guineapigfury

This is the wrong answer. Google "line of duty determination". Take the time to coordinate actually being on leave in a documented manner.

I can only speak for my little corner of the AF (mq-9s), but there is no one in my year group that I know who is considering staying (prior Es excluded). Maybe the disgruntled are loud enough to drown everyone else out, I don't know.

I'd split it up further and go by group type. MX and MSG/FSG can have up or out, Ops gets something different to reflect the millions of dollars spent training aviators. Rated officers should get promoted to Major on a "fully qualified" basis, just like captains. No boards until O-5. There is no shortage of guys wanting out, so overmanning shouldn't be an issue.

I thought Fuzz's comments were more in the vein of "I'm a new guy, and even I know this stuff". Some of us take ourselves way too seriously.

Everyone who gave this guy some grief (me included) was doing him a favor. Letting a guy sign away 10 years of his life with false visions of a stable family life is cruelty. Still waiting for this guy to thank us.

Concur with evil eagle. Sims are great to try things out that would be too dangerous/expensive in real life. In the Sim I've: put a T-1 thru a loop, landed a KC-135 in a 50 knot crosswind, and shacked an landing in the MQ-9 after losing the engine 8 miles from the field. Sims are awesome for practicing EPs and building confidence for unusual situations. The ability to hit the reset button and repeat the same scenario immediately allows for more training in less time, which may be the single best aspect of Sims. However, they're a supplement to flying, not a substitute for flying.

Proper verbiage is "dependapotami" for the plural.

You're kid will grow up in one place: wherever your ex wife takes him when she gets custody. Also, fix your attitude. You haven't even made the cut to get into ROTC yet.

RPAs will hire UPT washouts, just saying.

I thought the preferred old fat guy technique was to have the last fraction of an inch of Velcro miraculously holding on to the waist so that it bisects the wearer when they sit down.

Concur. Brad definitely downgraded from Jennifer Anniston. My guess is Angelina is more of a freak in the sheets though.

Educate me: what percentage of fighter/bomber guys go to WIC? In the tanker we had up to 3 in the squadron, but 2 were the CC and DO, positions where you would expect patches to be overrepresented statistically.

IMHO, inaccurate. I can't speak for Global Chickens, but Ellsworth is probably the best MQ-9 base. Tax-free state (better than CA, same as NV), significantly lower ops tempo, no hour+ drive to work, and relatively generous BAH. Everyone here who came from Creech prefers it here. That said it's still flying RPAs, which sucks. I know it's moot for you, but I wanted to throw it out there for other guys in a similar situation.

Isn't the real fix for Congress to take back it's Constitutionally prescribed role of declaring war, which it has currently abdicated? Repeal the war powers act, and then the president doesn't send troops anywhere without the nation's buy-in. This would force a debate every time politicians feel the need to fix something just because it's on the news.

If you lack depth perception, you mave have trouble grabbing your bag of Cheetos from above the touchscreen menus.

Meh, color me unimpressed. I automatically tune out anyone calling for a draft outside of a World War 3 scenario. A draft is a good idea, just not for the military. Randomly selecting college educated citizens over the age of 30 to be Congresspeople would probably get us better government than we get now.

Pretty sure either Billy Bob Thornton or her brother could answer the question.

The actual outrage should be directed at the fact that an open-and-shut case has taken almost 4 years to prosecute.

Not sure, probably depends on airframe. When I was a new tanker copilot with no real office responsibilities I worked* something like 40 hours most weeks. I think most pilots accept the increased hours as a necessary evil that comes with increased responsibility and rank. I think it would affect you differently if it was all you knew from the start. This beta experiment is still very much in progress and we'll see how it plays out. I suspect their going to need either BCP** to keep these guys in or the constant inflow of nonvols into UAVs will continue leading to fewer and fewer guys taking the ACP***. *Or at least was present at work. **Beta Continuation Pay ***In my squadron, I think about 1/3 of the people in my year group will take the money.

It takes the betas longer to graduate down at Holloman since their syllabus is longer. The vast majority of pilots in my current squadron are UPT grads. You can count on one hand the number of MQT'd 18Xers we have. I can't speak for other squadrons. The real question isn't "how many betas can we make", it's "how many betas can we keep"? These guys have 6 year commitments instead of 10, so they're sunk costs are lower at the decision point. 60-80 hour workweeks for years on end, mindnumbingly boring job, and better opportunities on the outside if the FAA opens the NAS to UAVs do not paint a happy picture for retention. I suspect we're pouring water into a bucket with no bottom right now.

RODN. I know only 2 people in the last 18 months who've gotten a follow-on tanker assignment. UAVs and UPT are running neck and neck for first place, MC-12s third and KC-135s a distant fourth. Anecdotally, my UPT peers who got 135s to other bases are all seeing the same thing. I suspect the pendulum will swing back in a couple of years when they realize they've emptied their tanker squadrons.

My previous squadron just sent 2 IPs to UAVs. Assignment path for both went Tanker-Tanker-UAV. I think these were 04 year group guys.

If you have questions about UAV training feel free to pm me.

How does this work? You can 7 day opt something and they get a mulligan to try and keep you in? Can you still leave either way? Educate me please.