Aviation Continuation Pay (ACP - The Bonus)

[Runr6730]

  On 3/14/2016 at 10:07 AM, TnkrToad said:

Dude, chill.

       I took Right Seat Driver at his word when he said, "We had guys in the -135 go to the DO and validate a two week off-station sorties to knock out 'training.'" The way he wrote it indicated there was something less than legitimate about the rationale for those missions and the way they were executed. You apparently didn't bother to read my entire sentence, even though you quoted it. I wrote: "If folks in AMC were taking the keys to the jet and going on boondoggles such as you described, that was a bit shady." You completely missed the whole rest of the paragraph, where I (1) figured there was a more valid purpose for the missions Right Seat Driver described than simply taking the jet for an extended joy ride, and (2) even if they had gotten a good deal, it wasn't necessarily a bad thing, since they likely got good training from it. It's also funny that you mentioned there was a glut (not glutton) of copilots at the time, which might have justified long off-station missions, since I was the one who brought it up. 

       It seems you also missed the part when I highlighted "the lunacy of having USAFE, not AMC, own those tails." I personally think the current command construct for tankers in Europe is ridiculous; AMC should own the tankers in Europe, not USAFE. One of the bennies of this would be that tanker crews stateside would occasionally get to do something other than deploy to the desert, European-based crews might contribute more equitably to CENTCOM operations, and--probably most importantly--the pain would be spread more evenly than it currently is. But that would have required a bit more reading comprehension on your part.

If you're gonna critique folks, at least bother to read what they wrote first. 

Getting back to the topic of the thread, the KC-135 take rate is currently 32.1%--worse than C-130J, C-17, C-5 and mobility test communities. The only heavy communities with lower rates are KC-10 and C-130E/H, which are only marginally worse, at 30% and 31.3%, respectively. Based on these stats, I'd guess tanker crews aren't going on a whole lot of boondoggles these days. If they are, they sure aren't helping retention all that much.

TT

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Your statement about EGUN not sharing equitably is dated by at least 4 years. EUCOM tanker crews are getting tasked at rates equal to or greater than their AMC counterparts, and they aren't good deals. Up until recently, 21 hour augmented duty day sorties to beautiful Africa were a daily occurrence.  Hell, we're even being augmented by the ANG/AFRC and AD to fill the lines.  Are there good deals?  Yes, but they are fewer and further between. 

[Azimuth]

  On 3/14/2016 at 7:15 PM, Runr6730 said:

Your statement about EGUN not sharing equitably is dated by at least 4 years. EUCOM tanker crews are getting tasked at rates equal to or greater than their AMC counterparts, and they aren't good deals. Up until recently, 21 hour augmented duty day sorties to beautiful Africa were a daily occurrence.  Hell, we're even being augmented by the ANG/AFRC and AD to fill the lines.  Are there good deals?  Yes, but they are fewer and further between. 

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You strategically left out the per diem made in Istres France as well.  And I'll fly 21 hour augmented duty day sorties if you told me I never had to do STRATCOM stuff again.  You know what a AMC good deal is?  Go to McGuire and sit Alpha for a week.  Trust men, I've spent three of my last five assignments in AMC.  I got better "good deal" teaching at the FTU in Altus.  Grass isn't always greener.

[Danger41]

  On 3/11/2016 at 2:47 PM, di1630 said:

My Quals-I landed on the carrier first try when I played top gun on the 8 bit NES in 1987.

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That is the most unbelievable thing I've ever read.  Almost like saying you made it through Captain Skyhawk without hitting a mountain on those fast levels.

[BashiChuni]

  On 3/14/2016 at 7:44 PM, Danger41 said:

That is the most unbelievable thing I've ever read.  Almost like saying you made it through Captain Skyhawk without hitting a mountain on those fast levels.

