ClearedHot

For a little comic relief I thought I would provide a review of the IMAX Fighter Pilot Operation Red Flag film now showing at the new Air and Space Museum. My family all flew into DC last week for a medal presentation so I ran them out to the museum. My nephew wanted to see the flick so we all paad our $8.00. First let me say there are some great flying scenes, but within the first twenty seconds I started to chuckle. They show an F-15C doing and unrestricted climb out of Nellis, but the cool factor stops when he rolls over on top and checks in with "Miami Center". There is some great footage of low-levels out on the range but they mix mission and pictures from the F-15C and F-15E. Watching this film you would think every aircraft in the USAF has 10,000 gallons of Napalm to drop. You would also think all we do is fly around and drop flares every two seconds. The only part of the film that really bothered me was when the digitized a few F-15's down low for dramatic effect. The real views were enough for me to wish I was back flying. All in all a decent flick, but don't expect a realistic experience of flying at Red Flag.

AFIT is now another form of in-residence IDE. It is a 10 month program vice 18 and you will get a masters degree. I have several friends who went last year and they commented that it was a LOT of work. In addition to the academics for your major, you will also be required to complete distance modules for ACSC. I did ACSC in residence and would recommend that program over AFIT based on quality of life. After IDE there are a limited number of slots (approximately 30), to attend the advanced studies group (ASG), in courses like SAASS, SAW, SAMS, and NOPC. I am doing SAW right now and I will get a third masters degree from the program. There are proposals for O-4 level fellowships and opportunities to spend one year at a civilian institution while working on a masters degree, but the manning issues are becoming a big reality. As an O-5 you may have an opportunity to spend a year at Stanford, Harvard, or one of several other NDU fellowships. If you have any other questions, PM me and I will give you whatever info I have.

1/25/2005 - COLUMBUS AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. (AFPN) -- Air Force officials here are investigating alleged academic cheating here, they said Jan. 25. The investigation involved 20 officers accused of cheating. Seven have been cleared of all allegations, and 13, including an instructor pilot and 12 student pilots, remain under investigation. Officials said that under current procedures, an investigating officer is appointed to research the facts of the case. Based on the facts and legal advice, appropriate action is taken. The actions could range from no action, removal from pilot training, nonjudicial punishment, administrative discharge process or court-martial.

Fun...maybe. Help your USAF career...not really.

I was sitting in the RSU at Laughlin when one of the Portuguese pilots in the class behind us called initial for runway 31…we were on runway 13! What followed can best be visualized by watching the Thunderbirds perform the bomb-burst. There were T-38’s everywhere. Of course when he landed his english skills suddenly got a lot worse…

That was so disturbing; I had to watch it twice. Before this video was posted, I truly thought Gunship crews were the most disturbed aviators out there, I now understand that is simply not true. Cheers to the Viper dudes…I think.

If you want to be a smarta$$, try another site. You are the one who said a search on the internet was fruitless, when you didn't even try. All to often people are too lazy to try a search on their own. When you get to Laughlin, go to the BX, they have (or at least use to have), a large selection of desktop models painted in XL colors.

It took me 3.5 seconds to type "Texan II model" into google and get the following link. Texan II Desktop Model

While I was at Laughlin a buddy we had a nice IFE with a T-38 and low fuel. We were flying out in the area when a CB popped up right over the field. The SOF is screaming for everyone to get home as fast as possible. I made it back just in just as the feces was starting to hit the oscillator. My buddy, who was right behind me gets a 70 knots wind sheer on final and goes around. It’s obvious he is not going to land at Laughlin so he decides to head for Kelly. Back in the day there was a procedure for diverting with low fuel (I presume it is still the same)? First you set MIL power and accelerated to 500 kts, then you looked at a chart in the checklist for the distance you had to go. The chart would then tell you what altitude to climb to. So my buddy points east and does the procedure. As I am taxiing back in I hear the SOF ask him “How much gas do you have”, followed by “mumble mumble”. A few seconds later the DO gets on the radio and says “How much gas do you have…tell the truth”. He is halfway to Kelly and his answer is “250lbs”. Without wasting a breath the DO tells him to go to Hondo. For those that don’t know, Hondo is the 4000’ field where they used to conduct the flight screening program and about 4000’ too short for a T-38. In the end my buddy flys an approach at minimum speed (I forget the formula, SETO +10?), and lands safely at Hondo. I think he flamed out on the taxiway. In the end they sent a stan-eval crew from Randolph to take the jet back to Laughlin with half a tank of gas. As very interesting day in the T-38 world.

