viper154

Pretty sure some kid on here (or someone with a story of him/her) failed out of the B-1 FTU for academics and got sent to B-52s. I also remember someone in the FEB board who got booted from B-1 FTU and was being sent to scan IDs at the gate for the next 9.69 years. How lucky you feeling? Be patient, things might change, you might just have to fly that desk for awhile until things get fixed or you can get a white jet tour.

I’m surprised E-3s and E-8s have such a high take rate. I would think all that 4 engine Boeing time would make them super easy hires to make 2-3x pay for half the work/no deployments.

Flyboys makes some good stuff in different sizes and configurations. Not sure if they have exactly what you want. I have 2 of their bags, a bigger bag with multiple pockets for multiple headsets, water bottles, iPad, lunch, center was big enough for for several binders of UPT pubs back in the day. My old squadron issued me a smaller bag for alert, just big enough for a iPad, headset, small water bottle and little pocket for flashlight/pens/multi tool. I like it for locals around the flagpole or compliment a backpack with snacks and such. Good quality bags. No issues with tearing/zippers/ etc and I don’t do a good job taking care of them

Bunch of people sent me the link when I was flying today, it was rather surreal walking off the flight line watching the trailer for Top Gun 2. The original was really what made me want to be a pilot as a young kid. After a really fun flight today and seeing that trailer was a awesome feeling. I hope the movie is as awesomely cheesy and filled with sweet flying as the original, and that it inspires and sparks the dream of flight in some of today’s kids like it did me.

Possible. Sure. First focus should be on becoming the best C-17 pilot/new guy in the squadron you can be. Having a good standing with your squadron cc can go a long ways when assignment time comes around. As always, wants and needs of the air force always come first, and luck and timing is everything. If C-17 manning is good and a AFSOC airframe is hurting for guys when it’s time for your second assignment that’s your best chance. Edit to add-I’m at a AFSOC schoolhouse with quite a few prior MWS students from different airframes/backgrounds including AMC.

I know a T-1 guy that went to heavies that was offered a T-38 IP slot last year, to the Rio though.

You need both the two week safety school hands on course in ABQ (looking and wrecks and doing investigations) and the safety admin course (I forgot the name, but it’s more of a how to be safety guy day to day) that is 4 ish days. Mostly done at ABQ but they do road shows every couple weeks. There af.mil site has the schedules

Do you use the 1801 in ForeFlight or just the FAA form? ForeFlight won't let a VFR 1801 go though and BO won't take the FAA plan FAA form. CVS has been using ForeFlight filing for almost a year. Believe we used the FAA form out there as well.

I had a similar situation. Wife never had any loans/lines of credit her life except her federal student loans. I’ve pretty much been on my own since 18, never missed a payment/no late payments, several accounts that have been open for a long time blah blah blah. Basically I have been working on building a outstanding credit score for years, wife hasn’t done anything, her score was pretty much the same as mine. There are a lot of variables that go into it, at the end of the day you have to remember it’s just number that tells companies how likely they are to make a buck off you.

Ya I would say to file whatever you want, baseops and tower aren't going to care. Just file the paperwork/PMR with the callsign assigned to the line. Found it much easier to do this and no one cared. We flew under several different call signs in my old plane depending on the profile that day. Found it so much easier to just file whatever made sense for that day. Getting the paperwork through the official channels was a asspain, and that was for callsigns that were already approved. I would probably do as people advised above, do the unofficial way while you let the official way play out. let your CC know Incase it comes up and he not blindsided, and hopefully he has a sack and if there is pushback can say you are awaiting the official change.

I’m honestly shocked we haven’t responded already. Sure, it may just be a drone, but what if it wasn’t? Probably not a time to go in guns blazing but I would launch a couple rounds at all the radars/SAMs near the straight. Maybe a couple Navy sites/yards as well to send a message about the shipping attacks. Draw a line in the sand before a manned asset that is venerable gets engaged. POTUS public response at least hints this may be a rogue faction of the Iranian military, or perhaps there is a deeper unrest in the Iranian military than we the public knows. Regardless, the message needs to be sent that shooting at us will not be tolerated.

Sure, but how many middle eastern, 3rd world, live in tin/mud huts type people have contacts and resources to get former Soviet missile system operators/parts in country. Going to need outside help and money

I would guess these mine attacks where the intel that sent more US Navy ships to gulf last month. I’m sure it was carried out by some radical faction/terrorist Group that is supported by Iran. Let’s not forget in 2016/2017 the anti ship missile attacks off the Yemen coast on the UAE Navy ship, and a few days later on US Navy destroyer. (Ships defensive measures successfully stopped incoming fires) I believe later that year a MQ-9 was shot down by a SA-6 in Yemen as well. Iran has backed these rebel groups that have been attacking Saudi for some time. You are drunk and high if you think some asshole goat farmers and run of the mill terrorists with a AK-47s can operate/maintain/employ old complex Soviet anti ship/anti aircraft radar/weapons systems. Much harder to target a couple divers in a skiff or drug cartel type sub than a big semi mobile radar dish with a missile launcher and missiles the size of telephone poles. Much easier to deny involvement as well.

