Danger41

I know financially it makes sense to get to the airlines ASAFP and never look back. I unfortunately suffer from delusions of grandeur and Stockholm Syndrome and don't really want to leave the job that I wanted to get for my entire life. I'm also not totally selfish and know that my family could really benefit from the extra $$ in an airline career. In my current and future job I will absolutely be gone from home more as an airline guy than an AF pilot. YMMV on that one, big time. It's a no brainer to me that (in my own situation) the only extenuating variable is money. Why not pay up? I have a unique perspective on all this stuff though as my dad was an airline pilot that went through not getting hired for awhile, mergers, furloughs, and 9/11. He punched early after 9/11 to try to get back in the AF as a 59 year old retired O-5 but they didn't want him to fly tankers so he just retired. Even I tried to jump right to the airlines in mid-2020 and that wasn't exactly good timing. All that to say is that I know more about the airlines than the average Joe that never experienced any of that stuff and has just been living the good life the last few years. Honestly the hardest part for me is thinking back on some missions where my crew and the team writ large was able to make a big difference and bring Americans home from some pretty hairy situations. I know that's stupid and you've got to move on but that type of feeling is nagging me more than I thought it would.

Well if Tom Cotton or any of the other honorable members of the esteemed legislative body check this site, a recent informal straw poll amongst bros that punched after 10 year ADSC showed that almost 70% said they would have stayed for at least several more years for 75k a year bonus and $1500 flight pay. I would take it to a 20 year career and retirement for that money.

@Seriously I’m impressed by your ability to navigate all that legalese. I got lost/tired/scared trying to find the paragraphs you cited.

Pardon my ignorance, but are the various models mech’d any differently regarding avionics to support their core missions? IE - SEAD for USAF, CAS for USMC, landing for Navy?

If this new pay rate/bonus gets passed, does that mean it’ll be available in the ANG/Reserves as well? Or is it just an AD thing?

At least you knew that unlike the bunch of slack jawed…people of alternative lifestyles living their truths around here.

Not trying to ruin another thread with political shit, but this is funny.

Our culture is so afraid to say anything to anyone that these types don’t care to accept the reality that they are in. I partially find it sad and partially infuriating that people are significantly affecting their health and quality of life because you can’t “fat shame”.

The interesting thing with Russian casualties in modern day is how janky their population distribution is and losing more young people further exacerbates their inevitable fall.

I’m in a few group chats with him and can confirm that he’s most certainly an extremist that also sucks at fantasy football.

As a sexual tyrannosaurus superfan of the first Predator, I thought Prey was great. Loved it.

That was one of the best deals going with the slicks. In one weekend I based out of Scottsdale with some bros and went up to Leadville (highest airport in North America) and the next day went to Furnace Creek (L06/lowest airport in the US) with Grand Canyon tours and stops at some amazing airports like Bar Ten, Glenwood Springs, and Telluride. Having those made taking the mission birds to the dirt, blacked out, on NVGs for Amp-4 work much easier. I hope that template makes its way to AOW.

Big Peter Zeihan fan, as well. For those interested in some of the geopolitics around big nations, give him a listen/read. Fascinating stuff.

Does this dude just sit around and do this shit all day every day?

We’ll I’ll be damned. Thanks for the link/education.

Really? I know they’re going away but ACC owns the Compass Calls and the ANG owns the Commando Solos and I find that incredibly hard to believe either of those entities would transfer them to AFSOC or AFMC for test. Especially not before the EC-37B is on the ramp. Based on the history of naked gunner hugs, “Big Gay” stamps, and covering every square inch of their work spaces with dick drawings, I think the Gunship community has fully embraced the gayest elements of the woke movement and probably didn’t need any training on being accepting of alternative lifestyles. Truly stunning and brave. I kid, I kid!

We discussed this during the demo and such and unless something has changed, T-1 trained pilots WILL be eligible for the AOW aircraft. Hell, at least half of the Draco dudes that will TX eventually are T-1 trained guys. It was very deliberate to have a 38 trained guy and a T-1 trained guy as the demo pilots for this exact reason. I have no clue if it’ll stay that way but good luck filling out the squadrons purely with T-38/T-7 guys that also have to go to their traditional assignments.

For context, I’m 6’2” and pretty broad shoulders and fit comfortably in the back seat for the demonstrations. The front seat is much bigger. I’d say the front is about equivalent to the Eagle cockpit, maybe bigger. One real interesting part that is mentioned on their website and works great is that the avionics and mission system was developed with Garmin so data passage from mission systems to navigation and vice versa is all integrated so that is very nice.

No AAR consideration due to the operating concept of forward staging and more realistically because the airplanes aren’t plumbed for it so to get them there would’ve been cost prohibitive. Not a silly consideration, just a bridge too far IMO. There’s a pretty interesting video on their website of disassembly and reassembly. More gee whiz, but kind of cool.

They got a contract with the Thais a few months back that was external to the AOW stuff.

Catchy meme not withstanding, I was involved in this thing for a couple years straight and it was pretty damn rigorous.

Alternate angle of the incident. You know it’s legit because of his Republican “R” hat.

But I have thousands of hours of combat time and a bunch of deployments! Surely all that Afghanistan/Iraq experience will help!

So for a FedEx interview should I talk about worldwide sex odysseys as a perk or not?

I loved AIS and took a lot of good lessons from it back to the community (mainly cold weather altimeter corrections and MAJCOM approved procedures for austere ops). Just like most courses in the AF in that you’ll get out of it what you put into it.