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Howdy, Married ANG guy here with a baby (both of whom will be going to UPT with me). Finally just got my dates for TFOT, IFT, and UPT. I'm sure I'll have some briefings that deal with this when I'm at drill next month, but I figured I could start getting educated on what kind of pay and entitlements I can expect during different phases of the training pipeline. Currently I'm sworn in / gained as an E3. For example, I should be eligible for BAH while I'm TFOT, correct? Just want to make sure my paperwork is squared away so that I don't have to worry about my mortgage payment while I'm away for 8 weeks. Thanks for any help / resources you can offer!

Hey guys, I am a RPA pilot selectee, I have my PPL/PPC, and I anticipate completing my instrument rating this fall. My date of commission is on 24 Apr 2014, after which my RPA training will begin that summer. 1. While digging around in the internet, I have found out that I am exempt from block 1 of training (IFS) in Pueblo, CO, and that I will go straight to IQC at Randolph instead. My ROTC Detachment NCO's were not aware of this policy (new as of Dec 2012), so be sure that yours know if you are a RPA selectee, so that they can work on getting a waiver from IFS early on for you. 2. Questions: From what "I think" I know, IQC is basically the civilian equivalent of getting an instrument rating through the FAA; with the course ending with your instrument checkride, correct? 3. So if I already have my civilian acquired instrument rating what would IQC do with me? Have you guys, or anybody you know, trained in my situation in IQC? If so, did the civilian Instrument/Commercial pilot still have much to learn from the course? The person I talked to via a number on the IFS arrival guide, said normally a guy in my situation would not be exempt from IQC, and that often the trainees who struggled were often civilian instrument/commercial rated pilots. He mentioned struggles with the military side of aviation and struggling with boldface or whatnot. So he recommended that I still attend IQC for my benefit. From the way he said it, it seems that in the past they have let some individuals passover IFS & IQC and go straight into Block 3 (RPA fundamentals), and that he was referring to their struggles there? I'm not sure. This is a funny situation for me, as it is weird to think that I will have to do another instrument checkride for the FAA & USAF, being already instrument rated. :D Some of you are probably wondering why I am wasting MY money on instrument training, if the AF is going to provide it. Well , I started it as my plan B if I didn't pick up a pilot slot; which I technically didn't get due to nearsighted eyes (good enough for RPA), but flying is what I want to do when I get out of the USAF.

I'm a Second Lieutenant in the Marine Corps and was recently informed that I will be attending IFS in Pueblo, CO followed by some school in San Antonio. Does anyone know what this process is like? Have there been many Marines that have came through this pipeline in the past? I understand what IFS is, but what is the curriculum in San Antonio geared towards? Any information on this topic would be very helpful. Thanks!

I have recently been selected as a CSO for the Missouri Air National Guard and am simply curious as to what I could do to prepare myself for the next 2-3 years. I took my initial physical at MEPS yesterday (that could be a whole other topic), will be sworn in on Tuesday, and then work on my Top Secret Clearance. It is my understanding that I will ship off to AMS in roughly 6-12 months, and the rest of my training will fall in line. What can I do physically and mentally to prepare myself for the next couple of years. Thanks guys.

Alright, well, I expected to have more lessons learned, but I don't. Feel free to add on to this as necessary. In no particular order... - Relax: I was super nervous going there. Don't be. Everyone is very helpful and friendly especially while checking in, but also throughout the whole time I was there. Everyone is really there to help you make it through. - If you don't like really hard or fluffy pillows, bring your own. - Bring some electronic entertainment: XBox, PS, Wii, etc goes a long way and your classmates will appreciate it. - Go somewhere else on the weekends. Me and my buddy went to either Colorado Springs or Denver every single weekend we were there. You are generally not spending much money on food and nothing on lodging, so get out; if for nothing else, to get a room with a window! We stayed at the Hyatt Place: excellent! - Drive and stay in Colorado Springs the night before your RNLT date if you are coming from far away. You have to get there in blues and you don't want to be driving for like 10 hours with those damn things on. I say drive because it sucks (for me) to bum rides off of everyone all the time. - Learn the boldface and ops limits backward, forward, upside down and in no order in particular before you get there. Also learn the black items on the ops limits: you'll use them just enough to know them by memory. Learn everything you can in the In Flight Guide as far as the departures and arrivals go: it may not make a whole lot of sense, but if you are familiar with them, it helps immensely.

