contraildash

At what point we just offload all our pilot training to the civil sector. /sarcasm I’m curious to see how this is faster, more cost effective, what oversight there is on the civilian schools, and how it is actually going to produce better pilots. The amount of flail the past few years by 19th AF was wild to watch, and it continues. Maybe we should just stick with something for a bit rather than live in a constant state of change. Guess I’ll find out soon as I just got back to UPT (T-6 IP). Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Well this went a weird direction, wasn’t aware of that kind of toxic idea/attitude/movement with some vets. We all have knuckleheads in our various MWSs, my story was to highlight those people because they deserve the razz. Back to B-1s doing SEAD in OIF…..tell us more. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Always loved the ‘we got shot at short final to Kandahar’. Sure ya did. My personal favorite was 2017 Iraq. Was in a 4-ship flying just north of Tikrit, cruising at 10,000 when a ‘130 passing above us calls out heavy AAA that was tracking them. They then punched flares. It was a riot to us watching from below. I’m sure they got their AFCAMs…. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

When were B-1s getting shot at by SAMs? This popped up on my feed: https://www.instagram.com/reel/C_m5cDMuotx/

Has it ever not been the FTUs? I feel like we are on a 15 year cycle with this subject. For the youngins here, back in 2009 they reduced T-38 students to two per class…..and they ended up with a massive shortage in the 2007/2008 year groups in CAF. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Anyone else get the memo on how the T-1 sim only studs were doing at the MDS FTUs? Struggle with multi-engine things and advanced FMSs. This is my shocked face. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

The LEO forums out there are very disturbing in their take on all this. Basically gun=justified shooting. Several cops/deputies that I know have this paranoid, we are at war attitude. It’s always a really slimy discussion with them as they justify shootings like this one and even the acorn incident. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

My guess is any of the weird ANG/RES hiring decisions: wing commanders kid, olympic swimmer, hot chick, hiring enlisted dudes from other units for some weird bro-level drug deal. I saw a lot of shady/weird stuff when I was rushing units, to include a guy who was in UPT for a ‘135 ANG unit, out rushing ANG fighter units. He was told to leave, never return, and they called his unit. Unsure what happened to him. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Once AFSOC has you, they won’t let you go. ‘We need to retain AFSOC talent’

busdriver's summary above is spot on. I flew the CV for 12 years. I wouldn't say chip burns were a 'common' thing but a singular chip burn would be seen every so often. The only time I got multiple PRGB chip burns I turned home after the second one, had a third one on final, and subsequently MX found the gear box was chipped out. I was just doing local training, easy call to go home. I also flew over open ocean frequently and we would talk through various EPs that would suck (such as PRGB chips or a drive system failure). Overall, the general consensus was that unless we doing a no fail POTUS directed mission, don't fuck around with chips. Another thing from this accident that irks me is the rosy path we were led down by bell/boeing. We were always told to 'look for secondaries' associated with gear box chips. Well come to find out, you will see secondaries....about 6 seconds before the gearbox fails. Looking back, the logic was flawed. Reading through a lot of helicopter gearbox class A's shows that they don't give a whole lot of warning, such as loss of oil pressure, typically less than 30 seconds. The V-22 has an emergency lubrication system, that 'should' provide up to 30 minutes of lube. But that won't help if the loss of pressure is due to a gear coming apart. You just don't know what is failing inside the PRGB....not that it matters. Overall, I loved flying the Osprey. I firmly believe that if the Marana crash had not happened and set the political firestorm that was the V-22 program back then, people wouldn't be so emotional about the program as they are today. The safety record is smack in the middle of the pack. Oh and let's not forget that CAT5 lists the CV-22 on his bio....funny....because he crashed one.

A buddy came up with a fun take on this mess, gave me a good laugh: Amazing opportunity here for the Dems. They should do a big reality TV style competition with say 20 participants. Let the people vote for their favorite candidate after each competition (get creative here, don't just do a bunch of debates) with the winner being announced at the DNC convention in August. This would keep everyone engaged. The ensuing circus would take tons of visibility from Trump. He'd do Trump things, Dems would own the media space, get huge name recognition, election would be far more interesting. Instead they are just gonna push Harris...

Recently had an unexpected, significant surgery. The day I got home my girlfriend's old man (RF-4 guy) pulled out this ancient bottle of weed and said 'looks like you could use some of this.' We took a shot, I was already high as a kite, immediately went to sleep. Good times.

