Karl Hungus

You really think Uber (or FedEx, Delta, Vanguard's automated financial analyst, the Mayo Clinic's automated neurosurgeon, etc) will just lower their prices by 1/4 and pass that cost savings on to a consumer, long term? You think the automated Wall Street robots and their shareholders will be ok with that? LOL.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sockpuppet_(Internet) "A sockpuppet is an online identity used for purposes of deception. The term, a reference to the manipulation of a simple hand puppet made from a sock, originally referred to a false identity assumed by a member of an Internet community who spoke to, or about, themselves while pretending to be another person.[1] The term now includes other misleading uses of online identities, such as those created to praise, defend or support a person or organization,[2] to manipulate public opinion,[3] or to circumvent a suspension or ban from a website. A significant difference between the use of a pseudonym[4] and the creation of a sockpuppet is that the sockpuppet poses as an independent third-party unaffiliated with the puppeteer. Many online communities attempt to block sockpuppets."

Perhaps that was a bit much. Fixed it.

https://www.heritage.org/defense/event/rebuilding-air-force-readiness Former management interviews current management. Takeaways: "Readiness" and lack of flying is why people are leaving. Stop-loss was just an answer to a question about tools available to the AF- doesn't mean the AF will use it. Would love to have heard that call between CSAF and Everhart. CSAF wants to reduce additional duties, but doesn't provide any specifics. He wants Wg/CCs to make that happen on their own. Barely able to hide his joy at being able to speak to his idol, Venable says 15 Spangdahlem fighter pilots will stay for one more assignment because they trust CSAF so much. CSAF thinks people should stay in because the AF takes care of your family while you're always deployed (it does?), and your civilian employer doesn't ever ask about your family, or something. He goes to the mall and sees geriatric vets and they're telling war stories instead of talking about their grand kids, so people should stay in so they can be geriatric vets at the mall telling war stories too. Lots of dancing around questions. A textbook politician.

Taking away the bonus for pilots wouldn't change a thing. The only people who take the bonus in its current form are those who were going to stay in anyway.

Why the screen name change Scoobs? Why would you want to separate yourself from your previous posts? Just to refresh yourself... My guess is none. Some interesting Scoobs quotes: https://www.flyingsquadron.com/forums/topic/9139-regional-pilot-or-ad-pilot/?page=2#comment-105108 "Here is my plan.My parents will never get to retire because lack of planning and luck.I don't want to end up in there shoes so here is my plan.After college join the Guard/Reserves in the area I like.After UPT bum around and build my flight time.Once I reach the mins for the regional airlines or charter I will decide if I want to jump ship or stay bumming.My goal is to fly corporate aircraft so I would check the airports and make connections.Once I reach a couple thousand hours apply for that dream job and get it.Then when I turn 60 I will have 30 years in the reserves and at least 20 years for a corporation.And if you decide to fly Pt 91 like me there is no age you have to retire.Hope this helps." https://www.flyingsquadron.com/forums/topic/8292-questions-about-bumming/#comment-97390 "Thanks for the post.Right now I am looking at joining a C-17 unit as a loadmaster.Its not just because I want a pilot slot or college tution.I plan on finishing my degree online so I could fly as much as possible.I was just seeing if I would have to get another part time job or if I could swing it.Thanks for the help." https://www.flyingsquadron.com/forums/topic/4058-online-degrees/#comment-58889 "Can anybody recommend any schools online?University of Phoenix is just to expensive." https://www.flyingsquadron.com/forums/topic/8481-afrotc-vs-guardreserve/#comment-97936 "AirG how many hours are possible a month to as a bum on the C-17?I'm still a year away before I can apply.Hopefully I will get picked up by March ARB." https://www.flyingsquadron.com/forums/topic/414-hueys/#comment-6184 "Cool,just looking at my options. The Guard/Reserve looks good but its just part time. Plus there are not to many helo units and there locations aren't to good. I would have to live in my car at Moffett or freeze my tail off and deal with crazy Eskimos in Alaska. Thanks again." https://www.flyingsquadron.com/forums/topic/11864-st-george-or-kanab-ut/#comment-137685 "If you read my post I didn't say Orem or Provo were in Salt Lake County. And why are you giving me a history leason. I was raised LDS and in SLC so I know. Oh and Salt Lake County is changing and their freaking out. As far as college I got tired of Utah and moved to Phx and then back to San Diego. I'm not paying out of state resident fees. I already owe to much in student loans" https://www.flyingsquadron.com/forums/topic/21313-march-arb/#comment-399942 "Riverside is boring. You're driving distance to the beach, mountains, and desert though. Riverside has some nice areas. Woodcrest, Canyoncrest, or Orangecrest. Those would be the closest to March. Redlands is the nicest city but definitely a commute. You could go south and look at Temecula or Murrieta. My first choice would be Canyon Lake. It's a gated community with a lake for fishing or wake boarding. The 215 and 91 are pretty awful. The location is nice to get out of town." So Scoobs is/was a hopeful ARC applicant, who moved to SoCal, appears to not have been hired anywhere (based on him/her asking about ARC units for more than a decade), may or may not have finished an online degree, and likes to bash the airlines. He/she is apparently really into military and civilian aviation, and posts with more or less the same agenda over on APC as "gilligan13". Personally, it's great to have Scoobs around- he/she always provides a good chuckle, and it's obvious that he/she is full of shit with every opinion Scoobs posts. 0" Scoobs/Casey/Gilligan/whatever you decide to call yourself today, let me know if you need help getting hired by an ARC unit as a loadmaster or something. I'm guessing you're too old by now to be hired for an ARC UPT position or via OTS, but I'm hearing stories of age waivers, so you never know. I'd be happy to help- I have lots of friends in lots of units, and I'm sure you're eager to get in the fight, given your preponderance for chugging the active duty koolaid all of these years. Despite being a nobody loser from Utah/Arizona/SoCal with a bizarre obsession with military aviators, I'm sure we can find you a place in this jobs program- and you never know, maybe you can avoid working on weekends and holidays!

