viper154

If so that’s scarry. Unit dependent but the average RPA MCE line guy is logging between 20-40 hours a week (or more) depending on unit/manning.

I would wait to see what the numbers for next year are. Those 12/13Us are prior navs/abms that we’re part of the pilot program for 18x career field, and the first lot of the 18 program we’re prior service types. But I could be wrong, I’m in a rather specialized corner of the RPA enterprise that has a lot of high paying contracting jobs. But hopefuly good news for those of us trying to get back to the cockpit.

Life choices, I appreciated the coffee on my recent trip to the ‘Stan, but I have readily avaible bathroom. The Stan food was much easier on my system than the Deid food FYI. Take notes kids, everyone wants to fly fighters, but having a shitter during the sortie never seems to make it into those badass flying videos!!! K-cups are amazing, never have to worry when that last batch of joe was brewed.

I think the best approach would be to go to the dwell ratio that’s been thrown around. 2 months flying the line, 2 months off. Companion trainer that’s cheap for when your on dwell, DA-20, C172, nothing crazy, but make this job fun, instead of just exhausting flying the line non stop. Leadership. I’ve been doing this a few years as a AFSOC guy, and have worked with ACC several times on TDYs, schools, and deployments. RPAs need to separate out from ACC, they will always be the red headed step child, and toxic leaders from the squadron level on up plague the community. Not saying AFSOC has everything right but at the command level leadership understands the battlefield importantance the MQ assets, their streanghts and weakness, and are more invested in the constant improvement and upgrade process. Bonus-agree, 50k at least. Locations, ya we need more, but they are working on it. Willing to take what we can get, Shaw, Tyndal, and maybe Hurlby. Brits have a pretty good MQ-9 program flying in theater with us, doubt anyone is going to contribute any more though. Rumor is is they are standing up a enlisted aviator cross training program so some the enlisted aviation positions can crossflow fairly easily between each other. Keep pressing with this program.

Anyone have any idea about the rotator back to the states? Assuming it would still be flying being dirrectly related to “war effort”

I think the bigger difference is in how we employ. Reaper is a precision/surgical/assisination strike tool, we have reallly gotten away from doing traditional CAS, which is what the light attack would be doing. I will be the first to admit, I would probably need some extra rides, I’m by no means arguing that you can take someone from a ISR/ GCS platform, give them a quick T-6 refresher and call them a expert in the A-29/AT-6/whatever. The drone is very misunderstood plane, and it draws hate easily, hell I still do hate it, but I caution against assuming it’s a walk in the park. There are some very complex environments and situations you find yourself in if you aren’t the shitbag doing transits (or forced there because you suck) and not having a window forces you to develop a lot of your senses and tools to build a solid battlefield picture. It really does help build your aviation skill set overall when you return to normal flying. Again, not trying to argue that a RPA bubba is equivalent to a 4 ship A-10 lead, but I caution people to being closed minded, I was before I went to them and have be surprised. I went to CBM, and was a UPT D, maybe in your cases they grabbed the bottom of the barrel, But I can print you my training reports, and vouch for several other bros from CBM and the other bases that dudes were getting snagged from the middle and top ish portion of their classes.

Sure, but I think the AF is missing a large pool of potential drivers by making the program a -38 only assignment though. Reality is we have a shortage of pointy nose types, and the trainer we are using to make new ones is only getting older and more expensive to maintain. Using a initial cadre of CAS experts (A-10 guys) to start off think the AF could motivate a lot of MC-12/RPA/U-28 types to stay in and utilize the ISR/attack training they have already received. Are some dudes going to wash out? Sure. Send them back to where they came from or a large airplane that needs bodies. In the end, what is more feasible, safer, and cheaper? Trying to shove even more UPT trainees through -38s to go to this program and/or replace all the pointy nose types they send to light attack, or take already winged pilots that need a home? Whatever ac they buy is going to be cheaper to fly than a -38 per flight hour, spend that money on a extended syllabus for dudes that came from T-1s. And I don’t for a minute buy the “mindset” argument. There are plenty of 18x ers that never have flown in a T-6/T-38/T-1 that have kill numbers well into triple digits (and some of them 1Lts). Just my 2 cents, and a solution that minimizes the pull the program would create on the 11F community. Disclaimer: I am biased, I have a T-1 and RPA background and would give a testicle to fly light attack.

Buff was assaigned to UPT-D MQ-1 guy within the last month or so, formally from T-1s.

We did the order from the Air Commando store as well. Only place we could find.

Yes, my sqd at Cannon wears them in the bar every Friday, and they are badass

Our local name tag lady said there was a special tool/die to get the silver on the leather, and that it was expensive to buy the equipment, hence why it’s hard to find companies that do it. What kind of cost would it be to set up our squadron logo on the bag tags (with wings and names) if we did a our logo with a group order? I have the digital file of our logo but not the file used to make our name tags. I would guess I can get 10-20 people to buy, maybe more, not 100% sure, out in desert land until later this month.

I would be interested in those as well

No one gave a shit 3-4 years ago. Bunch of the guard bros lived next to each other in the dorms, we always knew when ones one wife came to visit by the noises made in flight room that Monday morning. Apparently there were a lot of screamers, or fakers. Complete side note, lots of cool areas around Columbus that make a good weekend trip, Nashville, New Orleans, Pcola, just to name a few.

