Swizzle

Yeah, what Coug said...

I've been using my Oregon Aero cushion kit for Bose for about 50 flt/hrs (C-130E) so far. I like that they keep my ears from touching the screen inside. That prevents shocking me less when sweating. I don't like that they don't seal as well when I'm wearing my sunglasses. Big framed sunglasses allow "ambient" noise to leak through. Not a problem if you have flat-wire frames though. I have somewhat flat frames. The OEM earcups do a better jobs sealing around sunglasses, but don't keep the screen from touching your ears. I'd recommend the OA Bose Comfort Kit, minus headpad and a good set of thin wire-framed sunglasses.

Even though the J model has RVSM, I heard it gets overtaken by jets and routed off black-line frequently. Word is that they choose to fly just below RVSM to avoid the extra routing. Can anyone confirm?

And now even the crickets are dead quiet.

Finance Guy or anyone else who might know, If you get a Non-A letter and on it they tell you it's only good for a certain place. Is that legal? Can you change lodging even though they booked it like that? LRAFB and McChord AFB do this. (I'll start browsing the JFTR now, just thought someone would know outright)

Doesn't C-Springs have H3's...could have sworn they do. A miz of H2's and H3's. Japan may be after Dyess to get the J-model. Ramstein will get the first off the line, then Dyess, AFSOC is fighting to get some in there, but they need some "special additions" that might take longer. I wouldn't be surprised if foreign sales of the J kick-off here soon as the J shows-off round' the world. Who doesn't love a new Tac-Airlift platform. Who doesn't need a new Tac-Airlift platform?!

Hey hey now...don't mess w/ the beaver tail.

Easy choice in my eyes...why did you join the AF? Where do you want to be in the action? How close? Do you like variety? Or do you like monotony?

I fricken love my big Oregon Aero seat cushion. The heat reactive foam is money! The C-130E's original seat cushions aren't forgiving. Which ironically were designed by Oregon Aero...but they've exceeding their service life by thousands of years. That's right thousands, it's kind of like equivalent baseline hours. Big guy in the seat = more wear and tear.

In the Herk we use e-pubs on thumb drives. On the C-130E, the nav brings a laptop (Toughbook), then we can view the pubs through it. We have to use a USB pigtail though. The Toughbook's USB port are recessed into the hard frame and our thumb drives don't fit. The USB pigtail does fit obviously. I've been on a crew and we used it once. Though, several times we've referenced the paper copy of the T.O. -1 the Flight Engineer is required to bring. To get around not being able to stick your thumb drive in a networked gov't computer, my squadron has taken a computer off the network and placed the e-pubs on it via an external hard drive (non-flash = not banned, generally). From there aircrew can update their poobs with a thumb drive. Wallah.

Standby for the pain-train the Herk community will bring you. More tasks, less bodies in Herks. Slick Herks = always a crewdog. Keep that in mind when selecting your assignment.

Yea, our squadron definitely babysits aircrew too much with currencies...I'm sure at the end of every year it will be a push to finish no matter what squadron you are in, but some GT like Tactics/Intel isn't flexible enough to schedule last minute. I agree CC/DO's need to hammer people who don't manage well their currencies. I'm starting to think that public shame and ridicule or a "good deal" reward are the only way to motivate aircrew. Is it standard practice to brief weekly the status of the squadron beans? Has anyone used Microsoft Access or Excel to automate bean-metrics?

I think my squadron has an archaic way of tracking currencies. How does your Sqdrn track semi-currencies and the metrics associated with them? First aircrew fill out a GMAR or Flying MAR. Then our HARM puts everything into an excel spreadsheet, then in Training we MANUALLY transfer that info over to another Excel spreadsheet which we give to our schedulers. They in turn schedule people based on "beans" left. Weekly the Training Shop computes metrics from the currencies and briefs them in the Squadron meeting. And finally every other month we conduct a Training Review Board. I believe nearly all of the metrics the Training Shop produce can be automated through Excel or Microsoft Office Access. This would greatly speed up our work in the Training Shop. I know about some electronic trackers like E-Tims, it's not an option for us, but what does your squadron use? How does your Training Shop do it? Thx in advance, Swizz

Most Hercs, including most new C-130J's, can't aerially refuel. C-17s can and will. If you go C-17's, buy a comfortable seat-cushion. My buddy from ROTC went 17s, I went 130s. While I was at Corpus training, he flew from Ramstein, Germany to Corpus Christi, Texas non-stop. A Herc would have had several awesome pit stops along the way.

Did that yesterday by sending them the reg references. Hopefully I wasn't too blunt with my you-screwed-up and I'm an Lt pointing this out email.

Slacker was correct. Thanks dude. The answer came from the AF Officer Classification Directory on ask.afpc.randolph.af.mil

Victor Whitmill - awesome artist and tattoo artist. The only guy thus far I'd let tattoo me. Plane_Old_Tree.ppt

So why does every CP coming from LR to RAB have 11M3B on their AF IMT 475 from C-130 PIQ?

So the traditional Co-"Pirate" has an 11M2B DAFSC...but now the LR Schoolhouse is saying that all MPD PIQ grads, whether C-130J or not, are 11M3B. My C-130 PIQ training report says DAFSC = 11M3B. Anyone know of the reg covering this? My MPF classifications section is clueless and my squadron believes PIQ grad's are still 11M2B. I've checked 11-2C-130V1, the PIQ C-130E syllabus, and the Officer Classifications pub w/o success. I need a reg reference to straighten this out. Thx in advance, Swizz

Can you say holding out till the end of the fiscal year?

I agree Fozzy. I had the honor to be the first student to fly a couple of T-6's. They had less than three hours on them. When Vance received T-6's from other bases with more than 1,000 hrs there was a great difference in how the plane responded to PCL movements. The gremlins in the plane's systems would pop up as well. I know the power efficiency is expected to decrease initially, but these were significant reductions. The older Texans would have trouble keeping up during formation rides with the newer Texans.

Nice summary Hueypilot, that puts things into perspective. It's good to know the community's current trends. I expect in someday the MPD program will revert. Thus coming full circle - again.

Yea, doesn't hurt getting as much info as possible. I've noticed quite a few Herk guys making postings, so I thought I'd give it a try. Even on two year old threads :) Crappy things are still being said around the Rock about the MPD program. Even some sim instructors!

Nope

I'm under the new MPD program, Class #08-02. It's great to read this stuff and know about program weaknesses. Some of the stuff mentioned they don't teach us. The bashing is good so we know there are training short comings, but ranting about it gets old. Please give us more specifics; like dip cleared routing, 1801 flt plans, etc; so we can learn.