HerkDerka

Now that is a good argument to use when trying to separate yourself from the strat world. HD [ 22. March 2006, 11:36: Message edited by: HerkDerka ]

A student who doesn't know what a donkey show is? What have you been doing with your education. HD

A-freaking-men. No need to waste money by sending guys to "assault and taxi" school where they learn nothing about actually being an AC. Just continue what they were doing for their AC prep folder in-house. Last time I checked, we have IPs to do the flying with, sims and sim instructors on site for the GT. All the bases are covered. HD

Being a CP isn't hard...but being a GOOD CP is (reference Linda's post). Just my two cents, the MPD program is a wash. For two reasons, job knowledge and attitude. The main gripe about the program is that guys are being poorly trained. We're not getting a good product from the schoolhouse. It extends the workload of the IPs and even the senior CPs trying to get these dudes trained up so they won't be a sack of potatoes in the right seat when they go on their first rote. I mean it's no biggie for an IP to handle a CP who doesn't know anything, standard ops, but it's a different story when the CP doesn't even know the basics of being a CP. Now I've seen some mopey dopes who knew the score and started learning all they could about the right seat on day one. But I've also seen the guys who thought they already know everything because they were trained in the left seat. So basically MPDs are being trained for a job they aren't going to do for awhile. They'll fly left seat, but only at home for their two or three LPSs or on a CS sortie. Another ***** is that by the program flow, an MPD's first checkride is a right seat checkride. They're getting a checkride in something they've barely been trained for. As I mentioned the second part is attitude. It's normal to have a new guy show up thinking he knows something, but that normally gets taken care of early by the IPs. But MPD is bringing a new kind of animal. I came into the Herk at the end of the "keep your mouth shut for a year and then keep it shut for another six months" copilot era. Now we've got some guys coming in who not only have trouble their man-pleasers shut, but can only repeat one statement: "Am I in the left seat today?" It used to be the CPs taking care of each other. Friday afternoon study sessions with a case of beer cracked. Now we've got MPDs who don't want to participate and actually learn something since they are such experienced left seaters. Not to mention that, but it's just bad form when you've got brand new guys acting like and verbal protesting that they are better than copilots who have in the neighborhood of 1000 hours, around 2 years in the squadron, and around four desert rotes under their belt. Now Mopey Dopes aren't bad guys, they're just getting a bad thing from the Rock. The sim instructors at the Rock are convincing the new guys that they will be an AC when they step in the door of their squadron. They're not expecting to be the sponge that they should be. We were having some CP ground training for the new guys prior to the last rote and one of the few (at the time) mopey dopes didn't bother to show up. When I called him to ask him where he was, his reply was simple. "Oh, I'm not a copilot". I about shit a basketball. Now before anyone gets too testy, most of those statements are generalizations. I've seen plenty of MPD who are good guys and know what's going on. But I've seen a few guys who were completely led astray by the program. I don't have any gripes about the MPDs, just about the program itself. The MPD program is a great thing for the strat community, but it has no place in tac for now. HD [ 18. March 2006, 20:48: Message edited by: HerkDerka ]

Animal House HD

My guess is that's going to be a problem. HD

The Herk has A/C with two temps avaiable. 1) Hot 2) Hell HD

Boom going to MEO? Yahhhhhhh! Burn the witch. I'm assuming that is you're going to friggin MEO the you have a real reason. HD

Check picked up at restaurants...bar tab covered...Free stuff at the FBO (after $30000 worth of deicing fluid). I've had them all and extremely appreciated them. I still think just saying "thanks" is the best. I like knowing people actually give a shit. HD

DD's are by far the coolest guys in the entire squadron....at 0300. :D HD

You can NEVER go wrong with a Jack N Coke. NEVER. HD

Kill yourself. HD

Don't get confused now: No "Go" pills (at least that I've ever seen). Only "No-Go" pills HD

