brabus

Hmm, 180 from what I've heard: restricted auto-becomes "unrestricted" once you hit 1500 hrs. That said, sounds like we're both operating off of WOMs.

"Cliff notes," now that's a whole different story!

You read?

I'm with LJ. I hate the AF, but I love my job (the tactical part at least). It's alarming the amount of piss poor managers we have and all the bullshit big blue happily shovels on us. I can't wait for the day to be freed from all this, live where I want, etc. My family can't wait either. That said, I would never tell a dude to not go for it and crush his dreams about how shitty this place is and it's not even worth a second glance. The truth is most, if not all of us, have had the opportunity to do some awesome things; things that are unmatched by 98% of people in this world. It may be about that time for many of us to GTFO this burning shitpie of a ship, but that doesn't mean new guys yet to even open a Dash 1 can't have their own awesome experiences, despite the mega shitton of worthless assholes that run amok in this organization. They will most likely also be ready to put a shotgun in their mouth after 6-9 years and will be pumped for the chance to VSP out of the 2025 version of the AF, but that's fine. They'll have some great times, do some good shit and in the grand scheme of things probably have a way better decade than compared to working at IBM 9-5. The AF is a disaster and terribly mismanaged, but the flying is fun as hell and worth it, at least for a bit. When you try to tell me the flying sucks and was NEVER worth at least the 6-9 years you did it, really think about it; I bet you come up with at least some good times and at the very minimum, a solid aviation foundation from which to jump into the civilian world. And honestly tell us you seriously regret setting foot in a military aircraft and wished you'd never walked on a flightline and instead had been sitting at a desk all these years, punching yourself in the sack. I know what I'd rather do.

Take down the door and walls, eh? Someone please carve "Manchester" into the wall immediately.

That sucks, but it also sounds like you interacted with 3 douche bags and perhaps a couple more. I can point out the same number in just about every other walk of life/job. It's all relative. FWIW, I've flown with a lot of Navy dudes from multiple communities who are good people, pilots and officers.

The more I think about this, it would be completely legit to add a .5 to every sortie covering the "brake release to takeoff" and "land to shutdown" time we don't typically log in the AF to be inline with what every civilian pilot logs. However doing so would negate adding .3/sortie (for example) on an airline app. Do you think Airlines would raise an eyebrow if you told them you weren't adding .3 because you already logged your time IAW the FAA definitions? I imagine it would catch their eye that a mil dude chose to not make the correction factor, but I don't see any issues with doing this. Why not log a .5 now instead of relying on a .3 correction factor later?

Don't confuse "personal procurement" with using SATO. "PP" is using expedia, booking with the airline directly, etc. You can use LICWO, book through SATO and be fully reimbursed, even when your orders have the JTFR "overseas PP" statement. The only possible drawback is SATO will be more limited in choices than just going online, but overall I've only had one really shitty itinerary from them. Jaded shacked the reason for commercial travel over rotator.

Personally I'd take the LICWO route. The rotator to Osan is an ass pain; commercial direct to Seoul is the way to go. I bet there's a pretty solid chance you can book what you want and not pay a dime out of pocket, or if you do it'll be very minimal. I would take a serious look at it with SATO before you scoff that option.

Neil trap: Chuck Norris, and possibly Rainman, but the latter claim is unsubstantiated.

And that's when everyone's nametag should have read something along the lines of Hugh G. Rection, Mike Hawk or Barry McKochener.

God, I hate you Beaver! Now, back to my AD TPS reports. Fuck, forgot another cover sheet.

From what I've gathered over the years through various conversations, the vast majority of people outside the flightline (and even some on it) truly think we only fly, and when not flying are fucking around in the bar or otherwise not really do anything important. That leads them to the idea that pilots have a super easy life and have won the lottery. Just about everyone of them I've politely informed are speechlessly shocked when I tell them a quick 1-2 min description of the average pilot's "work life." They're so shocked that some of them had a questioning look as if I was spouting hyperbole to the Nth degree. I long ago concluded most of the non-ops people will truly never get it and there's little you can do to change that. That said, the support folks who do get it are worth a million bucks and knowing one or two of them at your base can make a massive difference in getting the job done.

W...T...F. No common sense allowed there apparently. I once had a 1 star direct me (via the SOF) to un-divert because he was freaking out about the lack of security at the civilian divert field. I told the SOF to tell him no and continued the approach at the other field. Never got any flak for it (because my leadership injected some reality into this dude), but I was still pissed that this guy ordered a jet he's not flying to do something that he wanted, even though it was not a correct or safe decision.

Word on the street is Welsh was behind getting the "Home of the Fighter Pilot" sign back where it belongs. It's refreshing among all the bullshit I can't even begin to imagine he wades through on a daily basis, he still fixes "small" stuff like this that really has a lot of impact behind it. Hopefully another Skelator doesn't come along and ruin it all over again.

Talking to Navy bros it really isn't any better. Different name, still a shit show.

That's a hell of an assumption based on zero evidence. It's completely possible that was what happened, it's also completely possible it was 1 of a 100 other unrelated things that happened. Throwing out baseless accusations without any real information is how good people get raked across the coals erroneously.

Copy shot. Thanks Huggy!

The FARs do clearly state for purpose of getting an ATP or commercial rating ("qualifying military pilot") you do not require a landing more than 50 NM from the point of departure. Landings do matter for private, instrument or commercial ("non-military") ratings. So my question is, what do civilian 121/135 jobs care about when looking at time? If asked the question in the future, "how much XC time do you have?", do I answer with my time that does not include landings (i.e. every military flight and my civilian XC time before UPT) or only with my time that included landings other than point of departure? I ask because right now my logbook only has XC time logged when I landed elsewhere, but I'm debating whether I should correct it to include all my mil time or do I just use one of the blank columns to effectively be my "here's so I can get my ATP" XC time and leave the "legit" XC time column alone.

I don't remember if he was banked, but he did the cross flow thing 97-98 time frame.

Doubt that had anything to do with it, considering he transitioned about 8-10 yrs prior to the alleged emails even being sent. I just don't get how someone, a good dude and leader at that, gets canned over 7 yr old emails. Unless something illegal was uncovered and he's on his way to trial (doesn't seem to be the case here...I hope), then firing him makes zero sense. Now watch CBM end up with a douche nozzle of a wing king when they were so close to having an awesome one - Big Blue wins again.

Agree. People need to get over it; by in large we are a Christian country, just like Thailand is a Buddhist country. This doesn't mean there aren't other religions allowed or the "main" religion is the right answer for everyone. It's just simply the predominant choice. I don't go to Thailand and immediately start bitching about a monk praying in public or demanding they melt down statues in public places because it makes me feel uncomfortable. If you can't just politely stand there and not take part, then you're an idiot and need to get over yourself.

I can't even imagine Azimuth - that dude embodies what is totally fucked at the "nearing senior leader" level and beyond. You know it's bad when someone like me who knows nothing about the dude other than that place always thought, "man, it must have really sucked hardcore to be in that guys Wing, SQ, etc."

What exactly are they looking for? I can't imagine the FSDO gives a shit about the academics that go along with IPUG considering they have almost zero to do with the type of flying a CFI is related to. What'd you tell them to get around this?