explained earlier I had debriefed the issue prior. I’ll explain. Annual MSN eval with patch from the squadron I was attached to. He was wearing a ring and also deviated 500 feet during a “mission event,” from desired altitude. During debrief I made the exact point someone made earlier, on both the altitude and the ring. Stating that he was the one everyone was looking to and everyone follows / watches / listens to what a patch says / does. He quibbled a little bit about the altitude discrepancy stating that he deviated with awareness, I then told him I could buy that if he would have at least verbalized that to his crew. But if it were a demo/do for a young ac he would have terminated and set back up for a proper demo. Pressing 500 feet below and well outside of Q- tolerances in front of his crew was not what I wanted him to do. Combat fine, lives on the line fine do it. But during a training ride / eval why??? Not being a heartless a-hole contrary to other evidence I gave him a downgrade on that event. That Eval with a patch and my daily rides with the squadron led to my informal email to squadron leadership. Looking back on it maybe the SII would have been the correct way to go but I’d also had been sniped by squadron commanders for being too heavy handed and not allowing them to fix things at the lowest level—issuing something from my office directly to a GO for approval is the opposite of what all the commanders I’ve worked with have ever desired. So like I said, that led to the email which stated “If we see X, Y and Z during our inspection then it’s probably going to be more than a Q-“ Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

This just doesn't make sense when you say it out loud. What could be a *more* correct tool for an evaluator to evaluate the performance and compliance of an aviator than... an evaluation ride? If the Form 8 is being used as a career trajectory proxy, that's not on the evaluator, that's on leadership. Look, I get it, no one likes being the bad guy and putting a mark on someone's record. But the CAF mentality of saving all evaluation downgrades for the debrief instead of the form 8 is in itself invalidating the entire concept of the form 8 evaluation, and thus allowing it to be used for non-evaluation purposes. It also ensures that there's no way for someone looking over the records to effectively stratify pilots based on their actual ability in the cockpit. And this also ignores the very obvious assumption that in skitzo's example, the squadron was operating under the construct that you are suggesting (debrief, don't document), and yet were not following the regulations to the point that pilots weren't even following them with a majcom evaluator. The bro Network has limitations, and predictable outcomes. The problem in AMC was not that evaluators gave out Q2/Q3s when pilots were deficient during an evaluation. Believe me, the fighter pilots might forget that they are getting the top students from most pilot training classes, but in the KC-135 we absolutely were not. So you have far more deficient airmanship to deal with, and the evaluation is exactly where you would like to see that documented. The problem in AMC was commanders using Q3s in order to punish pilots for things they were doing, unintentionally and normally, on regular flights. But saying that the form 8 checkride isn't the right spot to document someone failing to follow the regs during an evaluation seems a little... forced. Especially when the squadron was warned ahead of time about the emphasis item, and the pilot in question was supposed to be the apex squadron instructor.

