Jump to content

olevelo

Super User
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    235

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    3

 Content Type 

Everything posted by olevelo

  1. olevelo
    I thought it was interesting that it almost seemed like a commercial for Vanguard. How much kickback did they give? The folks from the other firms did seem like confused idiots when pressed though.
  2. olevelo
    Looking for advice/comments on a couple different Reserve routes. I have a traditional Nav job lined up. However I still don't have my "real" job locked down. One option is about a 3 hour drive to the unit, so very doable. All of the other options are a cross country commute (no direct flights either). Obviously the nearby job makes sense for the Reserve job, but it may be that one of the cross country jobs is too good to pass up. The other option I may have is several IMA opportunities within a couple hours of where I'd work (possibly in the same local area for some of the jobs I'm looking at). Besides the obvious difference in flying versus non-flying, what are some other factors to look at? It seems the traditional job allows the opportunity to collect more retirement points, but if I have to travel and take time out of my real job then I'm not likely to be able to collect as many days anyway. I haven't done many calculations, so I'm not sure how much difference those points would make. For reference, I have 12.5 years of active duty. For non-airline pilot commuters, ie folks who work normal jobs and commute long distance to your Reserve/Guard job, do you find the travel wearing? Are you able to keep current? Would you switch to IMA job if you had the opportunity? Thanks!
  3. olevelo
    There is only one test aircraft right now. The second is being "built". The departure had nothing to do with the 105. The 105 has only been tested on the W. None of the mission systems were turned on yet when that happened. It delayed systems testing for a bit, but we got past that quite awhile ago. As the article alludes to, nothing is really changing for the initial flight test. Any of those changes will come later on down the road. At least as of right now.
  4. olevelo
    Where does it say that? I haven't been able to find it.
  5. olevelo
    A couple of folks mentioned a 5 year minimum for federal retirement. Is that just as an ART or for any GS employee? I haven't been able to find anything. As far as I could tell I could sell back my 12 years of active duty and spend a year as a GS and bam, retirement eligible when I hit 62. Seems too easy though.
  6. olevelo
    They were taking some slick J guys during the early days of the schoolhouse. There were a couple there while I was there flying with them for a bit. But I think they were putting them through the entire course. The procedures for LL and airdrop are a little different, plus you have a CSO now, so it's easier to just train everyone the same way. My guess is that right now there's so many Shadow guys they need to get through there's just no room for slick J folks. Should definitely change though. It'll be just like the old the days where they took a few legacy guys and mixed them in with brand new folks. Young guys are much easier to brainwash after all.
  7. olevelo
    I don't know much about SWIR other than the quick check I did, but I'd be pretty leery of a stock that has held steady for at least four years then has nearly tripled in about a year. I'm not an investment expert by any means, but my internal "regression to the mean" alarm went off when I saw that. On the other hand, I did just sink some money into HAL after first seeing it mentioned here and then doing a little more research. Hopefully the Baker deal doesn't fall through. But either way it seems like in the long term a good buy right now.
  8. olevelo
    I can't believe you just said that. After reducing the size of the force by over 16,000 through voluntary and some tough involuntary measures, it was still worth it to further eliminate about THREE HUNDRED AND SIXTY officers?! (IE, a drop in the bucket) Most of whom, from personal evidence, seem to be in the 12 year range? A large percentage of which are acquisitions experts, in the phase of their career where they are the ones with some of the greatest influence on the large acquisitions programs for which we are saving money for, except now there's no one to run them. And it was fiscally responsible to eliminate two TPS graduates (disclaimer: yes I am one, so somewhat biased in my viewpoint) who you just spent over ONE MILLION DOLLARS on just 4 years ago? (With no negative indicators mind you) If this is what they set out to do, well done. I would love to hear if the SECAF is even aware of the types of folks she has lost.
  9. olevelo
    It's interesting that every single person I've talked from the O-7 level all the way down to the uninitiated have the exact same reaction as you. Which really does bring into question what this board was looking for. To answer your question, it's about a million dollars to send us through TPS, not including everything it took to get us to that point, as well as the follow on quals or requals we end up with.
  10. olevelo
    My TPS ADSC was up about a year ago. Found out a 62E TPS classmate got the axe too.
  11. olevelo
    2002 12M core, but 12E primary. Test Pilot School grad and instructor. Axed.
  12. olevelo
    I'm not sure what you're trying to say with your first point. He was a government civilian, hardly a for profit organization. This is not a tactical unit, they do weapons testing and evaluation. GS civilians provide great continuity for operations like this and in Developmental Test, and allows them to continue to serve and fly when they're not allowed to do so in the military. They meet the same medical standards as us.
  13. olevelo
