Gazmo

Mostly aircrew CBT's and ADLS CBT's when I can. It is getting harder and harder these days though because of the new RUTA rules. We used to be able to grab some AT on the UTA's to free up some RUTA's to use here and there, but you lose your UTA periods now if you are on AT and present for UTA. We can do FTP's from home if it aircrew related and you are logging training with an ARMS ID code. I believe each unit should have their own telecommute policy. I also know people who are raters and write OPR's at home on a RUTA. There are plenty of options.

I try to resist jumping off short-call for the extra cash. It feels too much like retirement for me and the time off is addictive. Maybe one day when I dump the ANG for either a retirement or a non-mission ready gig, I will put my name on the OG/Premium list, but right now, it's easier to be home 22-25 days out of the month for 76 hours and telecommute some milpay or go in and fly for a double on an off day. I try to only give the unit 4 days a month. I usually can't stomach more than that these days, but it occassionally goes to 5 or 6 days depending on what is going on. This month it'll be 8 without taking mil leave, all on my off days, but this is an odd month for me. Once you're out of 1st year pay, it ends up being exponential money lost to do anything military related, which is one of the reasons why I will be a "20 and out" guy.

You're right. Then do away with the military discount. I'd be good with that.

So let's talk Lowes and Home Depot... I used to have nothing but great things to say about these two establishments when it came to their military discount program. In the past, I've gotten the 10% off anything and everything in their stores, even clearance items. I once got the military discount on a $500, slightly damaged bathroom vanity that was on clearance for $120. I have also gotten the military discount on multiple appliances, even ones that were on sale already. Well, as with most good things, they come to an end. Lowes and Home Depot no longer will give the military discount on items that are on sale/clearance. You still get it on regularly priced items with a max discount per purchase up to $500. Now, normally I could say, "I understand" to this as I know everyone has to make money. However, upon strolling through both stores in the past few weeks refrigerator shopping, I have noticed that the majority of their appliances are in "sale" or "super buy" status all the time. Their "sale" prices have become their everyday prices. They'll advertise a refrigerator for $2,499 down from "originally" $3,999 and act like it is on sale, but this model will be $2,499 about 362 days out of the year and basically disqualifies you for using the military discount. Again, I get it. They need to make money, but it just put a bad taste in my mouth. If I can't use my discount on an item because they have it "on sale" all the time, I guess I will just go shop online for the same item somewhere else.

We are losing over 6,000 pilots due to mandatory retirements over the next 7-8 years. Barring some sort of devastating economic recession, hiring will continue full-steam ahead for at least a decade.

WTF.... what could have brought an E-11 down out there?!

Just put the no-shit date you can get up in the morning and not have to go to the squadron anymore. Let the airline call you when they are ready to call you. I know AA was interviewing applicants still on Active Duty 6 months out from their availability date and giving them CJO's to frontload their hiring because they knew they'd most likely get offers somewhere else if they didn't.

Yep. 700lbs doesn't do much in the way of drag on a swept back wing.

Don't get me started. They are worse than Jet Blue's pay rates. Of course 1st year pay is the same for all, but year two stays the same as first year pay. Not sure WTF they were thinking. Needless to say, almost everyone 6 months out of INDOC is withheld from something else with a better pay scale. Ironically, some of the highest paid CA's in the company are in the E190. Other than that, I really don't have anything bad to say about the airplane and I have flown with a great bunch of CA's. Living in-base on Reserve on it has been pretty awesome.

Short call reserve on the E190 at AA and live in base less than an hour away. The following numbers are mostly a WAG, but for the most part I only get tapped a few times a month. Usually fly 5-7 days with 2 or 3 nights away from home. Some are day turns. The occassional 4-day trip, but they are rare. Made about $70k with over 50 days of military leave for TDY's. I probably would have made about $82k without the military leave, but I made over $40k on the Guard side, so it worked out. I get every day off I bid for and was home for Thanksgiving and Chrismas last year. This year will be much better.

But what does it take to get experienced subject matter experts in the air refueling field ( instructor pilots and instructor boom operators who have done this for years) from the active-duty, guard and Reserves together to hash out what we really need for a Next Generation tanker. People with training experience. People with tactics experience. People with CAOC experience. People who are in the fight right now, not generals who haven't seen a real combat mission in the last 15 years. Get us all together in one big room and hash out what really is important for a new tanker or any aircraft for that matter that we need. Do they not do that? Who sets the criteria for these acquisitions?

