HercDude

More on the Lt Col Blair Kaiser saga: https://www.jqpublic-blog.com/raging-white-jettisoning-lt-col-blair-kaiser-air-forces-ethics-problem/ The AF managed a one page response and cited unproven allegations to a Congressional inquiry.

Wish I had know this 3 months ago. They stuck 35 of us at RAF Alconbury - took over an hour for the bus to get there. This was after we had called ahead and made "on-base" reservations.

I chose NOT to call crew rest when I legally could, because I was comfortable to fly, it was a brief interruption, it was a short flight, there was another aircraft commander on board, I felt pressured to accomplish the mission on time, and I believed my chain of command knew before I took off that my rest was interrupted (they denied that I had explained that adequately over the phone, which I found plausible but not all that likely). Sidebar: Biggest lesson learned there was that when you are handed a AF Form 1168 and read your Miranda Rights, don't think you'll just be a bro and play it cool with your commander. I thought he'd help me out and be on my side. Turns out he threw me under the bus. Decline to comment and go see the ADC.

Seems like there is less and less of that every day in my corner of the AF. I could have legally & legitimately called it at least a dozen times while deployed or on an operational mission. I never have. But then there was one time I didn't. When I got home I was given a Commander directed Q3, LOA, and de-certed as an Aircraft Commander. I had what you call a paradigm shift.

^ Worth the read, as are the comments. Commander's get fired, that's reality. But the OG and Wing shuffling the old boss out the door with a gag order, never acknowledging why it happened, or how it could have been prevented, is a shame. That the man was later cleared of any wrongdoing, yet his career remains railroaded while those who leveled false accusations and those who fired him without cause remain unscathed, is much, much worse.

https://www.facebook.com/rowdy.anderson.505 Go check out this guys FB page before he takes it all down. He was called out on a JQP post today. He claims to have worked "underwaterdimalishion" for the USN, was a member of SEAL Team Four, received a Purple heart in 1995 for wounds received in Afghanistan, and was awarded the Afghanistan Campaign Medal in 1996. DERP! DERP!

That is the stupidest list I have ever seen.

Given that she has a net worth north of $200,000,000 it's worth asking . . . . . . would you?

Because the other guy didn't look like Steve Urkel?

No, I never took the mil-comp commercial. I went from a PPL (SE-land) to an ATP (ME-Land). I quoted what I did because what Smokin says, and nunya validates as "correct" is actually false. IAW CFR 61.153, one who meets the military requirements in CFR 61.73 does not "have to already have a commercial license in order to do the practical ATP exam", nor do they "just need to go take the commercial test." I'm trying to make it clear to anyone who reads through this thread that a military pilot that satisfies the requirements of CFR 61.73 does not need to get a commercial rating or take the mil-comp commercial test in order to take the ATP written or practical.

No. This is not true. Again, the only rating I had prior to taking the ATP written was a PPL. 2 months later I took the practical. I currently have an ATP, and I never had a commercial certificate.

I took the written several months ago and the only rating I had was a PPL. So to answer your original questions, no - you don't need any ratings in order to take the ATP written or practical. I might be wrong on this but the content of the practical may be different if you don't have any other ratings (e.g. - you'll have to fly a Vmca demo). Your second paragraph confused the hell out of me, but if you plan on getting an ATP, I'm not seeing any reason at all to get a commercial before hand. Assuming, of course, you meet the hours requirements for an ATP.

Luckily, Mary Schiavo is on CNN to offer her expert advice..

Not sure, but I think this guy is running it:

Apparently there is only one guy/gal who can proctor it, and they are booked up through the end of the month. But we had a guy manage to take it with about 2 days notice, so if you are there and need to take it, you should call the BPC ed center right now.

What is there to get on with? I hope there isn't still anyone on AD flying legacy Hercs under the impression they have a future in this aircraft. Do your job as best you can until your Commander tells you to stop flying the planes, and do everything you can to get the hell out of this community as quick as possible. You certainly shouldn't be waiting on Congress.

I had to take a crew of 35 (aircrew & Mx) to the AOR a couple months ago. My Sq leadership was scarred of having (another) alcohol incident on the road, so they instituted a new definition of the bottle-to-throttle rule: No consuming alcohol within 12 hours of ALERT. And they applied this to everyone on the trip, Mx included. Fast forward through a 10 hour trip to St John's......Rolling back down to the hotel lobby 6.9 minutes after checking in, what do you think greeted me at the bar? 30 dudes pounding beer & whiskey like it was their job, on empty stomachs, staring at their watches, getting pissed as a fart. Same situation I think. People don't realize that arbitrarily changing the rules doesn't actually address the problem.

Or hers.......

Don't forget that the English have a different idea of what constitutes a garage. My house had a 1-car garage that, when my car was inside, left only enough clearance to open the doors on one side. You either had to let your passenger out before you pulled in, or both had to get out the same door. I was driving a Rover which was essentially a British spec Accord. Personally, if I went back I would not even consider bringing any vehicles.

It seems that for the longest time Stan/Eval would brief the students that every item on the gradesheet started with an E, and unless the IP saw a reason to downgrade it from an E, that particular item would be recorded as such (this was the case when I was a Tweet student back in the stone age, and still the case when I returned as an IP in 2008). Around 2010 (at Columbus anyway) it was pointed out that this method of grading isn't described in the syllabus or 36-2205, and that a checkride should be graded exactly the same as any other ride (How many rieds before your midphase were firewall Es with 3 total downgrades?). So a ride that in one class would probably be recorded as a 3E, the next class might be recorded as a 9E, or a 9G. After they made that change the midphase and final contact scores dropped a lot, with a 12-14G being about average I think. It was still common to see only 3-4 downgrades on an instrument check though, and ocassionally on a form. And it is true that the MASS only records the number of downgrades, not the overall score. A 3U is worth more in the MASS than a 4E. An overall U/F/G/E on any given sortie only matters for tracking CAP triggers and stroking/destroying student egos. But it is also true that certain MIF items are valued more than others. The formula for MASS is actually published in 2205 v4, but it gives more weight to things like SA, Decision Making, and GK vs. individual maneuvers. So if your 3 downgrades were for normal pattern, loop, and lazy-8, that's a better score (in the MASS) than 3 downgrades for landing, GK, and EPs.

That's for the guys deploying to the Gulf, which is both -H and -J right now (AD and ARC), but I don't think the ARC is going back to Afghanistan. No clue what kind of hours the guys deploying to AFG are flying right now, but last I heard is that it will be AD crews only going there until we leave next year.

This is not the case anymore. As ridiculously overmanned as the Hercs are in theater, 100-120 hours in 4 months is more likely. Both places that currently host ARC -130 units are not doing much flying. I don't think the ARC will have anyone based in Afghanistan before we leave there "permanently", so unless things change drastically in the Gulf, you'll spend the vast majority of your deployment shelf checking and pool creeping.