Hacker

???? What on earth is the AF missing without the Spartan??

Well....not really. Has a lot more to do with avionics use while still being able to fly fast and turn tight. Has nothing to do with the lack of a 2-seat trainer. The fact of the matter is that T-38 based IFF just doesn't produce a product that the Raptor community can use. The skillset that the current IFF program produces -- e.g. a wingman -- is not what the Raptor needs. The biggest complaint was that the way the F-22 employs is not like how standard fighters operate, and that every pilot needed to have at LEAST 2-ship flight lead kinds of skills, and they'd prefer something on the order of Mission Commander skills. If you look at the requirements they had for who they were accepting from the CAF -- 2-ship FL min and current in a radar-equipped fighter -- that is some hint as to what they are looking for their basic qualifications. This is an issue that was being worked on the entire three years I was at IFF, and the last I heard was that there was going to be an interim solution prior to a major overhaul of the IFF program. The major overhaul would include replacing the T-38 with a different aircraft that has performance and avionics which can accomplish the required training. Looks like this is the interim solution.

You don't wear them if you're just wearing the blues shirt without the service dress jacket, but if you wear the jacket you wear your ribbons. As I said...I haven't worn my blues in about 5 years...and even then that was the first time I'd worn them since UPT graduation.

Looking for some experience from anyone who has ordered one of those custom ribbon sets for their blues from someplace like www.ultrathin.com or www.superthinribbons.com. I hate to say it, but I haven't "updated" my blues since I went to SOS about 5 years ago and I have to wear them for an event in about a month. So, I'm gonna go buy a set off the 'net. Any recommendations or reviews, aviation brothers?

I personally don't care if it's exclusively a pilot thing, or if it has anything to do with being Mission Qual'd, or with retention, or anything like that. If it were up to me, the uniform issue A-2 would be just like it was in the 40s, sans the leather name tag and MAJCOM patch. Oh, and we'd be able to paint nose art on the back. Of course, I'm all for painting nose art on the jets, too, but that's beside the point. I'm even for bringing back pinks 'n' greens, along with the tucked-in tie, hehheh. The current-issue A-2 is different than the A-2 of the 40s, and as far as I can tell the changes were made with the Avirex contract of the late 90s. The original Cooper A-2s that were issued in the late 80s and early 90s were true to the wartime A-2 pattern. The one I was issued in '00 has three notable modifications: the neck closure hook has been eliminated, extra material has been added to the under-arm area (a popular Pop's Leather mod!), and the pockets have been subtly modified to allow the side-entry. I think the story of how the A-2 came back is pretty interesting. It's almost as amazing as the success of ACC Heritage Flight (which I expeted to fizzle and die after the 50th Anniversary in '97). https://www.afa.org/magazine/1993/0993jacket.asp

Hells yea

Good stuff, thank you!

You don't need to be rated to log hours. How do you think FAA student pilots become certificated pilots?? Gotta start somewhere. You can log every minute you fly in SUPT...you just have to be careful how you log PIC time there. Where you have to be careful is later on down the road when it's time to use your logbook to apply for an airline job, where the airlines will want you to only count PIC when you were the one who actually signed for the aircraft. That pretty much means that all your SUPT time is just going to count as total time.

Not necessarily true. First off, the electronic logbook (at least how I do it the Excel spreadsheet way) allows me to write as many comments as I want to. Hell, I can write an entire 'there I was' story in that section if I want to. In that way, I think it is MUCH MORE useable than a paper logbook. No, the paper log won't crash, but you also can't copy it or make a backup of it. I have my Excel logbook backed up in no less than three places, and I keep one of them on a thumb drive in my fire safe with scans of my other important documents on it. With respect to the interviewers, I've read many, many reports of guys who interviewed with the printouts from Logbook Pro and there were never any issues. In fact, for a military guy it helped as it was easier to add conversion times if needed to the electronic version that doing the math line-by-line in the paper log. I have used paper logbooks for the last 15 years that I've been a pilot, and only within the last two years have I really bought into the electronic logbook. It was a pain in the rectum to go add all that data in to the spreadsheet, but in the end the result has been more than worth it.

From the Logbook Pro demo that I used a couple years ago, you can break out your time any way you please. It's a database, really, not just a straight logbook.

I found it on the internet, actually, on some UK private pilot's website. I liked the way it looked and the tables/macros that were embedded, and modified it to meet my own needs. I added in stuff like NVG time, and turbine time, etc, that the original creator didn't have. Unfortunately the really great macros that the original maker had which calculated times and currencies were lost when I made my modifications and added numerous new aircraft types to the tables. You can download a version of my modified logbook here: https://airlinepilotcentral.com/resources/j...0061229169.html I'd really love to create an Excel version of the Jeppeson Pro Logbook, but unfortuantely I don't have that kind of spare time currently...anyone want to volunteer? Scans of the two sides of the pages are below...

I just use a simple Excel file on a thumb drive. This is what it looks like: Eventually I suppose I'll throw down the coin to get Logbook Pro, but in the mean time this works for me.

Nonsense...we've seen at SJ that if you go VFR direct to scheduling and piss off some of the guys in the squadron...the Wing Commander will personally offer you a ride.

That same kind of sh*t happens in England, too. The spotters are always out there and know everything you said on your intra-flight freq. Next thing you know they'll have Have Quick, too, and be asking for a Mickey.

You sure that isn't just standard equipment attrition with the Riddle training?

Play piano in a whorehouse.

The reality is that your Phase III Flight Commander is going to have the largest impact on you getting selected to be a FAIP. Buying a house in and of itself has no bearing on if you will be FAIPed. Your Flight/CC might, however, use that as one of his datapoints to decide who will get a FAIP assignment. Personally, I think that's a totally dumb datapoint to use, but it's up to each Flight/CC.

At Seymour Johnson, they guy who ran Outdoor Rec was also an FFL, and would buy anything you brought him from a catalog at dealer cost plus shipping. That was as recently as '03.

I'm still wondering about his whole "I've had my dick in the shit" comment. Uhhh, STS anyone?

Personally, seeing his mother's grief only strengthens my resolve.

Has anyone not been able to get an ALFA tour when they requested one because of over-manning at the SUPT bases? Doesn't really seem like that big of a problem.

FWIW, there's no hyphen in the base's name -- Seymour A. Johnson is the guy's name that the base is named after.

If he makes it to the fighter community, those tons of emails from chicks he will never meet or bang will do nothing to assauge the enormous ration of sh*t that all of the guys he flies with will give him on a regular basis.

This is the source: https://pilotjargon.com/Military.htm Someone please slap this student for thinking it was a good idea to promote this.

The link to the Cosmo site was on the PilotJargon UPT website that was posted in another thread.