Standby

I have no qualms with pulling shooters from other platforms to stand this program up. My beef is the authors claim that his MC-12 experience gives him the cred to be a first-in flight lead/IP for this program.

“Are you serious? That sounds like a duffel blog article.” - My wife.

Full disclosure, I usually don't write a ton of reviews online but Trident is offering me a Starbucks gift card to "...honestly review your experience with us on baseops (both the good and ugly)." My wife and I decided to do some house hunting in our last half of PIT so we took the drive to Del Rio to scope the market. We looked at a ton of places and had it narrowed within a few days. After making the requisite offers and being accepted, we had a decision to make with financing. We have a home in Navarre and the mortgage was sold-off to Bank of America. For this reason, we initially contacted Navy Fed. The closing estimate they provided was extremely high and chock full of bullshit fees that we didn't want to pay. From here, we had recommendations from our realtor but secretly had Trident in the back of our minds (gathered some VA IRRRL numbers a while ago). I called Marty and explained my desire to minimize closing costs while maintaining a decent rate. He provided several options for me and after gathering the necessary information, terminated the call. Jumping forward, I called Marty back to confirm numbers (which he did) and was passed to Elena for processing/closing. Working with Elena was very easy. The whole process was fairly hands-off from a buyer's perspective. We had some small hiccups that were no-drama (e.g., AFPC puts Fairchild AFB as the TDY location for PIT causing underwriter to require doc explaining) but it was easily handled. Although the process went smooth, my only complaint revolved around closing. We gave Trident less than a month to work closing and Thanksgiving was in that window so I cannot blast them for this, but it was slightly disappointing. We set a NLT closing date but I called to see if we could move it up from a Monday to the preceding Friday. I received a favorable response on this but we ended up missing the revised closing date. Apparently Elena didn't realize that an additional review of the docs by some legal jabroni was required which caused us to miss the revised deadline. This made us spend a few more nights in a shitty hotel with our cars loaded full of sensitive personal effects and documents but it was made up for at closing because we got a lower rate than initially quoted AND we walked away being paid $1,000 in closing. I would wager that very few people walk away from closing being handed a check rather than writing one. All-in-all, the rate was competitive and the lender credit was equally as competitive. Our intent was to minimize closing costs via maximizing lender credit but without chomping down on an abnormally high rate. Marty and his team at Trident were able to do this and I write this from a plush desert home with no regrets. BL: we used Trident to purchase our home in Del Rio. Made contact with Marty, worked with Elena -- would do it again.

Solid gouge, thanks.

Thread revival...anybody know if there is any guidance that prevents the wear of a safe-to-fly Massif in AETC/T-38 aircraft? I have been issued two of them in AFSOC but have never seen a green version being worn with a bag despite their existence. Cheers

If you truly want to rain hate, reconsider AFSOC as your #1 priority.

I’m not implying that simply making more pilots will solve the problem, but if everybody gets out and you don’t replace them...then where does that leave the force? This problem is about production. Retention is a different beast. I get that the AF is losing highly qualified pilots but when they are gone, you can’t stop producing because the retention issue still exists. It’s kicking the can but until the gubment figures out how to keep the worlds best in service, alternate ways to generate more human capital should be explored.

Exactly. Some people should just be content being the base of the shaft...at least you still get to play.

It’s all about the near rocks and far rocks. Right now we NEED to generate new pilots. The retention issue, to me, is a different problem but obviously related because we’re talking manpower. I can only speak for myself (off-topic) but the AF has treated me and my family very well so I might be a skewed data point. Despite this fact, I’ve had periods of time where I thought...as soon as my commitment is up I’m punching. The weird part is that it wasn’t caused by: the amount of time I was deployed, the nearly twice-yearly visits to CATM, the unpredictable homestation flying schedule, or even the bullshit language CBTs for a culture I could give two hoots about. It was the pervasive fundamental under appreciation and lack of emphasis placed on aviation. The AF does a lot of great things, but pilots/aircrew are the fking life blood of this service. The moment the rest of this enterprise stopped looking up to the people who deliver hate to our enemies is the day we lost. It’s the daily attitude of “you’re all the tip of the spear” that ruined things for me. Example: quiet hours at the airfield for an outdoor change of command for the MSG. Guess what motherfkrs...airplanes can be loud. Guess what again...we need to train because there are soft pink bodies on the other side of the ocean that need to be reduced to hair, teeth and eyeballs. /rant_off. As mentioned: we are hemorrhaging as a force but sometimes you need to put some quikclot in that wound before you make it to the OR.