You think the leadership problem is between the O-3 and O-6 level? Really? AFPAK Hands. Worthless 365s/179s to shitholes to do busy work. Silly additional duties. A broken, archaic promotion system. Flight pay that hasn't changed since the early 1990s. A bonus that hasn't changed since 1999. Rampant micromanagement of squadrons/groups/wings by the NAF/MAJCOM. Have those very solvable issues been fixed yet? No? How many of those things are solvable at the O-3 to O-6 level? Yeah, I didn't think management was serious about fixing things either- easier to just send your top "leader" (LOL) to whine to the FAA.

There's apparently one in Botswana, and another in Saudi.

Why the screenname change Scoobs?

Bet we wouldn't get into never-ending, unwinnable wars in middle-eastern shitholes if your average American had a little more skin in the game...

Judging by how many bright and shiny "HPO" IDE-selects (you know, the future CCs the AF so desperately needs to fix this mess) are 7-day opting out of IDE... you're not the only one who isn't motivated by command.

Fixed that for you.

Is this possible? Hadn't heard about an option to get promoted, decline promotion, and then separate. If it exists, why would Duck even care about writing a DNP letter in order to intentionally be passed over and then separate? Probably sounds better in future job interviews to say "I was promoted but declined in order to pursue other interests" than "I had to game an archaic, inflexible system to remove myself from promotion consideration so that I could pursue other interests".

Just building up a cadre for the next round of TAMI.

Thanks for chiming in Chuck. The "O-6 to O-8" comment was in regards to Duck's previous post about them not getting it and making any significant change under their watch. The point was it would be nice to get a peek behind the curtain a little more often from those in that demographic (or close to them, in your case), given that the AF's overall answer to the talent exodus is full-on Baghdad Bob... "nothing to see here, folks, all is well". I agree with you that they're powerless to do anything, assuming they even wanted to. We've destroyed the ability for most commanders from making any decisions on their own- everything, no matter how small, must be vetted by their boss, all the way up. Even the most promising CSAF in a generation was unable/unwilling to make significant change beyond quasi-eliminating Blues Monday. It would be hilarious if it weren't so sad. Institutional inertia is crippling this service. And then they wonder why their "HPOs" are 7-day opting out of IDE and nobody wants to be a Sq/CC anymore- it's just not that appealing. While a "(insert mission here) of the quarter" would be nice, not sure that would change many minds- but it's a start. Separate promotion boards for 11xs, more money, elimination of bullshit 180/365s and additional duties, less SJW engineering, and an overall improvement in "work rules" might, though.

