viper154

Not a GA flyer, but the squadron provided Otterbox cases and I believe a Otterbox leg holder. Case is solid. After 6 or so years of flying, deploying, and dropping iPads I haven’t had any issues. It comes with a removable back plate that attaches over the case, and has flip out legs so you can stand it up on a table and brief on it, or watch YouTube videos at work. The leg strap is great if you don’t have a place to mount it. Elastic bands go around each corner of the iPad and the strap velcros around your leg like a knee board. I’ve also come to love having a Apple Pen. It’s nice not having to search for some scratch paper, it does take getting use to. ForeFlight has a built it scratch pad and ATIS template. I tend to just use the scratch pad. warning -if your a big dude in a tiny cockpit pay attention to your iPad placement on the leg, I’ve had minor issues where the strap slowly slides down my leg after a long flight and can interfere with yoke movement. Work also bought A20s. I love them but they ain’t cheap. Very comfortable and light, noise canceling is great, and I love that you can pipe music in for those long boring flights. I have Bose Q35s for personal use, they are also great.

Ahh, is that not one of the ideas of making a training program extremely tough, to get individuals to work as a team from different back grounds to achieve a common objective despite their differences? Most of my class had similar skin pigments besides the internationals, beyond that many of us had very few similarities, yet we had little trouble studying together and bonded over embracing the suck. I have no problems with the intent of getting more quality candidates from different back grounds and groups, but the execution is poor. If your aren’t helping someone that fought tooth and nail for their chance at their dream job because of their skin color, genitalia, sexuality or whatever then GTFO. And that’s a two way street. The middle eastern guys with a different flag on their shoulder, different skin color, and different accent had no issues hanging out and studying with us while we drank beer and ate bbq. If you can’t get along and be a adult with other Americans working toward a common goal of getting your wings you probably are going to struggle.

Hopefully ammo prices will come back down. You could get 1000 rounds of cheapo 9mm Target ammo for $170 shipped pre COVID/riots. Depends what you want to spend. My wife bought me a single gun quick access style safe box that’s anchored into the wall next to my bed. We didn’t want any unsecured firearms as our oldest started walking around. For the rest of my collection I got a fairly big safe on sale at the bx. It’s suites my needs of keeping the guns secure from kids, any novice to amateur burglars, or house fire.

Ya pretty much. Innovation!!! <sarcasm>

I thought about this myself as a fellow U-28 guy. The PC-12 thing works great for IQT, but once the powers that be decided to convert more/all the fleet to mission birds it’s kinda gone down the drain. I’ve done 4 pilot pros the last couple weeks, all in the mission birds. It’s all about getting the most deployable tails we can. I don’t think we are really the best example for arguing a T-6 only track, although it probably would work for us. I’ve met a couple new guys we got from UPT next or whatever it’s called with only T-6 time. (One almost killed me in the pattern, but that’s another story) We are pretty much a heavier/slower T-6, and as you said, the young guys really need to focus more on mission work than flying across the world. I would think a lot of of the AMC bubbas have a different focus for the new guys. If we are going divest T-1s I would rather see IFS go away and the AF to invest in a fleet of 172s/182s or whatever. Academy and ROTC pilot selects get their PPLs prior to commissioning through a summer program that is semi similar to UPT, stand up, bold face, AF style flying etc. Then a rehack/pre UPT phase, get their hands warm, current on instrument flying, some out n backs/cross countries etc, maybe a month? And then start T-6s. Guys that go heavies at least get another 60-100 hours of real flying that is way cheaper than a high end sim or taking a 4 engine beast around the flag pole. Guys that go fighters have more basic flying back ground so hopefully phase 3 can focus more on those -4g dives with MIG-28s or whatever it is they do, and less time trying to figure how to get ATIS and fly a ILS.

Lol-we waste so much money on bullshit. Prime example, there are still many offices that are suppose to be “teleworking” that usually provide “support” to the force during the non China virus times. Yet somehow the people hacking the mission continue flying and deploying without them. Cut the 69 billion pointless jobs on bases we have and we would have enough money for a new fleet of Phase 2, 3 trainers and god knows what else. Don’t get me started on how much time/money we waste on whatever the social justice hot topic of the month is. let’s be honest, the Air Force long ago decided your flying ability wasn’t really that important. Who was on the party planning committee and spending time in school is what matters to the bobs. This attitude has finally trickled down to UPT. Edit for grammar. I shouldn’t post before I’ve had my coffee.

There are probably a million different opinions and options out there. I started the wife on a .38 special, my thought was a revolver was a good choice as she isn’t a gun nut like me and wasn’t going to be practicing clearing malfunctions n such in her spare time. Turned out it was a bit to much kick for her and she didn’t enjoy shooting it. I took her to a range and we tried a few different guns and she really liked the Glock 43, so that what she has. There is always a debate on pistol caliber sizes and stopping power. My personal opinion, a bunch of 9mm hollow points is enough to put down 99.69% of threats you/she may encounter in the US. I have several pistols from different manufacturers, Glock is about as good/reliable as it gets for composite pistols that don’t break the bank. I own several Glocks, I recommend finding a “Blue Label” dealer as their blue label guns usually come with extra mags and night sites, which I much prefer over their standard sites. My usual carry gun in a Glock 19 I have some higher end pistols from Sig and some others, they are great guns, but most are full size/1911s which aren’t always the best conceal options. I would ask her how she plans to carry, and go from there on what to get. Highly recommend letting her try some different guns out to see what she likes and feels comfortable with. If she don’t like shooting it, she probably isn’t going to practice or carry with it.

