Hueypilot

Despite the fact that our host AMC unit has declared that the blues Monday policy was rescinded and therefore don't wear your blues next Monday, the AETC wing here fired off an email around COB Friday stating the rescinded policy "has not been confirmed by AETC" and therefore all AETC folks should report to work in their blues. Luckily, I'm AFRC and I'm flying Monday anyways, but still sucks for them and another example that makes me scratch my head. I don't get why the AETC O-6 couldn't call the AMC O-6 right after they (AMC) issued the guidance to wear ABU/flight suits on Monday and get it "confirmed"...I mean, I may only be a mere Major, but that's what I would have done....instead, it's "well, no one called us, so the policy is still in effect". UFB. And if I read the email right, the lack of confirmation was coming from Randolph itself...so...could the MAJCOM commander somehow still be in the blind on this? A full week after it was rescinded? And after nearly every other MAJCOM has officially rescinded or changed their policies?

My great grandfather flew for the Army Air Service during WWI. He never made it to Europe though...the war ended and he was discharged as a 2LT. He never flew again although he took his knowledge of cameras (he was in an observation unit) and started a photo studio. My paternal grandfather was the son of a Navy sailor. When WWII started, he and my great uncle Rusty went to enlist in the Navy. Grandpa was told he was going in the Army instead. He went to airborne school and eventually jumped into Normandy. After the war he got out, got a degree and promptly rejoined as an officer, spending 2.5 years in Korea as an infantry platoon leader (and getting a BSM for Valor the old fashioned way). That experience drove him to get into Army aviation and he flew mostly fixed-wing to start and later helos...mostly flew the U-1, U-6, O-1, CH-23, CH-37, UH-1, UH-19 and UH-34. His favorite was the U-1 and flew those in Vietnam on his first tour...second tour he flew UH-1s. Dad followed in his footsteps and went Army via ROTC and flew UH-1s, OH-58s and spent most of his career flying the AH-1. He also briefly flew C-12s and U-8s. I flew for the Army for almost 4 years, flying UH-1s. Transferred to the USAF and have flown C-21s and C-130s.

You're missing the point. No I don't want to work at the grab-n-go...my morale was fine then and it's fine now. My point is, I heard plenty of bitching about how aircrew has it easy, got more time off hiding behind crew rest rules, etc. A lot of the people doing the complaining were working (relatively) shorter shifts in (relatively) comfortable conditions. Additionally, many of them aren't aware of what aircrew deal with and are more willing to believe that most bag-wearers are truly the zipper suited sun god prima donnas they've heard about. I've heard it from a number of people since I've been in the AF...more than once I've overheard and even debated those that feel non-flyers bust their ass so we can loaf around and be cool and not do a damn thing but drive our jets through the atmosphere. The cooler story meant to convey the disconnect with some people in our service...it's probably a good thing that Mx troops didn't go in there much, considering they spent their 12 hours on the 120 degree ramp...

I'm not referring to how hard anyone works or suggesting aircrew as a whole work harder, etc. I'm talking about things that are different from our world and most of the office-worker crowd. For example, when I was deployed to A-Stan last, I was working flight safety. We had two FSOs (Flight Safety Officers) that are typically rated, but due to a recent rule change, my counterpart was an aerospace physiology dude. Good guy, hard worker...but when it was his turn to do the night shift he could barely function after 10pm...and when he had the opportunity to go on a Herk mission and observe, he got put on a mission that left around noon and they finally got back at O-dark something in the morning...his words to me went something like this: "I knew you all had crazy hours but sitting on that flight deck all day and night was just nuts...I'm wore out...how the hell do you do that day in and day out?" Having that experience helped him better understand why aircrew get frustrated with "closed for training" mentalities and "why don't you just come by during normal duty hours" responses when you are stuck flying nights for a few weeks on end. So it's not really how hard anyone works that I'm pointing too, it's just the cultural differences...that many office dwellers don't get why aircrew have such crazy schedules, etc.

