di1630

You completely contradicted yourself twice I think, and totally missed the sarcasm in all the previous posts you aimed to contradict. So which is it? Did you celebrate "actual accomplishments" or did you just find an excuse to party like everyone else was alluding to? Where you too busy in FTU to celebrate or were you not. I'm so confused. Apologies for the confusion. We actually just celebrated the fact we were able to afford strippers on LT pay. That was a big accomplishment however this was years before Facebook. These days I'd just make post congratulating myself and if I got over 100 likes, I'd throw myself a small party and wallow in my accomplishment. C'mon people....congratulating yourself on Facebook for getting something, 99+% of eligible people received....all in hopes any non-military educated family/friends think it's a big deal.....Gay.

Because you guys didn't celebrate a $800 paycheck bump when you made double-first lieutenant? You know how big of a deal it is to be mistaken for someone who might know what they are doing. Sure didn't. Too busy in FTU....We did celebrate actual accomplishments though. Our FTU solo party had nice strippers but that was more about an excuse to get strippers than celebrating the 3rd jet we solo'd in. You have a pay chart, you can advance celebrate your next pay raise too. Don't forget that 1% in Jan....invite me to your BAH increase party. Nice work in advance. You are a winner, special and don't let anyone tell or make you feel otherwise young-special-snowflake-1st LT on the way to Capt. Congrats again.

Yeah but these are millenials...they have been celebrating "participation awards" since their pee-wee soccer days as if they were in the NFL draft.

Very little the USAF is doing these days is about keeping America "safe". I was drinking beers the other night with some civilian peers...they barely know about ISIS, think we are done with Iraq and forgot about Afghanistan. Call me to deploy and make sacrifices when we have some strategic objectives for the country and you need my help to solve it. Otherwise, I'll bow out if given the choice. You want a ppt monkey at the CAOC, GFY. Want me to train afghanis to fly...GFY. If you wAnt me to sacrifice my life/family happiness, it better be for more than tax-free and to keep doing the failed strategy we have been going on 15+ years. Otherwise it's just a paycheck, no guilt.

The technology looks cool, but I'm still waiting in long an answer for why we need a lot of the visual stuff. The F-35 is supposed to stand off from threats, deliver PGMs, shoot bvr....which of those functions needs to look through the floorboards vs can't be done with symbology on the mfd. I dare say the typical f-35 mission will require very little need to look outside the cockpit. If it needs to go overhead the threat, visually acquire the target or be at the merge, we can send in the legacy aircraft.

.....but it's not like the only other option is to say "fvck my career I'm flying!" Not everything is black and white, dude. Well, if you want a flying career, you gotta choose to fly. If you are worried about making major as a pilot, you probably have other issues. I switched jets during both my prfs. It's only a duty title for your current qual.

Guys, this is a semantics game. If controlling an RQ-4 flight plan makes you a "pilot" then controlling a satellite is being an "astronaut". I don't think there is any plan to send these guys thru UPT.

Not too sure about this one... Although my sarcasm detector might be inop Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Let me clarify: in my days of UPT instruction, I never saw a person who would be considered "below societal average" make it thru UPT. I did see some social retards thanks to the USAFA but ROTC produced some also, just at a lower rate. We washed very few studs out overall...usually T-6s did a good job screening for the 38 side. A few exceptions. There was one girl who had no business being in 38s but her T-6 ip talked her into it. We could have washed her, some die-hards would argue we should have. She was safe but well below avg in performance and had no business in a fighter type, she knew it, but had a great attitude and just wanted to fly. We lowered the 38 form stds significantly and lined up a non tactical jet super early. She did fine in inav and probably would have been above avg in the "other" jet but admittedly did not meet 38 course stds. We graduated her and she did great in her follow-on. Just saying, UPT is not a one-size fits all airframes training programs and judgment is required. T-38 washout rates should be low nowadays especially 38s with universal assignability. Flt/cc's need to make sure the AF is getting a solid match to pilot/aircraft compatibility.

