HiFlyer

I believe he applied for it via the annual AD Rated board. It wasn't simply an RPA dropped via the regular assignment process.

Had a kid ask me a question about dental req'ts. Recent OTS rated board select for RPA pilot. He has four lower back teeth broken off to the roots, non-restorable, but not painful or any observed decay. Will he pass the dental exam, or will they require him to have them pulled to eliminate the roots? I know cavities require fixing before they'll pass you, but I don't know about teeth that are simply broken to the gum line.

DFC rules are kinda funny anyway. Heck, I know a guy who got one just for flying from New York to Paris!

Trust me, I did. The worst was when it was hot and I'd sweat, then the sweat would drip into my ear and tickle the hair in the ear...no way to get into the ear to get the sweat out, so you just suck it up.

It depends on what you mean by a "DCS incident". I had lots of small bends incidents, and two major bends incidents where my skin turned blue from all the burst capillaries, but none were classed as severe because the incidents involved physical signs, but didn't involve nerve system symptoms, passing out, mental confusion, etc. They monitored me for a few days, spent the night in the hospital after my worst case (for observation), but in each case was returned to flying within a week. I don't think there's a hard line...unless its changed recently it depends on exactly what happened and how the flight docs interpret it. Over the course of the jets history, I don't think there have been many flat-out groundings except in the most severe cases. Lately (past decade) there has been an increase (which I personally attribute to stress and fatigue factors within the crew force) that the cockpit mod should address, but it isn't like dozens of pilots have been affected.

Heck yes, except my head would itch on top or in back, or my ear would itch, and those spots aren't accessible from the faceplate!

Also, the "spray bars" that provide the breathing oxygen continue to spray oxygen into the helmet and across your face when you open the faceplate a few inches (due to the lower pressure outside the helmet), so a very quick open/shut while you are holding your breath isn't likely to introduce much nitrogen into the breathing cavity of the helmet or into your lungs when you close up and resume breathing. Of course, all this assumes normal ops with the cabin pressurized to the normal schedule. You wouldn't want to do this at ambient pressue at 70K!!

Nah...just pop the faceplate open, toss one in the mouth, then snap it shut again. You wouldn't want to leave it open to eat, but a couple of seconds open with your hand on the bar to slam it shut won't hurt. Maybe not the "official" procedure, but it works fine.

Hmmm... A few years ago the general recruiting goals were: Is the guy/girl a douchbag (you gotta go TDY with the guy for months and work together)? Can he fly the airplane with a "seat of the pants" feel (hard procedures don't work well in the duece, you have to be able to feel and finesse the jet)? Was he a valuable asset in his old community (part of the douchbag/capability issue from a historical perspective)?, Is he flexible enough to work on his own, follow the rules and not do stupid things? At that time we didn't give a hoot for previous MWS quals except as they related to the interviewee's basic skills and attitude. I doubt if much has changed. There's a similar post about B-2 recruiting in this section and I think the attitude very similar. Basically, if you're inviting him to join the team, why invite a douchbag?

Personally, I was a big fan of the peaches, applesauce, and an occasional beef & gravy. The cold fruit was very good, and the hot b&g was okay, but like any food, there were different preferences within the crew force.. At one time we got a new beef & rice "entre". Unfortunately, it had a little too much "gas" in the mixture which we discovered when the guys started using them. The food heater tube was on an automatic 12 minute cycle, but about 10 minutes into the cycle the pressure from the expanding gas would build up too much and explosively "unwrap" the end of the toothpaste tube. You'd be flying along doing something else when all of a sudden there was a loud explosion and the interior of the cockpit was covered in a greyish residue. I don't mind saying that the first time it happened to me it scared the shit out of me. Needless to say, that item quickly disappeared from the menu. The crew chief's weren't too thrilled either, since the dried food was like an organic cement stucco material be the time we landed! Another great treat were the little Kraft caramel squares. Take a few out of your pocket and set them on the canopy rail for a while and presto, hard candy treats to suck on.

Further word???

Hmmm. Back in a place far to the west (or the east) there were civilian people who would bang up their birds and ship them back to Taiwan to be fixed (because they didn't exactly do things by the book and couldn't go on the open market and buy new ones).. In some cases, the parts shipped back included little more than a piece of skin with the tail number on it and the data plate, carried in a suitcase. Six months later they'd go back to the place and pick up a fully "repaired" airplane, tail number and data plates intact and in the proper place, and fly it back. My father-in-law worked with the same people to have parts manufactured from scratch for his equipment because the old (very old) ground equipment was no longer being manufactured and you couldn't get parts. In some cases, acording to him, there were C-47s and C-46s that crashed in the jungles and re-appeared more than once! .