    NOAA has their own aircraft but they still fund and control all of the taskings for the 53rd. It's really just an extension of NOAA.
  14. olevelo
    The problem with that line of thinking is that there is a threat of the Hurricane Hunters having to move and the MS politicians losing that. Remember Keesler is an AETC base, and they don't have any incentive to keep maintaing a runway for one squadron. And NOAA, who funds the vast majority of the 53rd's flying hours, has no desire, or money, to get into that business. They'd be happy with moving the squadron to another suitable, possibly closer, location with an operable runway.
  15. olevelo
    Not sure where you're getting that information, I haven't seen any 30 day limits for anything. I talked to several different TMO's about a similar situation, as well as combed the regs. Bottom line is that you should be able to do HHG and PPM any time the orders are effective, and you can do multiples as long as you don't go over your weight limit. In my case, I just PCS'd, with most of our stuff in HHG and a small PPM. My wife is coming in about 6 months. I can do another HHG or PPM for her when the time comes. They prefer you only do one PPM claim, but because it's so long they said I could do two. The catch with doing two HHG shipments is it's not really just the weight. What they said was that they calculate how much it would cost to ship everything at once, and that is the limit of what they'll pay. I haven't been able to run any solid numbers, but I think in most cases this will result in some out of pocket costs...whether it's cheaper/easier than a PPM depends on the exact circumstance. Obviously I haven't actually executed part two of the plan yet, and I'm only operating on what I've been "told", so who knows what'll happen when the time comes! In your situation, my guess is that the best option would be to do just a PPM for yourself now, then a single HHG and possibly a second PPM when she moves.
  16. olevelo
    The Keesler J's are on again off again to every rumored location. Last time I was out there, two days before they were scheduled to shut down and move to Little Rock, but the previous day all plans were shuttered and there was no authorization to move them. Again, that was a month ago so things could have drastically changed again. I don't think anyone will know what will really happen with them until it happens. Literally the day of.
  17. olevelo
    If you are an AC "working your crew like finger puppets", you obviously don't understand what a crew aircraft is all about, and god help the people who have to fly with you.
  18. olevelo
    No I'm talking about how nav-centric the missions are, especially the gunships, and even more especially the AC-W and AC-J. The only control the pilot has over the weapons is a consent switch (besides putting the airplane in the right place). It's not a traditional nav roll anymore, but that's why the transition to CSO started a long time ago across the board. Not going anywhere anytime soon. In any case, we're completely off topic now. Master's degrees...if you want to get one, get one. If you don't, don't. It's that simple.
  19. olevelo
    You obviously don't know much about AFSOC...
  20. olevelo
    Totally agreed on useless degrees. My whole argument was based on someone doing a degree they wanted to do, not for box checking.
  21. olevelo
    I should clarify that my comments are not meant to imply that I think all pilots are dumbasses (there are an equal, or perhaps slightly smaller, percentage as compared to the rest of society), nor that military aviation and all that comes with it are easy and any guy off the street can do it. Just trying to make my point about not telling a guy to knock off his master's studies when he starts training because you think both can't be done well at once. Because that's just BS.
  22. olevelo
    Bottom line is that eligibility to be forced out does not equal eligibility to ask to be released. Now, if you are eligible to be RIF'd, you have to be eligible to voluntary separate (whether VSP, TERA, or something else). I could be wrong about that, but I'm pretty sure that's the case. However, there are certain folks that are ineligible to be RIF'd that shouldn't necessarily be prohibited from voluntary separation. The most obvious case is 2004-2005 folks (I think)...they can't be forced out because they have line numbers or are within one year of pin on. But for future manning, we need to allow the ones that want to go, go. I haven't looked closely at the two spreadsheets, but other than that they should match pretty closely. The bottom line is that the only reason someone should complain is if they are eligible for RIF but not eligible for VSP/TERA/etc, but hopefully there are no cases of that.
  23. olevelo
    I wasn't comparing my training. I've flown with a number of otherwise incredibly retarded pilots who have proven that it doesn't take that much to be a capable military aviator and yet not be good at much else. I'm not dogging those guys, good on them for finding something they are good at, and most of them recognize their other limitations (as I recognize my own). My point is that just because you're the best F-16 pilot doesn't mean you're the best at everything, and it also doesn't mean you can't work on master's degree, and STILL be the best F-16 pilot, if you really want to. Again not saying you should, just that it's possible.
  24. olevelo
    You guys are so predictable. Yes I knew every one of those reactions and comments were coming, but I still felt it was worth saying. If only there were a mighty pilot humble enough to admit that flying an airplane is not the hardest thing in the world to do. But we all know that's not going to happen.
  25. olevelo
    I think he means AFPC denied them all because they were approved by a 1Lt.
×
×
  • Create New...