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i never landed on the top gun carrier but i DID make it thru the fast Captain Skyhawk mountain level, rescued the scientist, and destroyed the alien space station eye

[TnkrToad]

  On 3/14/2016 at 7:15 PM, Runr6730 said:

Your statement about EGUN not sharing equitably is dated by at least 4 years. EUCOM tanker crews are getting tasked at rates equal to or greater than their AMC counterparts, and they aren't good deals. Up until recently, 21 hour augmented duty day sorties to beautiful Africa were a daily occurrence.  Hell, we're even being augmented by the ANG/AFRC and AD to fill the lines.  Are there good deals?  Yes, but they are fewer and further between. 

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  On 3/14/2016 at 7:30 PM, Azimuth said:

You strategically left out the per diem made in Istres France as well.  And I'll fly 21 hour augmented duty day sorties if you told me I never had to do STRATCOM stuff again.  You know what a AMC good deal is?  Go to McGuire and sit Alpha for a week.  Trust men, I've spent three of my last five assignments in AMC.  I got better "good deal" teaching at the FTU in Altus.  Grass isn't always greener.

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Copy all on both your points; EGUN crews are plenty busy--perhaps at a rate greater than AMC crews. This would illustrate my point, though: if AMC owned the crews at EGUN as well as those stateside, I'd say it would be more likely the pain--writ large, in terms of TDY/deployment rates and locations--would be equitably distributed. Sounds like EUCOM and AMC are at least attempting to share the load, hence ARC & AD crews augmenting, but the coord isn't working all that great if the workload is still unfair. If you're going to operate a tanker off-station anyway (Istres, perhaps), an AMC crew/jet can do that mission just as easily as an EGUN one.  Here's to hoping the two commands can work and play well together, and maximize quality of life for crews stateside and overseas. 

In an attempt to keep this thread on topic, the high opstempo and crappy deals would do much to explain how/why the ACP take rate is so low thus far. Desert rotations, homeland defense alerts and a-word hiring aren't likely to substantially change in the near future. I don't suspect take rates will substantially change, either.

TT

 

[Chicken]

Just out of curiosity... what drives a bonus for certain AFSCs anyways?  Why are there a lot of critical skills not offered a bonus?

[Guardian]

What skills are you referring to?

[slackline]

  On 3/14/2016 at 11:42 PM, Guardian said:

What skills are you referring to?

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Bowstaff skills, nun chuck skills, you know, skills that impress the girls...

[Guardian]

Dude....teach me.

Do you think you could throw a football over.....say...... That mountain?

[Chicken]

  On 3/14/2016 at 11:42 PM, Guardian said:

What skills are you referring to?

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So I have an AGR spot lined up... however I went on mypers today and it talked about continuation.. outlined about 30 AFSCs that are considered "critical skills" .. so now im wondering if my palace chase package is ed now?

[Guardian]

Oh. Sorry man. Do you have the super secret palace chase desk at afpc number to call and ask?

[Sprkt69]

  On 3/15/2016 at 2:03 AM, Chicken said:

So I have an AGR spot lined up... however I went on mypers today and it talked about continuation.. outlined about 30 AFSCs that are considered "critical skills" .. so now im wondering if my palace chase package is ed now?

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Doesn't matter what your Wing or AFPC says, it's all about what SECAF Palace Chase signs off on.

[di1630]

  On 3/14/2016 at 7:44 PM, Danger41 said:

  On 3/11/2016 at 2:47 PM, di1630 said:

My Quals-I landed on the carrier first try when I played top gun on the 8 bit NES in 1987.

That is the most unbelievable thing I've ever read.  Almost like saying you made it through Captain Skyhawk without hitting a mountain on those fast levels.

I shit you not...reason #69 I consider myself "worlds greatest pilot".

[Herkasaurus]

  On 3/15/2016 at 2:26 AM, Guardian said:

Oh. Sorry man. Do you have the super secret palace chase desk at afpc number to call and ask?

