ARAMP1

After doing a tour at the Navy's T6 FITU (their version of PIT) I always said "What's easier, a student fam 1 ride or an instructor fam 1 ride? ...the student fam 1, because he'll study."

There's no longer a centrally controlled volunteer list like many of us went through. The MAJCOMs now get the assignments and tag them as they see fit. PM me your .gov email and I'll send you the contact that can explain it better.

One of the reasons the Navy bought the T6B with the HUD, HOTAS, etc was to fly several of the T45 rides in the cheaper T6. Turns out, the studs were significantly behind the power curve and needed those T45 rides in the T45 and the program was scrapped.

Yup...I've made that in a busy month on second year pay at FedEx. It requires a little extra flying at draft pay and skipping out on your one weekend-a-month drill.

On the Airbus at Purple, we set the heading bug to runway heading or a missed approach heading for an ILS/RNAV approach once the localizer or inbound course is captured. That way, in the event of a missed approach, we can select heading and get the airplane headed that way. I've flown with guys that mess with it in cruise, some that don't. I generally keep it in the general direction I'm heading.

The navy hasn't had any problems in the last couple years with their T-6s. It's all been with the T-45s as of late. However, the navy T-6s are much newer, so we'll see how they'll do once they become a decade old.

Your functional is either mis-informed or telling you the wrong thing on purpose. We still have AF guys coming to KNSE and it's still a good deal, as long as you don't mind flying twice a day and only checking email twice a week. Got a couple bros outbound this cycle and last fall and new guys coming in to replace them as I type this. And, guys are going to all squadrons again. Shortly after I got here in 2011, they pulled all the AF guys to VT-3. It simplified the admin for sure. But now, they've started spreading the love to the other two squadrons again. (Did a double take the other day when I saw an AF captain in VT2 colors.) Really, the only down side I can think of about the assignment is that the base is really small and if you need actual AF support, you'll have to go elsewhere. I had to drive to Eglin (about an hour and a half away) to get some dental work done that was more than a cleaning. Also, the closest HARM is on main-side Pensacola and it's a pain to update your flight hours every month. They have to hand-jam your flights line by line (the navy still uses logbooks...like an actual book where someone writes in it with pen) and I had several months where the enter key must have gotten stuck and ended up with months of duplicate flights which was, as you can guess, a pain in the ass to fix. All in all, if you want to have some high profile wing job that's going to strat you well on your OPR to have a good PRF, this assignment is probably not for you. If you want a job where they give you an airplane every day and leadership trusts your judgment and leaves you alone to get the X, you need to get your ass down to FL.

The Navy training command guys have been fenced off from non-vol deployments for the past couple years. Hopefully it stays that way.

Worst case scenario, you can do an E-11 tour.

I’ll need a better hint than that.

T-6 OBOGS concentration schedule

Just saw someone posted an email screenshot on Facebook about a program that will take ten applicants and start them out in T1s (ie bypass phase 2).

In the Navy, as an O-3 you'd more than likely do what's called a disassociated sea tour. It's where you're job is to deploy with an aircraft carrier to be a shooter or some other position that requires a pilot to fill but isn't flying. Also, about half the student pilots track helos. If you want to fly rotary-wing, you'll have a higher chance of doing it in the Navy vs the AF.

See, it really is a secret.

One can always do an exchange to KNSE. The Navy has its own version of BS, but that doesn't stop it from being the best kept secret in the AF.

It really wouldn't work with my backyard/landscaping setup, and since I'm home every day, I don't mind adding "skimming the pool" to my few daily chores. Leaves aren't really an issue unless it storms anyway. I'm more concerned about what my neighbors think if they drive by and happen to see me sitting around the pool with a beer, margarita, or martini before noon.

I've never owned an aquarium, so I can only presume that the water evaporates leaving the salt behind. But in a swimming pool, rain water will dilute the salinity ...and after I drain the pool back down to the proper level, the salt is very often a few hundred PPM lower (I like keeping it around 3700-ish PPM). And storms always bring with them diluted chlorine levels and a higher leaf and twig count that's always fun to fish out. ETA: We're talking a heavy rain here...6-8 inches or so. If it's only an inch or two of rain, it won't make a dent.

In the 17-18 days a month that I do have off, I'm usually thinking of things other than flying. I'm contemplating random things like maintaining the NaCl level in my pool after it rains. Or, how I'm going to buff out the 6" gash in the door of my wife's brand new Porsche after my son crashed into it with his bike when I took his training wheels off. Or what speakers I'm going to use in the movie room of my house when I upgrade from my 5.1 Dolby surround to 9.1.2 Atmos.

Ha. Yeah, small world for sure. The controller at Pensacola Approach was awesome. He cleared everyone out of the way, gave me the winds and told me "good luck". LOL. Winds were out of the east at 10 KTS. Last I saw when I was touching down was 46 mph on the airspeed indicator and the stall horn was going off. There was a C130 overhead that was able to relay to approach that we got down safely. Would have loved to have seen a video of it, even though it was fairly uneventful. I even went back to ATC Live to see if I could listen to the tapes (and make sure I didn't sound like a bitch on the radio), but with all the frequencies for Pensacola, it didn't catch it.

I had to land a 172 on the beach once. Pretty loud bang and oil everywhere. (It turns out the engine doesn't run very when connecting rod bolts shear.) All I could really do is fly it to the scene of the accident. It was low tide and the sand was pretty compact. I just got it as slow as I could and held the front wheel off as long as I could. The FAA investigator complimented me on my landing. I told her I've had worse. Luckily, it was a cold day in FL and the beach was empty or I would have had to put it in the water. I'm sure that would have ended up on youtube too.

I've been at Whiting since 2011 and I've never seen one of these mythical SERGRADS. Can't speak to advanced, but they don't have them in the T6B/primary. Conversly, every graduating AF pilot training class has approx 3 FAIPS (give or take).

After graduating primary, which is flown in the T6B, you can drop T45s, T-44s, or TH57s. It really depends on the numbers needed at the time, but historically I'd guess about close to half the selectors get helos. As to how many P3s, P8s, E6Bs, E2/C2s there are coming down the pipeline after you graduate from advanced, that's anyone's guess.

Shit Sonnnn, I sleep in my own bed every night and haven't missed a holiday or birthday yet.

You obviously didn't do your white jet tour at KNSE...best kept secret in the AF.

Yeah, we've had a few guys quit. I get it though. I basically have to be on orders for three days for the same amount of money I can make in one morning out and back at FedEx.