Gazmo

We fly speeds out of speed cards for the E190 at AAL also. Round your Landing weight up to the nearest thousand and plug those numbers off the card into the CDU so that it brings the bugs up on your speed tape. Yes, it is so easy a caveman can do it.

And the maneuverability of one also...

Jesus H...

Hehehe...

Here is how we stop the bleeding: Another major conflict with country of your choice, economic recession, oil prices $100-150 a barrel again. Airlines trim flight schedules, park airplanes, stop hiring/furlough. Throw in a little Stop Loss for the cherry on top Done... just enough to cause another decade (or more) of disfunction and paranioa to keep pilots around. Not age 67. Not the fear of "one pilot cockpits". The above and knowing who we are and what we do, this scenerio is not very far-fetched. Discuss....

For years I resisted a CAC reader at home. Especially as a full-timer. The last thing I wanted as a full-timer in a non-leadership position was the ability to work from home. However, now as a DSG, I like it and I've gotten over the fear that the government's going to look at my porn. My unit does have a telecommute policy so there are certain things we can do at home and get paid for it. It's only about a 30 minute drive into the Squadron for me but the ability to login real quick to check some email or make a quick revision to a DTS voucher (for the 3rd time) or sign some AROWS stuff from home even if I'm not getting paid for it is worth more to me than driving my ass in, which these days tends to just put me in a bad mood whenever I walk through the door. So.... I'd rather just do the quick stuff at home well I'm on reserve with the company. Whatever the case may be, it's all just turning into one big pile of suck.

The issue is they are bean counting and robbing Peter to pay Paul. Every Guardsman gets 48 UTA's, but if you are on orders at home station and present for UTA (AT/MPA/Alert, ect.) you lose those RUTA's. If you are deployed, TDY or excused, you keep them. Lots of us managed to bank quite a few pay periods to have a "RUTApalooza" at the end of the FY. Looks like a lot more people will be "excused" from UTA now. The downside is the SQ/CC or whoever has the privilege to approve RUTA's in your unit has become an admin and everyone is doing double the work. The big-boy program is gone.

Agreed, but regardless of how UFO-ish that thing looks, it doesn't explain the maneuverability of the objects these dudes are tracking. I have seen the vid from the guys off the east coast tracking something low and fast and that could very well have been some sort of new cruise missile being tested. I am definitely not one against thinking there are other advanced forms of life out there somewhere with the ability to pay us a visit, but the statistical part of my brain thinks a lot of this (maybe not all) is our government testing new toys. Where can we test a lot of new toys without the public seeing it? Over the water of course. Off the coast of San Diego is a hop, skip and jump from all of the "secret" test sites. Humans spent hundreds of years discovering new lands and most of time ended up raping and pillaging everything they set foot on. If these were truely forms of life from another planet, don't you think they'd have interests in doing the same thing? I just find it hard to believe these beings would only want to fly over our oceans at warp speed and never set foot on land. These guys were able to capture IR pod video of this thing from a distance, but once they got right on top of the damn thing claiming it was hovering irratically above the ocean, they got nothing. I would think that would have been the perfect time to snap some pics.

Very true. I have dealt with quite a few lawyers who were as dumb as a box of rocks. Just because they know how to read a lot and pass a bar doesn't mean they are smart. I have discovered that there isn't much the average person can't get accomplished in the legal system with time and research, but most people don't realize that and feed the legal machine with money. It is a business. There is lots of money to be made from failed marriages .

Yep. CMS case for every one of them past 16. I can't wait until the last hoop I jump through is the one that leads me out the door for the last time. With RUTA's, my unit makes us fill out the good old paper RUTA request (which we sign by hand) which gets left in a binder later to be approved by the CC. Then, the admin takes that and inputs the request into AROWS, which then requires us to go into AROWS at some point in time to sign the request electronically so it can be processed for pay. If you have a CAC reader at home and keep it in the front of your brain to keep checking it when you are not at the unit, great. If not, you will eventually figure out (if you are tracking it), that you didn't get paid for said RUTA and figure out that it is because it has been sitting in limbo waiting for your signature in AROWS. You can't make this stuff up.

Even the KC-135 has AOA gauges for both pilots. They aren't the most precise instruments in the world, but can be used in the event of a dual ADC failure (chances of that = slim to none). There is an arc at approach speed (.6 AOA). 1.0 units is stall. You really don't need airspeed or AOA to get the thing on the ground anyway. Known pitch and power settings along with an infamous full-flap burble will get you within 5 knots of approach speed every time.

Found this with Google: "The major issue with the MD11, difficult pitch control caused by a downsized horizontal stabilizer for fuel saving, was only partly compensated by an electronic longitudinal stabilzation augmentation system (LSAS) during flight , however during the last part of the landing this system was (gradualy) switched off to allow sufficient pitch handling during landing. Despite many software upgrades (issued by Boeing as the new OEM) of this LSA system the pitch control of the MD11 during landing remains "questionable" , especially in adverse weather conditions. The MD11 landing issues aggrevated with the introduction and/or conversion of more freighters with increased MLW, further increasing the landing speed and decreasing the pilots reaction time." ---------------------------- Having flown the KC-135 for almost 2 decades now, I can attest to the fact high approach speeds in a large transport aircraft do make landings challenging. The -135 has some pretty high approach speeds also and heavy flight controls (cables/pulleys without hydro assist for ailerons and elevator).