Because you need a attitude adjustment, cadet. Sure your question may seem silly to us, but hey, you asked for help, some people gave you useful advice, some were being a smart ass. Where you went wrong is with your long winded quibbling response to the sarcasm you received. I guarantee if you take that attitude to the debrief (even in the new, hard to wash people out UPT) you will be crushed. Aviators are a sarcastic group, we give each other a hard time, it’s part of the culture, and for good reason. Many of times in UPT you are going to get sarcastic, souls crushing comments made by your instructors and your friends when you mess something up or say something silly. Dont be a whiny bitch. Take your lickings, learn your lesson and move on with your mouth shut. *by a damn used Honda Civic and drive it out with your shit, you will make $1000+ for driving it with the weight of your stuff. And, you won’t be “that guy” that needs a ride every day to every place. Make some sight seeing stops on the way, crank the tunes, sounds a lot more fun than being crammed nut to butt next a old person who shit themselves in seat 37B on the cattle shuttle.

nah bro, plenty of public transport in Columbus. I wouldn’t worry about it until you get there. Plenty of options right at the airport.

There still not allowed to fraternize, epcially when I went through when the DLF IP/Student/Molly shit was going down. I was meaning more in terms of in the flight room and in the jet. If you showed the willingness to learn they were usually more happy to stop what they were doing and drop some knowledge bombs and take the time to actually teach. There was a level of respect, best way I can describe it It they understood they were instructors and better pilots, but that didn’t make them a better person. They weren’t ever afraid to hook someone or sit someone down, those that struggled and didn’t show the effort to try to improve had the heat turned up and got washed out. We had a above average class (or so we were told) generally if you showed up with a good attitude and somewhat of a clue of what was going on things went well. I’ve heard many of these “back in the day” horror stories, I agree, if someone just can’t hack it or acts like ass kick them out, but UPT is a school to learn, jumping on someone after one mistake probably is not the best course of action Im guessing it’s gotten more relaxed now with shortage, I went through a few years ago when everyone was getting RIFd out.

Nope, guess I got lucky, my USEM was always a bro. Did I get sat down? Sure. But it was always in a nice Chris Hanson kinda way. “Hey man, why don’t you have a seat?” Entire NIPR network went down so I didn’t have printed told for a T-1 SIM, had to hand jam it, thought that crusty old fuck in a blue suit was going to choke slam me through the briefing desk.

At no point in pilot training was I ever afraid of a green suit IP. (3 years ago) They knew there was a fine line and if they hurt feelings to much aka swearing at a student they would being have a talk with the CC. There were some crusty old civilian sim instructors that would absolutely destroy you and your entire life, they gave 0 fucks and knew it was about impossible to fire them. Couple of them really knew how to put the fear of god in you.

You can bribe the intel nerds with beer to scrub the mts graphics grids to make a “training video” on dvd. Ops tested with good effects.

Well, you are probably only going to get the opertunity to fly fighters once. That being said, don’t take the book for face value. As others have said, if you want to do work, AFSOC is the place to be. I know 1Lt 18x bros that have more kills in the last year than entire fighter squadrons have in the last 16. I wanted to be a fighter dude, ended up in T-1s. I wanted AFSOC, ended up in AFSOC MQ-9s. I took my lickings and moved on with smile on my face, but privately I wasn’t to happy. But I embraced it with open arms and I was, and still am absolutely amazed at what this “plane” does. Don’t let a assignment that’s at the top of your list crush ya. Embrace it. I eventually did, and it’s paid dividends for me. Assignment night is like being a spoiled 16yr old and going car shopping with your parents. You can tell them what you want, but they are paying for it so they are going to give you what they choose. You can be a spoiled brat and cry about it, or take your car and move on. Turns out my car wasn’t cool or fast, but it was roomy, had a big back seat to park with the ladies, and had a good trade in value. Does is answer any any of your questions? Probably not, but give whatever your assignment is a chance if it’s not a pointy nose with afterburner, you might be pleasantly surprised. And drones probably aren’t a option for ya, so it could be worse.

*sorry Meant to quote RTB that you quoted SS I find the need for doctors at Cannon entertaining. We have the worst manned med group I’ve ever seen. Anything more than the sniffles or a sprained finger you have to make the hour and half drive to LBB. Child appointments take at least 2 weeks, same for women’s health. Dentist will only do a cleaning if your are doing a deployment outprocessing, no eye doctor for 6 months at least (there might be one now, I’ve been deployed a bit now). The regular doctor for the minions was just as backed up, week+ wait if something was wrong. Only office that was even close to reasonably manned was flight med. Wonder why? Maybe we do need to take care of the pilots?

#1 made a remix of dos gringos and #3 was not impressed with “Balled of Thunderbird 3-looking left”? -sarcasm

Take a guess where they order them from? At least at CBM a few years ago, they took a percentage and used mardon. Break/break, couple people pm me for recommendations on the leather tags, Nametags4u.com is our new go too The minions at home said they haven’t had any issues with them since a set up and deployed a few months ago.

i would expect it will go back to the levels of two years ago. It has actually gotten better the last 12 months or so, granted lots of young new guys but you gotta take what you can get, currently in the calm before the storm. I think the expansion of the 18x pipeline and expulsion of the 11s is the best thing for the community. For to long RPAs were a dumping ground for bad apples on the 11 side, or a place good 11s were forced to and became jaded. RPAs are a unique/developing enterprise, pulling manned guys initially made sense, but the AF needs to take the time/money to keep the 18s around to lead the force and develop the community. Hang in there, learn what you can from your casual job, make friends with the dudes in the current classes and get gouge. I waited 8 months after I commissioned to go on AD, and another 7 months casual at UPT waiting for my class dates. Sucked at the time, but as a exec assistant I learned a shit ton about the inner workings of how a flying squadron functions, and how to make the queep magic happen, helped a million times over when I showed up at my first ops unit.

1 out of 8. And that one is a prior with 4 years until retirement. The consensus is similar to that on the manned side, 25-35g a year bonus is nothing when contracting drone jobs are paying anywhere from $100,000 - $400,000 a year depending on what your quals are. All us Alpha tour guys are going back manned, no one is willing to recat and sacrifice manned time for airline apps