I was at Salem in 2006...went to eat chow after a long day flying the C-130 up north and a NCO sat across from us and he told us he's glad he's at a base that has Herks to deliver supplies. Our FE asked him "you think those airplanes are here to supply Salem?" And he did a "uh, yeah...why. What are they here for?" He had a different perspective that day after realizing we existed to supply the bases in Iraq, and he was there to support the airplanes taking off north, not the other way around. I also remember getting food at the grab-n-go at the Deid one day while we stopped through. It was about 115-120F outside, and our flight suits were soaked through from sweat. That was in 2005 when 18 hour FDPs were the norm. We were all taken back when we walked into the place to fill up the cooler...inside this room (which was cold since two walk-in coolers were on either side) there were several airmen inputting what we took from the cooler and doing whatever queep they needed to do...and above them was a banner that said "Our Morale Suffers So Yours Doesn't". Hmmm...work 8-12 hours in a cooler typing inventory, or spend 18 hours flying in a loud E-model Herk in 115 degree heat...huh. Seems like they definitely were taking one for the team. And for our finance warrior, at Dyess aircrew deployed 120 on then 120 off for years on end. Most people left there with 4-5 four month deployments in a three year tour. They took a "break" from deploying so they could do career enhancement things like SOS or instructor pilot school...but again, they were still TDY and not at home. I was a common joke to claim Dyess was your TDY location and down range was your real home. I spent 12 years on active duty. Two years were spent on casual status and training, so really only 10 years were spent in the real AF. Despite spending 5 of those years as a schoolhouse instructor with AETC and a fairly cush job flying Learjets for 3 years (only one deployment that tour) I still managed to deploy for a total of 30 months. And that's deployments...add in more for various TDYs I've been on...and I'd argue that's LOW for most Herk pilots. I'd argue that most people here don't hate non-rated officers. They just can't stand the disconnect that exists between rated and non-rated. Such as over hearing non-rated people bitch that the aircrew at deployed base X only work every other day, not realizing that we work from show time to engine shut down 16-18 hours in a hot, loud airplane...by the time post flight paperwork is done, you've worked 20+ hours and your are wasted. Plus we were flying around the clock...show on Monday at 1600 for an 18 hour mission, then on Wednesday you show at 1800 for another 18 hour mission...Friday is a 2100 show for yet another 16-18 hour flight...get the picture? Then we hear the kids who work 0730-1600 in an air conditioned trailer/building bitch about how we have it easy... I have more examples...we all do...of this disconnect. I'll save the story about my SOS job brief assignment where several non-rated types critiqued me saying I was too technical, claiming that most people in the AF might not know about this "C-130" that I speak of...but as others have said, you can further this disconnect or you can be part of a solution and learn about the core missions of our service. And no, finance is not a core mission...

You seriously haven't flown anything under FL230? It's not that VFR flying is "manly", it just requires a different skill set of airmanship and judgement calls. There's more room to hang yourself while VFR WRT airspace and traffic separation. The hard part isn't making traffic calls on UNICOM, but having enough ability to work your high performance airplane into a traffic pattern with a bunch of bug smashers that don't think like you and definitely don't fly like your airframe does. Someone else (Toro?) asked who in the USAF ever flies VFR aside from helos...when I flew C-21s about 10 years ago, we did a lot of VFR stuff. It was common to get some BFE uncontrolled airfield as one of your destinations. One of the trends that got C-21 pilots in trouble was VFR flying, mostly resulting in getting violated (sts) flying into the wrong airspace. The basic rules are taught at UPT, but that's about it and for most of the USAF, they never see VFR flight again for a long time. Problem is, if you keep flying for a career, you're gonna see it again and I've seen plenty of USAF pilots that are pretty good at what they do IFR or flying canned VFR routes to/in SUA, but flail a little when they have to no kidding fly somewhere VFR, or depart VFR out of a mountainous airfield to pick up an IFR route, etc.

SIB members are supposed to tell you ahead of time if they are extending privilege. I've done about 6-7 Class A ISBs and that's always how it's handled. Th AFSEC has canned legal statements we read to the interviewee so they know their legal standing.

Buddy of mine overheard one of the IPs telling his student copilot he needed to work on his master's degree during the debrief...and I'm not kidding! The careerists are starting early. FWIW, the IP was the wing exec for a while... And here I thought at the FTU we're supposed to teach airplane stuff... I'll add my .02 cents to this discussion. Master's degrees and other stuff have their place in taking away from our proficiency, but it's possible to get those things done AND still be a decent pilot. I have PME complete and an AAD (worthless TUI one at that) and I've still managed to not land at the wrong airport. The problem in my opinion is we're drifting away from the basics of airmanship. My comments below might not fully explain the C-17 incident, and fatigue might have played a role in that as well...but it underscores some trends I've noticed since I first started flying for the military 16 years ago. At least in my community, I've noticed a heavy emphasis on tactics, but very little on basic airmanship and the things we all take for granted. And in my community (C-130s), airmanship, airland and flying approaches is our bread and butter. We spend 95% of our time training to do airdrop (for good reason), but pay very little time doing the thing we do most of the time in the real world...flying to unfamiliar airfields in all weather. In my mind, that's where we (as MAF pilots) are having a breakdown. We spend so much time doing flagpole (sts) missions at home station where everything is canned and familiar, and flying in the AOR, that when we're given what seems to be the simple task of flying to MCF, we park a jet at a GA airfield instead. As an instructor, I like taking students to unfamiliar airfields when I have the time and letting them knock out some approaches...and what I see is they tend to flail because it's outside their normal habit pattern/routine. For the C-130 world, part of this is due to the RFIQ syllabus that removed the proficiency flights (airland/instrument) from the flying syllabus and now all the pro work is done in the simulator. The sim is great, but it can't possibly recreate all the distractions that a normal "real" traffic/radar pattern has. I'll often fly up to some uncontrolled airfields and watch students freak out when a bugsmasher checks in on the CTAF and they are trying to do a circling approach while looking for the other airplane. When I flew C-21s, though, that situation was standard and we did it all the time. But the MWS airplanes tend to be used in a much more predictable environment (ie, home station, AOR). Don't get me wrong, the AOR can be very unpredictable, but in reality, we still fly to the same 6-9 airfields over there too and once you see them all, it becomes routine just as flying around home plate is. I'm no C-17 pilot, but that's just an observation from the Herk world. We can fly TFM and airdrop all day, but God help us if we have to fly a procedure turn NDB at an unfamiliar airfield...or find the right piece of pavement when there's more than one airport in the vicinity.