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I hate that for ya man, tough times and this aviation shit is outrageously expensive. I can't speak to other units, and I've since stopped sitting on our interview boards, but we dropped our PPL requirement years ago for this very reason. We still require you to have soloed, but that's more to ensure someone has at least as some idea of what they're getting into. For us, as long as you've met the solo requirement, that's all we care about. Anything after that is cool, but doesn't mean much to me...this from a guy who interviewed with 600+ hours and a CFII. If it were me, I'd go the cheapest route to meet board requirements. FYI, I soloed with less than 10 hours and soloed most of my students at the 10-12 hour point (mainly because of the 141 syllabus). Unless his students are flying once every other week, 30 hours to solo and 80 for a PPL is A LOT! I get that many part 61 students can have long times between flights and start/stop training often, but those numbers seem high. Best of luck!

Welcome back to the GA world, I started back up last year and have been having a blast, while making lots of new friends. Was driving home from the rents today and stopped by an airport because I saw a Stearman inside an open hangar. Wandered up to the hangar to say hey and walked away with a bunch of ideas for my Stearman (plus their offer to help), and a planned 3-ship Stearman outing next weekend. As I was leaving I ran into a retired UAL Captain I know, so we took his Cub up and bounced around the local grass fields. Great people that just love aviation. Did you say air conditioning? Little bit too much AC this day...hoodie wasn't quite enough!

Yes, I highly recommend that every AF (and sister service) pilot go read this report.

You'll have to swing by your squadron safety shop if you want to read the SIB report.

We're about to head out the door and our leadership hasn't heard a thing about it. I'm wondering if my waiver would get approved since I already had the rona a few weeks ago...

This is why we have Niel trap and thanks Jeffery.

Holy shit, he was actually serious? Oh man, first the cluster fuck that is how you quarantine....now this. You can't make this shit up! Did you say obese or a beast?

Well there go Guard deployments. Awesome!

Glad to hear you were selected. Transfer to the Guard, if nothing else you may promote via ROPMA. We just had a few guys promote to O-5 w/o ACSC and we have an O-5 heading to board soon who hasn't done SOS or ACSC.

Nope, there is always a need for punks in the squadron. Who else is going to fill the fridge, make popcorn and brew the coffee?

Right! Reply all, "Thanks for the informative email." Just add the IG to the CC column.

Punks are also showing up to the squadron having only been to the tanker once (day only), if they were lucky.

For anything in an enclosed cabin, I'd go with any of the larger iPads. The extra real estate is just great for ease of use and SA, if for nothing else, not having to constantly zoom in and out all the time. For flying in my Stearman I use the iPad mini on a Pivot leg strap. Compact and hands free are a must and works really well. I'm not going anywhere fast so the small screen works just fine. I have foreflight and use the Sentry for ADS-B in.

I'm not saying they're walking dead, I'm simply saying we can protect them and not completely destroy our economy. According to the CDC, 61% of all covid "related" deaths come from 7% of the population. If we drill down further and look at those with multiple comorbid conditions, the percentage of the population with an elevated risk get smaller. Take out the numbers of people killed needlessly (because we didn't know better at the time) BECAUSE they were put on vents and the number gets even smaller. Throw out the deaths caused by leadership senselessly forcing retirement homes to take covid patients and that number continues to plummet. Hindsight is 20/20 and all, but we have learned a lot! I'm not saying we cast them off, but we sure as hell can develop a better plan to move forward and mitigate the threat. Ok so I'll ask again, what if we don't have a cure by this time next year? 5 years from now? 10 years from now? How long do we sustain this footing? When do we say enough is enough? Eventually we'll even run out of ink to keep printing money. Hyperinflation sucks and will cause lots of death too! I couldn't agree more, though I place a lot of fault at the feet of MSM as well. Currently, I believe they're the single biggest downfall and threat to our country, but that's a whole other discussion.

They've just given up on pointing out all my autocorrect/grammatical errors.

I know that, but many do not.

Well we unfortunately got it while TDY to a known rona hotspot, because we're "essential," due to an upcoming deployment. Truth is, we actually likely got it from a fellow squadron mate that thought what he was feeling was so mild that he didn't think it was actually rona. But I digress.... So how long do we keep this up? One month? One year? One decade? What if we don't get a vaccine, we just do this for the rest of our existence? How about we do what some of our local places are doing...providing shopping/office hours (or days) for those at a heightened risk. Point is, a vast majority of us will be just fine and can continue to keep things going. This isn't the military, you don't punished everyone just because one person shits their pants. Funny you bring up being self sufficient. Thanks to all this shit, the main (big name chain) grocery store in my home county just shut down. I'm from the sticks and this was pretty much the sole source of groceries for the entire county. It was the only place in the county that had the option for "click list" level of shopping...meaning they could order online, pull up, people load groceries in their trunk and leave. Now they'll all have to either get their groceries from the super expensive "corner store," or drive 30 miles out of the county to next best option. Great so now, not only does the next town over have it's locals shopping their, they'll have a whole other counties worth of people going there...social distancing shouldn't be a problem at all...

