viper154

I couldn't agree more, the job still ain't the best, but if the AF could get us some better locations, better hours, and treat it as a true A tour with a legit hope of going to back to a cockpit after the 1 tour was up I (and I think many others) would do the job without us kicking and screaming the entire way.

There is no sense of entitlement going on here. We're not asking for dream assignments to the beach or only to work between the hours of 9-5 M-F. We want to do the job we trained years to do and the taxpayer payed millions to fund. As a tax payer you should be pissed the AF is taking assets it spent tens of million to train and sending them to a job that could be done by 18x ers that cost probably 5% of what a manned pilot cost to train. How do you think that army SF or Navy seal reacts when they get sent to a desk job? They get bitter and pissed. No offense but flying a RPA isent that difficult. Also, get a sense of perspective. This is a online forum where we can vent and sport bitch. When/If you make it a operational squadron you will see that many of us put on our happy face, go to work and hack the mish. Life isent always sun shine and rainbows. Stop being a douche

Policy was impimented by the OG/CC. FYI in my limited interaction with him he was a superdouche. Probably buds with Chang. Choose your battles wisely. Unless your are willing/have the resources/rank to to T off and fight the good fight I recommend you keep your head down and look up some good microwave recipes for the 6-9+ months you will be there. (no joke) I could write a book on the problems with that place, lodging is the least of your worries, especially if you aren't a new guy. Your frustration meter will be pegged the entirety of your stay.

We understand, it's like being lost in the wilderness with two broken legs. We understand we probably will never get out, but the hope that over next hill is a town with the brewery and strip club are what keep us going. Don't kill my brewery and strip club dreams The current ops tempo does a pretty good job at "educating" the young guys. As said above, about 6 months on the line and that cherry "I'm here to help" attitude turns into the salty bitterness. Hence the minimal numbers of guys that are going to stay in 2 years when the commitments start coming up.

Hope. And maybe some luck. It's the only thing that keeps me from saying F it, just not show up one day and living under the overpass.

Reason to be cautiously optimistic. As one of the recent UPT directs it makes me hopeful. I think if you can get out early you have a chance of escaping. As said above, I have heard the AF is expecting something like 40%+ of the initial 18x ers to stay. From my small corner and limited experience, that number is going to be closer to 2-3%. I think this projection is probably based on the assumption people are going to get through the pipeline on time, I can promise you Holloman is turning into more of a shit show everyday. I was lucky and got out almost on time but the majority of folks are graduating a month or two late, and the classes that just showed were told to expect that to increase by several months. Also keep in mind the amount of CAPs were reduced to up pipeline production. Soon as the pencil pushers see green numbers those CAPs are going to go back up. Sounds like it might be worth shot to try and volunteer get a bomber or ISR gig Either way, I wish you luck, hopefully we are all someday back in a real jet.

Oh really? Glad you plan on honoring that "promise" you just sold to 100+ UPT grads and stuck them in the box. Glad your plan to fix the manning issue is to screw over the pilots you non vol'd to RPAs. That should really help the morale. Hope your star stabs you in the jugular on your way to work tomorrow. If you are who you say you are.

You can have all the gucci gear you want, its not going to make a difference in the world if you don't have a force of highly trained/skilled/motivated people to fly/maintain/support the gear. I have seen your office, among others take the most valuable asset this military has (motivated people excited about their job) and turn them into bitter, disgruntled, and burnt out guys/gals counting down the days until they can GTFO. You don't get that its not about the money. History has shown, the most modern and powerful militaries have been defeated time and time again, by inferior and ill equipped enemies, that have a motived force with a reason to fight. People are your most valuable asset, and you are bending them over and giving it to them with no lube. Out. I have to go do my SAPR CBT............

You might have to put down some non rated jobs. Not familiar with the OTS process but I do believe I had to put a bunch of non rated jobs on the form even though I already a pilot slot and approved medical my senior of ROTC back in the day.

Great. Take away the only semi good deal.

RPAs were my first assignment out of UPT. Supposedly I will have the option to go back manned after a couple years. I'll believe it when I see it. At least I am suppose to go back. RPAs as a second or third assignment are almost a guaranteed death sentence to never go back manned. It sucks. If if age isent a issue work on getting your PPL how you see fit. Guard/Reseve units seem to like to see that on your app.

The vision you listed is fine. I believe the FC1 requirements are 20/60 or better before you need a waiver. They look at a lot more than just that though. Look at your other vision numbers and compare them to the regs, most of which can be found in the aviation med section of this forum. Physically, the PT test is a joke. The 100 is hard to get but if you go to the gym and run a few miles a few times a week high 90s are easy. Again, google AF PFT test and the numbers should come up. 1.5 mile run 100 is 9:10 or so, just passing is around 12:30. Good news, you have 3+ years to get better at running. Best advice, keep getting good grades, do all the extra clubs and shenanigans if you want the academy, and hit the gym/track. Even if you decide you don't want to fly, these things will all help you in life. Getting into ROTC is as easy as it gets. Don't get arrested between now and then, get accepted to a school that has the program, contact the det the summer you start college and say "hey I want to join" and show up when they tell you. Profit. Other tips. Look around this Forum. Their is a plethora of great info on here, some is easy to find, some is buried 30 pages from 10 years ago, so do some digging. Get some hours flying and make sure you like it. You would be surprised how many people show up to IFS/UPT thinking they are going to be the next F-22 triple ace, get a couple rides in the plane, and realize this isn't the business for them.

