Vito

My Bud went to the T-1 retirement event they had at RND a few weeks ago. He said that they (ATC Brass) told the crowd the T-7 was still a few years away, like 2030ish! And that in the future the AF was looking at UPT being T-6 to T-7 for all pilots, like the old T-37 to T-38 syllabus of yore. That was from the mouths of the AETC Commanders. I’m sure some of you guys attended as well.

Can someone please explain the EA-18 drops? Is that the Growler, or are they Navy dudes cross training, or is the USAF flying F-18’s now?

Bottom line, those MudHen drivers went to bed with a smile on their face, knowing they did a great job. Plus they garnered the admiration and Thanks of another nation. They will be honored in the future. Nice Job!

stract, Great patches…Love the one that says, “Only Place Where Skid Marks are Cool” 😀

I took this photo on a visit to CBM back in 2014. Notice how lame and monochromatic my class patch looks compared to the colorful and clever themes from other classes! The one one the right was Class 87-05, the patch said, “The Need for Speed” Top Gun had just premiered a week or so before they designed their patch.

Not a Class Patch. My regular C-141 squadron patch on the left, the 18th MAS “Blue Diamonds. the one on the right was the first SOLL II crew at McGuire, so we kept the same theme, but with our Grim Reaper motif..

My Class Patch, perhaps the most boring annd uninspired ever designed. I can draw decently, so I was tasked to come up with some designs. I like heavy metal music and came up with about 5 other patch designs, one with Van Halen’s “Light Up the Sky” as a theme. My lame classmates chose this one, the worst of the bunch! Then the guy who was tasked with getting them made chose a bargain basement company who only offered a few colors, he thought he did us a favor by saving money!,,The one on the right was another I designed in 1991, for a Special Ops crew I was on. Metallica’s Black Album was big at the time, so “Sleep with one eye Open” from Enter Sandman was perfect. The Grim Reaper was our mascot..

Would this be considered a “HERO SHOT” In The Space Force?

O face, Thanks for the recommendations, I have watched the “Cold Blue” great documentary, plus I drive past the 8th Air Force Museum every year on my way to Florida. It’s on my bucket list to visit.

O Face, By the Battle of the Bulge we had air superiority and the contrail level wasn’t as big a factor. Similarly we didn’t camouflage our aircraft after 44 because we had air superiority. But Masters of the Air occurs around fall of 43 and they did try to ascertain the contrail level to avoid early detection etc.

I know it’s sacrilegious to say this as a Pilot, but I don’t really wear watches, or care about them..BUT, if I ever ejected, I’d wear this, Cool

I’m a little surprised about Masters of the Air as well. The cheap looking CGI is distracting, especially the scenes where it looks like the Me-109’s are doing Mach 3 and there are 100 of them for every B-17. Also the fact that the B-17’s are totally shot up, leaking fuel and on fire yet they still fly 3 more hours to their base. A little too Hollywood. And I’m pretty sure the formation leaders knew what the contrail level was so you couldn’t see the formations 100 miles away?

Searching for a Class patch a friend told me about. It had a Tweet on it with reg numbers on the wing or tail of NE1469 “Anyone for 69? “ 😁

Best line I heard about Austin’s hospitalization was because he needed a “New Spine” and the operation takes time!😀

This one snuck through the Senior Leadership a few years prior to my class. Take a close look at the hills and mountains. The Columbus Area is called “The Golden Triangle” this patch is epic!,, we were warned not to try anything remotely as awesome as these guys did, CBM Class 83-05 I Salute You!

Sorry to hear about your situation. I lived through this with many friends washing out of my class. A few went to 89 rides and made it. I always told them that I don’t think I could have handled the stress of an 89 ride. If it makes you feel any better, and I doubt it will, UPT gets a lot harder, more so in the “everyone flew T-38 days”. If you struggled with landing a T-6, you may have killed yourself, or your IP, in a -38. As far as your next step, I agree with what the others have said, I know a few guys who washed out and are enjoying a great career at the Airlines. I also know a few guys who are very wealthy and are in the cybersecurity field.. Good luck.

Huggy, It may do those guys some good to go back to old school flying. I’m sure by the time the B-21 is in service, the T-7 will replace those -38’ Alphas anyway.

I’m trying to download another approach plate, but the website says I maxed out my attachments.? how can I fix this?

Continued, My T-38 IFG CBM. 1986 Remember these were flown at 300 plus knots, with no autopilot, GPS, or VNAV.

There is one aspect to some of the maneuvers we flew at UPT in the past that some of you younger pilots may not be aware of. I am 100% confident that the UPT of the past was not to train young men to be Air Force Pilots, but instead, it was a massive mind-game to weed out the weak. This isn’t meant to demean younger Pilots who went through a kinder/gentler UPT or a boomer’s rant about walking to school in a snowstorm , uphill, both ways. It’s just a fact. Formation Landings, Circling approaches, and intense formation training in the T-38, as well as fix to fixes, insanely complex SID’s and approaches, were all designed to weed people out, as well as determine a students learning curve. Most of us had less than 100 hours total time and we were flying 38’s in fingertip formation and performing form landings. I still have my old T-37 In-Flight Guide. I wince at the approaches and SID’s we flew with 10 altitude and airspeed restrictions in the first 10 miles. They made everything complex and difficult on purpose.

All Democrat voters I’m sure.

As the saying goes, “Liberalism is a mental disorder”

#Pride Month, I’m still trying to figure out what are they proud of?