Ummm, won't that further drive a divide? Hey, we think you won't be willing to reach out for help from someone different than you, so here is more people like you so you can continue to stay in your own circle...

I'd recommend we get back to a daily lives. Wear our masks, wash our hands and keep on, keeping on. If you have 2 or more the "comorbid" conditions then you probably need to be more cautious and stay home. That doesn't mean we all stay home and be scared of our own shadows. Despite wearing my mask/washing my hands, as well as everyone around me doing he same thanks to the current rules in place, I currently have the rona. A few days of mild body aches and a mild fever and I'm back to normal, the same for my 2 other squadron mates who currently have it. No matter what you do we'll likely all end up with it sooner or later. Let's stop driving our economy into the ground over this thing and get the train back on the tracks. If someone loses their job, their home or their marriage and commits suicide, do they get counted in the covid deaths?

Cargo vs Pax aside, this is a great example of timing is everything. I'll never push any of the young guys in the squadron toward the airlines/cargo jobs, as it's not for everyone and certainly has it's ups/downs. That said, I'll do my best to give them the most sound advice I can and answer questions on how much I like/dislike the career...and I really do love my job. I feel the most important piece of advice I give is that if you think you'll ever want to jump to the airlines/cargo, then the earlier you make that decision, the better. Stop fucking opining at a temporary pay cut or whatifing everything. If you don't like it you can always quit, but you can never go back and get a better seniority number. I had a few squadron mates who knew they wanted to do it, but took forever to pull the trigger or kicked the can because they "didn't have time" to fill out the application. For one, the difference is likely keeping my WB FO gig in base vs commuting to NB FO reserve in NYC and only missing furlough by 10 pilots. Even if I don't keep my WB FO gig, I'll be in the top 15% of my seat (read picking my schedules/vacation/days off) vs being in the bottom 10% or commuting. Timing is everything, and of course, better lucky than good. Obviously this assumes you're not near an AGR retirement as that changes the dynamic a bit. As far as the cargo vs pax, I'm glad my cargo brethren haven't been negative impacted by this situation. I'd happily be at FDX/UPS if they had called first, but I ended up at DAL. Truth is though, we really have no idea where any of these companies will end up and/or what threats lie ahead for each industry...we all have our boogeymen out there. I'll still recommend to go with the first one that calls, THEN if one calls that allows you to live in base, you have a decision to make. Obviously right now that decision is easy, but the pax carriers will come back. Very few things will increase your QOL like living in base at your job...as has been said on here numerous times, it's like having a completely different job. I understand that it's not always a realistic option (keep momma happy), but it's a decision that shouldn't be taken lightly. If you absolutely must live in Hays, KS, then ya, cargo is probably a better choice for their better options for deviate dh. Just realize that anything can change with the next contract or next shift in business plans. Either way, in the long run, you really can't go wrong...hopefully lol. Best of luck to us all.

Ya, when a kid is running down the middle of the street (TOWARD the police) and not raising his gun to anyone...you kinda lose that defense. The kids is going to face some weapons related charges no doubt, but from all the videos I've seen, his self defense claim will stick. Oh and don't bring a skateboard to a gun fight...let him keep running and watch from a distance, the police were seriously a block away.

Can't disagree with your comments on calling them "skinnies." However, how about posting the picture of the convict chasing the 17 year old down and tossing an object at him, or the picture of him taking a skateboard to his head, or the picture of the other convict with a hand gun? How about the video of that same individual that threw the object at this kid, aggressively threatening the very people defending the properties? That said, if these people keep it up, they are going to awaken a sleeping giant that is Americans who just want to be left alone. You're upset, be all means go protest and air your grievances, but when you start destroying private citizens business and property, well that's when I stop defending you. There will be more and more of these bands of citizens who take up arms to defend their towns if local leadership can't/won't get the protestor under control...and there will be much more bloodshed. You try something like this in my home town and there will be a lot more people with extra holes in their bodies. Maybe if more them starting getting shot or having the shit beat out of them, they'll stop destroying their fucking cities. Anarchists want anarchy, until they get bloodied...

We very much still dedicate an entire phase to BFM..same with BSA. In all fairness, it's more a matter the number of PAA, especially if your squadron is tasked with ONE. If we had the jets, our mx could easily do it.