brabus

I think the by the numbers is good to do if you've got the time at work, but reading the Dash-1, 217, 202, etc. is a waste of time. You'll give yourself an aneurism just trying to understand/remember 2% of the stuff in there. It will all completely make sense to you when the time comes. If you try to read that stuff, even during your "nothing to do at work" time, you'll just get frustrated and I can almost guarantee you it will not help you at all. By the time you get to the point you start applying stuff like 217/202, I bet you won't have remembered a damn thing from when you read way back in casual...and if you do remember something, it'll be only one thing that would take you 6.9 sec to look up anyways. I feel you on the "I want to be as prepared as possible and not waste casual time" thing, but seriously man, anything past "numbers" and Bold Face, with MAYBE a little light reading of the first few chapters of 248 is not going to help.

If you're not trying to be the best at what you do, you're wrong. If you're not always trying to improve, you're wrong. However, you need to do this without being a d-bag and stepping on others to do it. You should want to be the best...this means working hard, studying, asking questions, puting in more than normal effort, etc. How you do this and not be a d-bag/be a team player is easy - Do the aforementioned, but help your bros. If you learn something from an IP that's really helpful (even if it's just an answer to a question you've all been wondering about), tell your bros. Don't wait for someone to hook a ride and then tell them after the fact. Don't withold info to make other dudes not look as good, etc. Maybe you're better at instruments than another guy, take the initiatve and ask if he needs any help. Tell him how such and such helps you fly a wicked awesome ILS. You can always strive to be the best, but still help your bros at the same time. It's very simple, as long as you're not "that guy."

Maybe someone should put a jet in a dive and then tell the pax, "yeah we can't fix this for about another 30 min, we're in the middle of transferring aircraft control. What, you say we'll hit the ground before that...yeah sorry, nothing I can do until transfer of aircraft control is complete."

Aqua...I think you're getting ahead of yourself a little. You still have 5 yrs until you even get to the point of getting a slot or not. Work at getting into the AFA or getting a ROTC scholarhip and then start worrying about the height thing when you get closer to the medical stuff. You probably will have to work a waiver, but that's not something you can do until you're at least a cadet and "in the system." I think physically you would be able to fly most, if not all heavies, but I can't say what the AF rule nazis opinions are on the matter.

Here's the thing, I think you're severely underestimating the challenge of military flying/time it demands. Many guys get masters, most guys get something that is far from "TPS standards." Some guys here and there get a decent business degree, etc...but I can't imagine getting a reputable engineering degree on the side while actively flying. I'd almost say it's impossible. Now, if you can somehow get sent to AFIT after your first ops assignment, that's a different story. If this is something you really want to do, then try for AFIT, but I don't really see a way you can get a good engineering degree and be a pilot. You'll be working 12 hrs a day, 5 days a week plus coming in some amount of time on the weekends. It's more than a full time job. You don't have time to fit in a very challenging degree program...hell, even taking one class at a time might send you over the edge. But, you know yourself better than anyone else does.

Bolting it to the counter top is easy. You just can't trust everyone nowadays (unfortunately mostly due to the cleaning crews).

An even easier way to fix this problem is to lock the damn cash container. Get a normal metal locking money container (from staples, etc) and throw a lock on there that only the snacko has. Now people can put money in, but it's not coming out without the snacko. Problem solved. Also, the hack sheet on the fridge or whatever is a great idea and makes it convenient for everyone.

Every Friday we cook burgers/dogs and sell those along with chips and some other side (beans, potato salad, etc) for $5. Figure out how many people you expect to have, buy the proper amount of food/supplies the night before and post some signs around the squadron a few days prior so people don't bring their own lunch on Fri. $5 isn't that much for a stomach-stuffing meal (sts), people will spend it since it's a good lunch (not some of that flight kitchen BS) and it supports the Snacko. You will profit from this, and you'll really profit if you reach out to other squadrons/agencies on base. Also, make sure people are paying their snacko bills. If it's getting out of hand, start punishing (assessing 10% on your bill if it's not paid by Wed, etc), have the boss start coming down on dudes at pilot meetings (sts), etc.

I never said it was. I would also hate wearing it in above mentioned situations. I was just saying I wouldn't see as big of a problem if dudes wanted to wear it in 130s, 17s, etc.

I was expecting a lot more, that thing is just normal ACUs with a few very minor differences. Fuck that, I have no desire to fly in that thing. I guess I could see those of you in a larger cockpit doing it (sts), but no way I want to sit in a small cockpit for hours in that thing.

I really like Padron and Padilla as well. They have some decent variety in very good quality. Rouge + Colorado = I hate you...a lot.

Maybe one time a group of pilots should, then all the shoes can cry about all the bruises and cuts they didn't even know you could get playing crud. Fuck their rules, play it how it's meant to be played. Now you may find yourself asking, how could I stand being around all these asswhipes? The answer: Jack Daniels and the knowledge that you'll be fucking up some shoes, all in the name of "CGO Camaraderie."

Heard a U2 dude trying to get clearance over one of the ranges down south a few weeks ago...they asked his alt and he just said, "Above 60". Awesome.

Taurus, I realize everyone's situation is different and I'm glad yours worked for you guys. However, I'll point out myself and many dudes I know kept a schedule like that during the week, are still flying what we really wanted and are still happily married. I hate to say it, but "he could have...." is a weak excuse and I don't want any new people coming on here and getting the false idea that you can either stay married or work hard and get what you really want. You CAN have both, and if your wife will only settle for the first way, then you married the wrong chick. This lifestyle does put added stress on wives, but they need to be understanding of the fact they chose to marry a guy who does not work a standard 9-5. They knew it going in (or at least should have had some clue). Saying it's either a happy marriage/reduced performance or a crappy marriage/best performance is a bunch of bull.