Dude posted on instagram that he is shutting down and/or looking to sell nugget-wraps.

Wonder if he took off that way or was trying to land that way (after some T/O issue) guess we'll have to wait... In either case I don't get it. I've seen a few F-35Bs depart various airfields in person (to include ABQ) and their penchant for doing VSTOL takeoffs never make sense to me. Especially at a high/hot airport such as ABQ, even with 2x 10,000+ runways. Curious if it is a TOLD thing or just preference.

I always love it when active/retired Army guys go after Air Force spending. Ironic since the Army has traditionally been the biggest offender of wasting tens of billions of dollars on things like: -terrible uniforms -The Future Combat Systems program -cancelling programs....and then cancelling the replacement programs --RAH-66 and then FARA --Crusader Cannon and then the replacement program

Man I got stories for days from my time in AFSOC HQ....but now is not the time. I will say that there are always a valiant few fighting the good fight, but they are mostly beaten down by entrenched civilians with agendas, company men keeping their noses clean, incompetent staffers, and indecisive/weak/toxic leadership (take your pick).

Still a thing. My unit had several alert deployments in the span of two years. Despite these going very well, wing leadership still wanted to conduct a wing exercise to see how good we were at doing the thing we had already been doing....of course it was a shit show, poorly planned by the wing, and execution was a scripted joke. We had another real world alert not long after.... exactly this 👆

M2....those grips are awesome and great tribute to someone who really cared about the boys in WW2. I recently purchased a couple HS Produkt Springfield guns. 1. Morita Assault Rifle VHS-2 Hellion. First bullpup for me, curiosity got the best of me. Have just over 1000 rds through it and really enjoy shooting it both with the iron sights and a MRO the threw on there. Don't understand why the buttstock is adjustable, I have it all the way in and the length of pull is just right (about 1-2 inches more than on a AR for me). There must be some big ass Croatians there that need a longer adjustment. Very accurate and reliable gun thus far. Was lucky that when I purchased the gun, they had already redesigned the weird safety. After the first range day, I immediately put in an aftermarket extended bolt release, totally expect them to do this in the future as well. They shoulda just kept the VHS-2 name, just personal opinion. 2. Echelon. Was bored and wasting some time at work so did a shelf check the gun shop on base. I had been toying with the idea of a new duty pistol for home defense, non committal though. Looked at a couple HK, Sigs, and a FN, but walked out with an Echelon. The gun just felt right in my hands immediately. I've kept it stock while I'm getting used to it, but will eventually throw an optic on there, I actually like the u-notch sight. For me it has been an absolute riot to shoot. Couple hundred rounds so far, no issues, great accuracy, looks good...feels good....shoots good. Waiting on more ammo to show up for range fun. Based my experience thus far with this, I might look into a Hellcat for an EDC....

FIFY. Bold move listing this as aircraft flown on his bio.

My biggest beef with the OPR and EPR systems is that the damn thing 'just has to be done' by the closeout date. Once everyone backs up their due dates, you are usually cutting out 2-3 months of data. I've personally seen this 'gap' cause problems for people. I've never understood the obsession with the closeout date as opposed to having a good 12 month picture. Why can't we do something like this: 1. You cannot start writing a report until the first day after 365 days. 2. From that day, you have 'X' months to close the report out. This creates a 12 month report followed by a 'X' month window to write/close out. But you are capturing 12 months of data rather than 9-10. Same theory goes for annual awards too. I put a squadron in for a significant award based on a huge mission they accomplished towards the end of the calendar year. The HAF response: 'oh closeout for submissions was EOM October.' The wing and MAJCOM fought against this, but the HAF people stood by their decision. (this was a few years back, so who knows if they have changed that policy)

Honestly I was waiting for him to hit one of the expansion gaps in the concrete.... ...so tell me again how you went DNIF?

We were offered SIPR laptops to work from home during the first year of COVID. I declined, didn't want to deal with it really.

I've flown three different MDSs in my career. Granted the first two occurred within the same 3 year time span and one of those was the temporary year long MC-12 gig. In any case my advice is to change early. I say this due to seeing a lot of peers come to my air frame really late, on their third or even fourth assignment, and it just never panned out for them because they couldn't upgrade before hitting the mid-late major time frame.

FIFY

Yeah, but they were there faster than these guys: https://www.hmbreview.com/news/new-records-shed-light-on-crash-death/article_fbc48230-7bda-11e4-b537-4be1307d90d4.html