hindsight2020

Exactly, and that's the part that bothers me the most about this whole thing. Ever since the OG/MX split, friction with MX has become SOP, and it's completely out of hand. The antagonism and adversarial relationships on a day to day TOP3-MOC interactions are beyond the pale. So are these deferral and tail-shuffling games. I don't know the dynamic on the Viper side, but my experience has been similar in all 3 duty stations I've been involved in. Yeah yeah, we're all innocent in Shawshank. Spare me. 3x deferring the control module for a hot seat is so unconscionable it's criminal in my moral code, in light of a fatality. Unreal. I don't even know why I go through the kabuki of reading the forms these days, everything is TCTO deferred. It's f*ckin- meaningless at this point.

Ruh roh. Not a flattering look for the ACES seat. No way even the most experienced driver is going to have the presence of mind and the in-the-blind dexterity to pull the manual override in a ground level ejection attempt, at night no less. Manual seat sep from a ground pull is just not a realistic expectation under any circumstances. Surprised this hasn't got more public scrutiny in the community. The TUL ANG ejection cited even allocuted to the fact that dude had the benefit of daylight and a looong freefall to gather his thoughts and remind himself of the manual seat-sep option. This kid (he was a student of mine at DLF) didn't get that chance. The most contentious and soul-searching weeks of my AF career by far, were the weeks immediately following the 38 crash in our AD associate squadron, due to the NAF level leadership's unwillingness to speak immediately as to the SIB-relevant facts pertaining to the condition of the seats following the fatality. That soured a lot of people, and created a climate of open dissent, and led to a couple of firings. Ugly stuff all around, even for DLF (which was just coming out of Mollygate and the T-6 MX firings, and is a football bat of a place on a good day). Then there was that big boo boo in Midland with the Bone, and the eventual inspection revealing NONE of the seats would have fired. I could go on. These are fundamentally confidence-eroding trends, and big blue better get their @ss around it or it's gonna lead to chaos. The pointy jet/non-deadstickable business doesn't have the off roading option like I used to joke about during my T-6 IP days. On this side of the street you need confidence in your seat or things get insubordinate real quick. As to the decision not to controlled eject, I'm not gonna second guess the element lead and SOF. That's a tough one though. Even by the AIB's own stipulation, the kid would have still faced the hardship of having to have the presence of mind to manually seat-sep a faulty seat during a controlled bailout attempt... At night, not knowing he had a bad seat. Eff those odds. I don't know the Viper's landable gear combos, but in the 38 one main up one main down is a no-go. Difficult to ascertain the weight bearing capacity of a damaged MLG on this accident, especially given the indications of brace damage as described by the chase ship. The kid did the best he could given the information presented at the time. That seat betrayed him period dot. That pull was textbook in the envelope, should have led to a canopy. I'm at a loss.

We have F-16 ADAIR part time? Reserve T-38 ADAIR is closing shop in Florida, so there's that issue. As to ART vs AGR, that's MDS-irrelevant, and a discussion onto itself.

no ejection attempt?

I hadn't read that account from Pedro 16 perspective. Thanks for the link. That really confirms what I suspected about a rather cryptic online history on MJ's account of events. Sounds like typical embellishment and mischaracterization of direct action account, not unlike the behavior that McSally's critics frequently pointed to. It's real unfortunate, especially for the rest of the female demographic just going about their jobs without the ulterior motive of gender-weaponizing in civilian/political life. Nothing new under the sun I guess.

Neither was McBlinky in the A-10. Didn't stop her from running for office. Considering the political bent of this forum, I think the question is moot and banal. I'm more interested in hearing some anecdotes regarding the claims of her service. Was her telling of the story of the events during that LZ exchange legit (to include her rather incisive accusation of cowardice onto the AC of Pedro 16), or is this another female making it difficult for others to gain and retain credibility in the military due to embellishment and foot-shifting about the predictably perennial sexual harassment tit-for-tat or gender-bent pandering that seems be at the root of many 'ascendant' female officers in political life?