Grand scheme of things, it’s not going to make or break your chances of being the next CSAF. Take it as a compliment, and don’t get complacent. Keep up the hard work, where it may make a difference (if you continue being a good pilot) is at a TRB where the squadron selects who is up for upgrades. It could help you upgrade sooner rather than later. Reaching those upgrade milestones earlier should help your career (Well, maybe, Air Force seems to care more about all the extra shit you do besides your primary job as a pilot 😩) but those hours will help your airline resume!

Rumor was one of the crew was hit in the hand/finger.

Hurlburt pros-jobs for spouses, schools that aren’t horrible, shopping options besides Walmart. Healthcare you don’t have to drive 2 hours for, 2 airports within 45 minutes. More than 3 restaurants, no cow shit. No dust storms. All sorts of beach and water activities. your going to wrong spots if you don’t see some great looking tourists. ya it’s hot and the traffic can suck. Traffic is a issue anywhere that has a population. I’d much rather be here. But hey, I have a boat, so I enjoy it.

I guess. If your going to consider FAIP, I would consider other reasons than just “I don’t like what’s in my drop” If you like teaching and helping people, having a thousand+ instructor hours under your belt out of the gate, enjoy the trainer flying, like your location (although it seems occasionally FAIPs get PCSd to other bases) then it might be for you. As with anything, bust your ass, do everything you can (without being a dick/blue falcon) to be at the top of the Rack n stack for your FAIP drop. if your attitude is “f it, I don’t like this drop so I’ll stick around for 3-4 years in this shithole and hook em all to wait for another drop” then you probably are going to hate life, be a shitty IP, and end up somewhere you don’t want to be anyway because you are going to be in the bottom of your FAIP drop rack n stack. As Danger said, most people end up loving where they end up even it wasn’t what they wanted. And if not, work hard, bust your ass, and try for things like U-2, B-2, and cross flow opportunities, they are out there, we have a bunch of crossflows, including myself in my current corner of the AF world. I also love where I ended up from my crossflow opportunity.

If I stay in it’s inevitable I will end up back at Cannon, I’ve highly considered doing the LBB commute. I don’t want my kids going to school in that shit hole, and I suspect my wife would Be happier. With the new use or loose leave extension and deployments I think I could take a 3 or 4 day weekend almost every week. Someone doesn’t like it they can deny my leave every week when I put it in and I’ll take a week a month off. I don’t think I can live in that wretched place again, but current outside job prospects + my resume don’t leave a lot of options to maintain my current income.

I’ve met a couple people that said they prefer Cannon over Hurlburt. Every time I had to restrain myself from immediately punching them in the face. I get Florida/beach isn’t everyone’s cup of tea but come on. I’ve always been curious what the data shows for 7 day opt rates to places like Cannon compared to the garden spots.

RPAs are unlikely from UPT. I ended up getting RPA from UPT back in the day, there was 1 year surge for RPAs so it opened up to UPT. I was released from my RPA job after 3 years back to real airplanes. Make lemons out of lemonade. My RPA experience set me up real good for my manned aircraft. I honestly don’t think I would have done to well in my manned airplane qualification course without my RPA experience. Helos do some badass things. Assignments out of UPT are about 2 things. Performance and timing. Only one you can control. If you have to have a certain mission set to be happy I would stick with video games. This forum is full of people who ended up in places they didn’t want/know about on day one and are thankful it turned out that way, myself included.

I think the intent was to have more precision forward firing guided munitions that are lighter and less drag. Hellfires, Griffins, rockets etc. it’s been awhile but the drag index and weight of a hellfire and the MQ-9 rack was low. The drag index was negligible on the half rack with 2 missiles. Even with 2 racks (4) weapons the drag index was still almost 0 and the weight less that a 1 GBU-12. MX liked hellfires because from their perspective they were easy. You could upload or download them in the time it took you to step. GBUs were a project that were pretty intensive. I sure you have much more knowledge on that then me. I will agree, when I saw the requirements I didn’t think there was a way to get everything they wanted at a price point they wanted. Basically a love child of a MQ-9, AH-64, and A-10. To me a rotary wing asset checks the boxes a lot better than fix wing but there is no way in hell this is going to go to the Army.

Ya I got the MASSIF, I really like it. It cuts the wind pretty well. Coldest I’ve worn it is probably 20 degrees F. Did a good job. It also does pretty well on those border line days where you might want a jacket but maybe not. I haven’t worn it in awhile but I think it has zippers that go from the arm pit down a ways to let it breath. Massif also makes a lighter weight jacket that basically is just a shell. It’s good for rain (minus a hood though) or those days it’s not chilly but there is a chilly breeze. edit to add, I really liked it in Cannon, which can be similar environment to Texas depending where you are. Also was great in Afghan in the winter when the nights were chilly but it warmed up in the day.