Yeah, great in theory, except in practice what you are describing is how complacency festers. There's always an excuse for why this rule isn't that important or you don't really have to follow that reg, or yeah maybe you're supposed to do it that way but does it really matter? Complacent squadrons with mishaps don't consciously create an environment that is ripe for catastrophe. There isn't some dipshit who walks in saying "I can't wait to break the rules and eventually lead to calamity." I don't say this as some evaluator who had a boner for downgrading people. I say this as someone who is reflexively anti-authoritarian and always looking for a reason to do something differently. And that little shit adds up in your brain and builds the habit pattern of excusing regulatory deviance. Then when something goes wrong, or you screw something up, or something unplanned puts you in a position where the easier answer is to violate or keep violating the regulation, that habit pattern kicks in. It only has to kick in for a few minutes or seconds to put you in a position you would have assumed prior to the flight you wouldn't find yourself in. I remember this conflict when stabilized approach criteria came out. Maybe you've been able to shake the bonds of human nature, but the rest of us mortals are very much susceptible to all the things that created the need for these regulations in the first place. It is the literal function of the evaluator to enforce the regulations as they are written, and as we all remember from training, these regulations are written in blood. Including the blood of whatever dipshit had his finger degloved because he was wearing a wedding ring. Expecting the evaluators to have a secondary set of unwritten regulations that discriminate between "queep" rules and the ones that actually matter is easy to say with a beer in your hand, but very difficult to do when you're the one enforcing the standards. When I got downgraded on my T-6 instructor check ride for taking my mask off right after takeoff, it wasn't the evaluator's fault. I was the dummy. Does that mean guys should be sent to an FEB for wearing a wedding ring on a regular flight? Obviously not, considering I don't think pilots should be punished for uncharacteristic mistakes that might result in damage to the aircraft or person either. Sometimes you just have a hard landing. If it's not a trend, just debrief it. But if you can't play the game with an evaluator then it's very difficult to imagine that same person isn't applying their own layer of judgment subconsciously to all sorts of regulations day-to-day. Again, I speak from experience, not as the judge and jury. And it's not a moral judgment on that person. There are stupid rules. The real question is, are you violating the rule because it's keeping you from accomplishing the mission, or just because you think it's dumb/inconvenient? In my experience 99.9% of the time it's the latter, and while that may absolutely be true, the obvious follow-up question is "why not just take the fucking ring off?" It's funny, as I get dangerously close to 40 I finally understand why the majors and lieutenant colonels in the squadron all wore the damn reflective belt when we were on the flight line in Bagram. When I was younger and dumber and always looking for a fight I just thought they were sellouts or too afraid of getting in trouble. Now I realize that as you get older and more boring, which I absolutely am, you simply perform a more logical calculation: Is the reflective belt actually stopping me from doing anything in any way? No? *shrug* I guess I'll wear it then, not my circus, not my clowns. Anyway that's a really long-winded way of saying that the purpose of a majcom evaluator is literally to make sure *all* of the rules are being followed, and anybody flying with them should be smart enough to know that. And if you can't understand that, it's not the evaluator with their head up their ass. It's the job of the DO, the squadron evaluator, and the instructor pilots to determine whether or not a pilot is failing at the actual "important" shit. If you're waiting for a majcom evaluator to make sure you can perform the basic squadron mission, things have already gotten pretty bad.

The dystopian future is upon us. While we are distracted by this shitshow of an election, big tech and corporations are developing ever more intrusive ways to generate cash while trashing the Constitution. To summarize the story, Ford just patented technology that will used the sensors and cameras in your car to report speeders in other cars to the authorities. Also being shopped is a mass surveillance system of cameras on Fedex trucks that would collect images as they come on to YOUR property without a warrant, use AI to process and look for crimes, then sell that data to the police.

Sorry dude, but there's a difference between being sniped by an evaluator in your squadron on a daily flight and flying with a majcom evaluator. Not knowing when to play the game is a foul in itself. And this absolutely translates to the airlines. There are all sorts of regulations and directives that are bent or ignored based on the aircrew's experienced understanding of what rules are and are not critical. But when you have an FAA jumpseater, you better believe we follow every damn rule in the book. Those who don't are rightfully punished, if not for violating the rules, then for violating the rules of common sense.

No matter F-35 delivered munition or 2 month prior delivery by Amazon, doesn't matter. What does matter is Iran was known as the safest of havens for terrorists and one of the Hamas leaders took the room temperature challenge and lost in Tehran. Israel has fully implemented the FO part of FAFO much to the dismay of the surviving dirtbags. Hopefully, more Hamas barbarians will get the invitation to meet Allah.

T-7 sims.

Maybe the solution lies in a Hollywood movie. Each aspiring USAF pilot gets matched to an old crusty vet that teaches them with stolen sim time til their dad is captured by the evil side, then they make a plan and steal a few planes and save the day. A leg-strapped cassette player is required in order to intimidate the evil side with Twister Sister.

We’re talking about different things, man. Correct tool for evaluating the performance of an aviator, sure (when task at hand). Correct tool for ensuring compliance across the formation (3V’s reason for being): not that guy’s form 8, until it becomes the task at hand. The first formal work shouldn’t be an individual Q-2/Q-3 if there’s a known problem. 1) Clearly different cultures in different commands. I think the CAF does it right, and I suspect if COMACC has a different opinion, he’ll formally ask for a change. (I hope he doesn’t). The CAF is a small place; people know your rep. 2) Bingo. See discussion of the formal SII process and what an effective 3V does to reinforce that process a page or two back. 3) That sucks, and so do those commanders. Glad I don’t work there. 4) Making it formal allows you to PROVE this, making the ding/Q-2/Q-3 even more appropriate and bulletproof. Thanks for indulging the derail. We’re down to differences in command culture; funny how we all end up places that match our personalities.

