C17Driver

Minz, Once you report to McChord, you'll find that you will get to set your schedule initially. If you want to take two or three months to get mission ready, then you'll probably be able to drag your feet and make it happen. If you want to get started flying in the system, then you could probably get mission ready in under a month. There are quite a few local currency type things (classes, etc.) that have to be taken care of which is the reason it takes a little time. Let me know what other specific questions you have.

That's actually the restriction unless we get MAJCOM/DO waiver. If we have the TOLD to support a shorter distance and the priority is high enough, we could probably get it. -Minimum runway length for a full flap landing is landing ground roll plus 500 feet with max reverse (I've seen instances were this number is below 2500 feet) Our restrictions are not based on peacetime/contigency.

Scoobs, the Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) is basically a 401(k) for federal employees. Currently AD do not get matching funds although I have heard that some civil servant types do (not sure which ones). Currently you can put up to 10% of your pay towards TSP per month. They have been raising that and we will eventually be permitted to put 100% of pay. This is before tax so you will be taxed on this at a later date when you withdraw the funds (for retirement). You can start withdrawing from TSP at 59 1/2 with no penalty.

Everyone in ACC and AMC also received the GWOT-S regardless of job/deployments.

There are other options. My squadron has quite a few prior C-21 pilots.

From The Meridian Star: NAS Meridian crash claims life of pilot By Georgia E. Frye / staff writer Tuesday, March 22, 2005 11:58 PM CST A student pilot was killed Tuesday in a plane crash just south of McCain Field at Naval Air Station Meridian. Details about the accident were sketchy Tuesday night, but a news release issued by NAS Meridian said the T-45C "Goshawk" from Training Squadron 7 crashed at 6:25 p.m. The news release said the pilot's name will be released today; it also said the pilot was performing routine training at the time of the crash. The release said the accident is under investigation. (https://www.meridianstar.com/articles/2005/...ries/a1-nas.txt) Same paper: NAS identifies pilot in crash By Georgia E. Frye / staff writer Wednesday, March 23, 2005 11:25 PM CST CRASH SCENE - A U.S. Navy investigator examines the wreckage area on Wednesday of a T-45C "Goshawk" that crashed at 6:25 p.m. the night before in the woods near Naval Air Station Meridian's air strip. The pilot was killed in the accident, which remains under investigation. PHOTOS BY PAULA MERRITT / THE MERIDIAN STAR Naval Air Station Meridian officials have identified a student pilot killed Tuesday in a training exercise. Lieutenant Junior Grade Steven Elledge, USNR, 25, from Orlando, Fla, of Training Squadron 7 was killed when his T-45C "Goshawk" crashed just south of NAS Meridian's McCain Field. Capt. Dan Ouimette, commander of Training Air Wing 1, said few details were available. He said the crash occurred while Elledge was practicing field carrier landing. In a heavily wooded area about a mile from McCain Field where the plane went down, NAS Meridian's Mishap Investigation Group is working to determine what caused the crash. Ouimette said investigators are working to locate and tag each piece of the plane. He said the aircraft data recorder has not been recovered. He said he expects the investigation to last one to two months. Susan Junkins, director of public affairs at NAS Meridian, said Tuesday's crash is the base's first fatality involving a T-45C "Goshawk." The base's last fatality was in 1996, when Marine 1st Lt. Mike Warda was killed in a T2C "Buckeye." The "Buckeye" is no longer flown at NAS Meridian. Ouimette said there have been three accidents involving "Goshawks" in the past year and a half, but none have resulted in a fatality. He said the base has an excellent safety rating. "We take young pilots and teach them advanced operations," Ouimette said. "It's a dangerous business we are in, but we will thoroughly investigate this accident so we can hopefully prevent it from happening in the future." Ouimette said once all the pieces of the plane have been recovered, the investigation team will reassemble the accident scene to determine the cause. Ouimette said Training Squadron 7 was given the day off Wednesday, but will resume training today. He said representatives of the Fleet and Family Service Center will offer counseling to help family and friends deal with their grief. "These are the best of America, the cream of the crop, and we recognize that it affects everyone," Ouimette said. (https://www.meridianstar.com/articles/2005/...ry/a1-crash.txt)

Still not as bad at Ramstein (Team Ramrod!)

You might consider buying a laptop, not for your UPT days, but for all the moves that take place the years following UPT. It's nice to be able to bring your computer with you (with no big hassle) to all your enroute stops.

Scoobs, I'm AD and wouldn't change a thing. Even after almost three years on AD, I still have no desire to cross over to the other side. In fact, my desire to stay on AD has increased over the last couple years!