RPAs have a specific mission they are very good at, loiter forever, track asshole x, kill asshole x without taking out the entire city block, in a permissive environment . Occasionally they execute other mission sets like CSAR, CAS, etc, and the community has evolved so much in 10 years with new TTPs and toys it generally goes well. Couple major issues with RPAs for this mission. They can’t land anywhere. You need a GCS, and some solutions are out there for quick site set up, but what happens when FARP site A gets rained out at the last minute and you have to flex to B. Man power ain’t there to support having alternates, and tearing down and putting up the infrastructure is a couple day project. Comms. If you flown in the stack with a RPA you appreciate why you don’t want them to be TAC-A. Their radios suck, a lot of lag, only 1 or 2. Most of this is limited by current SATCOM limitations. Lost link. Happens more frequently than most probably know, Do you really want your light attack aircraft getting a 9 line for CAS and then loose satcom link rendering it useless? I’ve spent a assignment in RPAs. The are a great tool, lethal as Fuck when employed correctly, I really don’t think they are a great answer for light attack, at least where we are with current technology. Get a king air or light turbo type aircraft, strap some cameras, as many PGMs as you can hold and some data links and call it day.

The SIB has some more insightful information.

Couple month trip to the sandbox and some tax free income or 18 years of responsibility for another person and all the hardships that come with children. Unsat on SA/Decision making. Please, get prego and stay home if that’s how you make decisions, I don’t want you anywhere near me in a combat zone.

What is the Scorpions dirt/short field ability? The powers that be want a aircraft that can land on on a short dirt strip, grab some gas/munitions and go. TOLD would have to be in the PC-12/C-208 range for it to be a player. From some info I got it seems this is a primary factor/requirement to the powers that be. Who knows if this project is ever going to actually happen, but I’m guessing if it does it’s going to be a prop.

With anything in life there are downsides and sacrifices, but from the time we walk out to the flight line to the time we shut the plane down it’s absolutely awesome, only thing in the world I would trade it for is my family, they always come first. I didn’t do great in high school, mainly a motivation issue. Keep busting your ass, don’t take no for a answer, and never give up. If flying is your passion and military flying just isn’t possible there are lots of other flying options.

I hooked my first T-6 checkride, up to that point in my short aviation career that was the first thing I hooked. Next ride went fine, and so did the next phase. Come end of block I got so nervous about my next check ride, and after my first hook I was sweating bullets, and not my normal relaxed self, mentally it messed with me, and sure enough I hooked the next one. 3rd checkride I flew with a great IP, who was a total bro in the brief and not asshole like the previous two I had. It got me to relax, which paid off, once we got in the air the airport I was going to for my instrument checkride had shut down, I heard ATC tell this to someone a couple minutes ahead of me and made the decision to go to my back up plan. Worked out fine. For awhile I always got super nervous for a checkride, more than most people, especially considering I’m pretty laid back most of the time. That mostly is gone now many years later, but to get over that anxiety I realized the biggest thing is just to relax and have fun. Fly it like you stole it everyday, find some good pump up songs or airplane porn videos and take a 5 minute pump up session before each flight, get stoked to go fly, and don’t sweat it. As said above, if you are struggling a bit CAP isn’t a bad thing for you. Hopefully they get you with some great IPs that can get you the tools you need for success. Also, what Danger said about the pitch and power, makes life hella of a lot easier, once you get it down you can look like boss and shack your perimeters everytime. I do not recommend the VSI/roll indicator thing, never had heard of that before, not sure if he is serious or trolling. Only time I ever look at VSI is during a decent to gauge if I want to increase or decrease my rate to make a point, also helpful for a nice stable non precision step down. Other than that a pretty much forget it’s there 95% of the time

I got some stuff when the gyms started closing. Squat Rack from amazon, $350. I found a gym equipment rep that runs a side business selling the used stuff he pulls out of gyms when he is installing new stuff. 4x45 2x35, 2x25, 2x10, 2X5 for plates, $100. they were rusty, I power washed them real good and sprayed them with metal spray paint. Held up good so far. Olympic Bar, EZ-Curl bar, adjustable bench, TRX bands. Real nice spin bike, used, but he charged me $300, retail was something like 2 grand new. Some foam mats from amazon to put under everything. I check Walmart every trip for dumbbells. Everywhere else has been sold out. I’ve been able to get 10s, 20s and 35s. Oh and a box fan, it’s hot in the garage. I love it, no waiting for equipment, crank up my speaker, I can get everything I need done. Lost about 15lbs so far.

I had that problem on the A2CU with my belt as well. Concur that they fade fast. Also my knee board velcro tears up the pants. As a taller otherwise average guy I find the fit much better. The real selling point for a 2 piece for me is the removable top. I take mine off in the plane, makes life much more comfortable. If we are on fire to a point I need sleeves to protect my skin I’m dead anyway.

AFSOC, it’s the only thing my unit is issuing.