hockeydork

Preach dude. I watch both when I can, F1 gets the glory but Indy car is far better from a spectator standpoint if you commit to it. It's all racing with minimal drama. This season has been unreal and I love the mix of drivers, young kids, former F1, Nascars JJ. Today's finish was awesome (won't spoil in case there are other fans). A secret part of me is hoping Daniel Ricciardo ends up driving in Indy at some point (he got burned leaving RB but gotta risk it to get the biscuit). I could see some of these young dudes running in F1 in a couple years potentially just for the money if nothing else, but I hope the cost caps return F1 to how it should be. I hope the series keeps growing. I wish Indy kept the Panoz DP01 from Champ pre merger. That car had it all: looks, sound, everything. Also they need a couple more permanent international circuits, like maybe a Mexico race and Brazil to tap a bigger fan base. Seeing stands empty on TV is a total shame.

Not in the AF but...what I have learned is to never stop being grateful and always realize how lucky you are. This applies across the whole spectrum of aviation. I and many others would kill to be in your position, just to teach in the T-38 and not a Piper Cherokee is a dream for me, let alone fly a fighter. Here's the thing tho...somewhere out there there's somebody dreaming they were me, wishing they had enough money just to get the opportunity to even be a "lowly" CFI, instead of mopping floors at the mall. There is not limit to how high you can reach...so long as you recognize how small you are. To be fresh out of college and flying a super sonic jet man? Pffffff, help others as best you can and just enjoy the best years of your life.

My defense contractor gig is building these suckers. Some days I just wanna say f this but my brain always defaults to the fact that we are sending 100 people down under, so do a good job no matter what BS is zipping around the cubicle, for the exact reason you stated. Ive flown with a couple Navy officers who took up flying as a hobby, and I have absolute maximum respect for them crawling into the most destructive weapons system ever made. As much as I hate being chained to a desk in solitary confinement, every time I get a chance to step on one I get chills. They are absolutely humbling machines in multiple respects. Don't think I'd wish that death on many. Well, maybe Hitler.

Far from a “follow the left, the world is all rainbows & unicorns”. To add some stance on some hot topics: I had zero ethical problems with building a border wall, just doubt it will work (they’ll just cut holes in it or tunnel under it). I don’t think anybody has the right to restrict a law abiding citizen from owning an AR-15. Tragic mass shooting deaths, are currently insignificant compared to the number of people getting taken out by drugs, alcohol, car accidents/texting & suicide. Are we gunna ban cellphones too? Yet it’s all CNN wants to talk about. And FOX news, with its “windmills kill birds, green energy is bad lets burn coal until we’re back in the stone ages”…please, GTFO of here. Whether its Fox or CNN I can smell horse sh*t 3 miles out. I am interested in understanding the divide more than anything else, especially on a forum where at least everybody is genuinely concerned about the country’s future. Does the disagreement really come down to just deciding between…do you take someone who is morally deficient but going to do good things policy wise (at least in w.e your respective opinion is) vs. someone who is a good dude at heart but may stumble policy wise? My logic: there is the system and there are policies the system makes. The policies change with the current political tide and can be undone just as easily as they can be done, depending on what the people want. But damage to the system itself is not easily undone. And as history shows, people who enjoy power…they usually want to grab more and more of it. Putin seems to be in love with it, as does Kim Jong-un. I don’t see Americans running to live in either of those places. Disregarding any policy, IMO when you objectively look at Trump…he exhibits the same attributes as somebody who would be at risk for abusing power. The glitz, the glamour, the ego, the compensating personality & bully persona. Hypothetically, you could have a King/dictator who is great at making policy. But as history shows, long term….rarely do those situations end well for the people in those places. If Trump isn’t that guy…he did a hell of a job making it look like he might be. Rile up the working class who are scraping by on groceries from Walmart while you gallivant around in a gold plated 757 = does not compute. So I stand to reason that Trump lost the election for himself. He either chose not to be professional, genuine, & presentable, or he is actually a D-bag and a threat to the system. And judging by how he reacted to his loss, it’s the latter. While any good competitor would be disappointed at a loss, successful & confident people don’t let losses slow them down in life and start whining. Those disappointed at his loss, should blame Trump himself for giving the election to a pretty weak democratic candidate (Biden, whose cheese may be sliding off his cracker). I for one think we should just starting throwing darts at a board of random people who graduate from idk the military academies, med schools,engineering schools or something, somewhere where people have proven they are intelligent, committed to helping others and are problem solvers. “Hey Tommy, real sorry man. The dart hit your name on the board. dean wants you in his office, your president for the next 4 years. Pack your shit”. “Only those who do not seek power are qualified to hold it”-Plato

