Hacker

Want to trade: My wife has a new-with-tags 1995 AF-issue Saddlery A-2 jacket in size 36L that has been sitting unworn in the closet for decades. It has always been too large for her. Jacket is in as-new condition, although a little wrinkled from being boxed up and taken on 8 PCS moves since '95 and sitting in long-term storage while OCONUS. She would like to try and trade it for a smaller AF issue A-2, preferably 34R or 34S. If not interested in a trade and you have one you'd rather sell, I'm open to that, too. Thanks!

What was the timeframe? Stone Temple was a '38 IP at Vance at the same time I was ('09-'13) and he did a nice job talking up the Dragon Lady IMHO. Might have been a different story down the street in the T-1 or T-6 squadrons, though.

Nah, I'd guess it's mine that needs to be written up.

Not at all. The entire point of an airline career is to work little and get paid a lot...it isn't about the passion or enjoyment of flying. An airline career gives you both the time and finances to enjoy life outside of work, rather than simply cramming your families, hobbies, and other passions into the little crevasses around that supermajority chunk of your time and emotional energy that a military career demands. Manage that money correctly, and you'll be able to retire early and *really* do whatever it is you would do if you had financial freedom (like fly cool shit for fun!)

Hopefully the universe provided the needed correction and they're all enjoying post-military careers which allow them the professional satisfaction and personal/family enrichment they deserve. 🙂

I am currently in the middle of a 6+ week period of not touching airplanes for work based on using 11 days of vacation. Now, it has been mostly during the month of Sept, so not exactly an in-demand period of the year with respect to holidays, school breaks, etc, but that just makes it easier for a generally junior dude like me to hold. Plus, it is the month of the Reno Air Races, so a good aviation time of year to have off. Can't speak for anywhere but Purple, but any monthly schedule type you can find at a pax airline, you can find the same schedule in freight. The single-departure/round-the-world flying is certainly a type of schedule you can find on the fleets that fly internationally, but it isn't even the majority of schedule type at FedEx.

Oh @HuggyU2! Your orange flight suit is being summoned!

Numerous forums I participate in have hilariously uninformed but spicy debates about military aviation between individuals of every other profession besides military aviation.

https://www.wired.com/story/would-it-be-fair-to-treat-vaccinated-covid-patients-first/ Some salient points on the topic in this article, despite being published in Wired. There is already an established triage hierarchy in medicine, and adding vaccination status into it introduces a whole new wave of other ethical decisionpoints that are unwelcome to the medical profession writ large. Bottom line: by the time someone gets to the point where they need to be admitted to inpatient hospital treatment, they certainly medically "deserve" that level of care just as much as any other patient.

Meh, I think the airlines have a more clear view of the (lack of) meaning of Q-3s from outside the AF fishbowl than we often give them credit for.

As I learned at multiple levels of USAF legal review, a Commander has the authority to issue a Commander-directed Q3 at any time, for any reason. It does not have to be given for a just reason, only that the CC wants to give it. There is no standard of evidence or proof of whatever the rationale is for the Q3 required.

Last night on TV I heard some former gymnast commentators mentioning this "twisties" thing, and it sounded to me a lot like vertigo/leans or one of the other somatogravic/somatogyral illusions. Things that to us feel very real and can be highly disorienting (even to the point of physical sickness) when we experience them. Obviously in the aviation community we take that stuff very seriously....that gave me a little different take on her decision to step down. That being said, the *real* problem is that she is being deified in the media for quitting, and that's just another indicator that culturally we are disincentivizing merit and promoting victimhood.

I've had both pilot and WSO Commanders, and there were good and bad out of both camps. I consider it a good thing that there are some who I'd really have to sit down and stretch my brain to remember if they were front seaters or back seaters. That being said, I remember being at SOS and having one of those "senior leader seminars" with my flight. The guy who led the seminar for my flight was one of the original CROs, a big burly dude who was emphatic that any "leader" could command any unit, regardless of specialty. I offered that such a thing would not work in a fighter unit, to which he scoffed and told me I just wasn't evolved enough in my thinking about leadership to understand that I was wrong. I said, "in my community, our Squadron Commander generally is the lead pilot of the first formation to cross into badguy territory on the first night of the war. How are you going to inspire your warriors if on the first night of the war you're sending them into the IADS while you're going to watch them all take off into the night, then stay behind in the office and watch it on CNN?" His only response was, "that's not a fair question."

