HuggyU2

Halleluiah!!! Reopen the A-10 production line!!! The phrase is "champing at the bit": I was corrected by a good friend on this very matter about 2 months ago. But whether it is "champing" or "chomping", I'd be doing both.

A little known commercial from last year, from IWC Swiss watches. And, yes, that's John Malkovich... His quote about why the guys aren't real pilots is classic. https://www.iwc.com/messepopup_2006/pilotmo..._mov_big-en.asp

Not a tough choice. I'll take the 1.5 solo in the airplane. Everytime.

Pretty good stuff, I also thought. I've been speaking with the President of FAST for about 18 months. I'll hopefully get the full story at Oshkosh, but it seems there was a push from many folks to get away from the T34 Manual, and do what the bulk of military pilots do. These organizations that sign on as signatories to FAST (there are about 15 of them) need more pilots with your kind of background, Hacker. Definitely look into it when your time allows. I hope more jet guys get involved: although there's a lot to learn about flying formation in these smaller, high performance prop planes, military-trained pilots can really be an asset to these organizations.

So, Bergman,... what did you end up doing? Probably just like me and decided to keep renting!? If still interested, try a Great Lakes. If you can get to Phoenix, Chander Air Service gives dual in theirs. https://www.aerobatics.com/aerobatics.html A bit pricey by comparison, but they have a good reputation.

Currently flying with a Garmin 296 and Pilot III, in both military and civilian applications. Love both. The 296 is nice, but having the 396/496/whatever it's called would be huge: on cross-countries, having that near-real-time WX picture would be money. I flew with one back in Oct, and it made a big difference WRT weather.

Hacker, That is no longer correct... but the change is very recent. They used to use the T-34 Association's Formation Manual (not the USN's, but it is heavily influence in that direction), but have since developed their own, as a result of many outside influences. Their formation manual is about 90% USAF, with a sprinkling of USN and civililan in there. I did a proof read of it, and found it to be pretty good. They literally copied word-for-word many of the things that are found in the USAF T-37/T-6/T-38 manuals. The new visual signal are due to be published any day now (or might have been, but I can't find them yet), and will mirror USAF much more than the T-34 manual did. Attached is an example of their Chapter 3. Ch3_M_9Apr1200.pdf

Volunteer for the Civil Air Patrol. It can be painful getting involved initially, but states like CA, TX and AZ have a very robust search-and-rescue mission. I flew a C-206 with them for a while: if you have your private pilot license, that can be a benefit.

What's "the OPS community" in your opinion? Does it include MX? Intel? The admin staff in your flying squadron? Just curious how you delineate. Retarded salutes? Your opinion is noted, but irrelevant. Either abide by customs-and-courtesies, as they are done throughout the US military, or admit you won't 'cause you "think it's gay". If American POW's can show the professional respect to their captors in a POW camp by saluting officers that outrank them, then I'll salute those that outrank me. How about saluting a Sergeant? Is that ok? I did that once when I met him outdoors and he was wearing the Medal of Honor. I know that many officers now refer to their 1-striper Airman as "dude", and "homey", and by their first name. I see it all the time. Change of culture, I suppose. And I guess part of that culture is to get a skin as thin as rice paper, and an "it's all about me" attitude. That's what this is all about, isn't it? "I don't want to salute [pick your category] because it's retarded/gay/dumb." "It's all about what I want." Oh,... the earlier comment about how they wouldn't salute a 1Lt, unless he had wings: YGBSM.

Guess not: while 2Lt's have probably saluted with indifference for years, it's certainly no tradition that I'm aware of. Maybe, in the Age of SNAPs, revisionist history took over, and all the things that these folks wanted to have changed were suddently "tradition". I swear, some of you make it sound like rendering a salute is just downright painful, or causes you to feel low self-esteem. I just don't get it. If the salute is appropriate, render it. I've seen a 4-star get saluted by a 3-star. And they are pretty good buds. So why is it that I shouldn't have saluted a 1Lt when I was a 2Lt? If it eats you up this much to have to salute a 1Lt, then go join IBM. No saluting required there. I know. I worked there.

Fair enough, Stifler. But, you know the situation: you're walking to lunch, and approaching an enlisted airman. You know he'll salute you, and he's waiting until the last second. Let's just get it over with, puulleeessse. I just don't want to walk up, cocked and ready, waiting to return his salute (which I'm obliged to do) when he's good-and-ready to deliver it. So, I just initiate the process and get it out of the way. I'm not worked up by it,... I just want to go to lunch, say high to a fellow airman, and push through the formalities. And my crew chiefs usually get a kick out of it when I salute them first. If you think that's gay, then don't go to lunch with me. And, assuming you're a Captain, why would it bother you if a 1Lt saluted you?

When I was a 2Lt, I saluted 1Lt's. Was it a big deal. No. It is a military courtesy, and simply a military greeting. Did it hurt me? No. When I was a 1Lt, if I didn't get saluted by a 2Lt, I didn't say anything. I really didn't care. Now days, when walking toward enlisted, it seems the new, young airmen are taught to salute within some super close proximity to me. Screw that: when I figure out they're enlisted, and I'm at the range when would say "hey", I give them a salute. It's usually good for a laugh.

