hindsight2020

Airline X? You presume too much. Robin Olds would have failed the Hogan.😆

At the end of the day, the only people who need to believe you in post af life is your wife, your mother, and your airline hiring board. The rest is ballwash. Lol

Good for the goose good for the gander indeed.

As to the first paragraph, that has been happening for years now. USERRA is a joke wrt hiring in the real world. Caveat emptor. As to the second paragraph, I haven't heard of it. If true, eh, fvck 'em.

valid. Not the right forum for this discussion.

Indeed. One of the things I'm most glad of is that my first exposure to aviation was civilian flying. UPT almost cured me from wanting to fly professionally for a living. I absolutely cherish my private aircraft ownership and also work hard to keep it as far away from anything work-related as possible. I enjoy the craft I'm allowed to draw a paycheck from the AF for, but at the end of the day it's tiring work. It would absolutely cure me from flying if I had to approach my own recreational/travel flying the same way. fwiw, I would say the same thing about airline flying. Just not my idea of a good time while flying. To each their own.

I was briefly involved in the attempt to galvanize support for the re opening of the flying club two duty stations ago, and the bottom line is that it comes down to money over risk. WG/CC don't want the hassle and the club would be a burden on the general funding if not supported by the IFT graft money. Good bad or indifferent, it was a straight up cash cow for the instructors involved, but once thatmoney dried up, the other facilities wanted nothing to do with upkeeping the airplanes, which is why you saw them die en masee when the money was gone. The ladies at the CDC outvote you compared to the couple cats that want to have access to general aviation. It;s not just the military, as a private aircraft owner myself and involved in GA for longer I've been in the military, I can attest to the fact GA is a hard sell to the pedestrians on the civilian side of the street. Costs of certified anything make it a troubling proposition. Also, since most people want automotive quality accomodations for automotive prices, the proposition of spam cans become a non starter quick, since it only offers automotive comfort at million dollar housing prices.

LOL The fvcking irony of that statement....

There was a flag officer in attendance but it is my understanding he was the parent of a different student, not of the female targeted.

FTFY (correction in underline, opinion in bold). Not everybody in attendance was fond of his "management style", and that's as euphemistic as I can put it without causing his fans to insta mouth-foam. Fwiw, I'm also of the opinion the DO firing was circumstantial by virtue of subordinancy; the WG firing was certainly a political necessity, again neither causal imo. I digress. At the end of the day, part of being in the hot seat is taking the political fallout. And it is a political game make no mistake; nobody can claim ignorance to that reality at the O-4+ level. Everybody knows the name of the game when they get on that track. I was witness to the BAD/MIB bent spear flush; this thing is nothing new. AETC is in a tough position. The question of IP accessions quality control will continue to be debated at the 19th level, and the MWS communities will continue to claim ignorance to the cherry picking. It truly is a food fight at the inter-MAJCOM level, nothing really endemic to the UPT squadron itself. Though as we see on display, it definitively ends up always coming to a head.

False dichotomy. Both positions are correct at the same time. Not everybody borrows because they can't afford it. And most of America's behavior towards borrowing is motivated by the sheer inability to afford their lifestyle on the real wages they get paid in this craptastic McWage american labor landscape. An economy where the govt brags about everybody being employed (U3) but nobody gets paid shit (U6 by proxy). Neither the government nor the "mouth breathers" ever want to talk about that dichotomy though. So the street borrows for everything instead, inflating the price of everything. Those of us who don't subscribe to that life outlook get dragged into inelastic choices, and divorces ensue when hypergamy is not acquiesced to (ask me how I know). I have it on good authority most Americans recognize they're screwed in non-working life (I refuse to call it retirement, that concept is dead for post-millenials). The act of mortgaging their future labor value is thenceforth not only a sunk cost, but the rational choice when staring at the indignity of American life the very month the W-2 stops. Telling 250 million working age people to stop sucking at math and "become landlords" or "daytraders" is not incorrect on the technical merits, but it is tone deaf af. Equally tone deaf to mock/scorn W-2 life in general by suggesting it's [accurately] an insolvent way to become financially free, then not addressing the arithmetic impossibility of everybody being everybody's "landlord"/surgeon/WB FO/potato. Again, the canyon of living in the world of what things should be v. the world of what things are. But as always, "Better lucky than good", "better you than me", "timing and luck", "there is no justice"// pick your platitude...Nothing to see here. To each their own indeed wrt to borrowing.