Well, at the end of an 8-10 hr sortie, having an extra grand or two of gas after droning at endurance for 4 of those hrs may actually be worth something and I am not talking about $$$. More offload capability is never a bad thing. Winglets can save 4-6%. When you are burning 100k+ over an 8 hr sortie, it adds up. This is a tanker. Don't we want max offload capability? This is an organization who chose to pay to remove thrust reverses to save a few thousand pounds. This is an organization who chose to remove 4 parachutes from the KC-135's to "save weight". Yeah, I am sure there were some $ and manpower savings not having to maintain parachutes anymore in a jet we'd 99.9% never need or get a chance to use them in, but I think winglets would have made sense. We just don't know how to make deals with defense contractors anymore. https://www.stripes.com/news/winglets-could-save-air-force-millions-on-fuel-1.69425 This article focuses on money savings, but putting winglets on a tanker shouldn't be about saving money. It should be about max offload capability, even if it is only an extra couple of grand in the tanks at the end. I can't tell you how many *very recent* times I have chosen to go below bingo because our receivers got strung out, zig-zagging across the AOR after getting retasked to support multiple TIC's and we followed to support. It was either that or they were going to have to bingo out. With less tails in the air it becomes the only option at times.

Same reason the Air Force took the thrust reversers off of it. They basically don't learn from their mistakes from the KC-135R. They did a study on winglets for the KC-135 decades ago and although there were significant savings during cruise, the Air Force felt it wasn't worth the cost of upgrading 450+ aircraft. Hindsight is 20/20 though and I'd be willing to bet that it would have been very, very worth it at this point.

I will beat the dead horse to death about how great it is to be within a 30-45 min car drive from my base. It just leaves you with so many more options. Bid a line, bid Reserve, grab OG, grab premium, etc. Or of course you can sit back on LCR for 73 hrs month and never work. I have worked 3 days on short call this month so far.

Because we don't have a retention problem.... right?

Usually the two cardinal rules are, 1. Don't be a douche because at some point it'll come around to bite you. 2. Don't lie about things on your app or during an interview no matter what it is.

Yeah well, in theory we are producing more new pilots so it's all good...

Well, naturally there are always three sides to every story. Her side, his side and the truth. I am sure some dudes get caught hammering some other woman and their wives go ballistic on them. Fare enough, I guess. That probably still isn't grounds for such behavior. People have their standard marriage stressors. Some can work through them and others probably weren't meant to be from the start. Other dudes get caught into a relationship with chics with legit pyschiatric issues like we talked about before, which is a whole different ballgame. This goes waaaaay beyond the standard stress any normal married couple could imagine. BPD, NPD, ASPD, etc. These are all real things out of the DSM. Think serial killer. Most serial killers, in addition to being mentally psychotic, exhibit other traits like BPD, NPD, ASPD and/or sociopathic behavior. I honest to god think women with these issues walk amongst us transparently a lot more than men do because most people simply don't see women being capable of such vindictive, evil behavior and when they are, it's almost always viewed as justified - "Oh well he cheated on her so I don't blame her. I would have cut his dick off!". Ok, but what happened BEFORE all of that? Was she intentionally sucking him dry; financially and emotionally? Was she being a terrible mom and causing emotional and physical harm on their children? Was she tearing his support network apart by purposely alienating him from his family and friends. Did she have substance abuse? This is all real shit and I know men do this stuff also, but we are almost expected to be assholes like this so it is no surprise. However, I think women have a lot more influence on relationships/marriages and ultimately have a lot more power (not physical strength) than men do. Getting out of an abusive relationship like this takes planning and being able to think like your adversary. Of course it's not easy to think like a narcissist unless you are one, but after living with it for 6-7 years you learn after getting burned a few hundred times hoping you'll wake up the next morning with her being normal for more than a few days at a time. At the end of the day, like Duck said, it takes a hell of a lot more work for a man to get what he wants out of the courts than women. As a man, you are expected to hand over your money, your house, your kids and testicles on a silver platter without contest.