Ya, unfortunately the UAV pilot product hitting the line was rather sub par. Basic airmanship, decision making etc, their syllabus was already lacking, it was evident they were just pushing people to meet the numbers the last year or two. I left drones a bit ago, but sub par UPT product seems to be a complaint amongst the instructors in the manned plane b course I am currently in. Hats off to them, they been doing extra work and doing a lot of extra rides to get guys up to standard and passable for a checkride, but it backed up the course and strained resources. Lucky if I get 1 event every 10 days or so.

Good to hear. More airline and contractor jobs for the rest of us.

I did a full DITY a few months ago. I didn’t notice anything “tightened down” from the other partial ditys ive done in the past. Just needed weight tickets and receipts. I know you said you aren’t looking to make money but you could probably pocket 5-8 grand doing it yourself. I know several people that pack up the small stuff/boxes themselves and hire people to load the boxes/furniture in a rental truck. I think my last neighbor had 13,000 lbs, I believe the hired help was about $700 to load and $800 to unload. I had 12,000lbs, 26ft UHUAL was $1600 for 1200 miles, $400 ish in gas. Bought a one way plane ticket back to drive my truck with trailer/motorcycle. Total I spent about $4500 on rentals, gas, boxes, plane ticket etc, got reimbursed something like $8000 +DLA/per diem and all that. It was a pain in the ass but was a nice influx of cash. Oh and nothing got broke/damaged/lost and I didn’t have to wait 2 weeks to get my shit delivered.

We had the “Make Africa Great Again” shirts, same base as the 318th. Got away with them for almost 2 years before they got banned.

I’m not talking A-10 level, but it most certainly can be effective. Most of the MQ IQT course is centered around 9 line CAS. Granted, that is mostly for a building block for the bastardized way they typically utilize a 9 line, but any MQ-9 crew most certainly can do traditional CAS, and they have been since the -1s first got hellfires 15 years ago. Not arguing, I’m a former drone guy, I’ve worked enough with the bombers in the stack to get a taste of the challenges that bombers have delivering weapons danger close. Bombers have been utilized for pretty much the entirety GWOT, with a fairly high success rate. While a bomber is probably not your best choice for CAS for a variety of reasons it most certainly can put warheads on foreheads if the guys on th e ground need it.

If you can conduct CAS from a box in Creech you can do it in a B-1. With just the info from the story, the JTAC passed bad/confusing grids. That’s the root cause. I’m guessing the crew trusted the JTAC to much/wanted to help asap and didn’t question the confusing/wrong grids. Seeing IR strobes would have probably helped the crew realize they had bad grids but it’s not why these guys died. Lot of similarities to the AC-130 incident with the doctor without boarders incident in the ‘Stan. If you fly something that makes things go boom and don’t think you could get caught up in the heat of battle and make a mistake you are dead ass wrong. Just like the Swiss cheese analogy for aircraft mishaps these frat incidents can be looked at the same way. And ya, shame on CBS, run this story another week, so many better stories they could report on for Memorial Day weekend.

I would say spouse career falls under the broader category of family stability, and for me, family stability is #2 on my list of reasons to leave. I’m not complaining, my family knows what we signed up for, but it is a contributing factor for my reasons to leave.

Tell the shoes to fuck off.

2 cents from a non fighter, former drone, current AFSOC guy, so take it for what it’s worth. The drone technology just isn’t there yet. For what we would invest we (aviators as a whole) would get much better and relevant training allocating that money towards more flight hours, glass cockpits, simulators, red air, exercises, new aircraft, aircraft upgrades, etc. Our current fleet of drones can’t even defend itself, and have a hard enough time staying at the right spot/altitude in the stack. I think 5th Gen drone advisories are something our grandchildren might face/fly, but in today’s world and current budget we have higher priorities.

TDY for PIT, yes. The RPA school at Randolph is a PCS, most their guys are brand new Lts that need a first base. I think some the guard/reserve guys and late rates got it to be a TDY. Something might have changed, I never went through the RPA schoolhouse, and I left drones for a real cockpit again last year so my info may be dated.

AD guys aren’t TDY to Randolph (for the most part) so It’s just however much more BAH is for San Antonio than the UPT bases. I left RPAs last year but there was a heavy emphasis of making IQT SIM only, which would also cut costs.

U-28 pipeline for pilots is backed up, CSOs however are in demand, couple started class a few weeks ago that graduated nav school 10 ish days prior.