hindsight2020

The T-100 economics are on par with the Citationjet, when viewed in the aggregate. We could even beat those economies of scale by going to Yakovlev (the M-346 is but a Yak-130 permutation), but no way the US awards a T-X contract to a peer adversary. Why are we talking about the Scorpion anyways? They're out. I have a better chance of winning bronze in female gymnastics than the T-X program is to down-write the RFP for the hardware. This is coming down to T-50 and Boeing T-X, with Leonardo DRS (Raytheon stood them up at the prom) as the Cinderella underdog with the T-100 stand-alone pitch. As long as Boeing doesn't win I'm happy. Because Fvck Boeing that's why. Their poorly coded MFD tries to kill me every week, and their tech support literally looks like they hired some laid off cable guys yokels from San Antonio to go give me the runaround while their field office contractors back in KSKF probably make more surfing the web than I do spinning the revolver chamber one more time down here...and I digress.

No love for the Slowtation here. I'm a T-50 guy all the way, but I'm warming up to the idea a T-100 would get the job done for less devil's money.Boeing's T-X is a concept car boondoggle compared to the former two, which is why I'm not really impressed by their chances.

Noted, but JPATS/JSF demonstrated the multiple-platform position has been largely bypassed by Big Blue going forward. The bottom line is that the T-X requirements are set, both the T50 and the T100 are already in production, with the T-100 having a cost advantage at below $20M based on the M-346 (not far from the Super-Citation, which doesn't even meet the T-X specs in the variant they had before they dropped out). ScorpionJet's T-X version is vaporware at this point. Cessna openly gave up the effort to tweak the motors and make the aerodynamic mods required to make the superCitation anywhere near a contender (mainly, cut the hell outta that glider ISR wingspan). I understand your call for austerity based on your apparent regard for the "small-fry" "low-performance" mission set of phase III, but your darling IFF is neither on the path to institutional expansion in present fiscal circumstances, nor getting a dedicated jet that phase III doesn't get to play with. The outcome will be a one aircraft solution, just like it exists currently. The IFF old guard just needs to get with the program. I believe they will. To your point regarding costs, I think the T-100 is the best choice going forward, though I would love to finish my career in a baby Viper on a purely PFA basis. You and I both know that the T-X, just like JSF, KC-X and JPATS before it, will blow the top off their stated budget. But that has nothing to do with the merits of the hardware, so we're crying over spilt milk on that one. I just want the IOC streamlined before more 38s inflight hull losses due to both the experience and mx fronts.

Word. So here's another story for ya. So there I was as an attached flyer, watching the flt/cc give the cats the formal release spiel. Some shit went down in San Antone I wasn't privy to the weekend prior, and they got straight up Shawshank'd into "flight room CAP". Nobody goes anywhere without an alibi, and pack a lunch. So fast forward to the next day right around 1100ish and I'm about to brief my kid when I see the flt/cc go over to a couple of studs motioning and arguing with Prince S. on the center table: flt/cc: "Where you think you're going man?" Pr. S: "Uh, Silver Wings zzir" flt/cc: "No you're not, what did I tell all of you yesterday about bringing in lunch with ya?" Pr. S: "Oh yes zzir, but zzir, you see...I don't have a wife, so I don't have anybody to make me lunch...." The collective room: I had to bury my face to contain my laughing outburst. I'll never forget the pregnant pause from the flt/cc. Truly didn't see it coming. It was truly a #thuglife moment, and the sincerity and nonchalance with which he said that was Epic... and the day I realized this goddamn place had jumped the shark. Fast forward more years than I care to remember or admit to, and I feel like the Houston WTF reporter. 50% of my daily grind is spent on this ME nonsense, but somehow we're all tapped out of 38 domestic production up in here though, but DTS ain't gonna unfornicate itself either. And now this mickey mouse business about zero-to-hero? Holy Mary and Joseph on a donkey. Like the man said:

Raytheon pulled out (sts) of the race as partner with *Leonardo for the T-100, which is the platform variant you're referring to. But Leonardo DRS (the US-based front shell company of the *former) is still bidding it on its own, so don't discount them yet. A production aircraft too, with training systems delivery in-house, so they meet the AF requirements for the program in earnest. LockMart is a monster though, that's your Goliath. And then you got Boeing, the whiny baby in any competition per usual, where the appeals/litigation is most likely to come from and stall progress at the expense of our National readiness. So by my napkin math it's gonna be more -38 cowbell for all my brothers for the time being. But hey, I'm just a guy trying to come home to the frau and kid after an honest day's effort in the rickety rocket. Doing the bidding for the goddamn House of Saud whilst they tell us we're somehow at max domestic production capacity in the same sentence, and my peers are out flying safe automated whales on the outside paying twice as much. So what the fvck do I know. Nothing new under the sun though, I'm just saying it would be nice to fly something a little less rode hard and put away wet sometime before my retirement for all my troubles. Wish in one hand and shit on the other type of thing....