Great question. First, if you honestly see yourself with a significant other that is willing and able to play those cards, you need to protect yourself before it happens. Be a few steps ahead of them. I could go into great detail of the shite I've dealt with over the years, but forgive me for not wanting to spew my bad decisions and dirty laundry on a public forum. I can, however, write a book and can at least give you some pointers. Like I asked earlier, is the other person willing and able to play those cards? Do they have absolutely nothing to lose and everything to gain? If you are dealing with someone with NPD, I gaurantee they've thought about all of this before you have. You cannot make this stuff up. By the time you get a handle on the way such a person thinks, you will be sitting there with your dick in your hand wondering HTF you ended up in such a shitty place only to discover that this person tactically set themselves up and covered every base they could. These people are very smart, but definitely not in a good way. Find out the laws in your state for recording, both audio and video and take advantage of it. If it is a two party consent state, you are screwed, but many states are a one party consent state. When it comes to domestic violence, as a man, you are 99.69% screwed even if she left marks on you and short of audio/video surveillence, the local PD is not going to bother bringing out a forensic pathologist to figure out who hit who first or if you were simply protecting yourself and left a mark on her in the process (or if she was drunk off her ass and fell on her own). She may not have a job. You have one that requires you to sign a Lautenberg statement to carry a weapon in the Armed Forces. You can't do that with a DV charge. If you are dealing with an escalating situation with a person like this, call the cops first and file a compaint whether she touched you or not. CYA. The more complaints the better, especially if she drinks a lot. Get it on paper so it can be used in court. If you have audio recorders/cameras in the house, more power to you. Pour all the alcohol in the house down the drain. If you have weapons, get them out of the house and give them to family or a good friend to store so the cops can't take them in the event SigO claims you threatened to kill her. If you are going through something as shitty as this, talk to your supervisor before they find out something from someone else. I know most of us dudes don't want to talk about shit like this with anyone, especially with a fellow coworker and in the line of business we're in, but it looks better for you in the event psychobitch decides to call your boss and threaten your career. Again, record as much as you can when you can to CYA. I would refrain from leaving the home without a court order forcing you to leave. Document, document, document.

Unbelievably funny.... and very accurate.

Oh definitely, but I guess my advice is, don't commit and jump into it without knowing 110% you want to spend the rest of your life with someone resist the social peer pressure that everyone needs to get married to be happy. This tends to lead us down the path of settling for less than what we want out of someone.

Try to resist the American "dream" to be married and have kids with the nice house with the white picket fence and a dog in the backyard. It's really over-rated and there is an almost 50% chance there will be one huge, steaming pile of dung sitting on top of it when it is too late to get out (without financially and emotionally destroying yourself). I get it. You meet that "perfect" chick who gives great head and seems normal, but there is literally a 50% chance she is a f#cking psycho.

Money seems to be a common theme with divorces and the reason why most women want full custody is to get as much money they can get. The courts don't regulate where the money goes or what it's actually used for. They just want you to throw tens of thounds of dollars per year her way to be mismanaged and wasted. BTW, If you have never seen Bill Burr's "Gold Digging Whores" standup, Youtube it. It is classic. Anyway, from personal experience with this subject, as far as BPD and other things like ASPD (Antisocial Personality Disorder) and NPD (Narcissistic Personality Disorder), they are real and some people get totally sucked into relationships with these "monsters" and only find out after it is too late. Living with or even worse, being married to, a person with any one (or more) of these is a living nightmare. I would rather have testicular cancer than be married to someone like this because there is at least a way to treat cancer. Dealing with a person like this is a losing battle. You will never win unless you separate yourself from the person. Unfortunately, in this F'd up society we live in and legal system we deal with, men dealing with a women with any one of these disorders almost always get destroyed in one way or another. Mostly because the family law legal system favors women and because society does not recognize the fact that there are women out there with these disorders destroying their husbands lives. In fact, whenever you read an article about NPD, 9 times out of 10 it almost always refers to the person with NPD as a "he". People can't fathom the damage a woman with one of these disorders can inflict on her husband and their children and it is very easy for them to hide behind the image of being the "poor stay at home mom". Guys live with it because these women have bucket-loads of power. They can ruin careers, tear your family apart, destroy you emotionally and financially. Not saying there aren't dudes out there with these disorders, but the percentage of women out there with them is a lot higher than you would think and there's a lot of husbands out there just willing to put up with it because they don't want to say anything or do anything about it. I commend you for GTFO of there. Bravo!

Pick any one of the 7.

Yeah I get my fill of moving bugs around the airspeed indicator (which often are missing or break off) on the KC-135.