I wonder if the Air Force truely saw this train wreck coming 15 years ago or not. Beating the snot out of our equipment, our people and going out of its way to kill all things morale in the operational units has had a devastating effect on all aspects of our service from UPT through senior levels of command. Very sad. People will talk with their feet. Deploy UPT IP's to make coffee and update slides and they'll eventually walk (they are doing it now). These are dudes looking for a "break" before they go back to an operational assignment (or won't after they separate). So... it is a lose/lose situation for the AF.

KAF is decent. Better than the Deid by far. Food is great. People leave you alone. Weather is better than the Deid. Rocket attacks have been few and far in between. Dynamic sorties from a tanker perspective. Not much to do on off days, but go and fly your arse off and your 30-60 days will go quickly.

Well with that paintjob, The Tampon seems appropriate.

In other news... KC-135's continue to get $hit done 'round the world...60+ years strong.

Thanks. We have had a few guys get promoted to O-5 at ROPMA in the Guard having started ACSC, but having not fnished it. Seems like the dealbreaker though is not being an IP.

When I went through T-6's 16 some odd years ago, my class had 5 dudes with CPL/IFR/CFII ratings with 400-1,000 hours of flight time (to include myself) and we were ranked 1 thru 5 in the class. Coincidence? Definitely not, BUT, and this is a big BUT, we were all willing to forget a lot of what life was like in an a GA aircraft flying under FAR's and use our seasoned basic airmanship to our advantage (and not have a chip on the shoulder acting like we knew it all). Being able to free up brain cells from having to worry about flying straight and level allowed us to learn new things more quickly. By the time some of the less experienced dudes started to "get it", it was too late. I felt I had a huge advantage when it came to the instrument phase, because most of that phase contained the same principles as instrument flying in a 172, but things just happened much faster. The playing field starts to even out once you get to the T-1 or T-38. Overall, dudes/dudets with more flight time, in theory, should be more confident in any new airplane. I used my CFII experience to my advantage outside the airplane and took one of my bros in the class having a hard time during instruments to the cockpit trainer a few times to help him with basic course intercepts, holding patterns and approaches. My advice to anyone with any extensive flying experience going to UPT is 1. Never pass up the opportunity to keep your mouth shut even if you know something from your prior experience (don't act like a know-it-all). 2. Don't be an individual with your experience and help your bro's. 3. Don't get cocky, because the margin of getting into a humbling experience is probably a bit tighter than you are use to.

Cool, that sounds like me.... They're promoting some to O-5 in the ANG now without PME, but the dealbreaker if you don't have PME done seems to be the IP qual (I checked that box a long time ago). My board wouldn't be for another 7-8 months if I stay put and I think there's a 96.69% chance I'd get promoted without PME where I am. Are they letting people go past 20 as an O-4 (24 yrs is allowed, isn't it?)? I will be at 17 yrs in a few months.

Good info. Thanks. Are dudes getting promoted in TR slots there? Any career O-4's? Is PME (or lack there of) a killer?

Had a recent UPT grad from our unit want to fly the T-38 before coming to us to fly tankers. We honestly didn't have an issue with it and knew he was doing it to keep his options open in the event he wanted to rush a fighter unit later on. NGB wouldn't allow it. He ended up #1 and DG in both his T-6 and T-1 class.

Yeah, aside from scratching my T-6 itch again, having to show up 6 days a month, not including travel, and with the chance to get tapped for a 180, I'd be safer staying in the ANG tanker world as a local. Kinda sad really. Oh well, lots to think about on that one. As painful as the Guard has become, there is an additional level of bureaucracy Big Blue needs to go through to start non-vol'n DSG's for 180 day non-flying tours. To my knowledge, it isn't happening.... yet. EDIT - despite the 180-day/non-vol hysteria, in reality, how often is this happening?

Hmmm... that just severely killed my boner. WTF are they thinking? Someone should turn that off NOW! Great info though! Appreciate it.

Ok so I am kicking this idea around of applying to a TR T-6 IP job. I have always wanted to fly the T-6 again and not getting any younger. DSG tanker IP / airline dude right now. Flew the T-6 at Moody. Got a current, signed 1288 in hand. I would unfortunately be a commuter at any one of the bases. Reserve vacancy site shows a few jobs open at CBM. How long is PIT? I read above they expect the average TR to participate 6 days a month. How are the TR's paid? 48 IDT and AT or are there additional pay days (FTP)? Do they pay for travel / billeting when you are in town? I only mentioned Columbus because I think it'd be the easiest place to commute to from the Northeast using jumpseat/nonrev with the company.

Anyone who can answer some questions about being a reservist at a UPT base (T-6's at Columbus specifically), could you hit me up offline? Thanks in advance!