Start by looking at who you're competing with for talent. Civilian employers, airlines, AFRC, ANG. How does your pay and QoL/work rules compare? - Hard pay (salary) - Soft pay (per diem, hotels, health care, opportunity to work more/less for more/less pay, 401k/pension, Space A/deadheading options, education, etc). AD is better at this in some areas (pension/TRICARE until that goes away...) and worse in others (military lodging is mostly awful, compare travel on AD on a non-flying TDY vs FedEx deviating in international first/biz class, the disaster that is DTS and the JTR, etc) - Total time away from home - When away from home for work, where is that location? A nice place, an average place, or a shithole? - Control over career progression and living location - Crew rest, FAR 117 requirements, crew duty days, etc - Leave/vacation - Additional duties- how much work are you expected to do outside of your primary duty? Do you do everyone else's jobs for them? Do you take your work home with you? Does your employer pretend that all of its employees are equal? Just a few things that came to mind, there are plenty more to add. It's going to be incredibly painful for the AF to acknowledge that it's severely lacking in QoL and work rules with respect to pilot retention. Throwing more money at the problem can indeed fix it, but it's going to take a hell of a lot more money than has been floated so far.

If only we had some O-6s to O-8s on this board to comment (Liquid, Learjetter, Chuck17, etc)... Odd that they don't chime in much on these threads, though.

Been saying this for years. An 11x, 14N, 17x, 37x, whatever are not equals, yet we pretend that they are.

Chang isn't a leader. He's a nobody and he knows it. He doesn't have any "spreadsheets". That said, got to give him props- he's trolling you guys hard, and you guys are taking the bait every time.

So you're an advocate for PME in its current form (ASBC/SOS/ACSC, all of which are wastes of time/money and should be canceled/already have been canceled)... yet the people who have attended said wastes of PME, the ones we depend on to "be effective in the joint world", are the ones getting "murdered in the joint environment". So, the current system is a failure... but we should stick with the current system. WTF?

That's not what you said, though. You said "$150k/yr to fly droids overseas from the safety of our computer screens". That's patently false for the vast majority of RPA pilots- 11x or 18x. You were trying to imply that your average RPA pilot is making that kind of coin, not that 150k/yr in the civilian sector is what it would take to match what you "currently take home in net pay". Enjoy your RPA tour, and thanks for taking the bonus. One less spot for me and one more data point to preclude a stop loss.

I'm a taxpayer, and I don't know where you keep getting this $150k/yr bullshit. An O-3 with over 8 years of service makes about 72k base pay, plus another 19k for BAH in Vegas, plus 8k for flight pay, plus 3k for BAS. So just over $100k/yr, before taxes. How many O-4 and O-5 bonus-taking RPA pilots (the only folks approaching your $150k/yr nonsense) do you think there are flying the line?

No idea if it's "legal" or not. However, I can definitely see a Class-Action lawsuit coming forth... even if all it does is get more anti-AF media attention. If there's anything your senior manager politicians hate the most, it's negative media attention- and JQP/Fox News/The New York Times would/will have a field day with a stop loss. I asked a recruiter from a legacy airline what her thoughts were on an AF stop loss. She said her airline would probably complain to congress about it as well, given how many pilots they're anticipating hiring from the military. They would like to avoid hiring only civilian/regional pilots, for a multitude of reasons. I tend to think that airlines lobbying congress would just result in Age 70, though.

Were you an IDE select on your O-4 promotion board? Seems that drop-down IDE "opportunities" are becoming a lot more common. IDE-selects are bailing left and right. The AF isn't retaining near as many "HPOs" as it thinks it is...

Followed by the airlines complaining to congress about not having a pool of trained pilots to hire from... and then Age 70.