I don’t think you will see wide swaths of knuckle-dragging, barely cert’ed civilian pilots being picked up for the program. I think a lot of problem in the service is hypocrisy. On one hand people fault leaders being resistant to change and new ways of doing things while talking out the other side of the mouth about how the new COA won’t work because it’s not how it has been done before. This so-called pilot shortage is only going to get worse if we stay the conventional course. With a test batch of 10 individuals...how much damage could be done? We are looking at taking trained aviators and putting them into a military platform while executing a standardized syllabus. If they fail to meet MIF, I would hope the service cut losses early and either can the program or re-assess selection criteria. I don’t think x-hours in the T-6 will matter in the long run if a guy successfully completes T-1 phase 3 and continues to follow-on MAF MQ. The success and credibility of the program will be directly measured by the standards being enforced and drawing a critical comparison of the two products: traditional SUPT grad to MAF vs T-1 direct accession. Reading through some of the other threads, it seems like the product being handed to the MAF is a steaming turd anyway. I cut my teeth outside of the CAF/MAF and find myself in AETC-land completely disassociated from this experiment BUT I don’t think it is in the interest of any AF pilot to be poo-poo’ing any semi-legit way to train future aviators if the byproduct is the same. That being said: I agree that mismanagement of the force has occurred and it’s still somewhat unbelievable we are even discussing this...but we are living in the present. posted from phone...unregard spelling/grammar

Ya, there’s no way you could fly effectively in the military with ONLY civilian training. Kirby

Gotta comment on this first: oh yes, that absolutely MONSTER ops tempo that the CV-22s have. Lest we forget that the gunships have been less than 1:1 for over a year now. If you treat the rescue mission like it is supposed to be (niche, special operation) then it belongs in AFSOC. If you want to advertise them as a group of dudes who are sidelined and won’t offer them true freedom to maneuver, leave it in ACC. I have never thought, as an AFSOC guy, that I would ever be picked up by an AF -60 during a CSAR event if that means anything.

Can it be produced without the quiet professional slogan? Any appetite for replacing the 12 index with the SOCOM spear?

Shameful plug: wife and I are off to new adventures. If anybody is looking to rent a new (first owner in 2011) 4B/2.5B home in a desireable Navarre neighborhood send me a PM.

Not trying to rip-off the ole gubment, just want a nice play to stay for 5 months. We have been living out of a suitcase for the last 7 years and would appreciate accommodations with more than just a queen bed and microwave. Rock on!

Looking for some advice here. Short version of the story: wife and I attending PIT at the end of the month. Lodging booked us into separate rooms which is a foul. I called today to fix it and their solution was to just consolidate us into one room. I told them that jamming us into one dorm isn't the solution. I also told them we have a pet and they said no pet-TLFs were available. I subsequently asked if they had ANY TLFs available and they neg-responded to that. So...is lodging considered adequate and available in this situation? The lodging reservation lady refused to cut a non-a because I mentioned "pet" even though they have no TLFs available anyway. New JTR has 3 situations to verify non-availability and I am fairly certain separating us to fit into one room or condensing us into a room meant for 1 doesn't qualify as adequate.

Mk 82s and a mini-gun...not what I had pictured for light attack but sign me fvck the up.

Probably exposing myself, but both the wife and I will be going through PIT which presumably means double the monies for lodging. Can anybody recommend a crashpad or short-term rental that has a garage and an outdoor freshwater source? Hoping we'll get a chance to do some fishing out of Corpus and cleaning fish blood becomes difficult when living out of a hotel or the like.

You sure about that? faipmafiaofficial is a hell of troll...bravo dude.

Did some digging and it looks like they implemented a $500/mo special pay for individuals that were selected for stop-loss back in the 2009 timeframe which was also paid retroactively. Seems as though the USAF last utilized stop-loss in 2003. Congressional Research paper on Stop-Loss - Army policy was to stop-loss individuals/units for deployments with a termination at re-deployment + 90 days. - No mention of USAF policy Separating as soon as possible seems like a logical choice now. Not sure how the IRR works -- I wonder how long they can keep you on if they brought you off IRR.

Might be shining my ass a bit here but...are EFBs allowed in the T-38?

It's also one of those places where turtles and birds have more rights than humans. We took routine motorcycle trips on the road and late night romps in the sports car but just be careful. Lots of blown sand across the road and the speed limits are low. Even lower during bird nesting season.

You must sit in a different queue than I do. Main gate from 1530-1730 is gridlocked. I don't even try to leave during this time window as it takes me 45-60 minutes, without fail, and I'm east of the bridge. I will say that the morning traffic is almost non-existent now (precluding accidents) most days regardless of time. The evening traffic is atrocious. To put it into perspective, it takes me 15 minutes door-to-door during the wee hours in the morning or if I flew the midnight land time sortie. Here's to hoping that the OR survey will yield improved traffic flow.

I can't speak to the family piece as I have no kids, but FWB and Mary Esther tend to have older homes. That being said, I would much rather live in the FWB/ME area over Navarre right now given the commute time and proximity to the Destin Pass. I fish offshore so anytime I could shave off my commute while still being faster offshore is a win/win. If I could do it all over I would have purchased a smaller/older home in Destin. We were actually looking to purchase a home in Destin with water access but that has since dried up given that we'll be heading to our white jet tour.