Yeah, it was a real rocket (engine thrust - about 18k, airframe fueled weight - about 17k with a pattern ride fuel load) and the first ride put you on your back so fast that you didn't really grasp it. The trick was to get it going straight up from standing start to vertical right over the middle of the runway (about 3000 ft from brake release to accelerating vertically), then be able to control it so you recovered without winding up on your back at low airspeed and lose it inverted. You could actually accelerate vertcally until you reached max limit airspeed, and even farther if you wanted to tear the wings off! However, the scariest part of that first ride was when the IP decided to go look at some rental property that he wanted to buy...suddenly there we were about 15 miles SE of D-M at about 100 ft in the -CT hopping over tree lines and wires while he tried to find the apartments. I was "concerned" to say the least, but he didn't seem to think it was a big deal. We went over some trees and pushed back down and wound up staring eye-to-eye with a guy in a big tractor on the rising terrain. We pulled up and he bailed out the side. I couldn't believe it. There was a slightly different attitude among some of those old guys in the 60s and early 70s! Luckily, I flew my next rides with Hector and it was a bit more sane, and we never heard about it from anybody (police, FAA, newspapers, etc.).

Heck...its 15-20 hours of 125 horsepower these days, but your premis is correct. IFS isn't really about flying anyway (for PPL people), its about how to learn to learn the AF way. From a percentage standpoint, it works (higher success rate in UPT). In fact, I believe that's the tradeoff...increased risk via IFS vs statistically higher probability of making it through UPT if you make it through IFS.

Not if your engine's pooped out! It's a whole lot quieter!!!

Yeah, and keys, too. If we could just outlaw keys, he couldn't have open the secured area and gotten his hands on the airplane to cause mayhem! I think you're on the right track here. Call Dianne...

Jeeze, a sleezy lawyer could make a fortune off this with law suits against every body involved (assuming there was some money to be had). Let's see, kid flies illegally with others (parent liability for the minor child), kid fly's a multi w/o license (did the owner know he did it, had he done it with permission before? Owner liability), did his instructor know of previous adventures? (Instructor liability), did the FBO/airport people know of previous flights w/o IP supervision? (FBO/Airport liability). Probably just scratching the surface.

In days of old (don't know if it's changed, but I doubt it), the fighter/bomber manpower guys in AFPC rated assignments still owned your ass, even if they let you go to a white jet, so they still had control when you left. If their policy is no fighter/bomber guys, they probably won't let you go to special programs when you come out of the white jet tour either.

Some of the IFS syllabus activity may satisfy FAA PPL requirements, but not all, and certainly not all FAA req'ts are addressed at IFS. The instructors are fully licensed FAA instructors, so if you have a logbook and talk to the IPs you might get some activities signed off. However, to get your PPL you'll probably have to go to a "normal" training facility and do a lot of it over, particularly the cross-country and solo work, I would suspect. The good news is that after 25-30 hours of time at IFS you should be able to get thru a PPL course a lot quicker.

Last time I was there (18 months ago) the dorm lots were filled with bikes...dozens of them) If you have the required gear and rider course docs I don't think you'll have a problem (or more than the usual problems).

Huggy's a good place to start.

Make sure you take the MSF course and bring the graduation certificate with you. Take the advanced course, too, if possible. That will avoid many hurdles when you get to the AF and need to register the bike.

Activities....hmmm, mostly trying to figure out how to get out of Del Rio. Some fishing/boating on the lake. For students, he'll be too busy to be doing much for the first 8 months! Friday nights and Saturdays are usually the wind-down periods, then back to the books on Sunday.

It might depend on the type of bike and type of riding you do. My son had his Z1000 with him down there, but wound up riding it very little due to the condition of the roads off-base...random gravel and blown sand on a lot of the state roads out there, poor condition of the road surface (either hot and greasy or filled with ruts and peeling asphalt), etc. He felt very uncomfortable riding and mostly parked it for the time he was there. BTW, he was a very good CCS/WERA racer so it wasn't a skill issue...just poor roads and a desire not to crash out of UPT! He did consider selling the Z1000 and moving to more of a cruiser, but decided not to do it due to lack of available time and an upcoming overseas assignment. Some guys had bikes and rode them a lot more. Personal preference, I guess.

Ah...well, I have a Timex solution that will work just fine in the interim!