Re-tracking these experiment guys is not all that cumbersome. We've recycled legacy students through an entire UPT cycle in the past, so this is really not a big deal in the volume we're speaking. Now, you go scale the production of PTN up to UPT classes, and any systemic recycling completely kills the economy sought after in the first place. What is true, is that the yearly production numbers originally targeted by AETC for the 2020 and beyond time frame, will not and are not being met under the current paradigm period dot. Everybody is circling around the answer but nobody wants to say it. The only way they're gonna legitimately meet the production quota is by re-opening another UPT base. There's no political capital to make that happen, so we'll continue failing. They're trying to crank up production on a cost neutral basis, and they'll fail. Show me the money.

Over on APC the RUMINT is you're getting a C206 or a UAV, since that's what permeates the souther border locales that are taking new hires. No PC-12 or King airs in new hire location. Apparently them footing the bill for heavy rotorwing might also be a bit of a pipedream. So if you aren't willing to go to PR, you're gonna get offered a UAV more likely. The CBP route doesn't sound like a good place if you're looking for turbine FW time. That job sounds more compatible for someone who simply wants a fed job in these depressed economic communities for family/related reasons. Regionals or part 135 might offer better conduits to FW time if that's what you're after. Otherwise stay in ground pound law enforcement, get a retirement, then go play regional airline pilot in your 40s and 50s. Good luck!

Didn't it take Homestead's AD wing a year to get back from McDill? Is it possible the AF might permanently pivot Tyndall's mission footprint as a result of this damage? Or is the damage not rise to the level of Homestead's outcome? I also recognize the latter was already facing threat from BRAC back in '93 (whereas TY doesn't have such a threat), so the comparison may not be apples to apples.

management changes I hear? LOL

Thank god for ejection seats.

The retirement gouge is wrong. If you're a guy with a commissioning date before 06 You re a legacy guy, you don't get forced into BRS. that initial entry into military date doesn't change with a break in service. The only guys affected are those who had the choice to opt in, did so, then left the military. With a break in service you don't get a do over on the opt in if you decide to come back. You re auto enrolled. If you never did enroll, you don't get auto enrolled even as a post 06 guy. Only initial entry guys of 18 and beyond are.

I'm a career AGR and there's no fucking way I'd take an ART job, even though I'm not an airline bound guy. Put simply, the 2.5% multiplier of an Active duty year is worth a hell of a lot more than the bullshit 1% FERS multiplier. Another thing people are missing, the FERS retirement for new hires since oh 2014, requires a yearly vesting fee of 4.4%!!! compared to goose egg for the military retirement. The FEHB offering is also expensive compared to Tricare. ART Pay is also 100% taxable vice AGR. It's just not anywhere near parity. The ART job nickle and dimes your paycheck to death, for a lower multiplier retirement. The value of buying back AD time is diluted when you consider you gotta wait until 50-whatever to collect the Reserve one to give you parity with the AD one, and you still have to do 5 physical years, you just can't buy back and call it time served. Nevermind you're doing so to shift down from 2.5% to 1% per creditable year. Maybe if they extended ARTs the fedral LEO multiplier you'd have a deal. Alas, nothing. If I knock out an active duty retirement in my late 40s (in my case) you'd have to make up that entire disbursement over 15 years, compared to me going and doing something else with my life and getting a monthly retainer check for waking up in the morning. And that's the problem with the ART calculus: It assumes you'd have no other option than doing the exact same shit you're doing right now, which just isn't the case for most dudes. Even if you know you're gonna hold on to this job until they kick you out at 57-60, you'd still be better off doing 20 AD in the AGR program and then mulling over if you want to continue as an ART for 5 years or whatever you need to tide you over. But that only works if you hussle all the way to fully vested retirement. If you stop short of that as an ART (the whole "it's only 5 years" vesting premise), you would have been better off getting an AD retirement, collecting a check immediately, and done something else with your life.... ..and the reason is that put simply: I don't need half a mil at 80, I need that money today so I can have a life while I'm young and active. Check of the month club in my 40s and 50s allows me the flexibility to reinvent myself without concern for the initial paycut. That's gonna be a different and personal answer for everybody. If you know for a fact there's nothing else you'd rather do between now and 60, go ART and have a nut. I don't have that kind of certainty in my life, certainly not anymore. For me it's all about that Time value of money homey, and I'm not just talking about compounding. Youth has a $$$ equivalent to me. Lower but earlier disbursement is more valuable to me than later/higher. I can guarantee myself today, tomorrow is not owed to me. That math is really not complicated. It matters not though. In AFRC the manning picture tells the tale. The ART program was 55% manned last time I gave a crap and looked at it. That was immediately followed by the retrofit ART-to-AGR restoration, which is why ARPC has been sucking hind teet on the personnel management/order cutting front for the last 3 FYs. Proof is in the pudding, the rank and file overwhelmingly favors the AGR. Even with it, manning on the full time side is not anywhere near 100%. So Occam's Razor. I digress.