None of societies idiots make it thru UPT. Also, UPT performance doesn't always equal follow-on performance. I saw dudes who barely got a fighter 5 years ago, now WIC grads and I've seen their DG peers flail. That being said, let's face it, if you can stay safe flying a T-38 you can most likely stay safe in about anything out there (stick and rudder wise). Just a fact. Technology has negated the "need" for a lot of once necessary skills that T-38s taught (and still do). I wish it were still a low level ingress, BFM and 30 pop rip 6 world but it's not. A retarded monkey can drop a jdam. I too was horrified once at guys we sent out to fighters because that's all the drop had. But most did fine. Not superstars, but safe and able to do their mission.

Zero sympathy if they made that choice for career over flying. I know a few dudes who fought to get back to fighters after RPAs and were fine. Jesus H....worried about making the 95% major cut so much you fly an RPA vs F-16? And the wingman bit......what do you think happens after an AETC tour?

If you think it's just our poorer South American/pacific allies that have issues look no further than (most) Europe as well. If it looks cool at an air show and has the A/A designation. They'll buy it. Somewhere at #69 on the list is necessity to strategic needs and usefulness.

Wait, don't we need 18x's? I understand letting people crosstrain when we need more pilots and less navs but letting 18xs out to create a bigger shortfall of RPA types doesn't make sense does it?

Not looking for detailed specifics...more of a broad overview of why the climate is poor.

You guys must elaborate a bit on the top brass/climate they create so we can learn. I just looked up the bios, laughed a bit.

That's the A-10 display you are watching.

Anyone else find it funny/sad that we give Isreal the money to buy F-35s while we have to shrink our air force.

100% insightfully accurate. The only time I don't use autopilot is during takeoff, departure, tac form enroute, in the AO, during attacks or threat reactions, low level Rtb or up initial. But 96.69% of the time I'm surfing my iPhone with the autopilot engaged...normally in the final turn thinking about the good ole days of UPT when flying was fun.

I read an article where the new guy wants a more affordable jet than the -35....either way, I bet Lockheed is doing some thinking.

Canada just elected a leader who said during his campaign he would canx Canada's involvement with the F-35. We'll see

I'm all for the F-35...but admit it's limitations, and stop preying on ignorance to get it funded at the expense of other needed capes....it's a viper replacement, and we need it. I just hate the shady politics, leadership lies and the program progress in general. As for brrrrrt ability......after getting to fly jets with 20mm/pgm ability and recently getting to do CAS Alla B-1 style, I can't even begin to tell you the difference but it'd be something like going from an iPhone 6 to a 2005 Nokia and wondering why you can't text or check the weather as fast but arguing "well, I can still do it". Not a hit on other airframes but the hog was built for CAS...and does it well. And I can't begin to describe the proficiency level and mission understanding that comes from a community that focuses 90% on the single mission vs multirole. For payload, loiter time, cost, firepower, the hog is a bargain. And it's survivable...there double digit sams that suddenly have become the "survivability" selling point for the F-35 have been around for 30yrs...why do you think we designed B-2s? And apparantly everything can survive a peer threat except an A-10....Nobody will talk about the lethal manpads and unjammable optical AAA though.

How about academy style flying squadrons at some bases with cirrus SR-20s or diamonds.....Cheap, fun and easy. Hell even an aero club for RPA dudes.

This is the first I've heard of any mention of A-10s doing deep interdiction. Nobody is that stupid..well except maybe current USAF leadership. But if I had to bet $ on whether in 20 years we'll be doing semi-low intensity A/G in places like Iraq strafing jihadis or going deep into Russia for AI...I think most would put a bet on the 3rd world shltholes scenarios....except maybe USAF leadership...they are still hanging onto their youth dreams of killing Migs and conquering communism.

From what I saw/heard the T-1 program was a months worth of education extended out to 6 months so the class could all graduate together with -38 peers. Lots of talk about why they couldn't just learn that stuff at the FTU and as a copilot.

I'll take anyone who actually can fathom that America is not still in a Cold War, Migs are not our biggest threat, the PT uniform/service dress are ok, we aren't going to war with China next year but will probably still be fighting ISIS and has a basic grip on current reality. I'll take any change at this point. Sadly I'd rather have an ABM than a lot of these pilots who are stuck 30 years in the past. Sorry Welsh, I had high hopes. But you were an above avg turd as far as execution. Maybe if you can't unfuck the USAF, nobody can...but I'm willing to give it a chance.