I appreciate all the posts. Per the official zoom today, AD doesn't expect to send anyone till roughly January 2023. So I guess the answer is to not give up, keep the apps flowing and be as ready as possible to interview if I get one (I just was not in a position to actually win in the couple I had...dead on arrival. I still could have handled it way better). I will also investigate the Navy and get some more info. And even then if those two routes don't yield I'd still have some time to try and go AD. If I really stare into my soul, I won't be happy until I've exhausted the pointy option. It isn't an ego/glitz/glamour thing, while fighters may look impressive at the air shows and steal the attention of the public, a lot of which probably don't know jack about flying anything, that isn't the only driver. I don't know a soul who would care what I fly besides myself. And my parents, bless their souls and intentions, would much rather me be doing something else entirely. It's something about the speed and maneuverability, the complexity of employing weapons in dynamic situations and having an immediate and direct battlefield impact. I do truly respect all types of aviators and the flying they do, and I'll never see one type of pilot as superior to the other (missions may be different but the overall goal will always be the same). I respect anybody who pounds on their craft in order to excel at it, no matter what it is. I'll keep chasing & flying when I can, and I'll post back with updates as the situation develops.

My hockey career crashed taxing out to the runway man. I'm just a rec league bum.

What?

Looking for some guidance on best possible foot forward. The cancelling of the AD board was a punch in the nuts, and seeing as they are projecting no more till 2023 I am trying to make a call. Current situation: 28 years old as of last week. ~90 across the board AFOQT. Current engineering gig at a defense contractor. Been doing it for ~6 years but it is not my purpose in life, mostly good people, awesome product, some a*holes like anywhere else, I’d take a bullet for my boss. He punches out in the fall to retire, and seeing management’s recent maneuvers is making me lose faith that I’ll want to be there after he exits. I’ve got a Masters, dual Aero/Mech engineering degree, commercial multiengine pilot and have been studying for the CFI. I think I can get the CFI done by end of May. I saved a ton of coin by dumping my apartment a couple years ago when my buddy got married and have been living at home with mom and dad & commuting. Not glorious, but I get to spend time with my parents, the girls student loans are almost clear, it’s helping cover cost of flying, so I am financially solid. Original goal since a kid was always to fly a pointy nose fighter, I am committed to the goal but I am wavering on feasibility at this point. I see these as my options: A) Pound every fighter unit with apps for the next 3-6 months, visit anyone who will let me visit, and spend whatever I have to doing it. Pro is I am still in the running; con is I don’t even want to know how many apps those units are about to get hammered with. I am hoping AD will keep working on me with my medical. B) Get my CFI, dump my engineering gig & enlist with a fighter unit. Wish I did it two years ago. At 28, this might be a nail in the coffin to actually fly a fighter just because of time. But I would still get to be in a unit, get good at a cool job, serve and help the mission and make good friends. It also leaves a door open to maybe get a bomber slot at some point. I’ve heard of a KC-135 guy making the switch to the bone later in life, so I feel this door will stay viable for a few years longer. My buddy is also a CFI and he just enlisted at a heavy unit and is trying to talk me into following. Says they are really good dudes and part of me is tempted. C) Call the NAVY recruiter, take a couple weeks off of work to study for their test, and see if they’ll let me go. Pro: F it, I wanna fly fighters, go big or go home and take any path you can find. Con: More studying, more testing, more wasted time, for who knows what will happen, they could easily close their OCS doors just like the AF did. D) Say screw it, get my CFI, get 1500 hours in about a 1.5 years while rolling my engineering gig & than go fly for a regional if they are hiring. Maybe try and enter the game again in a couple years to fly a bomber. Pro, I’ll at least be flying which is what I like doing, and I’ll clean up financially. Con, I want to go to UPT while I’m young, and I’ll always be grumpy if I never serve in some capacity. Money is a tool to find happiness, it won’t buy it. Short of buying an aerobatic airplane, I don't even know what I would want to purchase. I do have some medical baggage which complicates things further, and I am assuming waiver denials are about to go through the roof. I’ve got em ranked B, C, A, D right now.