I think you guys are caring way too much about this. Who gives a shit..."noted" and press on is the answer. I'm not saying be disrespectful, but in reality, it's just some shoe who has no bearing on your career and is just being a douche. "Salute smartly" and don't give a further thought to what Maj Assclown said.

Not a new concept...

I bought a 2001 330ci back in 2003. It was a great looking and performing car. I had it up until 4 months ago when I sold it so I could afford to do some work on my 71 vette. If it wasn't for my vette obsession, I'd still have the car. BMWs are very easy to work on (minus large American hands/arms fitting into German engines). If you are even basically mechanically inclined, you can do a lot of the MX yourself. You can also repair a lot of things yourself. People talk about how expensive BMWs are to maintain, blah blah...yeah, it's because a camshaft position sensor goes out and they don't question the dealership when they get charged $500 to fix it. Yeah that one took me $50 and 30 min. E46fanatics.com is a good site, but I also used bimmerfest.com a ton. It's like the baseops of the BMW world. You can find DIY instructions on just about anything and there's some very knowledgeable people over there. My BMW also got 35 MPG on the highway...not many cars can get that good of gas mileage but have awesome performance. In the end, do what makes you happy, but will still keep you within budget. Secondly, I WILL have another BMW again someday...that's how much I liked that car.

Obviously common sense doesn't lend itself to Missile folks.

It's stuff like that I'm referring to. Realistically the "craziest" IAP I'll do is a TACAN pen with an arc...holy crap, watch out. NDB what? Teardrop...how bout vectors buddy? And as far as climb stuff...exactly, we either can make it or we can't (eject). There isn't any figuring into single engine only and all that. I know it's a thin line and I don't want to come off as sounding like instruments stuff isn't important b/c it is, there's just a lot of stuff that doesn't really apply much, if at all, to us. I can completely see all this stuff applying to flying a C-130 into multiple austere fields around the world. Regardless, I'll continue to hate the IRC, but admittedly I will gain at least some little amount of knowledge every year that I forgot from the previous test. It's not all bad, just 95% bad!

Yeah I guess you're right, but it's still a pain. Although I'm sure you probably use this stuff a lot more than I do. I just feel like a lot of the IRC goes so deep into the weeds that part of me does think "well I guess it's good I did this b/c I totally forgot that", but the other part of me realizes I never have applied said subject, rule, etc. while flying and just based on the mission probably never will. There's a ton of little rules out there that really in the big scheme don't make much of a difference...but, I do realize some of the annoying stuff you just have to know and deal with.

Not having e-pubs sucks, but you can always do the "you have 1-10, you have 11-20...." That'll cut your time by a lot. IRC sucks...not that you didn't already know that.

I don't remember if they gave us thermals, but I just wore my Under Armour Cold Gear thermals. I've had those things for years and they are the best. You can pick them up at any sporting goods store. I would still try to pick up a pair of the gortex pants, but they MUST be the no shit BDU/ABU pants. A buddy of mine bought some gortex pants at Sportsman's Warehouse and figured it wouldn't be a big deal since they were an olive color...they made him take them off, so he was left with just his flightsuit, in 6 ft of snow. You'll spend a lot of time hiking through shitloads of snow, laying in snow, etc. It would suck to not have the gortex not so much for warmth, but for the waterproof property.

I went in the winter and they were so nice to have. I don't know about summer, but my guess is you'll have a good chance of getting rained on, in which case I think the pants would be worth it. They just go right over your flightsuit, so they're not a hindrance at all. High quality socks are a must for a good outdoor experience, SERE or otherwise. Get Smartwool...they may be $15-20/pair, but they are well worth the money. I've had several pairs of different types for years and they've been awesome through every backpacking, hunting, snowboarding, etc. trip I've used them on. They search all of your shit on morning one. If you get caught, they take away your MRE. You DON'T want that. Suck it up like most people do. You'll be hungry, but you'll survive. Also, most people do sneak food into the RT portion, but they pretty much expect that and ask you to declare it. Sounds like generally they'll let you keep 1/2 or something like that if you fess up. The douche next to me didn't fess up, the guy found it, so as punishment he took all his food and took the beef jerkey he let me keep when I declared it. That fucker costs me 3 beef jerkey sticks! Have fun. I actually had a great time in the field, but I am an outdoors oriented guy. RT blows, no getting around it. Go downtown every night you're not in the field or at RT...Spokane has decent bars and restaurants. I was ready to get home by the end, but overall I actually had a pretty good time, despite RT and some long boring days of academics.

Unfortunately if people don't pull their nuggets out of their asses and realize the importance of this, our boys on the ground may some time in the future have to re-learn what it's like to get shot at by the enemy from the air. When was the last time an enemy dropped on our guys...the 50s? Yeah, good idea, let's just take air superiority for granted...that'll work out for us.

There's several scenarios that could lead to a bad situation for us. Are they going to happen tomorrow? No. Could they happen in a year, 2 yrs, 3 yrs? You bet. Hell, even something going down (sts) 5 yrs from now would still be a bad situation for us if we don't have the F-35s/F-22s that we need by then. None of us can predict what the world situation will be in 3-5 yrs. Can we afford to not be prepared simply b/c we're too stubborn to look further than 6 months into the future and just assume these scenarios won't happen? Preparation starts now, not the first time we get a face full of Flanker.