I hear ya, but I think there's two issues at hand, one I agree with you and one I'm not so sure about. I guess I should ask you, what should the TX embodiment look like if you were king? Other than being part of the near-kleptocratic bidding and contracting process of our rent-seeking-contractor-beholden civilian government, I don't see anything obscene or "unreasonable" about a T-50 to replace the clapped out 38. It's not like the JPATS wasn't a blunder, and let's not get into the F-35. All "success" stories as far as the pocket lining they were intended to create. I'm not condoning it, I'm just saying I live in the world of what things are, though I'd love to live in the world of what things should be. At any rate, it's [T-50] largely commercially available already, which means your complaint about timelines would not otherwise exist if the procurement process wasn't broken to begin with. That's not KAI's fault, though certainly Lockheed is complicit. Now, just because it isn't a weaponized mission set doesn't mean we have to eat another underpowered handicapped airplane for a trainer just so the CAF doesn't get penis envy, if that's what you were getting at with the "nouveau-F16" reference. F404 power is not some sort of FWA just because it's UPT. Less of that ethnocentrism would do the organization a bunch of good imo. This week is probably not the best week for me to pipe up about the T-38 replacement all things considered, but it's overdue. That I agree with you wholeheartedly. If the political climate is such that these tragedies actually accelerate the implementation, so be it. I very much look forward to a F404 punching class of airplane in SUPT, and I don't think the world will end if they have to go back to a two-airplane UPT in order to pay for it.

Considering our week down here, the sheer irony of this statement does not escape me. --break break-- I can't speak for the relative merits of the T-1 program, but as it pertains to the 38, yeah whoever suggests all we do in phase III is play patty cake for flight hours can go EABOD, FTUs included. Col Jessup's infamous retort on A Few Good Men seem a fitting response to this garbage.

It's not that simple. First of all, many units are running overages on the part-time side, precisely because they know there will be attrition as people chase airlines and finalize domiciles long term. The second-tier immediate effect that has is that a full-timer who curtails (AGR) or quits his part-A (ART) might not have a musical chair to go to on the part-time side of the UMD. That's just not gonna fly when many of these full-time people are going to be future leadership, as invested staples of the unit as full timers tend to historically be. In reality, the "overage" game is played every day and we rarely if ever kick people out over it, but it is a threat to those who transition between status if the hiring on the part-time side gets mismanaged. Secondly, and this certainly may chap outsider applicants, but it used to be you couldn't get a direct-hire full time position. Certainly the case during the Lost Decade. Part of the reason is obvious logistics of supply and demand at that time of no a-word hiring, but the part that you won't be privy to as an applicant is precisely what @Duck already hinted at. Certain full-time applicants, especially those seeking full time work directly, can be the goobers/rotten apples with preceding AD reputation that nobody wants to hire, and/or who aren't willing to be part-time for very telling reasons (to the unit and their peers). They can also be the chasing-AD retirement types who feel regAF owes them and they're on a mission, and their naked ambition comes at the expense of the TRs they're supposed to be serving. or they could be a location-anchor (ART) townie that would be toxic additions to the unit ( again, me-centric full-timers are the kiss of death to a unit imo). Just because you're willing to take a job doesn't mean you're the right candidate, and these seemingly "soft" distinctions actually matter a ton. Few have the level of introspection to be able to look in the mirror and admit they fall in the aforementioned categories. Now all that said, your observation is correct. Certain units (pointy end in particular) can be insufferably "ethno-centric" when it comes to the occupational backgrounds of their desired applicants, even in times of buyer's market hiring environment such as today. I do believe some of that old Guard sophomoric bias will become self-correcting as a matter of necessity, and God willing. Hang in there, the weather changes every 6 months in this rickety organization called the USAF.