3800+ hours on the Cross pen set my folks gave me when I finished UPT.

IFE in UPT, expect the IP to take it. IP in the real world, it depends. In most crew aircraft you will fly proficiency-training sorties with an IP and there will be multiple crew positions and experience levels on board. For example I flew sorties where I had two co-pilots and an aircraft commander who needed to fly precision approaches to close out their semi-annuals. I also had an AC onboard who was doing an IP prep ride. The regulations do give some guidance, at least within AFSOC. As I recall it says that during an IFE a “Qualified” pilot should land from the left seat (due mainly to nose wheel steering). When I had a problem it always depended on the nature of the emergency, the experience level of the individual, and who was in the left seat.

I have a Navihawk and love it. Although I also wore a G-shock on the other arm during OEF so I could see the time at night. The only bad thing about the citizen flying watches is that they don't have a backlight.

To my knowledge he was chief of MX at Moody during the first gulf war. If he did go forward, it does not reflect in his awards, not even an Air Medal according to his bio.

Yeah lets have a four star without any combat time for CSAF...

DOC

Compiling your comments onto a 3X5 card, last chance.

If you had the chance in a non-attribution environment, what inputs would you give if you had five minutes with CSAF, General Jumper? [ 22. November 2004, 15:31: Message edited by: Clearedhot ]

Mr Lim's out the back gate at Osan does a decent job.

Some things never change, I would gladly change all this school crap to be a line IP again, I really miss flying.

Toro, You have not flown a fat pig until you take a 165,000 gunship to the tanker to topoff before pressing across the line. I flew one mission during OEF where the temp at 10,000' was 70 degrees. I nearly bent the throttles trying to get the gas, let a lone sustain a 9 G turn.

It has been nearly two years but on my last mission in Afghanistan I had a small fire on the plane. We did the IFE song and dance followed by an emergency ground egress. When I jumped off the ramp I felt something tear in my knee. It was sore for a while but seemed to improve with time, but never completely healed. Last year at ACSC I was doing a lot of running and it started to get worse again. Now it is to the point where it hurts to go up stairs. Sometimes it is fine, but if I move laterally, I get some fairly severe pain. I completely stopped running in May in an attempt to give it a chance to heal, it hasn't. I finally broke down last month and got a referral to see an orthopedic doc up at Bethesda. He looked at my knee and had them take 5-6 X-rays only to tell me I don't have a torn ACL or MCL (the flight doc thinks I have a torn meniscus). Bottom line, the doc acted like I don’t have a problem, perhaps some early arthritis, but nothing more. He gave me some Naproxen ordered some physical therapy to strengthen the upper muscles on the upper part of my knee and sent me on my way. I have a fairly high tolerance for pain, but this is really starting to cramp my style. Wouldn’t an MRI give a better idea of what is going on? I could really use some words from one (or more) of the docs on here to point me in the right direction.

I don't know that AFSOC will ever go to the combat edge.

I will give a shameless plug for Big Brothers. I do it because it is right, and I don't put it on my OPR. Great program, you can make a difference.

W prefix denotes that you are a graduate of the USAF Weapons School. After graduation new patch wearers are supposed to go to approved W-code billets to complete their payback requirements. W code billets are also supposed to be scrubbed and approved by AFPC. Just another tool for the man to keep me down...

Custom fit or not you may fly long missions where it will kill the bridge of your nose. During the heavy periods of OEF we flew 12 hour missions and everyone was walking around looking like Rudolph the red nose reindeer. During one stretch I flew 80 combat hours in 7 days and it hurt to touch my nose. A quick funny war story about wearing the mask. I launched off alert to cover a SOF team that had been ambushed. I was dead center over the Hinu Kush mountain range. I had been fighting a cold and my ears were bothering me so I decided to clear them. I reached up to pinch the mask and my thumb punched through and poked a big hole in the front of my mask. It was comical, I knew I could descend because the terrain was well over 15,000', but I was going to get hypoxic if I didn't do something. I reached into my helmet bag and pulled out my roll over survival duct tape. Well it sounded like a good idea, but the tape would not form a seal on the mask, in fact, it would barely stick to the mask at all, and I thought duct tape stuck to everything. For the next 20 minutes I held the tape and a piece of plastic in place as I tried to figure out what to do. Luckily, our life support folks had thought to stick a spare mask in the back, it was two sizes too small, but I pulled it as tight as I could and managed to shoot 50 rounds of 105MM and 100 rounds of 40MM in support of the ground team. Strange things always happen in combat but at least I can look back and chuckle about it now. [ 16. November 2004, 22:29: Message edited by: Clearedhot ]