Ant-man

FTU IP here, there’s no impetus downstream of AETC to produce a more robust product out of pilot training. I’ve been asked to provide subjective feedback on students coming from different programs as they’ve trickled through, but even if the collective message is “stop sending us guys with 69 hrs that can barely make a radio call,” it’s not going to slow momentum on these new programs. There’s just not enough data to prove that Brave New UPT absolutely won’t work. Not to mention the FTUs across the AF have already made their own changes for the sake of expediency, cutting sorties or entire events from the syllabus. We recently got rid of the sole night sortie because it was too difficult to schedule with current attrition rates and mx availability while guaranteeing on-time graduation. The ops squadrons will have to do with the min viable products they are receiving until we get better sortie rates or accept that we can’t make 1500/yr.

Our “near-peer” adversaries are rapidly becoming peer. We’re at least a decade behind where we should be in terms of modernization. We’re hemorrhaging our most valuable human capital at a pace that almost seems deliberate. We have a host of young airmen that have no connection to the concept of service and treat the military like a jobs program for unemployed TikTokers…but the HIGHEST RANKING dude in the Air Force is addressing the branch regarding uniform standards!? Bros at WEPTAC don’t need to be worrying about whether they remembered to bring a nametag without a call sign. Funny that Norty Schwartz was mentioned because they were both herbivores…surely a coincidence. But seriously, the state of our fleet and quality of training for operators should keep people up at night, and it’s not helping that we spend an inordinate amount of time and energy focused on managing programs born of the post-9/11 bureaucratic bloat or chasing DEI and innovation initiatives. Take a scroll through TMT to see what I mean. We’ve lost sight of what it would take to decisively win a war against an actual adversary. There isn’t a base in the AF where I could find ten people who aren’t ops or mx and have five of them tell me what the wing’s mission is. I don’t know what the fix is but I’m damn sure it’s not another rewrite of 36-2903…

There’s basically zero chance you’d get released back to a fighter if you’ve already been trained in a heavy platform. It’s hard enough to switch platforms in the same MAJCOM, let alone cross-MAJCOM. Once that heavy drops your name in an FTU class with a fixed number of spots per year and spends time and money training you, they’re gonna want a payback in the form of several years of flying in an ops squadron, and then the functional will want to keep you as a body to fill shortfalls within the community or white jets. The “promise” of a going back to a fighter will be a long-forgotten empty consolation for your hard work in UPT that was made by someone who is now no longer in your chain of command.

I regularly use HF phone patches in the B-52 when I need to contact the base outside of LOS radio range. One time I had cadet incentive flyers call their parents, and it was the highlight of the flight. Thanks for what you continue to do!

They’ll appear like any other billet on your MAP list on TM. For the current winter VML, that list will open on April 22. Keep in mind that your functional “curates” the list and removes jobs you’re not eligible for or that they wouldn’t entertain releasing you to (as a Global Strike guy I’m not gonna see a job for an F-35 IP in Alaska). And just because you can bid on something and get the billet owner to bid back on you, doesn’t mean you’d ever get that job. I was told “no chance” for a particular white jet job last cycle based on how they execute the Rated Management Directive and current manning priorities. That being said, if you see something you want, it never hurts to reach out to the functional and try and get more clarity. Hope that helps.

Chang is that you? Can’t tell if this is a troll post or not. If you’re serious, this doesn’t warrant a new thread, there’s decades (literally) of info on this forum about how to succeed in pilot training. Regardless of what you want to do with your life after wings, right now you should only be focused on doing your best at UPT. The rest will follow. You don’t even have to decide what you want to fly yet. You may want fighters now, but that could change the moment you pull more than 1G. For now, get your affairs in order (finances, family, personal life) to maximize your ability to solely focus on training. Oh, and advice on succeeding? Work hard, be a bro (don’t screw your classmates over), and never study on a Saturday. That’s it. You’ll learn everything else you need to know when you show up.

My buddy punched out of the 38. Took him well over a year of back and forth with Bremont to get it ordered. It's a cool watch! The Bremont MBI is a unique and bespoke watch available to Martin-Baker ejectees only and can be quickly identified by its red aluminium barrel. Every watch is engraved with a personal engraving of up to 10 digits consisting of their call sign, name, or date, and will feature the individual’s Martin-Baker Tie Club membership number.

They must mean Senior Flight Examiner, which is just a default function of being the wing king or OG/CC and has nothing to do with experience in the aircraft. Definitely not a rating. I've only see them serve as FEs for people in the evaluator "pyramid" that can't be evaluated by a normal FE (Sq/CCs or Chief of Stan/Eval). The "valid instructor" caveat must be a workaround for the situations when you have a wing or group commander that came up in a different airframe and doesn't have a K-code in the aircraft they're responsible for. Not sure how often that actually happens. Weird thing to put in your bio though...

Pretty cool educated guess of the B-21's design features. Doesn't look like there's much room in the crew compartment for even a piss can. That's a lot of piddle packs over a 30 hour sortie... Interactive Graphic: Design Features Likely on The B-21 Raider

Any insight on T-38 PIT being coded as a PCS now? A friend of mine just got orders for a PCS to Randolph for PIT prior to assignment at Columbus. I've heard the time to completion has recently been getting longer (sts) due to mx issues with the 38. The ETCA announcement still says it's a TDY out-and-back but they haven't updated course information since January. If they formally extended the course length past 20 weeks then I think 36-2110 rules regarding PCS vs TDY for training apply. That's the only explanation I can think of. Trying to make some life plans, and this would certainly change things...

Good read about the general decline in American support for the military since 9/11 https://today.duke.edu/2023/08/thanks-your-service-americas-high-hollow-support-military

Why bother retaining people when you can make them evaluators in their MWS with less than 72 gate months? I've seen it, and most people didn't understand why I thought that was insane. With the exception of the commanders and DOs, guys actually doing the flying in my corner of the AF are well within their ADSC, and the only ones past 10 years are lifers mostly relegated to staff.

Yep. The list of bases is broken down by core MWS, and they are essentially all the same format: ops bases for your aircraft, the FTU, or any UPT base. First come, first serve basis. That's how they get around the problem of appeasing everyone at once. Also, if you only do the BOP it's a four year commitment. Who is gonna trade a four year ADSC for two years at their base of choice? https://www.milsuite.mil/book/groups/dpap

New bonus, including the Assignment of Preference option. Looks like scaling monetary options based on contract length OR Assignment of preference (with several caveats) OR both options that incurs a longer ADSC.