AD board for 2021 is likely cancelled per grumblings. Guess I'll call the Navy on Monday? Does the RAF higher Americans? Joking. But not really.

Per a real fighter pilot: it's a young man's or woman's game. Flying a heavy just is not as physically punishing, so the units are more likely to look past age. In a twist of irony, per fresh info today...now is not the time to go AD (see reddit). At 26, get your ass in the car and drive to the nearest heavy unit and enlist if you really want it. Or rush like crazy once COVID f**KS off and hammer your flight training. I chose the latter path, COVID ruined my rushing opportunities. AD board just got pulled most likely for this year. But at least I have an engineering gig and soon to be CFI. The universe is chaos, plan accordingly.

Worth noting that if you are happy with heavies, you have plenty of time still to get picked up by a guard unit. The airlines are gonna heat up quick and you'll see people start chasing the money again. But like you said you can spend a lot of time chasing units and job postings that never materialize. If you are single, no kids, want to see the world, just pull the trigger on AD while you are young, I wish I had done it. You'll also get a medical done first, rather than spend 5-10k rushing units across the country to finally get hired and than get booted for some med issue you did not know you had.

I interviewed with VT (when I probably should have declined the interview) if you wanna message me for insight, I'd say your're sitting pretty for them but you need to get the interview right. I thought I submitted competitive app to Atlantic City too and was deflated when they said the average age was like 22, so I retooled and am trying Active Duty as a last ditch (also 27).

My input, from someone whose never killed anyone but is still raising my hand for the job. It's important to differentiate between wanting to be GOOD at war and WANTING war. Philosophically I myself would rather live in a world free of war...but this is just not reality. People have been fighting for thousands of years, and you have to decide what it is you believe in. Yes, if everybody refused violence the world would be a better place. But this is Utopian/impossible: there will always be someone willing to stab you for 50 bucks in your wallet , rape your GF, kill you just for the sake of killing you....or to fly a 767 loaded with jet fuel into a skyscraper killing innocent people. Nobody wants to kill anybody until they are the victim, or until their freedoms are being taken away (ACTUAL freedoms (think Nazi Germany), not "wearing a mask is a violation of my rights BS"). So I personally believe that the people who appreciate life the most are most qualified to decide when it is necessary to start taking it. You may not want to kill, and I think that is a good thing. But you should want to be the best killer in a jet out there for if and when it becomes necessary, that is the serving your country part. America isn't perfect, and I do think we've made some rather large errors in certain conflicts (always easy to see looking in the rear view...not so easy to see for those looking out the windshield at the time). But compared to the other power players (Russia, China, etc.), she is still incredibly precious and vulnerable, more so now than ever, and politicians seem to be forgetting that more and more (i.e, lets work together to solve problems and find reasonable middle of the road solutions before it is too late). Hopefully some dudes who have actually sprayed some lead will chime in.

President Trump losing the election isn't the conservatives "going down".

The system is struggling because the two party political system is just two polarizing. It's like only having chocolate and vanilla ice cream, when what the country really needs is strawberry. If someone believes heavily in gun rights, so that we can protect ourselves from the formation of a tyrannical government, they will probably go vote red no matter who the candidate is. If you believe in a transition to renewable domestic energy, so that we can strategically protect ourselves from relying on other nations for energy and tanking our climate with fossil fuels, same deal, you're probably gonna go vote blue. There is validity to both sides viewpoints and sometime there will never be a perfect answer. But the country ends up being run by the 15% of people all the way to the right and the 15% of people all the way to the left. The 70 percent of rationale, compromising people in the middle who carry America on their backs every damn day get screwed and have to put up with CNN and Fox News jamming their rhetoric down the masses throats 24/7 365. If President Trump loses (yes, President Trump, because he won fair and square last time, and I'm sick of people not respecting the office and just saying "Trump", "Obama" etc), it will be his own damn fault. All he had to do was act professional and respect the system and he would have had term 2 in the bag. When I see a campaign sign on a billboard on the way to work that says "Trump 2020, Trump 2024, Trump 2028, Trump 2032", what he believes and what his policies are go right out the window and become irrelevant because now he's is threatening the system. And what makes America , America, more so than the space shuttle, hot dogs at the ball game, and fireworks on 4th of July, is the system. We have term limits for a reason, this isn't China/Russia, he crossed too many lines in my opinion. And that is why I personally could not vote for him this time. I think you are someone who cares passionately about the country, and regardless of who you voted for, I do respect you patriotism (handshake), and hopefully both the right and the left can find a way to get Americans helping each other again, rather than the increasing friction that has been taking place. **Edited** I miss read what you said the first time as "If Joe Biden wins the country will be destroyed". My apologies.

