brabus

So what is China’s takeaway from this? I’m not sure what they can take away from this that means anything beyond the square root of fuck all. I mean, I guess they can take away that the gov doesn’t want to talk about stuff like this, but then felt pressured to when joe blow posted it. Cool, you caught the Tater China, well done.

That news piece makes me chuckle… Meh, believe what you want.

And if he kills a 5th person, it’ll be because of white privilege.

Hmmm, we’ll that’s one assumption without supporting evidence. The timeline was politically driven, not capabilities driven.

“Wait, you don’t need $469k/yr to make end’s meat? I don’t get it.” - Doug, 17 yr 7ER FO, has 3x secret families who don’t know about each other

I agree. But it still concerns me when enough people to spike the RWR are talking about civil war. It also concerns me when radical people on either side continue to push radical agendas in the face of opposition from what I’ll call “the reasonable” core of our population. There’s far more reasonable people than not, but don’t think that means we can afford to just brush off the crazies and say, “meh, they’ll just go away.” That kind of flippant attitude is exactly how we end up in a very bad spot years down the road.

Everything that is progressive and everything that is ultra-right. Currently the progressives are “out performing” the ultra-right. But neither are good.

I think any of the majors will let you work very little, but the major caveat at all of them is your category manning and seniority will play a huge role in whether you can actually do that or not. I could drop my entire schedule every month at DAL if I so choose - other categories couldn’t drop a single day. It depends!

No, concerned people talk about civil war instead of burying craniums in the sand and ignoring it. Almost half this country (recent poll) says they think a civil war is a very real possibility in the near-ish future. That is frightening we as a country have been sliding that direction. Millions of Americans are just asking insanity to stop, not asking for hard right policies. They just want a relatively middle country. The progressives are heavily leading the charge in making our country as far from the middle as possible. People are fed up with it, and if it can’t be brought back to the middle peacefully, it will be brought back violently. And I very much hope the former happens and not the later.

You must have picked that shirt up during a Kadena TDY in the early 80s.

If this goes down, it will only destroy the people’s confidence in our system that much more. Apparently the liberals really want civil war to happen, because continuing to do shit like this is how that happens. The irony is how poorly that’ll go for them.

Dude, you just glossed over what I wrote. I don’t know a guy who knows of a guy, I’ve personally seen it first hand. Another example is colleges blatantly use race as a decision factor in admittance…and SCOTUS has upheld the legality of that, for now anyways. Asians are perhaps getting the most fucked, as they’ve been purposely excluded from “BIPOC” but also aren’t “white.” The pursuit of “perceived fairness” is alive and well, but I guess you’re too blind to see it.

There’s the law, and then there’s reality. You can’t possibly be so aloof to think this doesn’t happen. I’ve seen it with my own eyes more than once. You are wrong. Related - have you payed attention to Asians getting completely fucked by DEI in this country? If not, look into it, it is in fact very much happening.

Pretty sure the bonus announcement states for each tier how much of it you must serve to avoid recoupment. Serve is defined as not curtailing the orders. For example I think this last 4 year option was you had to not curtail until after 2 years in order to avoid recoupment of those first 2 years, then you would not receive any further bonus payments.

Perhaps a lot of talking past each other here. DEI progressives/leftists/grifters (whatever you want to call them) only care about a narrative, which is to say they want to cook the books with numbers and don’t give a fuck about actual qualifications or merit, and in fact are biased and racists against certain demographics. On the other side are the ultra-right people who think women don’t belong in a cockpit, gay people can’t possibly be doctors, etc. (insert whatever other similar statement you want). I think most of us agree DEI could simply be destroying barriers to truly provide equality of opportunity. I don’t give a fuck how many white vs. black fly airplanes, but we can do better recruiting and educating in inner city Atlanta. I don’t care if we have 50% women or 2% women pilots, but we can put more effort into targeted recruiting at women’s schools, female sports events, whatever. We should be after these demographics not because of physical traits, but to maximize the applicant pool and look for hiring opportunities to diversify backgrounds (and therefore thought), but with zero fucks given about immutable traits. That direction and weight of effort of education and recruitment is how DEI could be a good thing, but instead, as it stands today, is all kinds of fucked up.

I remember almost hitting a PTIDS tether on a show of force…wouldn’t that have been a bitch if that’s how my story ended. “So he died fighting valiantly in Afghanistan?” ”No, a balloon took him down” ”….”

I could make maybe a little north of $100k (all taxable vs. only ~ half of mil pay being taxable). That just doesn’t cut it for me, but it may for someone else who has some nice additional income sources (spouse, passive real estate, etc). Also be ready to miss almost the entire summer and also be gone in the spring and fall for training, aircraft deliveries, etc. If you have kids, that’s a real deal killer for many. But again, that all may be irrelevant to some people, in which case go for it, because I imagine the flying is awesome and rewarding.

