YoungnDumb

Live off base. People think that the 10 minute drive to work will somehow make or break their UPT experience, it won't. If anything it's 10 minutes to clear your nugget going to/from work. Get a roommate and a decent house and throw some ragers. Your future self will thank you.

Not related to T-Mobile but recently switched to Google Fi and probably not leaving them for a long time. They work fantastic over seas with 0 interruption, little pricey but for 0 headache when travelling its worth it.

Not UPT but I heard rumor of some contract fliers at KRND for IFF

We have a few doing that out here at Shaw. They make corn and help out with various odd jobs around the squadron then head off to chase USC girls by 1400 if its a long day.

Typically less chiefing though

Gotcha, I was a T-6 guy back in the day so your mileage will vary, however it was leave by exception only when I was at KRND back in the day. However depending on the level of bro in the Cheetahs/how many do you know/how backed up are they you may be able to swing a couple days here or there. I would really recommend taking as much leave as possible either before or after PIT. You'll have a chance to take some once you show at your gaining base while you in process and get thru MQT (or whatever they call it) but after that it gets tougher as they'll want you to start double/triple turning pretty quick. Best of luck.

Data is a few years old but from what I remember no leave during PIT except by exception (weddings, etc). What airframe?

Based on the current break down of UPT instructors/the AF in general they would have difficulty making it minority only IP's, particularly on the -38 side of the house.

Xanadu's actually burned down while I was there. Turned out it was the last night for kettles for a while. They rebuilt and reopened a few months later but it just wasn't the same, didn't stick to every surface, it was well lit...just not the same.

Also as some others have mentioned being a FAIP can limit you in some programs such as WIC/TPS but lately I've been seeing an increase in the number waived/admitted. Who knows where the AF will be in a few years. Just remember there is a waiver for everything and if you want something make them tell you no.

Former FAIP here, when my UPT dream sheet came out I listed fighters first, FAIP next, bombers, then everything else. I looked at it as a second chance and a way to keep the dream alive. Ended up working out for me as I fly Vipers now. I will say that trying to forecast your drop is one of the worst things you can do. List your desires, don't play games. Trying to play the "well I think this guy did well and he'll get X so I should put Y," is stupid. Yes there are people who clearly did well and those who did bad, then there are a bunch in the middle and guessing who is where is near impossible unless you're staring at the MASS. Also trying to game the system is stupid. As a FAIP I saw a student who really wanted helos (nothing wrong with that) and thought that he was somehow gaming the system and put T-38's #1 and then was shocked when he got 38's, essentially shot himself in the foot. Point is list your desires, don't try and game the system. You earn your right to choose so do well and let the chips fall where they fall.

Be delegating responsibility to the squadrons. There is no reason for waivers or approvals to require an O-6 approval. Let Commanders be commanders, give them the power to run things the way they see fit, tell them the only reason to bother the O-6 is if they need something, and get rid of all the pointless meetings (most of which can be accomplished with an email).

That's a shame that they didn't apply, I have several good friends currently flying the U-2, none of which flew 38's. As a note, I am not saying I agree with the 38 studs should fly X argument, post was more of an eye roll expecting someone to kick off that discussion again.

Cue the "but they didn't fly T-38's in UPT" discussion/gripe fest...

This. Ask questions often, if one person doesn't give you an answer you understand then find someone else and keep going until you get an answer that works. Also try learning by more than just memorization, I found that if I draw stuff out and explain it back to someone I pick it up much faster. So don't be afraid to grab a white board and sit an IP down and go over something. One of my favorite things to do as IP was to sit down with students and draw stuff out and explain things to them.

This may be the stupidest thing I've read all day. No one cares where you live, in fact in my whole class (nearly 30 people) only 1 person lived in the dorms. Plus the dorms are tiny and suck. So don't live in the dorm. Go get an apartment or a house off base (or on base if you want).

They're average. Personally never noticed any big swing one way or the other.

Relax. Had plenty of students go on CAP and plenty of students got off of CAP. Some of the best students I ever had went on CAP, people have bad days, it happens. One of my best students had a few bad days and ended up on CAP, and because he was dwelling on it so much he kept messing up and performing poorly. Eventually I sat him down, told him to chill out, go home and be with his family and to not even think about the T-6 or open a book that night, basically just go relax and have fun. Next day the kid came back and flew an amazing sortie. The key is not to dwell on it. The more you dwell on it and focus on trying to be perfect the worse your performance will be. Take the lesson, learn from it and move on. More people than you will ever know have been on CAP, whether in UPT, or IFF, or B-Course. Good luck and don't get down on yourself, you'll survive.

Can't speak too much about Eagle B-Course but for the Viper side in my year-ish at Holloman I saw 2 people wash out and 1 DOR over 4 or so classes. So not every class has one, but it's not that uncommon. As for why, it typically revolved around SA and decision making. The IP's expect you to not be good at the mission but to be able to handle small things like staying visual and making a relatively informed decision when something goes wrong in your jet. That being said the learning curve is pretty steep, 5 flights then your checkride, each phase after that is only 3-4 flights for you to gain a basic level of proficiency and understanding before the next phase which builds off the previous. Again, the expectation is not that you are a hyper lethal guy ready for WIC, but that you can be decently lethal while doing the basics correctly. Best words you can hear in the debrief are "nothing for ground ops, departure, recovery, admin in the airspace, and no TR's observed." I have heard Eagle B-Course has a higher washout rate but that's purely rumor only. If you're trying to decide which to pursue based on difficulty I recommend you don't do that. One, that's just weak. Two, they are different aircraft with different missions, pick a mission that you believe in and pursue that no matter how tough. Three, fly the Viper.

Are those bases fully manned or are they setup in a manner similar to the U-2? i.e. minimal manning with personnel continuously rotating in/out?

The RC-135 has one base (Offutt). Now where they deploy too can be pretty nice, but home station is Offutt FYI.

I have operated the majority of my career this way, so far not too many bad things have happened. And besides for housing, worst case they try and make you break your lease, but being totally honest that's probably too much effort for some civilian running the housing office so you'll likely be fine.

I dont know, I've seen some rather tall/large people cram into the Viper.

Are these students guaranteed a fighter for going through the fancy syllabus or did they just luck out?

Huggy, I'll be totally honest I can't think of anything right now besides fix-to-fix that I would cut out. Even to the day I ended my FAIP tour I was arguing for more training in order to expose the students to more things earlier in their careers. I honestly miss formation takeoffs and landings, they were always something fun that you could do decently but took some practice to do well. That made me laugh about HUD out being a dual only item. If only they came from a plane with no HUD 3.6 weeks earlier...