raimius

I moved to Minot just after the oil boom/flood ruined their market. I made bank as a single Capt. When I left, I was making almost as much BAH as the married LtCol who just got there...and looking at 2020 numbers, more than married O-6s now! ...then I PCSed and lost $10K a year in disposable income.

🍺

WTF? There is either a backstory or this needs to be squashed YESTERDAY.

It was always great going through the CBT that was about 4 changes old and spent a good chunk of time talking about RVSM for an aircraft that isn't allowed to fly that high...

I think we can stop with the coup porn and agree: "The Army is a broadsword, not a scalpel. Trust me, senator, you do not want the Army in an American city."

Generally, yeah. ...are we saying a Hi/Low mix might make sense to get capability and capacity? Not sure that is something we can say these days.

Too early to speculate. 🍺

Exactly. There is not a lot of love lost there, and India would not be a bad ally to have. If you want to talk alternate flanks against China, that is probably the best choice. Unfortunately, our relationship with Pakistan and India's desire to avoid third party issues makes it less likely.

Making buddy-buddy with India and not encouraging them to ally with China would probably be a better strategy. India wants to make their own path, but we can certainly benefit from friendly relations, and it boosts them for any issues with China. ...sadly our support of everyone's best friend Pakistan probably ruined that.

Helo only track is to satisfy the bean counters, not make the AF better. The AF already has troubles not understanding/forgetting about helicopters...this will only make it worse.

Some serious pilot skills right there.

...and more delays... https://www.military.com/daily-news/2020/09/17/special-ops-plan-buy-new-light-attack-fleet-may-get-pushed-back.html

Did you not realize this is the internet?

Yeah, 9x19 or .380acp are generally good choices. I like the Glock 43X (15+1 with aftermarket mags, and it is single-stack thin). P365 and S&W Shield 9 or Shield EZ .380 are also popular. As to the Glock MOS. It's decent if you want to run a red-dot. The mounting plates do have some history of flexing and succumbing to fatigue after higher round counts though.

Also a great way to make helicopters even more the red-headed stepchildren, who will struggle to work with fixed-wing dudes for lack of background. It's a terrible idea, IMO. It will reduce quality (flight experience) and introduce cultural problems wrt "big AF." Finished Rucker with 218hrs, with a little over 100 in Hueys, but that was in 2012. Showed up to my first ops unit with about 290, if I recall correctly. Now, we could get new copilots with under 200, from what it sounds like. Anyone remember the most dangerous time for aviators...?

I'm not saying "do what we have always done" or "F that high tech wizardry." I'm just tired of leadership claiming that the new generation can learn with less experience because they had smart phones as kids. It's a poor justification of continual cuts to the training pipeline. Now ops units have to do as much training as the FTU to get mission capable co-pilots, and they still barely have basic skills down. (That's a knock against the training program, not the students.)

Anyone else tired of "this new generation will learn with less flight time because they grew up with electronics" BS? Yeah buddy, all your current captains and most of your majors did too...wanting the same for less doesn't make it work.

Unless you pick something with only a couple bases, you'll move often enough that you won't spend more than a few years at that base you were hoping for. Now, if you really want a base where their aircraft only have 2 bases, sure that may work. I'd say, pick off mission/type of flying. That way, you get some happiness wherever the AF places you.

I think 2/3 of my flight was on CAP at one point. I hooked a boatload of rides pre-solo. Got to the serious praying stage for a bit. It worked out. I eventually "got it" enough to do decently on daily rides, 2nd best in checkrides, and got my first choice at track select. Exercise and eat decently. Get enough sleep! I realized I need about 6hrs for academics, but 7 or more to fly decently (part of my pre-solo issue).

A little late, but Leave No Man Behind has a wide collection of CSAR cases.

🍺 Very sad to hear...

Depends on the RW CAS you are comparing. An Apache is going to be different than a Huey. Probably, could be somewhat similar though, as airspeeds are likely to be somewhat similar (at least if you take a slower fixed wing). That said, some helicopter tactics aren't going to be available unless you have STOL capability and a headwind.

I believe the human mortality rate has always hovered right around 100%.

There are often admin/support jobs in squadrons. Another route might be in the maintenance realm. I don't know the common pre-reqs for those jobs, but you can look at M1 or Dyncorp for more info.