I would consider it as a post retirement thing if it wasn't for the requirement to do 20 physical LE years in order to retain the 1.7% multiplier. That's a big sting right there, the fact that they don't honor it outright is a non-starter for me. One of the more critical reasons they had to wave the white flag in the AFRC side and start retrofitting back to AGRs after the unholy mess of a whipsaw we endured with the "ART conversion" fiasco of 2010-2015, was OPM's unwillingness to address that ghastly FERS 1% multiplier (don't get me started on the post 2014 4.4% annual fee for new hires). It was simply non-competitive compared to straight GS LEO civil servants like CBP, let alone the direct competitor, the AGR peer demographic (yours truly). Even the ART -2181 SSR table can't compete @ 1% multiplier, versus the straight GS lower salary @ 1.7% multiplier. Of course, in reality the biggest thing that caused lack of traction in the AFRC situation was the inability of people to mil-drop/USERRA the airline gig into an ART. But that's title-V for ya, nothing can be done about that. I looked at it for a nanosecond as a potential gig to get me home to PR post-military, but the tax situation as a federal employee in PR is a complete disaster. For those who don't know, that's 33% above 61K, with no deductions, no exemptions and no discounted tables for married vs single. In other words, PR residency incurs an income tax liability greater than almost all (federal+state) tax situations in the CONUS. It's not as bad up until 61K, but every dollar above that it goes off the charts quick. I did the math on my current income, assuming all taxable for argument sake (since normally mil has a lot of unreported gross via BAH), and I came up with 241% personal income tax of what I pay as a Texas resident (federal + 0 state). And then I read OPM pays PR at the "rest of US" locality rate. Fog that. I can't afford that kind of sunshine tax, so I'll have to figure out other ways of managing the aging parents angle going forward. For the little time I would have left until age 57 (11 years in my case post AD retire), neither the airline nor civil service (@ 1% FERS and joke 4.4% vesting fee) would be an earth-shattering solution. My point is that a 1.7% multiplier would sweeten the pot vice the airline, since NB FO pay and a B-fund wouldn't be as robust for such short duration employment. Alas, OPM doesn't look like they're willing to deal, if my interactions with that office regarding the ART fiasco in the ARC is any indication. Just a n=1 data point to consider from someone who would be in the target demographic but sidesteps as a result of all the aforementioned. Maybe they can look at these issues and find more interested candidates, if willing to address it. Good luck to all. Lord knows I don't know what I want to do when I "grow up". lol

I was under the impression that not all airlines run their sim jobs by plucking from their active line pilot list, plenty subcontracting and non-line-pilot employees abound in these jobs. Which is another way of saying: not all airline sim jobs are paid as well as those done by seniority list pilots (aka United). I know United sim jobs are done by listed pilots, but I thought DL/AA/SW didn't? I know FDX sim guys are are not line pilots nor paid anywhere near what their pilots do. The schedules are homesteading for sure, but plenty of 2am box times abound these days, so schedules are not exactly cake. At any rate, not disagreeing, but not all airline sim jobs are as lucrative as the United guys for instance. I suppose for those in the know, would you mind listing which airlines use their line pilots and which doesn't? Because the pay gap is significant between these jobs, at times as much a difference as the gap between what FFD and mainline pilots get paid. And to be pedantic, if you gotta get hired as a pilot to apply for a sim job, technically you did go to the airlines, so it doesn't exactly go with the spirit of the thread, I digress.

yup, if you can stomach the location. Big non-starter for many of these gigs. Same deal with the federal flying positions currently available out there. Location is a big sticking point for most. if not a limfac then I would agree, certainly an option that meets the hours and homesteading criteria of the OP.

Not generally available as a full time position, day rates are not that competitive (compared to some of the nicer part91/91k equipment), and not a true homesteading gig either. But sure, it is an option post-retirement just as any of the ones offered on this thread already. The thing for me is that, AD retirement is not enough take home to really rely on "gig" work in order to make it to the finish line of retirement income replacement of 75% of an O-5 take home in peak earning years. You need another supra-six-figure career destination with retirement vehicles to match, in order to truly replace that purchasing power. Mil retirement is truly a lot smaller than is marketed.

