Bergman

Well shit, thought I heard something about a pilot shortage. Guess not! Sorry to hear about the board results. Start lining up Guard/Reserve visits and make it happen. IMHO most units are far more concerned with “good pilot, good dude” than whatever AD block checking BS is the flavor of the day.

Agree with this 100%! It doesn’t matter which track or MWS either (while some are obviously more challenging)...experience matters. Graduating pilots with 300 VR hours but only 69 actual flight hours just doesn’t make sense.

If it’s that dangerous, but we aren’t flying any significant combat Ops....why are the crews there in the first place? It’s only a big deal when you find out every E-3 in finance or EEO has their own room, and this is your 12th 90 day trip there in the last 8 years. Not a big deal, but it gets old.

What’s the story on Al Udeid’s lodging crisis? After all those years in the trailers, they finally got aircrew into the BPC. Only to start doubling up crews lately. What’s the back story?

I believe the program went away with SAC in 1992ish. They used companion aircraft since all the main jets were on alert. It used to be a factor on assignment night...”take tankers to Grand Forks with T-38s or Barksdale with T-37s” Yes sims are cheaper, but we can all agree they don’t come close to flying in the actual jet, within the airspace system. The airlines train exclusively in the sim, but most pilots get 70-90 hours a month which could equate to 40+ flights on narrow body jets. Lots of reps.

Sadly, I think you’re right about what will end up happening. They SHOULD go aggressive with the bonus...$50-100k/yr. The current bonus is not even one month’s airline paycheck; not all that appealing (if money is what motivates you). I’d advocate for predictable schedules and decent leadership if the AF asked me.

What’s old is new again. You know they did this for decades, right? T-37/38 ACE (Accelerated Copilot Enhancement) at many tanker bases. I think the B-52s did it at well; not sure what other MWS had them.

This should help. 🙄 I personally can’t wait for Contract Undergraduate Navigator Training, which will likely be in the second phase of their plan. AETC Looking into Contract UPT

So, was she a slut or not? Was Scooters involved?

The ink on the revised, idiotic new UPT syllabus isn’t even dry and now CSAF says, “We may have pushed...a little too far.” Geebus, ya think? If only hundreds of IPs told them that ahead of time. For years.

Word has it our PsyOps team is leaking them the UPT 2.5 syllabus to counter their efforts

I could probably write a book on this topic; it’s an interesting question. My short answer is...a student pilot pays a civilian instructor, so there is an inherent conflict of interest there. A student never gets the 100% unvarnished truth (typically) because the CFI doesn’t want to bite the hand that feeds him. IPs at UPT don’t have that worry. 😂 My second thought is that the expectations are just higher in the military, as pilots are allowed access to far more advanced equipment with far more challenging missions with very little experience. Example...250 hour pilots flying F-22s solo or globe trotting on a C-5. Hell, even a KC-135 is the size of a 757. Not many opportunities for a low time pilot to fly something that big/complicated (relative to GA).

I feel like this nurse story needs an alternate ending like... “So I walk out of the bathroom and say, “Best Sex eh? Prove it, because you don’t look like you’re good at it”. And that’s the story of how I died having sex in my own house.” Or something like that. Congrats Duck! I’ve walked a similar path and can appreciate where you are at now. 🍻

Doesn’t seem that long ago! I actually still have my nav school charts somewhere. I’m a pack-rat apparently. Lol Saw a FB post from Davis-Monthan that showed the T-43s...the only plane that could be 13 places at once. Where each of the 12 studs thought they were...and the aircraft’s actual location.

Shit, typo...559th indeed. Small world my friend!

I assume at KRND? I was a nav stud back then. Guy Neddo was my Flt/CC in the 557th.

So damned sad. Almost unimaginable how two guys with that much quality experience ended up going down that path. Could be any one of us on any given day. Heads on a swivel, fellas. 🍻 to the crew. RIP.

UPT studs right now were 5-6 years old when this thread was started. Damn we are old.

Now now, the reason pencil-whipping is a lost art is because too many people run their mouths and give management no choice but to crush it. As was mentioned, I retired last year so just waxing nostalgic about the good old days of 2018-2019. I did see this sort of thing at several tanker bases however.

Do they not just hand you the PT test paperwork and say “come back looking tired with it filled in”. 🧐 The days of the base “fun run” with a keg at the end are gone even from the guard; at least pencil-whipping isn’t entirely dead.

“Quit hating people you disagree with”. So damned true. The last 30 seconds were the best part.

Well fellas, since the manning crisis has been solved by Covid, that frees up some resources to boot the undesirables. As we all know, there is no possible way airline hiring is going to pick back up ever again, so no real need to be concerned with manning or the morale of some of the most highly trained people we have. Carry on. #fuckingidiots

Thanks for the update. I’ve got good friends up there and it’s been a pretty shitty week for everyone. Prayers for Hawk’s wife and kids especially.

Just read an article claiming the port authority had been asking for YEARS to have the ammonium nitrate either moved or sold. Hope the guy(s) trying time do the right thing weren’t there when it finally went bad.

Ha! I have every single one of those songs on my Spotify running playlist. Damn we are old.