What!?!?! And here I was back in the day walking uphill both ways in 6.9’ of snow to go write OPRs the old fashioned way. Character count - the AF just can’t help itself, it has to make everything as retarded as possible.

If you know you’re moving there eventually, I don’t see a reason not to do that. Of course the big question is why aren’t you moving to that base sooner…are you talking about not getting that base for a while because it’s senior?

Yes I think by and large meritocracy hiring still exists, but it has been eroded further over the years with DEI hiring; at least in the airlines, ANG, and several companies in the defense industry (the areas I have personal experience with). Hiring Billy Bob because he has an in (but is less qualified) is just as bad as hiring someone because they're a woman (albeit less qualified). Yes, Billy Bob has existed prior to DEI, and people slip through the cracks of an imperfect system. However, the difference with DEI is its blatantly done front and center and celebrated by industry. If we're going to celebrate DEI hires, then we should be celebrating "I got hired because I know somebody" hires. Look at how many people have received preferential points on apps because of checking a race box...I think the data shows there are WAY more people getting DEI-related preference than people getting preference for knowing somebody. Both are fucked up, but one is occurring more, and only one is "bad" in some people's opinion.

Have friends that fly fire, and honestly I’d love to do it, but the pay and time away from home is a total non-starter. But for the guy living in Palau the rest of the year, sounds like he is nailing it…for his specific life situation. Personally, GA (p61/91/141) has been my filler for the “thrilling/fulfilling” flying. You also never know who you’ll meet and what cool flying you can find yourself getting into…there’s a ton out there that is way beyond a 172. I’ve flown a lot of cool shit so far that I didn’t spend a dime on; make connections, people like your mil flying background and the assumed capabilities that come with it. Airlines may also approve p135 flying if its deemed not to conflict. YMMV on that approval, but there’s some pretty fun 135 stuff out there. The airline provides all the $ and free time you need to do these things. So, I look at it as a solid job that affords me these fun and challenging flying opportunities and means to support my family (plus all my other hobbies). No need to see it as your only option for flying in life after the mil, it’s just a good job. Edit: If your spouse is making solid $ and has a strong future in that job, or you have a great earning potential from real estate or something else, then the financials of the airlines may not be as big of an allure. At that point there are lots of options for fun flying, they just won’t pay the bills like you’re currently used to as an O-4/O-5 in the AF.

I don’t think that at all. But I do think the airlines is a very good post-mil flying career that is widely misunderstood by many who also are the ones giving “career advice” to their subordinates and peers. That’s the main reason for openly discussing it in these boards, in hopes of increasing the amount of valid data available for people to make informed decisions.

@Bigred Valid, but I think that group is also significantly in the minority. My opinion is they will have to pay at the top end of the spectrum they’re offering to get and keep a guy for more than a couple years (but they probably won’t and will start a guy at sub $200k). I acknowledge I also despise CA and you couldn’t pay me a ten million dollar salary to live there. To each their own as you said, but like 4 fans, I am all about presenting valid info regarding airlines any chance I get because I too was led astray for years by mil pilots who had no fucking clue what they were talking about.

Ok, I think we’re generally on the same page. I define diversity hires as those who are less qualified/lower chance of performing to standards being hired over counterparts who are more qualified, but lack “desirable” superficial qualities. I personally have seen several diversity hires between the ANG and the airlines, including seeing their lacking performance in training. Thankfully two of them won’t be flying what they were originally hired for. The other two are out there, having been given way more “try again with some extra hand holding” in training than anyone should ever be given. I’m one personal data point, and guarantee I’m far from the only one who has witnessed this. DEI hires are real, have been happening for a while, and certainly are jeopardizing safety. The way forward is to go back to a meritocracy hiring system and find these DEI hires in the wild and do an honest assessment if they should continue or not (I’m sure some have made it over the hump and will be OK, but I also am sure others are still liabilities.

ANG fighter slots are extremely competitive, but yes, if you get hired you know what aircraft you’ll be flying. Though, you still have to make it through all the training and things could happen such as your unit switching aircraft when you’re 1/2 way through UPT (rare, but it happens). Fighter pilots fly a lot in the guard, even most of the part timers are flying a similar amount as the full timers. If you go the Navy route and don’t fly jets, your chances of flying fighters later in the guard are extremely small…don’t count on it. Go ANG over AD, and especially over the Navy. Do well in college, get your PPL, and consider enlisting in a guard unit you’d like to eventually fly for if that works out for your life desires (gets your college paid for at least partially and you make connections at that unit).