Toro

Actually, the XL on the tail codes came from when the base hit it's fortieth anniversary (XL is the Roman numeral for 40). The tailcodes were changed at that time to XL. It wasn't until a few years later that a different wing commander changed the theme to "eXceL". I was there when it happened, and the extent to which they went with that theme made you want to throw up -- you had to have an 'eXceL" card on you at all times similar to a coin...absolutely retarded.

You will very rarely have different aircraft in the VFR pattern at the same time. Generally a pattern and the groundtrack references are built for the predominant MDS at that base, and they've got priority. If a C-17 showed up at my base will there were F-15s beating up the pattern, there's no way the tower controllers would let him in. In addition to him flying different airspeeds, you need to have increased runway separation when he lands, as well as wake turbulence separation. It is, but again that's not the reason we do it. When you go into your initial break (depending on how fast you're going), you can bleed from cruising speed (~300 knots) to gear limiting speed (~250 knots) at mid-range power in less than 90 degrees of turn. This is true as well, but it's not the reason we do it on a day to day basis. In combat you would do what's called tactical initial - two aircraft with one mile lateral spacing at 10,000 feet that do a ~40 degree nose low sliceback in idle to the base point, where they throw down their gear, continue another 180 degrees and land. You're not likely to get that approved at your average CONUS base. The reason for the VFR pattern is because it allows for a greater volume of aircraft like Metalhead said and more training with less gas. We could practice all our landings from the radar pattern, but staying in a more confined visual pattern saves us time and gas. [ 20. April 2004, 01:45: Message edited by: Toro ]

Yes I was a FAIP, but I don't really have any all-encompassing information except to say enjoy the time you've got with him now. He may put in long days, but his TDYs are pretty much limited to cross country flights over the weekend...no trips to the desert just yet. If you have any specific questions, feel free to fire me a PM.

PIT is pretty laid back, much more low stress than UPT - he should have plenty of free time. When I went through I flew about three times a week, but the debriefs didn't take as long as UPT debriefs. If he's a FAIP he's got the potential for proficiency advancing through a few rides as well - I think I skipped 3 or 4 - and he should be familiar with the systems, so studying isn't really necessary.

ENJJPT stud is pretty much right on. Unofficially, the IPs have a huge say in the ranking. Officially, it is the Flt/CC who writes the recommendation, but it is after hours of consulting with all the instructors in the flight. For guys finding out where they are before assignment night, it seems like the trend for about as long as I've known has been to leave it a surprise. When I went through, our class was told exactly what was in the drop and were we ranked before the drop. At the drop, we were teleconferenced to the other two bases (Sheppard wasn't included) and you stood up in order or ranking to pick your jet from what was available. Shortly after, they changed to keeping everything a suprise. The Flt/CC will know a couple days in advance what everybody is getting, but it's up to him whether he wants to tell the students - or even the IPs. While I was an IP at Columbus, no Flt/CC ever revealed this to his IPs.

I was a communication major. Had a buddy in my FTU class who was a marine biology major. I don't think anybody cares (except the guys looking at test pilot school applications).

Also ditto ENJJPT2B. I've never used Space A, but my wife has used it three times from England to the States. She's only been denied once trying to go there (got her flight the next week), but twice coming back she couldn't get a flight. It wouldn't have been a huge deal except that they can't tell you whether you'll have a seat until the day of and you must physically be in the airport for them to tell you - which was a five hour drive from where she was. Both times she ended up trying one more time, then buying a commercial ticket.

For the fighter guys, it depends on what and where you're flying, but around here we mostly do this on deployments. The only place I know of for shooting missiles is the Combat Archer WSEP at Tyndall AFB. On a normal schedule, I think most squadrons get to go about once a year. In the 2.5 years I've been at my squadron, we've had about four opportunities to drop live at home station. A couple were LGB (Laser Guided Bombs), one was dumb bombs (MK-82s), and the most recent was JDAM. Similar to Archer, Combat Hammer is the WSEP for A/G drops. There are also numerous other A/G WTDs (Weapons and Tactics Deployments) that we've gone to. A/G strafing is easier to coordinate and every so often we get a gung-ho commander who says, "Dammit, we're gonna start strafing again - guys don't know how to do it - it's a dying art!" Then we go strafe a couple times and because we haven't done it for so long, the guns all jam and the jets come back code III. Then maintenance complains and we stop strafing for a year or so...until the next gung ho commander shows up. [ 29. March 2004, 23:12: Message edited by: Toro ]

How does that work? Do you have limitations on how long you can actually be at the controls of the aircraft, or any type of restrictions on how long or how often you need to take a break?