I will happily lose a dollar!

Don’t forget they also want beards.

Doing so would require a waiver of the law by SecDef. https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title10-section9321&num=0&edition=prelim

They couldn’t just find him a random desk job in the Pentagon while he awaited retirement? Instead they have to go poison an already cynical and queep ridden organization holding about a third of our future officers? Slife definitely protected his own here.

…Like “terminating the Constitution” when you lose an election?

The Army uses this as its initial fixed wing trainer. Grob 120TP, Contractor Owned/Contractor operated. Single engine turbine, half the horsepower, and half the cost of a new T-6. CAE has also been giving a T-6 like syllabus to the Irish Air Corps in the same aircraft/location. Contractor instruction can be done right if set up appropriately. Can the Air Force manage that though, who knows 🤷🏼‍♂️

I don’t think you’re in any danger of eating crow. Name a time programmed UPT syllabus hours increased at any point in the last decade. I’ll wait. And if anyone thinks that’s gonna happen especially when we have a shiny new trainer that’s more expensive to operate, I would love to have some of the drugs you’re on. More likely is they’ll send heavies to a sim only track after the contractor IFT or whatever the hell it is, and the 38 track will have hours cut based on some stupid argument that the t-7 training is higher fidelity somehow.

basically all of that is rolled into future upt that will be at multiple locations controlled by a contractor. Who knows what specific performance/desired effects the contractor will need to provide. But it won’t be at some random ERAU esque operation. It will be mil only.

it’s called Future UPT. There will be multi engine too. T-6A recapitalization for the Avionics Replacement Program is dead. They will eventually go to the boneyard. Everyone will fly T-7s as the T-6s go away after contractor Initial Pilot Training (IPT).

“Why aren’t you wearing your ring going TDY?!” ”Safety honey, you do want me to be safe, right?!”

When I became a SEFE many years ago, the best thing my IP said was, “you fly with these guys all year, if you’re always an instructor, then you’re also always an evaluator. So when a one off day chosen via a dart at a board is that guys checkride, you already know if he’s what he should be , or not, the ride itself is just a paperwork generator and nothing more.” Took that philosophy forward happily. The problem with the dbag SEFEs is they were never worth a shit to begin with, couldn’t instruct, and they finally wore their knee pads down enough to be shoved into an evaluator position.

Q2 for wearing a wedding ring? You've gotta be shitting me. I wonder if Robin Olds wore his flight-approved gloves when he took off out of Udorn and dropped his mask for a quick cigarette before getting shot at for the next 2 hours. Probably could have found a few Q3 offenses over there. Not surprised though. Being from HHQ or the NAF is pretty much shorthand for being out of touch with reality and obsessed with all the wrong things. I'm sure this incident just reminded the entire Wing of that.

Hard to read.

Today is 1 August... On this date in 1955, Tony LeVier went for a taxi test on Groom Lake in a new Lockheed aircraft that had yet to be flown. However, the aircraft had different plans, and before he knew it, Tony was airborne in what was the unplanned 1st flight of the U-2. So today, the pressure-breathing, pressure-suited prima donnas celebrate 69 years above 69,000 feet. And tomorrow, over 25% of all living U-2 pilots on the planet will gather for an exceptional Homecoming to celebrate the solo flights of what could be the last class of U-2 trainees. Hail Dragons

If I sent word out through informal channels to Sq CCs, DOs and Weapons shops that too many pilots are pressing weapons abort criteria, buffoning instrument procedures or failing to comply with published regs regarding wearing rings and then I show up on an announced check ride only to find pilots are pressing weapons abort criteria, buffoning instrument procedures, and failing to comply with published regs regarding wearing rings, I'd have no problem complying with checkride grade criteria and grading appropriately.

Pennywise pound foolish AF… The answer is so obvious

I don’t know. Don’t ignore the Vol3 blatantly in front of a MAJCOM evaluator? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

T-1 officially dead today including AMF-S. XPW will remain for a short time at Vance and Columbus but is totally dead at Laughlin. All studs will go direct to FTU.