Ambien is weird as hell. - If you stay awake about 30 mintues after you take it, you'll be nice and loopy. - It seems that every time I take it I wake up (for good) 6 hours after I take it. - And no it doesn't have that druggy aftertaste. I always wake up and feel awesome, like I've slept for 3 days straight. I couldn't imagine trying to live on a deployed Herk flight schedule without it. HD [ 28. February 2006, 16:46: Message edited by: HerkDerka ]

Textbook description of a Herk mission. Plenty of suck to go around for everybody for our C-17 bros. Nailed it, just multiply those two weeks into four months. It makes sense to me from a certain standpoint on why heavy drivers are not given go pills. Unlike the single seaters, we have the ability to augment on pond crossings. And for those long OEF days we have a chance for a quick nap on the long legs. Single seaters on the other hand have only one guy to fly the aircraft and if he falls asleep that could end up as some bad juju. Like I said it makes sense from that standpoint, but I know I've had some vicious long days where I could have used one myself. As long as I can pop an Ambien and at least get a good night's sleep I'm pretty happy. HD

No kidding, it only takes three forms of ID, ground test form in triplicate and notarized, new ADSC signed, and a note from your third grade teacher to get your friggin pills. Gotta love the med group. If they didn't make their processes complicated...who would? No, quite the contrary. I sleep well and fly a lot better. HD

CH hit it on the head. Speaking of midsets, this is not the way to be. It is a universal truth that every day in UPT, no matter how well you are doing, you (and everyone else for that matter) are always three rides away from a progress/elimination check. That's just because of the way the syllabus is built. If you start getting up in arms about how hard you worked to get there and how much is riding on getting your wings you're going to stress yourself out. Just go in ready to learn. Help your classmates. Ask questions. Soak it up like a sponge. That's all you can do. Everything else will fall into place. Don't stress yourself out, that's the IP's job. Thousands have come before you and thousands will come after you. About 90% of the people who wash out are either self-eliminated or medical. HD

Hoser/Jorry No no no. The Ambien Challenge: One Ambien, three beers, a group of friends, last one awake wins. HD

Mmmmmmmmmmmmm......addictive sedative. Plenty of Vitamin-A and Restoril around our house too. And only in the AOR as well. We hardly ever augment except for hopping the pond, even then not always. Different story for the strat drivers though. On a related note Hoser, what's the longest you've gone on the "Ambien challenge"? :D HD

I've definitely seen plently of flight suit naziism, but I have yet to hear anyone chime in on boot zippers (except for the GRACC post). I haven't zipped my boot zippers since UPT and have yet to hear anything about it. HD

I wouldn't be surprised if 10MAN's rage against the machine resulted in some Combat Zipper and Combat Sleeve. HD

Don't forget BARFF in central Arkansas. "Herky 01 is cleared to BARFF." HD

"2" on the Royal Sun. Nice to find a place that will open the bar and kitchen for you at 0400. But along the lines of deployed bases, all of the good deals have gone away (the early OEF fields and Oman). So now it's just a measure of which sucks the least. HD

That is definitely VERY Corpus. While I'm not downing on the idea, it's just typical Navy training. Brought to you by the same guys who teach the need to identify the FAF in seven different ways. Navy training definitely has it's advantages, it really made me understand instruments, but I still chuckle when I remeber some of the "worst-case" scenarios they come up with. I'll NEVER forget my last review stage ride where the IP gave me a dual engine failure at cruise altitude. I had to emergency descend to the airfield and after going through all of the procedures both engines finally decided to "light-off" after I hit the IAF. Then sadly due to the "power surge" when I restarted, there was a "total elictrical failure" that allowed me to roll right into the partial panel NDB (because approach's radar and radios were down, of course). And for some strange reason, I hit the FAF and "power came back online" but then naturally the number one engine decided magically decided to shit itself again. Ugh. Thankfully, the IP slacked up a smidge after that. HD

Still gumming up the radios though. "Center, Herky 01, Level 200." That's it. If for some reason you have to announce your freq: "Center, Herky 01, level 200 on 245.8" Clear, concise, brief. HD