Just as a pile-on to the previous post on this, my two close friends from the fighter world who have been doing RPA contractor gigs for the last 5+ years are both having to tighten their belts as re-bidding has steadily reduced pay year over year. One of them -- a retired O-4 who has been riding the contractor gravy train -- is having to sell his house in Vegas and move into an apartment because he's worried his job is going to go away entirely and he's going to be left holding the bag with a big mortgage.

Yes, combat ORM is a skill that takes a lot of time to develop and requires actual experiences (e.g. it can't be taught in a classroom), just like airmanship and judgment. But just like airmanship and judgment, combat ORM it does not require intentionally violating rules or doing something unsafe to see and understand where those boundaries are. Generally the boundaries of the black and white are gently touched during peacetime training, and it is only in no-shit combat ops (and with that combat ORM already seasoned) that you can "live in the gray area" to get the mission done. I say that as someone who had the special opportunity to wear my blues and describe my operating in the gray area to a board of rated officers.

Sure did not used to be that way. I'm fortunate that in my first AF gig as a 21A1 MX Officer I had a CMSgt who grabbed me by my scrawny neck and showed me the ways of the AF. Certainly not like the soy boy E-9s hunting for hurt feelings and missing glow belts by the time I was ready to retire.

It is a video, so that's probably not going to tell you what you want to know. Short version: - Interview process is now a video screening interview, followed by a single-day in-person interview in Atlanta. - No more Job Knowledge Test - During the single-day interview, there will be a panel interview, the MMPI assessment, and the psychiatrist session.

Apparently they're not interested in high AOA maneuvering with that thing.

There are several stories of essentially this happening at FedEx, although at purple it had nothing to do with anyone getting lost, it stems from that system bids are (and historically have been) very infrequent compared to nearly every other 121 airline. Sometimes it is every 9 months, or a year, or every 18 months. This leads to quite long training cycles. Thus, when a fleet is being eliminated (like what has happened with the 727 and DC-10), the training cycle for pilots does not flow perfectly with the rate at which airframes are being put into the boneyard. Thus, after the last airframes were flown into Victorville, the last crew holdouts on those airframes had sometimes quite long waits for their training slots in their new aircraft. There are stories of guys sitting for a year or more, getting monthly guarantee to sit at home and wait for their training class date.

I want to do the least amount of work for the most pay in the shortest time period. I don't understand the desire to do the "most amount of work" if the pay for less work over the same period is the same.

Honest question: why is this ("density") an attractive attribute? I completely understand the attraction to commutable schedules, as well as having schedules which both maximize pay and time off simultaneously. However, "density" implies a lot of work in a short period of time. Personally, I want to do as little as possible for as much pay as possible in a given unit of time. I want to maximize my credit-hour density, and not my actual work density. In other words, let's say we're talking about a 5-day stretch that is worth 35 hours of pay. Credit being equal between the two, I'd rather do four (or three!) flights with three long layovers in that 5-day stretch than 4 legs per day with 4 short layovers. My point is, "density" of work in and of itself isn't a measure of how to maximize the combination of pay and time off simultaneously. System form, trip rigs, min guarantees, etc, are what really determine this over the simple math of how many legs per day you're completing.

That is the best management logic for not giving a great paying contract that I've ever read.

17 years to the month later. Nice.

Here's hoping some of that huge Rogan audience decides to buy copies.

I did a stint at CPZ, too, after I retired non-current and had a great time yanking gear and hanging out with the 20-something Capts and FAs as an ol' 40-something dude. I enjoyed every day except payday; made under $17,000 my first year. Most importantly, learned a ton about 121 operations that made the leap to the majors much easier than it would have been directly from Big Blue's loving arms.