Most dudes want to make O-5 in these positions, and O-5 AGRs are slim pickings. O-4 no problem; I dunno why people act all indignant about it considering the retirement delta is ballwash, but I digress. Staff? Sure, that's precisely what the AF is short on. Absolutely open road on that one. Nobody does that shit for 8 years though. Again, not gonna help the 12 year guy. Most AFRC opportunities on that end are in DC, and that's a paycut due to the cost of living. So it's not all without opportunity costs. The folks that are close to the ring in my organization are opting for the regular smattering of CENTCOM bullshit-standard deployments, in order to get to the check o the month. These are of course airline types who are otherwise tapped out on USERRA and need the USERRA exempt tours to get them there. Regular AGRs, or title 10 MPA beyond 30 days (except school tours) are not USERRA exempt and thus not really available to these types, unless the airline approves the personal leave of absence. Generally speaking, if you're getting out at 12 you have a decision to make. Career AGR or go airlines. But you generally can't reach it from 12 by piece-mealing it. 1st world problems for sure, compared to 2004.

T-50 or T-X, all the same MIC-laden potato, same engine even. I'm just glad they got it on the board. . I'll still be in by IOC so def look forward to flying it. We need to retire the 38 right yesterday

Jesus Christ....

Except I didn't make the argument for unlimited training, that's a straw man you made (logical fallacy #1). Also, you're advocating under a false dichotomy (logical fallacy #2). Fielding VR potato and increasing hours is not mutually exclusive , especially under my argument that the reason we're faced with jousting for monetary position in the first place is the gargantuan contractor graft that has ballooned our defense budget to morally abhorrent levels. Have you instructed under the current VR products/paradigm? I have. This is work that belongs in an actual test squadron. This has zero place in operational training squadrons. We're about to surge in the next month in order to fix the timeline blunder created out of what was an amateur and hasty implementation of immature tech/process for the sake of appeasing a couple generals. BOHICA October. Here comes a hell of a lot of flying time and legacy syllabus to fix the VR blunder. The irony. Again, I'm not making a Luddite argument, just refuting the claim less seat time is a sunk cost in this discussion. It is not.

maybe if our defense budget priorities were not lined with so much defense contract graft, perhaps giving our pilots hella more seat time wouldn't be such blasphemy. We create most of the problems we're accosted about solving....

The po po is out now. CDI folks making the rounds as of today.....

Maybe. But a dismissal is a felony equivalent in civilian employment circles. So even for regionals it's probably a stretch; the regionals have plenty of low time applicants with clean criminal records. This cat is marked. Nobody in the civilian world gets confinement for consensual sex. So it's not an even playing field, when it comes to UCMJ adjudications versus the civilian criminal law landscape. I am of the opinion his sentence was an overreach. And to keep it in the BUFF family: Kelly Flynn (ugh, beer word) got a straight up pass for doing the same fucking thing in 1997, while arguing sexist bias towards her as an affirmative defense for her bored fucketry in Minot, and the lack of hands or work ethic as a short-stint Buff co-pilot (IOW, the golden key defense, STANDARD). Walked away from a court martial outright, and into a layup general discharge, which allowed her into ASA and the eventual UPS job she's been riding on since 2005, her name legally changed of course. Nevermind the fact she got zero confinement for her equal disregard for the almighty UCMJ. The civilians at the time absolutely sided with her in her quest to decry the anachronisms of the "patriarchal military justice system". But this cat does the same thing 20 years later, even making a similar UCI argument on appeal no less, and this is all of a sudden blasphemy? I can't stand that hypocrisy. Look, I don't personally know this cat, but what they did to him punishment wise is bullshit. Hell, give him confinement as the price for pulling that insubordinate sexual stunt (beats a barrel roll in a Q400 I suppose). But the dismissal (dishonorable equivalent for officer) was flagrant. Different spanks for different genitals. Equality my ass. The SQ/CC in question was a straight up POS, and ruined the careers of other young men who actually didn't do anything but be falsely accused by the spouses of bitter SNAPs who didn't get their dream assignment. Not a good track record for DLF on this front.