That's something that takes a while to get used to in England. Take a guess what it means when the control tells you, "Expect diverse to the talkdown followed by reheat overshoot to the visual circuit, set QFE 29.80." Translation (from the Queen's English to American English) - Expect vectors for the PAR followed by an afterburner low approach to the VFR pattern, altimeter is 29.80"

Disclaimer: I'm talking about military ATC and regs, not civilian I think a lot of you are confusing slang with minimizing comm. In his original example, C17wannabe's example ("N11111 with you 1.1 for 3") is not slang, is a quicker way of saying, "N1111 is with you passing 1100 for 3000". Slang is when the controller tells you to set altimeter 30.00 and you reply "Three-balls". As Hacker said, stuff like that sounds unprofessional...and makes you sound like a clown. "Departure, N15555 passing 1300 feet" - 'nuff said. ATC knows who and where you are and where you're going before you talk to them, there's no need to give your entire flight plan every time you check in with a new controller. Tower talks to departure before they can release you, and ATC controllers talk to each other before they hand you over; each one is passing the next your details. Along with the brevity concept, realize that there is only one time where you must readback controller instructions verbatim, and that is on ground control. With ATC, the only things you have to repeat with ATC are headings, altitudes, and altimeter settings. ...oh, and if you lower your voice to talk on the radio, you are a tool.

That's totally different. AAFES doesn't care about those kinds of items because they don't sell them, so you're not drawing funds away from them. Now I do - Columbus and SJ just sort of blended together in my hazed memory. That was pretty obvious to them because they had two snack machines sitting right next to where we set up our snack bar. All of a sudden we're raking in the dough and they don't get a single coin dropped in their machines. They stopped complaining when the snack bar was out of sight, despite the fact that nobody was buying candy still. Yup

Same thing happened to the snackos when I was at Columbus. They were raking in big cash until the a$$holes at AAFES found out about it and shut them down. We never found a way around it.

In addition to staff, there are also ALO tours that doesn’t involve flying. This can happen at any time – it will more than likely by your second or third tour if you’re going to get one. Most guys will take their staff tours no earlier than mid-level majors. As long as you’re interested in flying, you’ll generally get back in the cockpit after each of these tours.

Depends on the question. Some ask "have you ever", some ask, "in the last 7 years," some ask "in the last 7 years or since the age of 16, whichever was shorter." I don't know if they've gone from 7 to 10 years, but when I re-submitted mine a little over a year ago, it still said 7. I'm sure somebody has. As long as it's an honest mistake, it's not a big deal - and you always have the chance to clarify things with the agent who interviews you. I don't think you can get 'screwed' by the security clearance unless somebody maliciously lies about your past. Generally if you got screwed, it's because you screwed up in the past and/or you tried to cover it up.

You will need- Every address you've lived in for the last ten years and somebody who knew you at the last five or so addresses. This includes dorm rooms (you need the building number, street address, and room number) All your school dates, degrees, and addresses of the schools. All your jobs in the last ten years to include employers and supervisor's name, address, and phone number. The names, addresses, and phone numbers of three people who know you well (not used as references in any other portion of the form). Names, addresses, phone numbers, date of birth of all your immediate family. All your foreign country travel dates in the last seven years - even weekend trips. Those are the detailed questions that most people have trouble hunting down. There are also the slew of "have you ever..." questions relating to illegal activity and police records as well.

The couple times I've done it, I was only DNIF until I saw the flight doc. He documented it, asked me if I was okay and if I was still feeling the effects along with a couple other questions, and cleared me to fly again right away.

Feels like a sharp needly being jabbed right between and behind your eyes? Sounds like a sinus block - I've had them a couple times and I know they can be excruciatingly painful. I'm sure F16PilotMD can give you all the technical medical jargon on why it happens, but basically it has to do with the pressure not equalizing in your sinus cavities. One remedy is to slow or temporarily stop your descent to try to let the pressure equalize. Also, as a short term remedy, I always carry Afrin with me in my G-suit pocket when I fly - given to me by the flight doc. If I feel a sinus block coming on, I'll take a squirt of it, which generally helps out. If you land after taking it, you need to go see the flight doc before you fly again (ie you have self-medicated and have to DNIF yourself).