So, Wednesday I was initially scheduled for one flight around lunch, but the weather was acting up a little bit, so a priority list was made up that consisted of folks that were behind, and I was on it! So, I'm eating breakfast and I get told that I'm double turning and my first brief is in like 30 minutes! I go brief up my 604 with a different IP than originally planned and the flight went pretty decent. I get back and sure enough, I'm supposed to be briefing AGAIN with the same IP for my 605. It went ok, but I definitely was not 100% and my IP could tell. He still thought I did pretty good overall, which is very good. That meant checkride on Thursday! Thursday comes and the weather tanks, so no one flew that day. Oh well, another rain delay and checkride Friday! Friday comes and weather is good, so checkride is a go! I go brief it up and step to fly. The flight went pretty good; I messed up a few things, but I think my IP let those things slide. He passed me and I got to go home! So after about 4 hours of outprocessing (because our flight commander was busy) me and my buddy got the hell out of Doss! After I get back into the swing of things, I'll be making another post in a couple of days containing some lessons learned from the whole ordeal.

Flew twice today: first was my area solo, 602, then the second was the 603. Area solo was pretty fun! Kinda boring once I got into the area simply because the only maneuvers we are allowed to do are steep turns and VOR navigation stuff. Overall, a very fun flight. Second flight was ok...wind was picking up and it was hot. Nothing eventful about it, just another flight. Only 3 more flights left!!

Flew my 601 ride today...not too bad. I messed up some simple radio calls and my IP downgraded me for those, but got a good for the overall flight. Going out for my area solo (602) in the morning, should be exciting (and boring from what I hear)! Then i'll get my 603 later in the afternoon when it will be nice and hot...sucks. Should be a good day...actually, should be an "A day"!

So I did my 306 ride for the second time yesterday and passed. I got scheduled for my checkride and pattern solo today. Just got back from my checkride...PASSED!! I still need some work in many areas, but apparently i'm safe enough to go solo. Scheduled for the solo here in a couple of hours. This short weekend could potentially be great as long as I pass the solo. (about 4 hours later) And just got back from my solo, and did well! My IP said I did better by myself than I did with him in the plane with me...go figure! This weekend is going to be the best weekend since I've been here. Going to stay the night Colorado Springs and have a cold one. See yall monday!

I was scheduled for a flight this morning, but the cloud layer was at 600 feet which means....you guessed it, no flying! Pattern altitude is 800 feet. So my flight gets cancelled. I get back from lunch and find out there's a list with a bunch of people who are behind on it....including me. So, I get a new IP from a different flight and brief up a flight and I don't know which profile i'm doing or which area i'm going to. Turns out I get a profile that i've done a few times before...whew! But the winds were still pushing us around and our area happened to be directly under a ginormous cumulonimbus cloud which was giving us up/downdrafts the whole time. I thought that was one of my worst flights since i've been here, but my IP had mercy on me and thought I did decent overall. I busted my area so he downgraded me on that, but overall, not that bad apparently. Lesson of the day: be as flexible as humanly possible! Be ready to fly at any time and know the procedures for every approach/departure and the boundaries for your areas.

As I was stepping to fly this morning, the winds started to pick up. I think they went out of limits about halfway through the flight, but who knows. I hooked it, though. It was just a terrible flight...I was getting blown all over the place (sts) and my maneuvers sucked. I guess I wasn't 100% today and I paid for it. I'll try it again tomorrow and hopefully be ready to check on saturday: that would make for a great weekend! Wish me luck tomorrow!

I was supposed to fly this past friday, but winds were crap...again. So I had a nice 3 day weekend; went to Colorado Springs for the night on Saturday and relaxed and didn't think of IFS once! Finally got to do my 304 just a little bit ago. I think it went well overall. Weather was still kinda crappy but not so bad that we couldn't go to the area and do some stuff out there. I'll get to the checkride....it may take a long time, but i'll get there!

Supposed to fly twice today and only got the first one in this morning. Second one was cancelled due to winds. We went out to the other aux field (Fremont) and did a bunch of touch and goes. I thought the flight went pretty well and my IP pretty much agreed. This is a one time flight where you only go out to the aux field and beat up the pattern and you don't go to an area at all. It's a nice change of pace, plus there aren't nearly as many people at that airport as there are here at Pueblo and at Fowler. I'm thinking i'll at least get my 304 flight in tomorrow (as long as the winds don't pick up) if not attempt to double turn. It's not looking good for the double turn which just means i'll do it on tuesday. Oh yeah, we get monday off for Memorial Day!

I was supposed to fly this afternoon, but, as you guessed...we had crazy winds! (This seems to be a trend!) I get to switch IPs now also, which is cool because I get a different perspective on what I'm doing right and wrong. I'm on the schedule for tomorrow morning, but winds aren't looking promising, again, so we'll see. If this weather keeps up through friday, I won't fly until tuesday (monday is Memorial Day!). This just means we'll be here that much longer than scheduled. Oh, and we had one guy check yesterday and do his solo today. He has gotten proficiency advanced (PA) through alot of the 300 block because he is a CFI and has 1200 hours or something crazy.

