viper154

Idk exactly how long the civilian school is, 2-3 months ish, I’d expect 4-5 months on the T-6 SGTO syllabus as written, so you ain’t far off.

The current syllabus is more similar to what us older folks remember going through, but with some changes, mostly better. Yes, instrument/multi from civilian school, T-6s at your normal UPT bases with mil flying IPs, then T-38s or straight to FTU

19th sent a full birdie around to the UPT bases a few months ago for a briefing. SGTO class has already graduated the civilian school and will start flying T-6s this month. I don’t remember all the dates and timelines but this will be the norm for all studs in the next 12-18 months I believe.

2.5 is dead. Follow on syllabus is significantly better. However, T-1s, both the jet and sim program are completely going away. T-6 studs will all come with a multi/instrument rating from a handful of contracted civilian schools around the country. If they don’t get 38s they will being going straight to the FTU after T-6s. You will be home pretty much every night, some days by 1500, some not until 2300. Flying (T-6) will depend on your job and desires. I showed up knowing it was my last assignment, and requested to not get some bs job and just fly as much as I can. I double turn most days, and occasionally triple, but I’ve never been forced to fly a 3rd, if I do it it’s on a voluntary basis. Other folks fly more like once a day, or every other day. If you love flying and teaching, you will love the job. For me personally, it’s super rewarding watching these kids go from not being able to strap into the plane, to doing off station formation departures in busy class B airspace, 6-9 ft from another airplane. T-6 fleet is facing some mx issues, should be sorted out soonish, but I hear PIT is taking awhile to get though now a days, up to several months past projected grad dates.

Has to be day vmc & flown under VFR now. Been that way for several months.

Flyin, they custom made the short bus one for me.

Anyone happen to know of a vinyl/print shop in the North West Florida area that does a good helmet wrap? Our local shop shut down, and I’m going to be in the VPS area for a few weeks, was hoping the Elgin/Pcola folks had a go to place with experience. Thanks!

There was a memo sent to commanders. Details are vague/no PDSM yet, but something about a demo program offering up to 50k a year for folks with a UFT ADSC expiring in 23/24/25. After FY 23 you don’t get the full amount if you decide later to sign a bonus. You also get an “assignment of preference” The memo did say a PDSM may be released as early as Jan 23. No details on how long the bonus offerings will be, cutoff dates for when you need to sign to get the full amount, or the definition of “assignment of preference”

With some of the recent change of commands things are expected to and seem to be improving.

Must have been nice. Draco has gone full opposite from that, and honestly most of AFSOC for that matter.

There are 4 U-28 squadrons and the MC-12 at OKC, the initial plan was to transition those aircrew to the new airplane. I would say 60%-70% of those pilots are T-1 dudes. That info is dated though. I’m not a smart man but from what I hear there aren’t a lot of excess 11Fs around to change airplanes and stand up 5 squadrons + school house.

As someone that was informed today they are heading to teach T-6s this winter, what’s the current T-6 IP life like? I’ve heard rumors soul crushing trip turns etc. Also, with the new syllabus, are all IPs still flying/teaching form, or just 11F/T38 trained dudes? Trying to set my expectations, I’ve made the last rank I will likely see, I could care less about OPR bullets or the rack and stack, hoping to add some more IP time to the resume before I GTFO, maybe even teach a thing or two to the youngins.

I’ll be totally honest, I’m probably not the most qualified or knowledgeable to answer that, but all the people that have responded seem to hit the nail on the head.

Well aware, U28 community did not do well on this last major board, well below the rated average.

Ya, you right. Link or screen shot?

I would say f it (the promotion) Focus on flying, they aren’t kicking out passed over pilots anytime soon. Get the upgrade and continue crushing checkrides. Get all that A code time you can for your ATP mins. Do what you got to do to make yourself competitive for the airlines. Depending on the timing you might need to take a regional gig for a year or two. Start networking now for guard/reserve gigs. If you have trouble getting a flying gig you can easily get a non flying job or a staff gig that gets ya that tricare. My buddy got a staff gig, only goes in a couple times a year, only does it for the tricare. If staying on AD is more your gig take the bonus when you are eligible.