I've owned an airplane or another since 2009 (gone through 3 so far). The boredom of flying the Buff was actually what precipitated my decision to join the ranks of aircraft ownership. It would have happened anyways, but Lord knows that assignment really pushed me to biting the bullet. It has been a great lifestyle for my family, and I feel grateful I get to share my passion with a family that enjoys the travel benefits of said hobby. It's not cheap, but because it is a lifestyle and not merely another random hobby, we make it a priority over say ostentatious housing, like many who bemoan their inability to afford it whilst living in their suburban 4/10th of a million dollar gold-plated prisons. Life's a choice. As to professional flying, my interest was always very narrow in scope. I became interested in pro flying only in order to fly tac airplanes. Though I didn't get to fly the fighter I wanted, I managed to find a substitute I could enjoy (tac trainers). I'm very happy with it. Crew/heavy flying was never a motivator of mine when choosing to become a pilot. Had tac mil flying not been accessible to me, I would have exit stage and kept my flying strictly recreational. I sincerely enjoy recreational piston flying over heavy turbine flying, which is why airline flying is very low in my radar scope, hiring wave be damned. BL, professional flying has NOT been a detractor from being able to engage in and enjoy recreational piston flying for me. If anything, it has made it cheaper, as I keep much of my currencies from the day job along with the medical currency, which keeps my wallet free to pursue the kind of recreational flying expenditures I want to enjoy with the family. I fully see myself and my wife incorporating the recreational flying lifestyle into our empty nest and retirement chapters in a couple decades; hopefully airpark living long term. To be clear, I would do this regardless of whether I had become a pro pilot or not. Flying for a living is incidental to my passion for flying, not the other way around. To each their own.

The default is the old system. It requires action on your part to enroll in the new system. I'm in the hybrid group where the option is offered, I of course will be defaulting to remain in the old system. They can shove thier 401k and 1% b fund up their ass. If I wanted to gamble with a defined contribution retirement, there's plenty of airlines hiring at 15% b-fund for a lot less social engineering and ucmj anachronism to endure. I digress. Fuck, there goes my New year's resolution to keep calm about military employment. That's not true, I blew my top off at work two weeks into January, but I'm trying guys. Lol.

Regional life better than Guard/Res? Well damn.. I've been remiss. Thanks for that gouge brother, lemme go ahead an curtail my career AGR post haste! ...Motherf----er please.

I work with the guy in question. Well maybe. The dude I work with was a DL newhire, but high time fighter/trainer guy, no prior airline. As such, didn't have the 121 hours to hold 88A in NYC, even though his seniority could hold it. No biggie, he's dropping 3 year recall to AD in order to get his O-5 TIG. AFRC wouldn't give him a way into an O-5 flying billet, due to Blue falcons sitting on the pot too long and timing older people like him out. He said nah, not going down like that, so back to regAF he goes for 3 years to collect. ROTC, pretty sweet gig. So, O-5 retirement check and back to DL with added seniority/pay. People have options these days. Def a buyer's market for those who are getting calls.

I remember when I was going to PIT (the second time...ugh) while this jointness thing was going on, and the Randolph dependas were all up in arms because the consolidation of the San Antonio area MPF functions into RAFB got things a bit, too "colorful" for their tastes. In their defense, my craptastic sack-o-shit AFRC host functionals shoved my second class AGR citizen ass to the AD section to get some mickey mouse BAH re-certification bvllshit form. When I went in there there was a no-shit retired ARMY vet screaming at some AF E-3 at the top of his lungs while she checked her screen (probably on AF messenger talking to her O-3 sugar daddy). SFS had to get called in. It was "ARMY strong" in there for sure. Don't shoot the messenger LOL.

Sounds like the former. Aging aircraft develop issues, we may be reaching that threshold with the 45 OBOGS. Also, mx practices play a factor as well. I'm not privy to the Navy mx cadre at Meridian/Kingsville, but lemme tell you, the boo boo that happened at DLF a couple years back with the T-6 ejection seat mx had the make-work crowd scrambling to their civil service safe spaces. I suppose it's slightly easier to recruit maintainers when you're that close to Corpus, can't speak to Meridian. This isn't oil work, the pay delta incentive for the hardship of low QOL is not that great. The Dod legitimately struggles to keep highly qualified mx at many training bases, and gamble with our lives as operators. It's not personal to the DOD, but it certainly is a personal affront to my family. Life ain't fair and all that jazz. And they wonder why people are bailing. Add another penny to that cripple children jar...

Nah, don't feel that way. If the Guard/Reserve didn't give you a conduit to get wings before you got too old, then no harm no foul in taking the devil's path. You gotta do what you gotta do. You'll have to do your time in AD, but you're getting in in a time of unprecedented upt fighter slots, compared to 10 years ago, if that is your thing. When I went through it was coal in everybody's socks. That said, recognize that in time you'll grow to experience many of the dynamics people are leaving for. As long as you're open minded about the idea that priorities change with life, you won't be caught surprised by any of this.

