tac airlifter

I know there are some good guys in the missle field because I had the pleasure of meeting some of them at SOS. I'm not being sarcastic, the guys in my flight were great. So why is the career field dominated by people who think this madness you describe is normal? Are they attracted to the job or is that just the culture that thrives in your career and they turn that way to succeed? Also, do you missle guys think things would be better if the opportunity to crossflow was easier?

Q3 for a 1-2 knot overspeed? That is the most absurd thing I've heard in a long time. The second most absurd thing is writing it up at all. I oversped the ramp and door by about 3 knots a few years ago. I landed and told MX what happened, wrote it up, watched them conduct the inspecdtion and bought them a case of penalty beer. When all was said and done the FE who I respected said "Sir, do what you want but I'd call 3 knots gauge error." Additionally most MX dudes won't even conduct an inspection for a gust that momentarily pushed the airspeed needle around.

Yep, that confirms my stereotype of missile dudes.

Thats a gateway into a long conversation. I agree with you that it gets deep in the weeds, but at the same time thats not a bad thing for a yearly refresher. When I flew 130s I got pretty nit-noid about knowing all I could, partly because I did in fact find myself at several unique locations where that knowledge helped; but also because the more you know the more confidence you have, and that confidence helps me fly better. Maybe its just me, but when I step to the aircraft with the feeling that I know my shit cold, I just end up performing better. Having said that I totally understand why a Viper guy doesn't care about NDB intercepts or low close in obstacle TERPs criteria. I'm suprised they don't let you guys take the test with the non -16 info filtered out. I'm still getting used to the single engine mindset, but it definitely makes calculating climb gradiets easier; you can either make what is published or you can't, end of story. no SDPs no subtracting from OCS, etc. And in your case you can probably always make the climb, so who cares about the stuff that doesn't apply to you? It's just more brain bites you can save for mission memory items that matter.

Individual testing here so each person has to look up everything. It's really not that hard once you're familiar with what type of information is located where, which I'm sure you are. Truthfully it's a decent refresher since e-pubs was allowing me to be lazy.

Welcome to the forum. Signs are not considered equipment which is probably why your web search failed. I googled "ground support equipment signs" and the fouth link down was this that includes several companies who make the product you requested.

Top speed is irrelevant if you've already been loitering on station following the action. The idea here is they stay on station and follow the mission for several hours instead of leaving after 60 minutes to hit a tanker. And when it's time to rearm and refuel you can position support assets anywhere with a dirt road and this thing will land and be serviced, then immediatly be back in the fray; no need to return to a MOB. If I were the dude on the ground I would much rather be covered by a platform that is flexible to my needs, regardless of what it looks like. The Iraqis will be well served by this aircraft.

Taking my yearly test and unfortunatly AFSOC does not allow the use of e-pubs for testing. Not a huge deal and I've looked up all but one question. I'm looking for the online question bank accessible from a non .mil computer. Anyone know where I can locate this info?

What base? I've lived on three so far and they all allowed me to keep guns in my house provided they were registered with SFS. And if you are looking at AR's I highly recommend the LMT piston. It's pricey but a great weapon and LMT does have military contracts and a great reputation.

Good on you for at least helping the guy look. It's a bummer to lose something like that anytime but especially starting the rotation, and if nothing else at least he remembered you guys cared enough to help. I was at the end of a long day a few years back carrying pax into Balad. Last offload of the night and we were exhausted. After shutdown while I was cleaning up the forms my load found a very expensive digital camera in the back. We decided to check the pax terminal just in case someone from our last offload forgot it. Well, after some looking and asking it turns out that we did find the chick who lost it; she was actually getting onto a C-17 for Germany going home on emergency leave for a child who had just been killed, and the camera had her most recent photos of her late son. I was very proud that my load had the integrity and the energy to do the right thing with no reward and its one of many experiences I've had that makes me proud to be around the guys I work with. I put him in for ML of the quater or something of that nature but unfortunatly he didn't get it.

My wife was riding her bike on a bike trail here tonight and got pulled over by SF troops. Apparently you must wear a reflective belt at night while riding a bike on Hurlburt. Nevermind that the bike itself has reflective surfaces screwed on, or that she was on the sidewalk/bike trail and therefore not in danger of coming into contact with a car. And nevermind that forcing her to walk the bike home in the dark made her feel unsafe and uncomfortable walking through the pitch black alone. Stupid SF and stupid faggoty base rules.

You assumed correctly. Sarcasm doesn't come off well on the interent, and I don't know anyone who would actually do that. It's an expression. Everyone chill.

One less worthless leader! I also worked for him at OKAS in 2005. My favorite was when he made us all room up so the C-17 guys who were doing 2 week TDYs could have hard billets instead of tents. At the time chicks flying 130s still got their own room if there was not another girl on their crew to bunk with. (a policy I agree with) Since this fact resulted in an extra guy without a roomate, usually the AC got a room to himself. But after the policy shift to get 17 guys out of the tents the AC had to room with an AC from a different crew creating crewr est nightmares. His answer? Anyone who complains can take their entire crew to a tent for 120 days. So we put herc dudes in a tent for their whole deployment to make room in the hard billets for C17 guys doing 14 days. Not to down the 17 guys, since I think this was forced on them so he could have an OPR bullet; but their life support gear was tea-bagged as a result. The whole thing was later resolved but for a period of time his lunacy prevailed.

Please elaborate, I fail to understand the significance of this.