I get it, the AF has 69 other issues but this is more important than it seems, it’s not just training officers to fly but training, evaluating and forming the mind set of who will be the leaders of the AF, if we phone it in for AMC, AFSOC, part of AFGSC, AETC as I guess some of these T-6 only studs will be FAIPs we need not be surprised when as we push thru the mass of studs thru this process, some of which will not be like the hand picked strong swimmers for these small group try outs, the likely problems we encounter Why is the Navy not giving up on an advanced ME trainer? The Army for their fixed wing qual is not cutting back hours. Why are the mins staying in place for ATP and other civ tickets? Even though they have more access to more and likely better advanced training devices, because flight hours matter, getting thru multiple phases of training matter, proving your skills in at least two different platforms matters Choir preaching and I know you understand the problem of half assing things If we really are this behind and don’t have the money then contract everything but a T-6 program to figure out who’s going single seat or crew. Get the big flight training programs like UND, ER, All ATPs, etc… close 1 of the SUPT bases, you’ll either save X millions and still get a better product than T-6 only or kick the hornets nest for Congress to come up with supplemental funds or allow the AF to divest programs to fund I’m all for out of the container ideas to do it better or be additive to UPT ref the program the Lt attended but ultimately it is about a year of training, X hours of flight and simulator training and academics, no matter how much advanced tech we throw at it, the studs today are about the same as the studs of the past in terms of intelligence and skills, they’re going to absorb it at about the same rate and you’re gonna need to observe them going thru about the same number of events to see if they’re who you want flying AF iron, we can teach a bit faster individual tasks but the overall building of airmanship still requires that time in the air Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Clayton found me! Really cool to see him after so many years. Old Crow made it in today. Somehow, they got her fixed up. I'm part of the A-37 "Warbirds in Review" at 1000 , but with the rain it may be indoor and televised. SHFP: Mark's flown the -86. We shall see.

Anybody around, I’m at the NATCA booth all day tomorrow and am doing a small presentation at some point. We’re in a large tent by the Tower. Come on by to say hi, ask for Gabe, say what up! Huggy, I’ll find ya

An update concerning MARSRADIO. An unclassified HF communications backup is reserved for active DoD and Federal Agencies. The net is still very active guarding its frequencies for calls. In the first half of this year, there were just under 2000 requests for phone patches, METAR/TAF weather, message, radio, and SELCAL checks. Additionally, there have been a few requests for updated Avian Hazard information. We were excited about the possibility of improvement in our global coverage with the peak of the solar cycle. Unfortunately, there has been a huge number of strong solar storms that reduce coverage. Some requests have been heard from the Western Pacific, Europe, and the Middle East. A REACH aircraft was 5 x 5 sitting on the tarmac in Iraq just the other day. The net can still make CONUS, international and DSN telephone calls. We are attempting to set up remote sites in the western Pacific and Alaska. This is a long and difficult process for a volunteer group with no DoD budget, but it is consistent with the volunteer’s desire to do as much as possible for communications backup. Those interested in using the phone patch service should take the opportunity to register patch information ahead of time. A “phone code” service was initiated for morale calls so personal information would not be disclosed over the air. Phone codes have also been issued for Official patches. Visit hfmars.us for the registration form. Keep your information private. Provide the operator with your phone code. They will enter the code and have their computer form populated with all the required information to make the call including alternate numbers. The net is known for using 13.927 mHz as a calling frequency. Keep 7.6335 mHz in mind for an alternate calling frequency, especially with solar conditions. Some MARSRADIO stations also maintain a guard on 4.457 mHz and 11.407 mHz. No answer on 13? Call on 7 due to the propagation being different. MARSRSADIO can be contacted through marsradioglobal.us/contact. To the active members on here, we hope that you have a safe flight and do not need us. We are there if you do.

Depends on what you fly as a narrow body fo. If you're just flying pre-constructed trips out of PBS, from what I understand the quality of life is probably going to be better on the wide body side, even with the lowered ability to pick your days and trips. If you use the seniority on the narrow body to pick up broken stuff, either short or long-term turns (depending on your preference) or my specialty, one short flight out, overnight, one flight back, then you can have a pretty easy life. I will probably never go wide body because the idea of sitting in an airplane for 15 hours when I can fly from DFW to OKC and be done for the day just doesn't make it worth a few extra bucks per hour. For reference, I usually fly 320 to 350 hours per year, actual seat time. I probably deadhead another hundred to 150 (often in first class now thanks to the new contract), and get paid somewhere between 1,300 to 1,500 hours, plus the 401k.