Nah, my money he's a shoe. Doesn't take a pilot to get the pilot lingo. Look at scoobs for fvck's sake, impersonating a Guard/Res pilot since what, 2004?

You said it yourself already, the problem with "AGR$ for all my brothers" is that it turns the place into Active Duty proper AND absolutely places scarlet letter on airline-aspiring Reservists that haven't been hired already. The airlines do notice the uptick in long tour mil drop and throttle their hiring of said demographic accordingly. Delta has been known to have already behaved in such a way last year. Hell, it's getting to the point there are people on the other board asking about the feasibility of using the god-damned sabbatical program to try and snag a mainline number, come back to regAF for like 7 years (since there would be an ADSC in excess of 5 years associated with that program), get an AD retirement, and have it all employment protected. I don't think it's gonna work, but if it does then watch out, that first asshole is gonna ruin it for everybody else behind him. It does beg the question, if the airline job is so great, why the fvck do people long tour MLOA the shit out of it all the time? Don't answer that, I'm being rhetorical; just a little pot stirring for the a-word crowd that like to speak out of both sides of their mouth on said topic. :) All to do about nothing of course. There's no shortage of AGRs in desirable locations. It's a tight little club too, they got their inheritance line to those jobs out 2-3 iterations out, so that's 12 years worth of tom dick and harrys gerrymandering the honey pot. Most of the leftover revolving flying openings require living in DOD-standard, make-work, pork barrel economy shitholes, at the expense of your family's QOL. So in the aggregate it's not as effective of a solution as chronically-fatigued/burnout regAF folks naturally feel it would be, especially for the majority that wishes to stop living in Minot/Altus/Cannon/Laughlin/et al and raise their kids somewhere dignified. Something the AF could try, that AFRC would jump on in a NY second, is to make the ART job (title V), a title X mil equivalent for USERRA purposes. ART crisis averted overnight. People would take that paycut in a heartbeat, since what they're really doing is hiding from their shitty schedules/commutes as junior guys. Further antagonizes their civilian coworkers at the airline for sure, but the game is chess. But since it's not legally possible to take MLOA for a civilian job, which the ART is considered to be, then the openings remain unfilled and ARPC is forced to consider AGRs. Problem is that AFRC simply does not have the political capital to ask for such a thing. AFRC is ART centric for money reasons, you can't just flip the manning system wide to be majority AGR. That will never happen, wish in one hand shit on the other type of thing..

He's basically insinuating that as the paycut for dropping an airline trip for a string of days at the ARC unit gets bigger and bigger (sts), you'll quickly lose the motivation to travel and be gone from your own bed for a paycut. Your family may also put additional pressure on that sentiment. The reality is that it all depends. Just looking at the world from a payrate POV is a post-Lost-Decade perspective. Myopic imo, but to each their own. Essentially, there are non-economic reasons and/or "soft benefits" reasons for which people continue to serve in the ARC and may continue to selectively take a paycut. Scheduling is a big one. Everybody swears schedules are sweet in the land of airline movement, but the reality is that I have plenty of co-workers at the airlines in year 2-3 who still cannot hold their desired domicile, so they're commuting to the airline anyways. For most in my unit, that means a double job commute, since nobody lives in our remote as fvck commuter unit (our "wing" will never publicly recognize us as such of course; I don't think our NAF could point us on a map if their lives depended on it, those well to do Atlanta-dwelling suburbanite fvcks... and I digress). So people use the ARC membership to manage trip quality control, especially when facing non-commutable pairings. Others stick around for the healthcare. Then there's those who still are having fun with the type of flying (tactical jets, aerobatics) and the airline thing bores them. Many non-economic elements that keep people involved. So it's a bit simpleton to suggest people summarily quit and leave a 20 year ARC retirement (with probably 10-15 years of AD points no less) on the table because they take a paycut in year 3.

FCIF about 18 months ago reminding folks that at least at the UPT level, EFBs are a no-go. I don't know about the A models in companion trainer programs and ADAIR folks.

Yeah but in here, I can get you cigarettes. On the outside, I'm some washed up G-suit wearing has been. :D Life is simpler in Shawshank, never mind we men may find ourselves a bit, 'institutionalized'..