+1000 Disclaimer: I did not get hired, so read this at your own risk. I can't help you with what to do, but I think I can help you and others with what not to do. I had a couple interviews with fighter boards, and I would consider myself (humbly) to be a pretty above average and well rounded applicant. And I failed miserably, for real likely the worst interview at the board. I failed because I was stubborn and could not detect/recognize what they were really looking for, and for some additional external reasons out of my control (life isn't fair, but you gotta keep picking yourself up). I came from a place where I had to punch for the high GPA and high academic scores while in college earning dual engineering majors. So that is what I did, at the expense of a lot of fun, but in the end it earned me a job that allowed to pay for most of my civilian ratings. And it took a lot of effort and energy. I would go to interviews/visits and my academic achievement seemed to be unimportant to the board, and it made me really grumpy. Another similar applicant got feedback from his home unit (he was E at the unit), that he wasn't doing anything to really try and become a pilot when he had just finished his electrical engineering degree, and I could sense how grumpy that made him. So if you are someone who busted ass academically, you are going to have to put your thick skin and blinders on. IMO, as brabus said the interview is the most critical component because they don't know you, and unfortunately if you have high grades it seems there is a tendency for people to maybe make some "assumptions" about you (maybe this is justified, stereotypes exists for a reason I guess). You KNOW YOU, they don't, the interview is the only tool they have to see if you'll fit so have some empathy for the board too. The interview is a POPULARITY contest....NOT a capability contest. Read that sentence twice. Anyone who has gotten the interview has likely already been branded capable. Be prepared, be yourself, be happy, be POSITIVE, and prove you will be a GOOD TEAMMATE. They are people just like you, don't geek out with your tail between your legs because of all the green flight suits. If i could do it all over again, I would have treated it like taking a girl out instead of an interrogation in the the school detention office. You might only get ONE chance, so make sure she has fun and knows that you'll be good in the sack later on. With COVID my guard run is likely finished due to age (27, I am fighter at all costs). I spent 35K turning myself into a commercial multi engine pilot, when all I probably had to do was spend a grand or two on at an interview consultant and maybe I would have that fighter slot. Now I am sitting here preparing to pull the pin on active duty so I can have a chance to still go upside down and sling weapons...don't be me lol.

And it'll probably only keep increasing with more capabe drones.

I have had some interviews and failed. I have also been battling some stuff on the outside that may keep me from achieving this, and even worse I'm scared to explain my situation and why I am at where I am at in interviews. Over the past year I have made three major adjustments to counter the down in the dumps. Step 1 is to fly. Flying is fing flying, yes I want to be a fighter pilot but I'd be wasting my life if I did not enjoy flying my crappy piper. Being up in the air is so satisfying no matter the plane or uniform. I will soon have my commercial-huge confidence boost. Step 2 is to value who you are. Be proud of how hard you've worked, and the fact that you are an officer. Not being a fighter pilot doesn't mean you suck and are a POS. Took me a long time to realize this. As for the jokes, I'd rather never be a fighter pilot than be a fighterpilot and make fun of someone who tried their hardest to be one and failed. Step 3 is to realize how lucky you are. At work there are two guys, one in a wheelchair and one with a serous nerve issue. They might never get the chance to fly anything, let alone an air force jet. Imagine what they'd give just to be able to walk normally. All of our clocks run out at some point, if manned air force pilot or not. Swing for the fences and don't look back, that's what it's all about.

I am in the process of applying and was wondering if there are any units that specifically want to remain with the F-15 in the future. I realize one can't afford to be picky in applying, so I'm shot gunning apps to any fighter unit I can stand to live at that gives me the best ability to go home and spend time with family. A recent conversation with a pilot in a C unit told me they were indifferent to the -35 or new 15s. I think it would be cool however to fly the jet that was on posters hung in my room growing up, and it may be beneficial to invest more time in visiting those particular units. This thread is not intended to turn into a -35 vs -15 debate, there is a seperate thread for that.

You guys know what time you plan on arriving and how late the visits usually run? I'll be getting in late Friday and was told visits run between 10 and 2, but wasn't sure if they can go longer.