So, I didn't end up flying on Friday, which just makes it that much more hectic for me this week. Yesterday, I flew in the morning; today I flew twice in the morning (double turning). The first flight was decent, but the second flight sucked. The winds had picked up and I was all over the place. Not to mention I got a headache as we were stepping...I fought through it, but I was beat from the first flight so that wasn't helping any. I ended up getting a good overall and for the most part, my IP was lenient (I think). I'm flying tomorrow...once as of now. Halfway done with the 300 block and only 3 or 4 more flights till the checkride. I don't think I'm ready for it just yet, but i'm hoping i'll get it down in the next few days.

So, as of last night, wasn't scheduled to fly...but I get back from breakfast this morning and, voila! I'm on the schedule! I'm getting ready and planning, etc, and there's a stop launch because of winds....again. There were a few people that flew today, but not too many. Chalk another day up to weather. I'm thinking that i'll probably fly tomorrow since the senior class' IPs are getting freed up. Also, the new class got here today, so the place is getting crowded!

Flew again today. I've been flying about every other day to start out with; but as the senior class finishes up this week, we will start getting their IPs so our class will be flying much more. I'm looking forward to flying, but not to double turning, oh well...gotta do what you gotta do. The flight went well today; had smooth air and I thought I did fairly well for the point I'm at in the program. Basically just did some steep turns, stalls, slow flight, and my IP demonstrated an area SFL (simulated forced landing). That looks fairly straightforward, but that apparently gets a lot of people here, so I guess it's not as easy as it looks.

Had my second flight today...ugh, not so good. The wind wasn't that bad when we started and taxied, but as we were finishing the runup, the SOF called stop launch for high winds. He cleared us all to go about 5 minutes later (there was about 6 of us waiting to go). My IP said I improved from my first flight, but the winds were kicking us around pretty bad, so the whole flight I was trying to keep altitude and airspeed. Just when I thought I had good airspeed and altitude, a downdraft or updraft would hit us and there goes the altitude! There's a reason why there is a 25 knot limit on this plane! I got an overall good on the flight, but i'm still improving. I don't fly again until wednesday, so I can sorta take it easy tonight.

Another benign day of just studying. The guy that was doing our formal brief didn't know what some of the stuff was that he was briefing about (I think it was the NOTAMS: Notice To Airmen). Well, our flight commander didn't like that so much so he got a little upset and told us that he was thinking about putting us on formal release, but didn't since we had worked so hard this past week. Just means we need to keep it together and help each other out that much more. We all got out at a decent time, so it's a nice start to the weekend.

Woohoo!! Dollar ride, baby!! It finally happened and I think I did well overall. Even though I got all U's: that means I attempted the different maneuvers but wasn't that great at them, I did get the plane back in one piece! There wasn't too many maneuvers on this ride; just slow flight, steep turns, and your takeoff, landing, radios, approach and departure. Sounds fairly straightforward, but it's a lot of work to do in not much time. It's pretty exciting, and I finally know what I need to work on and study for. I think I will take it easy tonight since I don't have to fly tomorrow. I'm scheduled for monday so i'll be studying for that flight this weekend.

Well, didn't fly again today. I think a few flights got out this morning, but the weather came in late morning and all flights were cancelled for the rest of the day. Good news was that our flight commander bumped another guy off the flight schedule who was supposed to do his 2nd or 3rd ride to put me on there. I was going to be one of the last flights of the day, but, as I mentioned before, the weather rolled in and it started raining. I just studied all day, went out to one of the planes and practiced a preflight and chairflew what my mission would have been. Not a bad day overall. We got let out early and we have a Emergency Procedures Quiz (EPQ) tomorrow so I will be studying for that tonight. It's basically an online test that tests your knowledge of different systems and flight concepts, etc. Shouldn't be extremely difficult and you only need an 85% to pass, but i'm still going to study my butt off!

Alright, I didn't fly today...don't know if i'll fly tomorrow, either. There's 2 of us that I know of that haven't flown at all. Our IP said that he would bump some folks tomorrow to get us up in the air, so we'll see how that goes. So, i'm stuck studying the same stuff: radio calls, checklists, etc. I feel like I can't get any more productive studying done until I fly and figure out what I need to work on. Maybe tomorrow!!

Today I got to sit in on several briefings to see how those go and to get a better feel for what I need to do to prepare for my dollar ride. That and studying is about all I did today. I wasn't flying today, so I got to absorb all the info I could from those who were flying. I was supposed to fly tomorrow, but me and several others got bumped for guys that are doing their checkrides. I'm not complaining, though. Hopefully I'll get thrown in the mix tomorrow or Wednesday.