viper154

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.

Might be the MASSIFs? Same company that makes the new awesome flight jackets. Not a ejection seat guy but we been buying them in my corner of the AF. They are about twice as much but they fit much better, don’t have random velcro everywhere, ass is much less likely to rip, and the pocket functionality is much better.

RPA is a great asset. Not to specifically answer your JTAC question, but to address why the light attack won’t be drone. Manning-the RPA enterprise can’t fill that bill. They are doing everything they can to improve manning in their current posturing. Cross training the entire U-28 community would tax the system to much. Long run, it could be be done, but it would take a large amount of assets. The 18x community is trying to become a pure 18x community with minimal 11s, so it would go against that long term plan. Hardware-satcom delay makes comms a ass pain, especially with troops on the ground. The KU delay also makes flying at low levels, as well as the “aggressive” maneuvering for gun/rockets pretty much impossible to do safely for both ground guys and the aircraft. Lastly is the requirement for austere ops. You need a ground team to land the 9 at the airfield/farp point, this takes significant time/security to set up. Also the several million dollar camera is on the front of the aircraft real close to the ground. It’s a recipe for disaster landing on anything not paved and maintained. There are some additional considerations but this is not the appropriate medium for that discussion. I’ve flown both manned and unmanned ISR aircraft, each are both great at what they do, and have made serious TTP improvements in the last decade. Both also have their respective weaknesses. Can a drone fill these low block CAS mission sets in the future? Probably, but those technology gains aren’t going to happen in the timeline laid out by SOCOM.

Wife and I have both vehicles, fairly new mid end cars fully ensured with Geico for $75 a month, clean records, good credit. We switched from USAA, they were charging $125 a month. Local company for home owners, live a mile from the coast, not in a flood zone, $1600 a year for - $270,000 home. USAA wanted $2800.

Current environment you aren’t going to palace chase until the last 6 or so months of your commitment. Who knows in 6-10 years from now. Family life is tough all around. Everyone deploys, goes TDY, etc. MAF seems to take the cake with being gone the most, including 130s. I’m a AFSOC guy, we are gone a decent amount as well. I’m not to knowledgeable on current fighter schedules but I’m going to assume they are also gone a bunch. If being at home is really that important FAIP is probably the best option. I would just put what mission set/air frame type appeals to you the most. The rest will all work out. Just because a community has a good or bad schedule now doesn’t mean that won’t change. Especially so with recent developments and geo political activities.

The fact they think a MQ-9 can loiter for 30+ hours shows they know absolutely nothing about what they are talking about. MQ-9 is great for ISR whack a mole in permissive environments, for a variety of reasons it is horrible for “armed overwatch” CAS, light attack or whatever buzzword label of the day is.

I think even if they do buy new hardware they are going to go with something along those lines. It’s a easier transition those crews than to find pointy nose types to put in cockpits and both light ISR fleets were intended to be “temporary”. They now have been around for some time and are getting up there in airframe hours. There is also a significant reduction in risk operating out of the small arm/manpad environment and using PGMs. It’s a trade off because you are loosing gun capes A light gunship could be a option but cost is going to be significantly higher per tail than getting AT-6/Super T or hanging some sensors and hellfire racks on a modified already in production civilian airframe.

I’m not in the know but I would guess the light fixed wing ISR fleet, King Air/PC-12s

Stop beating yourself up bruh/bra. As said above, your job is removing more bad guys from this earth than just about anyone else. The community is making leaps and bounds in TTPs/software/hardware. You can show up to ya ops unit and go through the motions or you can bust your ass and contribute to probably the most rapidly advancing community in military aviation. I get it, I did a tour in drones, only person that can change your mindset is you. if manned flying is your goal you can keep trying to apply to AD rated boards and/or continue to build your resume for guard units when your commitment is up. I can promise it’s going to be a lot easier to get hired with a great record/reputation. Civilian flying is always a option to. Oh, contract LR jobs are also paying upward of $2000 a day right now, so get that qual. Your family/friends can poke fun but you will being laughing straight to the bank on your yacht. Im not trying to be dick, but you need to do some soul searching and get some confidence. Spend time in the vault studying, upgrade ASAP, master your craft, set goals, be the hardest worker in the unit and never give up. You only live once, make it count.

Gate months can stop, I don’t remember if it’s 4 or 6 months from your last flight. Caveat is that if you are enrolled in a flying training course your gate months keep going even if you have more than 4/6 months. That happened to me cross flowing airframes, I was in academics for awhile because of a back log, talked to my SARM shop and they explained the above to me. If you are truly casual and not enrolled in a course you could loose months, or so the airman at the desk said. I don’t have pubs/references to back that up so take it for what it’s worth.

It does, but as mentioned above there are resources in place, and unless you are a threat to yourself/others or to messed up to fly they are good about providing assistance and keeping you flying. The few RPA units I were in during my time flying them were all extremely close. It certainly helped being able to punch the ICS button to your bro’s next door and chat/decompress/sport bitch while controlling a drone spinning endless circles. We always hung out as a shift on our off day’s, often it was standard drinking shenanigans but we did plenty of other non destructive things, I made some of the best friends I’ve ever had in the RPA world. Hardest part for most wasn’t the mission, it was usually pretty clear these guys we were going after were bad and a threat. It was more so the endless shift work. There was no end of deployment, go home, decompress, normal life. Most line guys had 3-4 years of mission work, 5-6 days a week with no real break until they got a front office job or farmed out of the squadron. There was talk when I went back manned a few years ago of getting a more “normal” type of “deployment cycle” going so people got some time off the line, but manning needed a major plus up first. Not sure how that is going. All that being said, his job stress certainly could have played a role in this unfortunate situation.