BrewMaster, I'm not mad/upset with you. You asked a legit question after seeing what happened, and I think you're enlightened. I appreciate you being open minded to this subject. As you can see, many military pilots are pretty sensitive to this. I'm also a member of AOPA. I support them most times, but one area I don't is their constant fight to stop DoD from opening new Special Use Airspace. When the military tries to change a MOA to a restricted area, AOPA usually fights and wins. As a result, it remains a MOA, and you are legal to fly through it VFR. I don't know if you've got kids, but for the sake of my kids, I appreciate it when the G.A. aircraft avoid the MOA's: when I die, I'd like an open-casket funeral. If I encounter a -172 at 400 knots, that's not going to happen.

The FAA is looking at a major revamp of Part 61 of the FARs. They listed those changes via an NPRM, and the public comment period ended on 8 May. Of interest to us here is that they want to change the process for military instructor pilots to get their CFI certificate. In summary, it will simplify the process to basically a mil competency test, and a few other minor hoops to jump through. The FAA guy running this hopes to have it published by the end of the year. I spoke to the folks at NAFI, and they said their was a lot of support for this in the comment period, and that they expect it will go through. It's not a done deal, but looks very promising. I've stopped my CFI training for now, and will wait it out (and hopefully save a few thousand $$ in the process).

All Phantoms have a hook.

I know it doesn't answer your question, but the AFI governing pilot size says: - 77" height max - 34"-40" seating height - 27" butt-to-knee length max; This is from memory, but should be close. I would hope the AF would have picked the DA-20 knowing that folks this big would have to fit in it. But, maybe they didn't....

I'm still learing the nuances, too. However, most corporate should fall into Part 91. However, the high paying ones (or so it seems to me) are the ones with millionaires/billionairs that most of us haven't heard of, and that do a lot of travel. TAG Aviation deals with these folks, but since they negotiate with the customer, you'll not see the big pay. The one I know of is a guy with a lot of money. I also know a few other military guys that got furloughed, found a good job (corporate, mainly) and don't think they'll ever want to come back to the Majors. Of course, when things turn south financially for many small companies, the flight dept is one of the first things to go. I'm sort of "all over the map" on this discussion, but suffice to say that there are a lot of jobs flying Gulfstream/Falcon/Bombardier/etc... equipment. Some good, some bad, some great. I found one last year working for a billionaire: the pilot that left said terrific guy, well mannered kids, visited great locations, 5-star hotels and meals, etc... Down side: $80,000 and short call out. Up side: he has a hangar with some very cool stuff you get to fly if you want (including warbirds). I heard through the grapevine that it took a while to find a new pilot, and that the pay "went up much higher than $80K".

Granted, not many offer that to start. But I do know of one in my area paying that range. It's not a G-V, but a Falcon or Global Express (can't remember). West Palm has some cherry gigs too, if you've got the "in". Re C21Cowboy's comment: I'm talking Part 91. You'd be hard pressed to find any pay like that in the Part 135 world.

No,... but they do enjoy applying to a sweet Part 91 gig (after they separate or retire) that pays $180K+ to start, knowing that they've got a G-V type rating.

So, if you stay as a WSO, what aircraft are your choices (in a "perfect" world)? Also, what's a "non-tactical aircraft", in your eyes?

As someone who enjoys the rich lexicon of our flying world, I'm curious to know more about this. I'm not part of the fighter fraternity, and as such, I do not plan to use this particular toast, so don't worry about that. Can you post the poem here? Can one of you fighter-types elaborate further?

Neat! I've never seen how one of these ceremonies went, so I appreciate you sharing the photos.

Those rejoins are done at over 7G's. And it's a pretty fast onset. Whiz, if he's got some extra smash, say 475KIAS, could the Hornet pull into 8 G's? As for the G-suit discussion, everytime we go through TARF refresher, they point out the the G-suit will give you about 1G of extra protection. However, dehydration can quickly rob you of that extra G, and as it gets worse, rob you of 3+ G's. Most of my high-G fighter buds say the G-suit is really good at giving you endurance, e.g. it will help you to continually pull G's over the course of 2 sorties in a day. They also say that they continually drink water between sorties/engagements to keep their tolerance up. I'm afraid that no matter what the investigation comes up with, we'll see the "experts" scream that the Blues need G-suits. But the Blues pilots say that the constant inflating/deflating of the G-suit would complicate the finesse inputs required to do what they do. Also, remember that the Blues have a spring on their control stick that is pulling the nose down with lots of weight (40 lbs, if I remember right). That would be tough to hold for 40+ minutes. When you see the cockpit video shots, you'll often see their right hand come into view and they'll shake it out and give it a few seconds of rest time.

PIT IP's are made up of pilots from various MWS' out there. It's not like they put on the AETC patch and become "cock-ish". Some are better IP's than others. Some are better people than others. You can't control it anyways, so just wait and meet the IP's in your flight, and go from there. You'll have a great time, although you'll get tired be graded by the time it's over. Leave: if your sister is getting married, or you have a "life event", they'll work with you to get a Friday off. But if you want to burn a week of use-or-lose and go party in South Padre, it ain't happening. Get rid of your use-or-lose now.

Your military commander at IFS is a great guy. I've known him for years. Go talk to him and tell him you've got concerns.