Well, you could submit a CMS case with the FY20 AvB application, presumably with current AGR orders to 20AD now on hand, on Mypers and find out. No crystal ball and all that, but the AGR bonus is not likely to go away entirely in FY21. It certainly stands to lower in offering, we will have to see. As to 140K, current AGR bonuses are only offered in 3 year increments, so that number doesn't add up in current offering. A 4th year would require a renewal contract. Though you mentioned career status, so you've probably been a bonus recipient previously and all these contracts would be renewals anyways. As of the last two FY, the Reserve AvB didn't have a penalty for renewal contracts. It's probably not a stretch to see it go back to that though. I'm a non-airline career AGR btw, not that an AD guy couldn't have given ya the same piece of information, as the programs parallel themselves pretty close (sans the lump sump options in AD). AGR Bonus was never an inflection point in my decision to not pursue airline employment for a career, but that's a my monkey my circus thing. Good luck to ya.

wish in one hand... Perpetual War is not the bug silly wabbit, it's the feature. Besides, those tax-free apportionments, sTrEeT cReD discounts on Grunt Style apparel, and turkey-shoot BOGO AMs aren't gonna issue themselves you see... But since we're on the Xmas wish list this early, hell tack on EUCOM to that list afaic. 😄

Oh lookie, it's children of the magenta "5th gen" style. "tHaT's jUsT tHe aDmIn bRuH". The irony of the intersectionality between 5th gen'er commentary and the PTN/UPTX.X shills does not escape me. Oh well, Uncle hindsight's gotta get back to "standing in the way of progress" and tend to my Luddite affairs now. Horse got loose from the ol' buggy in the final turn again....*shouts in the distance* "runway-airspeed-bank Stan, there ya go, watch your sink Stan...."

Shack. I don't understand why people struggle so much to understand that at face value on here.

Take the T-DART, it's a layup. Back when I was in your shoes, the Lost Decade was in full swing and there was no TDART. It was a grind to trough as an O-2.

Enlisted flyers is a red herring in this context. The real goal is to crank up production quotas via training dilution (airline training for heavies, reforge potato sophistry for fighters that depends on t-7 vaporware not anywhere near on time to fielding). Yes they'll deny the real goal, but thats what the doublespeak boils down to. Commissioning or lack thereof is immaterial to the timeline. That pesky task of actual pilot training is. Enlisted accessions is immaterial. As to the economic paradigm, this has been hashed out ad nauseam. Warrants and enlisted would have a bigger incentive to punch at ATP competitive mins vis a vis commissioned payscales. In fairness, the USAF doesn't care about retention, they only say they do. They are also satisfied with the current level of hull loss, and it looks like they might be cool with a little more, before they'd be willing to cry uncle and shelf this entire effetry currently making the rounds. As to the enlisted grad,, recognize the experiment for what it was, buckle down and get the g-damn bachelor's and move on with your life. The hard part is already in the bag for him, now he just has to do the attention span requiring part. The lack of need for a degree to learn how to fly an airplane has always been stipulated, but warrants and enlisted flyers aren't gonna come back in earnest so no point in tilting at that windmill. You hear the same shit from airline guys and the perennial kvetching over the de facto requirement for a degree to compete at the six figure right seat jobs in part 121. No shortage of qualified candidates willing to sling gear in the right seat of a major, considering the absolute surplus of underpaid pilots in the industry. Military won't have any problem continuing to field a degree requirement for fixed wing turbine assets going forward.

It is real. The end game for heavies is airline style training, as far as the Kwast-bred PTN illuminati is concerned. There's even sub-pipelines in the works to get hypothetical regional (and equivalent experience et al) civilian re-treads and just send them to FTU after an assessment of "credit" for civilian training. The paradigm is being baked to dispense with heavy sortie counts in the aircraft, which is SOP in airline training. That means T-1 sims only in the most likely formulation, though they'd love to jam the FTUs with T-6 direct. That's their Motrin you see; every problem in the USAF can be solved by Oculus and "t-6 dIrEcT". They got a fever, and the only Rx...is more T-6. *cowbell clanging* As to the question about quality, the quiet part has already been spoken out loud. It's even in the title FFS. This is about throughput and quantity, not quality. As to retention? oh children, enough already....They don't care about retention. And our new CSAF already took a jab at critics in that propaganda piece. So don't forget, any objective criticism of these opportunity costs just lands you in Luddite "you're part of the problem, old guy" re-education camp. Now it's on public record, so there should be no question what the marching orders are from the top. This will be the new reality. And be careful, the commissars are everywhere, "mentoring" has already occurred in some instances, if I may be euphemistic. From the article [my emphasis]: So they don't need your skepticism, now get back on the parade line and look enthusiastic for dear Leader, you're not singing convincingly enough. 😄 Stay safe out there everyone. LINK: Air Force Magazine, Aug 23 2020

apparently airliner vis recce content on the intwerwebz is a thing. Hats off to you a-word flyers. I admit it looks the same to me.

