Flaco

FAA Definition FAA Regulations (14 CFR 1.1) defines flight time as “block time” as follows: (1) Pilot time that commences when an aircraft moves under its own power for the purpose of flight and ends when the aircraft comes to rest after landing; or (2) For a glider without self-launch capability, pilot time that commences when the glider is towed for the purpose of flight and ends when the glider comes to rest after landing. ICAO Annex 1 Definition: Flight time — aeroplanes. The total time from the moment an aeroplane first moves for the purpose of taking off until the moment it finally comes to rest at the end of the flight. Note — Flight time as here defined is synonymous with the term “block to block” time or “chock to chock” time in general usage which is measured from the time an aeroplane first moves for the purpose of taking off until it finally stops at the end of the flight. Apply early, apply often my friends...

+1 for accuracy

Spot on. I had a candidate for political office knock on my front door the other day and ask my what my concerns were. When I told him that the US public and elected officials had lost accountability of its military and almost entirely ceded control to the President (and largely, the generals) he looked at me like I had just stepped off a UFO. It was as if he wanted to say "How dare you question what our military is doing? Every man and woman who wears the uniform is a hero, and every mission he does is just and right and holy and in keeping with the best traditions this country has to offer!" Then I asked him, politely, if he could tell me some of the countries in which we had troops that were actively involved in armed conflicts. He mentioned Afghanistan, struggled to find any additional countries he could name, and began stuttering. In his mind I could see the Ma, Apple Pie, and American Flag T-Shirts give way to an overwhelming sense of embarrassment that he, a candidate for public office, had no clue what our military was doing. The fake hero worship that we have all encountered is the US public's apology for the abdication of their civic duties and not actually giving a shit what their military is up to. The pilot shortage and likely coming shortage of the other branches will probably fix this long term - people will stop volunteering for the military and/or get out when they realize there's no coherent strategy in the conflicts we are engaged in, but the disconnect is a major problem. Just ask the Romans.... https://smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art/the-price-of-professionalization

Chuck, The cynical side of me says the Air Force has already figured this out and has given up on retention. They will try to produce their way out of the hole. Pencil whip IP status, green up the slides. It's just going to be a much younger man's game. The machine will continue to function.

If I'm reading correctly, the commander didn't ask them to do their jobs correctly. He threatened to revoke their IP status if they didn't do the job correctly, before any of them had actually screwed up. Does your chief pilot at the airlines proactively threaten you with punitive action? The supply and demand curves have shifted and the Air Force is losing the competition for talent. Commanders in need to think counterintuitively. If a commander actually cares about retaining people, the only way to do that is to ask, nicely. Even then, it is likely that macro forces outside of his control will dictate that a large number of pilots still leave. But maybe, just maybe, he can appeal to the best in his pilots and keep an additional one or two of them around that would have otherwise left.

I grew up with fear, sarcasm, and ridicule as a tactic used by my IPs, the leadership, and the rest of the institution. It worked well, and I didn't complain. The ops tempo was reasonable, I was flying 20 sorties a month, and push-it-up, fun TDYs were plentiful. I had never heard of a CBT, SAPR, Green Dot, and there was no airline opportunity. Let me suggest that that era is gone. What this "special snowflake" is trying to say is that the Air Force doesn't have the cards to play the dickhead commander routine any longer. It's a bluff. The snowflake is gonna bail to the airlines at his first opportunity while the commander keeps wondering why he's losing pilots. Adapt, or die. The ball is in the Air Force's court.

I'm in. Some spitballin': 1.) Someone internet smart needs to set up the infrastructure. I'm thinking closed forum. Need to have a way to verify legitimacy/credentials. I think it should be limited to current and retired members with a cutoff based on how long someone's been out of the AF. 2 years? 5 years? 2.) Need someone with the proper academic / research background to administer and curate responses. That way they're taken seriously by the PTB. 3.) Could be a series of surveys or free-form responses. Curator assembles and distills data into coherent format. I don't know about you guys, but I went off the top rope on a few of those "climate surveys" that get sent out. Go figure, the narrative that was put out by the AF after each one was, in effect, "slides are green!" while we all were staring at the dumpster fires. So I stopped taking them several years ago. I think there would be huge traction behind a project like this. We all want the Air Force to pull out of this nose dive, but we know the current leadership can't do it. They're too entrenched in the faulty logic that got us here in the first place. I believe the only way to fix things is to get a coherent message directly from the O-5 and below croud to congress and the American public.

Thanks for point out, I haven't laughed that hard in a while. I thought this was one of the best quotes: "Rules are for the guidance of wise men and the obedience of fools." He didn't credit the source, so I had to look it up. Go figure, a fighter pilot said it... Sir Douglas Bader, a WWII RAF ace. It is also sometimes attributed to Harry Day, also of the RAF. More importantly, I wish we had leaders who understood this quote.

Many businesses will lose money and then fail after a few years. But there does seem to be a point in business where if you a doing a good job and stick with it, word of mouth reaches critical mass and that's where the business will take off. In tech they call this "hockey stick" growth. I'm not in the tech world, but that has definitely been my experience. Stick with it long enough, you'll become and expert in whichever field you're in, and the market will reward you. Best wishes to you man!

Surprised no one has mentioned starting / buying a business. Military aviation is actually a very good training ground for entrepreneurial activity - whether you realize it or not, all of us have acquired skills in calculated risk taking, assessing the enemy (competition), solving problems on the fly, task prioritization, time management, etc. Pick something you're passionate about and be your own boss. I'll bet anyone posting on this board would do much better than they imagine.

Shack! Can't wait for the epic thread revival....

That is rapidly changing. After 10+ years of NGB and NGAUS leadership yelling from the rooftops, "We're just like active duty! Give us money! Give us equipment!", the guard has truly become the "operational reserve" that our senior leaders begged for. Of course they never considered the consequences. Most Guard babies that are airline eligible will be out of the Guard in the next 5 years, leaving only recently separated active duty and a few deployment-avoiding lifers who crave the opportunity created by the vacuum to make General at NGB or state staff. The culture will continue to shift toward an active duty-lite mindset - "90 day TSPs are nothing compared to the 180's I did on active duty!" The younger guard babies will be sorely disappointed by the few stories they remember hearing of how good the Guard used to be, and they too will punch at their earliest opportunity for the airlines. Federalization complete, the Guard will no longer be a proud collection of state militias comprised of local citizen soldiers, but rather a stopping point for those separating active duty, who have little knowledge of unit history or interaction with the local community. The active duty's culture and retention problems have already become the Guard's culture and retention problems, merely lagging by a few years.

The only thing that will fix the Air Force is a no-shit shooting match. Within a very short period of time, the weenies will be fired because they can't lead in combat, and the warriors will rise back to their rightful place at the top. The American public has become fat, dumb, and happy and that's why the Air Force is in the state it's in. Excellence is borne of strife, not prosperity.

Right, forgot about that. Ok, thanks all. I think I've got what I need.

OK, I think I'm getting it. Commander says local area is 4 hours drive time. Member 1 takes family on short weekend trip 3 hours from home. Leaves on a Friday evening after work, returns on Sunday evening. No leave required. Member 2 leaves on a Saturday for a destination 3 hours from home. Returns on Tuesday evening. Leave required Saturday - Tuesday. Member 3 leaves on Saturday morning and drives 7 hours to destination. Returns Sunday evening. Leave required Saturday-Sunday because outside local area. Do I have this right?