It’s still a “flying assignment” So yes, reference all the 11s that in the past were sent to drones. I did 3 years in drones, about 3 years ago when I made my escape back to manned flying the 18x community was trying to get rid of most the 11s and get them back in manned aircraft. I did see Randolph T-6s on our Wings white jet allocations to fill for the Winter 22 VML. Not sure if they were to teach PIT or at the RPA training squadron.

AFSOC over the last 5 years has slowly turned into AMC lite. Talking with my AMC bros I question if AFSOC is actually worse now, maybe not on the checkride front, but just about everything else I’ve seen 4 Q3s the last couple years in my corner, 2 deserved clean kills, 2 were BS punishment. I have seen a couple bone headed things happen that weren’t deliberate negligence, in which the crew made good decisions after to get down safely, they fessed up immediacy and it went way of the public humiliation Friday brief (in my opinion as it should have) so that gives me hope.

I would trade the M9 for a 1911 all day every day.

Winter on Fire on Netflix, been on my watch list for awhile, in depth look at the revolution that occurred in 2014 ousting the former puppet government. Pretty graphic, protesters marching and getting violently beaten by the puppet governments goons, eventually turned into goons sniping protesters. Some good insight into why these people are fighting so hard, and will most likely continue to do so as long as the Russians are in their boarders. It’s also a great example of why the second amendment is so important.

I would have to imagine if the Russians somehow pull this off the insurgency is going to be much more bloody than Afghanistan. The Ukrainian people have shown they want no part of Russia, and have the backing of pretty much all the Western world. Motivated goat farmers living in mud huts ousted two of the worlds superpowers with basic weapons, IEDs, a limited supply of stingers, and the will/patience to continue to resist. Ukraine people have higher levels of education, advanced weapons, and vast support from the west. A puppet government would fall and I don’t see the police/military protecting a puppet government. My opinion, biased by our western media and the twitter videos coming out of Ukraine, the only way to get the people to comply and stop an insurgency would be mass imprisonment and most likely a genocide. If Putin withdraws he’s done, if he continues it will only get more bloody, and everyone is walking a fine line trying to avoid WWIII, it’s a loose/loose/loose situation.

The drones being used in Ukraine compared to something like the -9. I appeared to jump to gun a little bit and while quickly reading your post I think I miss understood your point. On paper a comparison to the -1 seems fair somewhat fair. Compared to the -9 it’s rather inferior. Without going into to much detail, I would argue something like -9 wouldn’t be the tool for this job. Something smaller, less costly, and with a easier logistic foot print (much like what the Ukrainian military has) is much better suited. In this war, you want to be mobile with a small foot print, not logistically challenging (fuel, parts, mx, etc) and simple infrastructure (runway requirements, data links, mobile command box) As with any fixed wing asset, you are going to trade payload, range, and loiter abilities.

No.

I think he miscalculated Ukraine's motivation of its people, and especially it’s president. I’m guessing he figured after a day or two of fighting the president would flee, government collapse, and everyone just give up. Russia has lots of armor in storage to replace its losses. While their Air Force has decent numbers on paper their FMC status is questionable at best. (I have no behind the scenes knowledge, just open source I have seen in the past) They degraded the Ukraine Air Force in the opening rounds, and Russian aircraft continued to fall from the skies via SAMs and Stingers. With a partially conscript army it’s easier to replace a couple thousand bodies than several hundred aircraft. Might as well save the jets in case this escalates and he needs to defend the boarders, and go old school, sacrifice the bodies, use artillery and long range missiles.

China has deep pockets in Hollywood, I believe something like 40% of all movie funding in Hollywood can be sourced back to China. They had a bunch of the patches changed/altered on Mavs jacket for Top Gun 2 if they ever release it.