The drive times are a little longer now, but in the ballpark. I don't wish deathway 90 on anyone, I did lose squadronmates to that road during my tenure. I went the other way, and got an airplane (owned two of them during my tenure, since had to trade up when the kid came along and 160hp wasn't gonna cut it anymore). My family wouldn't have happened if it weren't for the spam cans. Places like DLF are perfect for that kind of mission. Some of the more memorable trips of that chapter of our lives were in the ol' spam cans. It truly became a pressure relief valve, and travel to my wife's family back in the KTIK area was a breeze vice driving. My avatar pic is of the second plane right there at the ramp at Pico circa 2013, which I still own. Regarding airline service, it went in cycles, due to the non-profitable nature of the city pair. Colgan had the contract with UA during the first half of my tenure there. Then the city lost service. As the pay and travel guy at my sq, I dealt with that fallout a lot. They regained service back a year or so before I finally got my parole from the place. AA feeder carrier. And now lost again as noted above. Doesn't surprise me in this environment. The one thing we legitimately miss? No traffic. But that's more of a pre-retirement lifestyle complaint. One of the appeals of airline de facto part time work, is the flexibility to live where you want. I think we're gonna try for smaller towns within driving distance to healthcare and urban conveniences when I get done with uncle sugar, since the wife is younger than me by a good clip and expects to remain in the workforce well after my second retirement. GA flying in retirement is a must (I didn't undergo all this indentured service to end up playing canasta in my off time), and since the finances don't quite justify airpark living, proximity to an airport with hangars will continue to be a driver. Good bad or indifferent, exurban living is more compatible with airplane ownership than metro core living, due to storage shortages and price pressures making it relatively unaffordable. We're not quite willing to retire to a place like DLF over it, but I'm, sure we'll find a middle ground location when we get to that bridge.

*spits out drink* 20!? Try 50, plus a heck of a lot less solos, night and cat checks, between my generation's year groups (TAMI/no-fighter lost decade days) and the FY18 benchmark that was used on the last email chain we exchanged on the topic in Jan 2019.

don't play coy, do tell us. 😄

*yawn* this whole discussion is a same ol same ol. Two neoliberal corporatist cartels squabbling over labels and cultural issues that don't put food on the table, yai. "Normie" Americans get what they vote for. Now back to lurking this thread for another 4 years, y'all have fun with the kabuki show.

Deal breaker? Of course not. Devoid of opportunity costs? Not a chance. PM me for the full context, not interested in debating this history lesson in the echo chamber.

Yeah right. Might as well stuff Al-Awlaki's kin in a Piper Saratoga and call 'em the Kennedys. Bad luck everywhere you go. That's some RPA whitewashing straight outta ACSC courseware. 😄

Yeah, and AUS, and CRP believe it or not. But there were a couple who would do it daily. The other cohort was part-week geo-bash, and those put a lot of miles on their cars. Basically split the week on Wednesday, so they were home every 72 hours. The only true commuter I know who did it consistently every day lived in Uvalde.

We had a good amount of geo-bachelors at DLF.

wut? Stay in your lane bruh. As a T-38 stall sortie IP, I can tell you it's the cornerstone of what we do, and there's valid reasons for that. If you want to advocate these are not handling characteristics that lend themselves for big airplane pilots to recover their wagons, by all means. But that perspective is clueless in the tac trainer realm. Horses for courses. If it makes you feel better, we're going into a T-6 direct to FTU simulators. So the herbies should have a pretty blank slate to work with here coming real soon with "UPT 2.5". The -217 is not gone. It's embedded in the 202, as @ThreeHoler alluded to.

...and yet the USAF still contends retention isn't affected by basing choices or lack thereof. *Laughs in AF 1288*