mcbush

On a totally different note, any SA or WAGs out there about what range of line numbers the academy guys usually wind up with for O-4?

I don't have any sort of inside scoop, but the way I read it, this should apply to everyone.

Obviously one of the stupidest ideas ever, but for a surprisingly large number of reasons. Obviously it's ridiculous on its face, and it's ridiculous to think that people won't figure out how to bypass it, but the math on it is crazy too. Arizona has a population of 6.4 million people. If we assume half are men and half are women, and we trust the stats thrown out at Church last Sunday (no shit, thanks Church) that 85% of men and 33% of women watch porn, that gives us a maximum of 3.8 million total viewers even if we include kids of all ages. Multiply that times the $20 mentioned and you're generating a maximum of $76 million. By suggesting that border security is "the first" of the causes to be funded by this, she's implying that it would pay for more that just that, which is crazy stupid. AZ represents almost exactly 20% of the total length of the US-Mexico border, meaning raising $76m for AZ would be roughly equivalent to raising $380m for border security for the entire country, which is 6.6% of what Trump is currently asking for to get started on his wall, and somewhere between 0.4-1.5% of its total estimated cost, depending on who you believe. Sit down, Gail.

For which promotion?

This checks from what I remember last year. MilTax was just a different name on the same program. Finding the right link is always impossible, though.

Takeoff out of Missouri, sit in cruise for 14 hours, press a button, sit in cruise for 14 hours, land.

Think you’re talking about the debit card version of the GTC that went away years ago.

Even if we ignore the fact that this isn’t how trade agreements work, I just want to point out that the new NAFTA (known as the USMCA) has not been ratified and therefore isn’t currently in effect. We are not, by any stretch of the imagination, raking in billions of pesos from our friends south of the border.

Any thoughts on how long this partial government shutdown is going to last? From their own perspectives, neither Trump nor congressional Democrats have much incentive to give in. The question, in my opinion, is if the rest of the Republican party will eventually throw in the towel.

Agreed. Like it or not, tanker culture will have to change because threats to the tanker are changing. The line of thinking that tanker or other HVAA dudes will forever be able to operate unfettered in ALR low environments is outdated and doesn’t reflect the reality of threats that are here now or will be very soon. The -46, for all its flaws, does move the ball forward in some ways. Helping to bring the MAF up on the datalink is one unclass example.

Go back? We’ve been there continuously for at least the last five years in my little corner of the AF.

Voluntary Limited Period of Active Duty

F-15C: Guy in front rubs, guy in back tugs

Think it's quiet because this election pretty much went exactly as expected, at least more so than any other in recent memory. Not sure I'd characterize Texas as business as usual, though. The TX senate race during the 2014 midterms saw Cornyn (R) win by a tally of 61.6% to 34.4%, with a total of 4.4 million votes cast. Compare those numbers to this year, where Cruz wins 50.9% to 48.3% with over 8.2 million votes cast. Not enough to flip the state, but still a significant change. Story of the day, in my opinion, is the firing of Jeff Sessions.

You're not going to like what I have to tell you, but if you take it to heart, it will help you in the future. Your attitude is 100% the opposite of what it should be. You need to debrief yourself on why you came up short. I'm willing to show you how, but only you can take the steps required to make it count. I can guarantee that you will never, ever hear a CAF pilot say "why can't I catch a break?" in a debrief. If you ever hear a MAF pilot say that, punch him in the face and tell him to fix himself. Asking a question like that is a way of absolving yourself of ownership of the situation. You are the only one who can control your performance, which means that you need to figure out why you failed to reach your goal, strike your target, execute your airdrop, or get hired by a squadron. A good debrief is the most important part of any sortie. It's an opportunity to actually learn lessons, rather than just observe them, in order to be better next time. Doing that requires brutal honesty, and often requires admitting and owning your failures and shortcomings in front of your peers. You don't have to do that yet, since this is a personal exercise, but realize that if you're going to be a successful AF pilot, you should be the type of person who can put his ego on the shelf and take a good honest look at his performance, good and bad. Learning from a debrief usually starts with a question, called a DFP or debrief focus point. Your DFP is NOT "why can't I catch a break?". Instead, your DFP is really "why wasn't I good enough (in the eyes of the only people who matter, i.e. the ones hiring you) to land the job this time around?". That is the question that will drive your future actions and spur you to be better if you can fix it. Once you have your DFP, identify your contributing factors, or CFs. No one knows these better than you. What are your weak points? Maybe you stayed up too late drinking before the interview, or maybe your grades weren't very good in college. How much flight time do you have? Is it less than your peers who are also applying? Remember, the people you're competing against are shit hot, top-1%-of-Americans kind of people. If you have 45 hours and a PPL under your belt but they all have 200 hours and an instrument rating, then this could be a contributing factor to the overall outcome. I realize that you don't know everything about everyone else, but you know what the weaker areas of your application are. List out 3-4 of them, ideally ones that you can improve upon moving forward. Step three: identify a root cause. Usually, there's one CF that's more important than the others, which led directly or indirectly to the chain of events that caused mission failure. What is your biggest shortcoming? Put yourself in the shoes of the hiring board - what part of your application would cause you to look at other applicants rather than snatching yourself (sts) up right away? Usually in aviation, everything can be done better the next day. That might not be the case for you - your college GPA is probably pretty set in stone, for example. However, there are always things that can be done to improve your application and, more importantly, yourself. That leads straight to the fourth and final step: the fix. What can you do to improve your odds next time around? What concrete actions can you take to prevent that root cause from holding you back in the next interview? Map it out on a piece of paper and post it somewhere where you'll see it often. Use this framework anytime you fail and you'll find yourself succeeding more and more. No pilot has ever flown a perfect sortie, but the good ones work hard to get a little bit closer the next time around.

Always a crapshoot. It probably depends as much on your classmates' preferences as anything else. You could easily be the only one looking for helos in a class that drops a couple of them, or you could be the #2/4 in a class that drops one. Just boils down to luck and timing, like everything else. That said, finishing highly in the rack-and-stack can only help.

I like to think that there's a Russian BODN out there where some salty comrade's cracking jokes right now about getting their dock wet courtesy of ЪѻƵip's mom

Let’s be honest, there’s no plan.

I don't see Republicans holding the House, but I also don't see the Dems gaining any seats in the Senate. I did think 538's piece this morning on the Democratic fundraising advantage could portend unexpected results, but I don't know what to make of it any more than Nate Silver does.

There was a bit of a storm there recently, not sure if you heard about it...

Not the case in C-17 land either.

How’d he go from being an A-10 dude to a T-Bird?

“The ancient Oracle said that I was the wisest of all the Greeks. It is because I alone, of all the Greeks, know that I know nothing.” - Socrates

What do you mean? Genuinely curious.

So, nobody wants to talk about POTUS’s former campaign manager and personal attorney both becoming felons yesterday? Or about Cohen’s assertion under oath that he was directed to violate election law by his client, the Donald?