ENJJPT Stud, good definition of asymmetry.

Before the C model, the most common reason for over-Ging the 38 I experienced was flying through jetwash while pulling G (now you have to apply asymmetrical G limits). Not sure if this is something the C model can compensate for, but it sucks to have it happen. We had a student flying his first (of only four) FM rides and he flew through the other guy's jetwash while doing the G exercise. He hooked the ride, obviously got nothing out of it, and only had three left after that. In the Strike Eagle, I've most commonly seen the jet over-G'd at the beginning of BFM setups. Both jets are at 430 knots and striving to pull as close as possible to 9Gs when they go into their break turn. Throw a little bit of asymmetry into your break turn and it decreases your G available - I know a guy who over G'd at 5Gs. It’s not a specific amount of G, but rather a percentage of overload on the aircraft components that designates what level the over-G is. Generally, with a straight pull in standard configurations, pulling 9.0 Gs at lower to medium altitudes will give you 100% overload (not an over-G, but damn close). Throw in a little asymmetry, or higher altitudes/faster airspeed and your G available decreases. So a 7.0 G pull could now give you 101%, which is a Level 1 over-G. 111-120% is a level 2, 121-130% is a level 3, 131-140% is a level 4, and anything above 141% is a level 5…and that plane probably isn’t coming home. Nope, 9Gs is where it maxes out. Yes, this depends on not only configuration, but also weight, altitude, and airspeed. The jet has an Overload Warning System (OWS) which computes the amount of G the jet has available based on these factors. If you are at higher altitudes and/or faster airspeeds, your G available decreases to less than 9. The 85 and 92% beepers talked about earlier are computed by the OWS. [ 11 March 2004, 01:02: Message edited by: Toro ]

I'd say we average around one a week in my squadron. You can actually over-G the Strike Eagle and continue the mission in some cases - provided the over-G wasn't on one of the jet's mass items, and it doesn't exceed a certain percentage of overload. If you over-G, you buy a CD for the bar - and yes, the WSO has to buy one as well. If it's a severe over-G, you may find yourself pulling panels with the maintainers in addition to buying them a case of beer. Does the student hook the ride? Used to be any over-G was an automatic hook. The Strike Eagle has a system that warns you when you’re about to over-G. It has a beeper that starts up when you’re at 85% of your max allowable G, then a more rapid beeper that kicks in when you’re at 92%. My understanding of the viper was that it was a limiter which won’t allow you to over-G in normal circumstances, but with external stores, the limiter in some case will allow an over-G.

You'll fly with a different pilot/WSO every day. The only time I've ever been 'hard crewed' with a WSO was during a Flag-type exercise, and even then it wasn't completely necessary. There is a lot more to CRM than just who runs what sensors, and there are a lot more sensors than just the radar. It also depends on what you are doing: if you're doing 2v2/4v4 ACT type stuff, the pilot will usually run the radar while the WSO monitors the SIT and targeting pod. If you're low altitude, the pilot primarily just maintains formation while the WSO runs most of the sensors. In BFM/ACM, the pilot fights and the WSO looks for the second guy who's trying to roll in and kill you. In general, there are 'standard' roles for us (similar to stuff listed above) which are actually written out in our regs and wing/squadron standards which lay out what each guy should do in case you want to have a crew brief of 'standard.'

Shack. Most flight leads, especially with a four-ship, will brief where they want the wingmen to go. It's also usually written in the standards. I'll always tell my #2 to go to the left, then I'll occassionally get to a tanker who tells him to go to the right, so now I've gotta garbage up the radios again and tell the tanker that he's going to the left.

15 minutes prior? That's absolutely retarded - ATC won't even switch you to the tanker frequency until you at least have radar contact with them (but usually they require visual contact). During the day I would say most guys turn off their radar once they're within about 1/2 mile. At night (especially with 135s, since they hate turning on their lights) most guys I know leave the radar on until the pre-contact position.

If it was a Friday, it could have been just about anybody in a fighter squadron. On Fridays, we let our life support and intel troops wear a bag.