billy pilgrim

I've spent a bit of time in Asia - Korea, Japan and Thailand. Hawaii and AK are great, but seen quite a bit of both. Bangkok made Las Vegas feel like a church retreat. I'll probably be sticking to Europe this summer - but also considering S. America. Don't know how hard it is to get down that way without buying a ticket - anyone know? Appreciate the posts..

Headed on probable space-A misadventure late this Summer with a lot of leave to burn. Anyone have anything interesting on their bucket list or good ideas? Cool places to see?

It's obvious. The raptor is starting to become self aware... and it doesn't like pilots.

Solid article. You would think that making it through UPT and all the follow on training would show a "commitment" as well as prove that you're at least fairly competent. I like the point how a masters in Quantum Mechanics from MIT is no different from an aviation management degree from Embry Riddle. If the promotion rates of the pilots downrange, both on the CAF and MAF side are not higher than those on the support side (which I believe currently to be the case) it means one of two things. Either we are not promoting those actually directly accomplishing the misison, or we are not selecting the best and brightest officers for these positions. This is of course a generalization but in my opinion either case is an absolute foul.

second!

PT shirts untucked at the gym, unruly mustaches, lack of reflective belts after dusk - it was only a matter of time... Joking aside... Maybe our fighter pilots should be focusing more so on flying rather than dividing up their time between additional duties and a worthless online masters from Embry Ridiculous. Oh wait they can't if they want to stay in past major.

Getting non vol'd to RPA's is heinous, but only because it's a one way door. I know several guys that have gotten jammed into this that were excellent pilots. We had a TAMMY 21'd pilot in my unit that just got royally screwed - maybe HE shouldn't have done so WELL in UPT because at least now he'd be flying something manned, which is obviously preferable to any UAV. It's laughable to think that you're in any real danger though. Give me a break. It is beyond poor form for anyone currently flying fighters to make fun of these guys. 99% of the ex fighter guys would kill to be flying a fighter again. (Deployed or not!)

I'll fly it... Can I volunteer to replace one of the pilots that doesn't want to?

The true tragedy here is that the Thunderbirds are stuck in fourth generation "legacy" fighters instead of the F-22.

This is awesome. No way in hell an idea like this would fly these days. Definitely ORM "red". Probably mitigated with a solid top three brief.

It's instant and it's just! I think I can hear my green boots begging me to join the GCOC...

I laughed then realized that all these people are probably getting promoted well ahead of me. Don't care as long as big blue lets me fly her airplanes!

CoCo Curry Sushi Zen (Sunabe Seawall) Scuba Diving (Seawall and other areas) Tan Tan Man (it's on 58 on the right side south bound) Go Karts on the island resort (past the tanks) Flying is great out there - don't spend more than $1-2k on a car, be sure the JCI (due every two years) is fresh can be expensive.

And stop pulling more than five g's in the break! We need to make these old fighters last... Can you look the tax payer straight in the eye and justify that seven g closed pattern you just pulled - the one with the whispies of condensation off the wingtips, longerons straining all the while. The one that is only registering MORE noise complaints with the host country nationals. The one puts a smile on the dearm crew. The one that the eight year old boy is watching from the commissary parking lot and just made him decide he wanted to become an Air Force pilot - that one. Reprehensible. Good flight discipline comes from several sources... Internalizing the core values, the wingman concept, and I'm pretty sure the full range leadership model has something to do with it as well. IMHO barrel rolling a King Air seems to be far from dangerous if you have any pilot ability, but I say this from a position of ignorance having never flown one. That said, it is clearly against the rules and the second the cat gets out of the bag - if it does - you're going to have to live with the consequences for what you've done. I feel bad for those pilots. He should've flown it a little more coordinated so those in the back didn't realize ;-) PS. I think if you dug a little deeper on this one you'd find that these are the people that were not wearing their reflective belts and had their PT shirts untucked at the gym. The warning signs had been there all along!

That's pretty terrible... I was back and forth between my class crest across my back, or something with the code of conduct / airman's creed / AF symbol / out of the airman's manual... Something that says this airman is tough, yet professional. In all seriousness there is a lot of cool shit out there - I like the old fighters etc... I've been debating getting some WWII nose art on an arm - any ideas where I can find some historical examples? It's a shame we don't have it anymore. It's a nearly free way to raise esprit de corps... I think the CAF crew chiefs would be all about it too. The coolest tattoos I've seen in person have been on girls. One had the Dali elephants walking across her back and one had the where the wild things are creatures on her arm. Definitely chick stuff, but original.

Sending UPT grads to UAV's is borderline fraud waste and abuse. I know I am preaching to the choir on this one but it pisses me off to no end. It is shortsighted and an ABSOLUTE CANCER in the CAF. The decision to non-voul young talented aviators to this career field is being upheld by many who have already had an entire career flying fast jets. Where is the integrity and standing up for what is right for the Air Force? Isn't that one of our core values? Doing the RIGHT thing over the EASY thing? The CAF NEEDS an Olds who will stand up for the CGO's on this issue. I am currently working in Afghanistan and see first hand what the drones do on a daily basis. It is completely unnecessary that they be flown by someone with fighter or T-38 experience. What a waste. I am sure all those poor guys flying them will agree with me. We are indirectly killing much of the incentive to apply to the Academy. What incentive is there to roll the bones on track select night and pick T-38's? I just talked to a recent USAFA grad who said that many are changing their mind about UPT after seeing what's going on in the Air Force, especially considering the ten year commitment. If you got rid of the NBA / NFL / MLB, college sports would suffer. Fact. If the Air Force did not have fighter aircraft, I would not have joined. Period dot. I know others have other reasons, but on day one of UPT about 80% of my class wanted to fly vipers/A-10's/eagles etc... I love the States and consider it an honor to serve in the military but that was the initial draw for me. Around 300 new fighter pilots a year. That is what the United States Air Force can make. 300. Four years and 5-10 MILLION dollars +/- later they are experienced. And we are sending these pilots experienced and those on their way to getting there to an RPA?! Not only that, we are doing this in a time where others WANT to fly them and there are budget cutbacks. This hollowing out our fighter community will take the better part of a decade and BILLIONS of dollars in flight hours to fix. Remember when MD didn't put a gun in the F-4 because of our stellar missile technology. The AIM-7 had an 8.9% success rate in the 'nam with over 200 employed. That's where blind faith in technology gets you. Drones fill a niche and they do somethings very well, but they will NEVER replace the fighter pilot completely. Not before they become self-aware.... :-) Afghanistan is an incredibly permissive and forgiving environment for UAV's. We cannot anticipate the next conflict this country faces will be the same. IMHO by FAR the biggest personnel issue facing the CAF is the UAV. The biggest tactical issue (which is about to turn into a collosial strategic one) is the lack of fighter aircraft and flight time caused by getting rid of our 4th generation fighters without enough fifth generation to replace them. If we can't afford any more fifth generation jets it it's time for some damage control with EA / better radar / better missiles / better motors. The reason the CAF used to be so lethal was due to its best trained aviators in the world. It's that simple. We are well on our way to losing that distinction and don't know it because we are untested and look good on paper.