I'm at SOS right now at Maxwell and managed to get my first ticket in 12 years. Basically, I pull up to a flashing red light at night, look both ways, and then continue on my way. Similarly to Toro, I see a cop pull up behind me and follow for about 1/2 mile. Finally he pulls me over and of course it takes 40 minutes to get my ticket because he is a K-9 troop and it takes forever to bring his dog back and forth, in and out of the car. So I get my ticket and it says "failure to stop at red light" and I said, "dude, I stopped at the light, what are you talking about?" To which his classic reply was that a complete stop is a three second stop. I stopped for only one second, and the proper base procedure is to stop, count to three, and then proceed. Never heard that one before.

Yes you are allowed and I think it's a fine idea. I fly every chance I get, nothing wrong with that at all. Flying on your own for a weekend out-n-snack is nothing like flying with the IP in your chili non-stop. Have fun.

That is by far the gayest thing I have seen from the died.

As with most aviation discussions, the answer to a high speed reject is ... it depends. It depends on what aircraft you fly, on what speed you're at and what your performance data allows. A statement that may apply to a heavy weight tanker doesn't necessarily apply to a light weight herc. For example, lets say you touch down fast and long, start to advance the power and someone calls "reject!" Do you honor the call? Based on this thread most of you guys say no. Now for the rest of the information-- you are very light weight and were doing touch and go's on the shuttle skid strip which is 15,000' long and you have 12,000' in front of you. The reject was called because a crew member is suffering a seizure and passed out in his vomit. WX is bad and if you take it airborne you'll be in the instrument pattern versus taxing off the active to the firestation right next to the runway. With this additional information it would appear the best choice is to honor the call. Thats an example of how any number of variables can effect what is the "best" option for your particular circumstance. I understand the value of having predetermined decisions for a lot of scenarios, but sometimes you also need the SA to act according to the situation. As for the incident that started this thread, I determined it safer to allow the situation to continue and debreif once we cleared the active runway. Is anyone who wasn't there really going to question my call? As for getting a Q3 for doing something stupid, IP's don't have the authority and she was well known for her shenanagins; she was deputy GP/CC and punishment was not going to happen.

I was the standing IP on her fini flight at LRF. 3 hours into the flight while doing a touch and go she called "Reject, we've lost our left hand DC bus!" For those of you qualified on the H3, you'll know that the LH DC light has been illuminated for years because we don't have the hardware that it powers (except you guard dudes). Anyway, its a well known fact and written up in the forms of every tail. So we rejected at 95 knots just prior to rotate because she at that moment noticed the light that had been on the whole time every time she's ever flown, and she had no idea what it was. She was one of the most incompetent pilots I have ever flown with, and certainly the most incompetent for her qual/grade.

Form 8, thanks for the PM. I was pretty sure I knew but he was out there so long ago I couldn't be positive. We've sent some more winners from LRF to the 777 in the past 3 years. But I've got some good stories about that guy.

Thread update: I got it done off base and tricare paid; no waiting period at all-- from my initial query during my flight physical to procedure complete was 20 days. Not too bad, although it was not an enjoyable experience. The doc said it's still possible to get pregnant up to 2 months afterwards, so you have to go back and get a zero sperm count 8 weeks later to confirm the sailors can't escape the ship.

The first time I went to a fighter squadron and saw an 0-5 point with his elbow and saying "so to speak" every few sentences I honestly thought the guy had a mental disorder; and his behavior had to be explained to me. I guess I never noticed it in UPT. Now that I understand I think it's fine that they have their traditions. It's lame when guys outside the pointy nose community use the term; but if the fighter guys want to do it go ahead. Just realize that outside observers don't get the wit, they just think you're retarded. So in conclusion, the term won't be in my lexicon, but good for you guys doing your own thing and cultivating your own culture.

I like the new name, it will fill more spaces on an OPR and make those 10 bullets that much easier to finish.

"And, the "vast combat experience" in the rest of the LRAFB ops units is vast but not terribly diverse -- I bet it took all of a week to figure out how to do a single-ship pen-D to a 10,000-ft runway in a MANPAD/RPG WEZ." This is exactly what I'm talking about; there is a misconception that all the LR guys have done is pen D's to Iraq. There is in fact a wide varity of combat experience doing every mission a herc can do in every theater-- Southcom, OIF, OEF, HOA etc. If the 41st would get out of their shell and ask guys across the street what they've actually done they wouldn't have these same detrimental misconceptions. As for the 1v4 fight.... good on you bro! keep swinging.

That is a great articulation of something I have seen but not known how to put into words. Many of my dealings with the 41st leave me very unimpressed by the squadron, and a lot of guys will take what I've seen on interfly missions (which we hardly do anymore) and say "the J sucks because it can't accomplish X mission at JFEX." The legacy guys who say that are 100% wrong; as a former legacy guy I can say with no ding to my ego that the J is a far better aircraft. Unfortunatly, many people flying the J at the 41st are not as good at utilizing its capabilities as they should be. An initial qual copilot and former 135 AC are simply not going to understand the best way to fly a herk like an experienced E/H crew does. My experience with the guard J guys is the exact opposite. They know how to fly and use the aircraft and they do it very well. Where the 41st has embarassed itself in the desert the guard J's have excelled. Bottom line from my perspective-- the J is better at most things than legacy hercs and certainly better at what we do deployed; but like Lockheed Fix said, this is a gig that legacy guys should have dibs on. I understand it's a new plane and shouldn't be limited by the restrictions of the old, but there are certain peculiarities about executing the 130 mission that transcend information managment display differences. The 41st has intentionally turned its back on the vast combat experience of the E/H squadrons at LRF because they think their new toy is so different that it is no longer a herk at all.