I had someone get my card info while I was at Randolph and tried making several $200 purchases at Walmart. They locked the card, called me, and I got a full reimbursement a few days later with a new card. USAA may not be as good as it use to and may not always have to best rates/deals, but they are still a good bank to do your basic banking and insurance needs. I've had them since 2010 and never had any issues. Knock on wood.

Agreed with the above. Get your scores and tell her to suck it. Look at other flight school options, 60k is a lot of cash for something that may not even work out. As mentioned above, look into some guard/reserve units as well. It can't hurt to put a package together and apply while your trying to retake your TBAS or build flight hours. My biggest regret is not at least trying for the guard/reserve. Having flown manned and now RPAs, RPAs suck unless your into it. Avoid it like the plague. And understand, especially being active the odds are at some point you may find yourself in a droid, even as your first assignment after UPT.

Do some research. Not sure how OTS applications work but all the ROTC guys now have to apply for all or none of the rated positions. Try to find something current but I'm fairly sure my class back in 2012 was the last that could pick and choose.

Retake the TBAS. I did mine in 2010 so the format was different but my PCSM went from a 9 to 80 from the retake. I didn't really understand a couple of the parts and bombed. After going home and thinking a kit and practicing some of the parts I did a lot better. If you got cash and time to burn get the PPL as well. Active duty is much more concerned with the numbers than where they came from.

I'm new the RPA community but my thoughts are no. No one cares if the patch says recon or attack. Far as the combat time, idk. Maybe some of you guys that have been around for awhile can get into the details about that, but again, my initial thoughts are eh. RPA QOL are only going to get better by having more man power, more/better locations, and perhaps a companion trainer program for the manned guys. Right now no one is going to give us money for a companion program. It seems they are trying to get some more locations open. The real deal breaker is manning and ACC is screwing the pooch. The 18x school house has gotten a blank check to expand their output. Great. The FTU is the real bottle neck/issue in the pipeline. I was at the school house for almost 7 months, out of those I spent 80-90 days doing absolutely nothing, that's just for IQT. MQT is another 2 months or so. The syllabus needs to be reworked and the instruction is all over the place. Scheduling is a nightmare. New students arriving were being told their scheduled 5.5 month course could take up to 9-10 months. The manning issue can't get better if they can't figure out a better way to get students through the FTU.

S&W M&P 9mm with 17 in my nightstand as well. My wife really enjoys shooting it. Well over 2000 rounds of cheap ammo though it, only had one or two jams/misfires. I keep the expensive self defense stuff in it for home defense. She has a Glock 42 that she (and I) both also enjoy shooting if your looking for something compact. Much less capacity though.

Depends on the weight. I think it's something like 50 cents a pound, but that's taxed at 27% or so. Plus your 52 cents a mile or whatever the going rate is now a days for mileage. Add in your per diem and DLA as applicable and you can make a good bit of cash if you own the trailer.

You need to talk to you unit as they provide the funding/waiver or whatever it is they do. We had several guys do this in my class. If you go this route you will be forced to live in the dorms.

The UPT directs are now getting the last 3 weeks of the 18x course at Randloph so we get some time in their RPA "SIM"s. I'm from one of the first classes that started getting RPAs from UPT again, and my number got called. You can see the difference between the UPT direct guys and the 18x guys. As said above, a lot of the 18x guys are good dudes but they lack a lot of the airmanship built from being in the air, flying form, working with ATC , having multiple radios, IFEs etc. Getting 40 hours at doss and 40 hours in bamboo bomber t-6 sim (most the buttons and switches are just pictures under plexi glass) Isn't the best to build flying skills. From what the 18x guys said most the sims were instrument sims, and for those of you who don't know the MQ-1 and 9 have absolutely 0 traditional instruments. The first UPT directs are just graduating the FTU, but myself and all my peers going Reapers have had few or no issues. Edited. I failed English.

Clovis is a debatable combat zone depending on where you live.

Do a court house wedding, don't tell anyone and bring her along. Unless your in such a bad financial situation she needs to keep her job, in which case how do you expect to pay for flights ? And if she is working full time I would expect she has good enough health to fly and see you as well. I think every weekend probably ain't going to happen. Maybe once a month, or on the long weekends holidays. UPT is stressful enough, dealing with airline bullshit, sleep, travel ect every week sounds like a recipie for a bad time, mmmmk

I think it's if you can get back in 12 hours for the RPA Squadrons at Holloman. We were told at some point Vegas is local area for the guys traveling back to see family on weekends or house hunt. Can't site pub though. Never read it or care to. Last AETC base was a couple hour drive. (6 is ringing a bell)

As a student at the MQ-9 FTU on 3 separate occasions I've gone 10+ plus days without having an event. Doesn't matter who you want to put in the seat if you can't get people trained in a timely manner to fill the seats. Graduations are 6-8 weeks after the scheduled date (which is 5 months to begin with) and only getting worse with the influx of students.