amcflyboy

It's been a while since Columbus has had an incident like this. It's amazing how more of these accidents DON'T happen, especially with all the training going on. I went to UPT there, and I know the Aux field that they crashed at. Yes, it is VERY wooded there! Glad to see all four punched out and landed safely.

You have a cubmaster giving an award to a Boy Scout. Was this the pinewood derby tournament of Boy Scouts vs. Cub Scouts? I hope Boy Scouts layed the smack down there!!

Nice!

That's because the C-5 schoolhouse is at Kelly now, not Altus.

We got our skibirds up to FL320, but that was over Antarctica, and the temp dev was negative ridiculous! Antarctica is also Class G airspace, so no RVSM going on there.

Sweet, I'll pass that on to our crews as they transit through Hickham on their way to Christchurch! When we're on the ice, we belong to PACAF, NOT AMC.

What can "blue" do for you??

Will have to concur here. I fly the LC-130 ice mission, and the C-17 from what I understand sticks around at CHC for quite sometime. Seeing as how ODF only goes from October (starting today as a matter of fact) to February, the C-17 guys only rotate out after certain periods of time, plus Space A is VERY rare. Any C-17 guy with the 62nd who has done this mission please chime in and correct me if I'm wrong. I agree on buying the plane ticket. Space A is never reliable from all the people I've heard who have done it.

I'll bet that the good ole phrase in 11-202v3 in regards to fuel requirements to the IAF, going missed, etc., was mistakenly not read when the TACC decided to pull all this fuel conservation crap!!

I concur. However, my base is in the process of issuing CAC readers to the Guardsmen only because they are hardly ever there to get the vital information that gets disseminated during the normal business hours.

That's ok, I was the first in my unit to complete the MPD program at the Rock, and I'm still proud to be called a gear swinging retard!!

yup that sounds about right...check flight at most UPT bases consist of FAIP's. The FAIP mofia is always trying to bust balls so they still have an outlet to vent their frustration. Though I know a couple of FAIP's and they actually enjoy doing what they're doing so I'm not trying to bust on ALL FAIP's. Only the leadership can REALLY enforce FCIF's anyways. At least they're letting you use it for something.

Our chief of Stan/Eval is all about knowing where the answers are...so he says that using epubs on open book is VERY much welcome. For the dudes who are against it, they belong back at the UPT bases!

God I love friggin E-Pubs!!

Bingo!! Thank you Brabus, you summed it all up! Especially the fact that the Guard is NOT a flying club, and that it could very well take a LONG time for you to find a unit and/or get into a unit. 'Nuff said. It took me a couple of years to find a unit as well, which I failed to meniton in my previous post.

Like he said, you're going to have to interview at each individual unit, and then you are NOT guaranteed a slot. Most units will only hire one guy a year, plus they only interview once a year. When I was selected, my unit took 3 guys, but this was back in 2002, and that was the last time something like that ever happened. If you don't care about pay, then by all means seize the day. When you get selected, you still have to go through the mandatory wait time of a couple of months to almost a year for the paperwork to process. If you don't sign the ROTC commitment, then you HAVE to go to AMS/OTS, period. Then wait another good 3-6 months for your UPT assignment. The Guard Bureau is littered with slugs. I don't know how it works in the Reserve world. Hindsight, how many people do you know have gone on ALO tours? Not many I would assume. I have a lot of friends/acquaintances on AD ranging from 1LT to Major who said that AD is the best decision they have made yet, and none of them have or will do ALO tours. ALO tours usually go to people who's bases just want to get rid of them for a couple of years because they pissed off the Squadron CC or whatever. It sounds like you don't know too many people who are happy with AD. I guess that's just how the dice is rolled in meeting people. USAF, it sounds like you've got some sole searching to do. Yes, you do have a tough decision. Just be ready for the consequences seeing as how you haven't really tasted AD yet. You get a taste of it while at UPT. Again I'm going to stress it's all how YOU make of it, and not what other people think of it. It sounds like your basing your decision on what others think. Yes you do run risk of being looked at as a quitter if you go before a Guard/Reserve UPT board with the board having full knowledge of you quitting ROTC. They MAY think that your looking for the easy way out of things. I sat on a UPT hiring board last year. The board has pre-conceived notions of you before you even walk in because they see your resume and all the rest of your paperwork. That's just the way things go.

Ok, Hindsight does have a couple of points about commuting to your regional job vs commuting to your Guard job. HOWEVER, my unit is in a location where the nearest regional airline hub is 3 HOURS away. Most of the Guardsmen who do commute for the Guard job and not for the airline, always go non-current. By the way, the Guard is extremely rich with copilots too, so the argument of sitting passenger with not so much 10 other guys, but 5 other guys is not a good one. We are also at war right now, so mandays at all the Guard/Reserve units are running thin. You also run risk like everywhere else of planes breaking, the Guard/Reserve is no exception. Plus with AD, you have a steady paycheck, and the fact of being given a deskjob, boo hoo hoo is all I've got to say. You can't be a crew dog your entire career, unless you WAN'T to fly for the airlines. If you take a desk job, then it really is expanding your horizons. You could learn something new. Yes you're a pilot, but you're an officer first. If you're on AD, are you getting a steady paycheck? Yes. Are you getting health care? Yes. Do you have the opportunity to pay your bills and not worry about money? Yes, unless you blow your money at the strip clubs. It's a $hitty situation on both sides of the coin. Pick the lesser of the two evils. Me personally, I wouldn't mind pulling my hair out due to boredom and going non-current on AD, rather than pulling my hair out due to myself going section 8 because I'm barely making ends meet, and then going non-current. I LOVE flying, but I have bigger priorities. What I'm saying is, Hindsight has good points, and others have noted that I have good ones(not trying to sound arrogant here). Take it for what it's worth. I would personally bite the bullet, and suck it up for a couple of years on AD, and then role the dice for Palace Chasing. I've seen weird things happen all the time. I've been in for 10 years(prior enlisted), and have seen the "brass" talk out of both sides of their mouths. It's a crap shoot on both sides of the playing field (Guard vs AD) Good luck dude.

I'm a Guard pilot, and a Guard "Bum" for that matter. I've seen guys flying for the regionals and flying for their unit. You have a bigger chance of going non-current in your unit's airframe, and then giving yourself a mental meltdown because you're burning the candle at both ends because of your civilian flying job. Your in a good position right now with AD. Keep going on the track your on, and then palace chase in a couple of years. My .02.

Without a doubt!

John Wayne and Robert Stack(formerly of "Unsolved Mysteries" and plenty of other good movies and TV Shows)...may they rest in peace!

Just can't mess with a 747!

NICE!!

They always show that one at the "Rock" for the CRM course

Priceless.....

I kinda figured that was a yoke out of a -130 E Model!!