And it's not the General that gives you the problems in my most cases, it's the aide that thinks he wears the General's rank and therefore can do what he wants.

Question #3 is one of my favorites. But to answer your question, yes, they are cut loose. Just like the guy that can't hack flying the T-1 is cut loose instead of moving into the T-38.

As long as the mission is accomplished, it doesn't really matter to most. I personally know a guy that Pray's for the other crew members during crew rest when they go out to party and drink and do whatever else they can find to do thats immoral and sinful...

JJ, I'm not AG, but might be able to help answer your question. Yes, the AF will try to help (accomdate) while on AD. I believe it's called a Humanitarian Assignment (or something like that) Basically, if they can match your AFSC and base close to the requested location, AFPC will usually try to work it. One of my good buddies was able to work an assignment like that out of UPT (although he did help the situation by doing really well at UPT). I also know another guy that was able to get his assignment changed after graduating UPT because his baby was sick and he needed to be in a city that offered specialized care. The base he was orginally assigned too wasn't located in a city with the care available. [ 01. January 2005, 23:44: Message edited by: C17Driver ]

I'll just comment on CPs being least flexible due to being only qualified in the "right" seat. In the C-17, because we almost always fly augmented, it means the CPs are gone more than anyone else because almost every sortie launched has two "CPs" on it (I use quotations because in order for a crew to be considered augmented, the third pilot must be qualified as a First Pilot or higher, yet First Pilots are normally Co-pilots that have more than 400 hours and have more experience than the "general" co-pilot) I do agree with most of the other things written about office jobs, etc.

tktkt, It probably won't be quite $1500 per month extra with all the tax free and hostile fire and per diem, but it'll probably get pretty close to that in most months as a new co-pilot on the line. As far as the TDY thing, yes it is for MOST AD guys, but not everyone. Some of my buddies actually did a TDY out and back from Vance to Altus. Once they completed Altus, they went back to Vance, out processed and then headed out to their respective bases. I did the TDY enroute thing. I think the per diem at Altus came out to around $30 per a day or something like that. Some of the other guys that went recently might have more accurate numbers.

The squadron's at McChord have been issuing someting like the Leatherman PST II: https://www.tacticalproshop.com/lepstiito.html And some of the squadron's have been issuing the benchmade: https://www.knifecenter.com/kc_new/store_de...tml?s=BM3500SBT But by no means is it standard. Just depends on what the squadron decides to get. Changes from year to year and squadron to squadron and availability of funds.

It's due to current world events. But talking to the old heads in the squadron and out in the system, it's hard to believe that times will change anytime soon. Basically, TACC has figured out that they can put some pretty difficult requests on the crew and most crews will make it work somehow. So the days of the 'keeper' jets and channel missions are probably not coming back anytime soon. The new push is to Deadhead basic crews out to the stage and then have those basic crews fly some of the shorter more common missions through OIF. Of course there are pro's and con's to doing this, but I don't think the benefit is going to be as apparent to the planners as they think.

Seems like quite a few of you are asking about the timing after graduation from UPT. I figured I'd share a timeline that most of my buddies and I followed in the last year or two. July 03 - Graduate JSUPT Aug 03 - Most of month spent TDY at Water Survival and Land Survival Sept 03 - CPIQ (co-pilot initial qual) at Altus Nov 03 - Complete CPIQ Dec 03 - Report to McChord Feb 04 - Fly dollar ride mission (first overseas mission) (which lasted 16 days) Oct 04 - Upgrade to First Pilot To date stats: Calendar Year 04 - 160+ days TDY Total C-17 Time - 800+ hours (just under 10 months mission ready - Note: you only get about 14 hours of flying time in the actual jet while at Altus) If you have any other specific questions, please feel free to ask or PM me.

MAJCOM can approve the use of Jeppesen. I've probably used them a handful of times total.

The T-1 is not.

When I was at Vance I was specifically told not to plan my XC to other UPT bases. The biggest reason they gave was due to the lack of training you get there.. Would probably have to do one to a full stop. On a side note, the guys from Corpus would always come up to Vance...Go figure.

It requires a separate receiver. In the case of the c-17, it is integrated into the PLSR's(Precision Landing System Receiver) along with the VOR, ILS, and Marker Beacon. We just have to select the receiver and then tune the channel. As far as your other questions, someone else will have to answer as I'm not really sure.

I would recommend reading about the MLS in the 11-217v1 to answer most of your questions concerning why an MLS is used.

We fly MLS's in the 17...Not that often though. Like loveacm said, the ones we try to use aren't usually working, even in the sim (which is where we get our instrument qual checkride)

I'd have to agree. The AF is real big on a person not showing a pattern of bad decisions. Don't make the same mistake twice, etc.