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It's called the trunk line for some dumb ass reason. It's 2 SNCO's that work cases and can tell you the status without having to check CMS or whatever the system is called. I used it a year ago when I dropped my PC papers. They put my application on the next round that went to the SECAF's monthly meeting where the O-6 looks at the apps to make a final decision. They only did it cause my requested separation date minus days of terminal leave had already passed with no answer in sight. 

[Right Seat Driver]

  On 3/14/2016 at 10:07 AM, TnkrToad said:

Dude, chill.

       I took Right Seat Driver at his word when he said, "We had guys in the -135 go to the DO and validate a two week off-station sorties to knock out 'training.'" The way he wrote it indicated there was something less than legitimate about the rationale for those missions and the way they were executed. You apparently didn't bother to read my entire sentence, even though you quoted it. I wrote: "If folks in AMC were taking the keys to the jet and going on boondoggles such as you described, that was a bit shady." You completely missed the whole rest of the paragraph, where I (1) figured there was a more valid purpose for the missions Right Seat Driver described than simply taking the jet for an extended joy ride, and (2) even if they had gotten a good deal, it wasn't necessarily a bad thing, since they likely got good training from it. It's also funny that you mentioned there was a glut (not glutton) of copilots at the time, which might have justified long off-station missions, since I was the one who brought it up. 

       It seems you also missed the part when I highlighted "the lunacy of having USAFE, not AMC, own those tails." I personally think the current command construct for tankers in Europe is ridiculous; AMC should own the tankers in Europe, not USAFE. One of the bennies of this would be that tanker crews stateside would occasionally get to do something other than deploy to the desert, European-based crews might contribute more equitably to CENTCOM operations, and--probably most importantly--the pain would be spread more evenly than it currently is. But that would have required a bit more reading comprehension on your part.

If you're gonna critique folks, at least bother to read what they wrote first. 

Getting back to the topic of the thread, the KC-135 take rate is currently 32.1%--worse than C-130J, C-17, C-5 and mobility test communities. The only heavy communities with lower rates are KC-10 and C-130E/H, which are only marginally worse, at 30% and 31.3%, respectively. Based on these stats, I'd guess tanker crews aren't going on a whole lot of boondoggles these days. If they are, they sure aren't helping retention all that much.

TT

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Well, that escalated quickly.  Just getting back from being TDY and seeing two extra pages to this thread discussing tanker TDYs.  The "training" piece of my post wasn't implying dudes were doing shady shit.  Going on a Block 40 OST and want to drop into Travis for an off-station trainer?  Sure, go ahead.  Working east coast business efforts and bringing back lobster from Pease?  Go right ahead.  Dudes were not walking into the DO office looking to fly into their hometown to bang their ex-girlfriend from high school.

This was a time when dudes were still going downrange before they enforced the DAV code policy (2006-2011ish).  It was the only way dudes were going to get more experience other than flying the Malak at OTBH.

[TnkrToad]

Interesting--the latest update to the ACP take rate also includes take rates for the 18Xers' bonus. I'll get to that in a sec, but first a few highlights from the 11X community. From 8 Feb to 15 Mar, here were the following changes:

Overall 11x: 16 more takers, for a 37.6% FY16 take rate thus far

- Bomber: 1 more taker; 26.9% -- lowest of all communities--surprising, since they've historically had a pretty healthy take rate

- C2ISR: 2 more; 48.8%

- Fighter: 5 more; 29.7%

- Mobility: 4 more; 36.4%

- Rescue: 1 more; 71.4% -- highest of all communities (not surprising--they've always had a high take rate)

- SOF: 2 more; 38.5%

- Unmanned (11U): 1 more; 55.2%

18x take rate: 14.3% (2/14) thus far

- Exactly 1 (out of 1) RQ-170 pilot and 1 SOF RPA pilot (out of 6) have taken the droid bonus

- None of the seven 18A Pred or Reaper drivers have taken the bonus thus far

- Three total RPA bonus takers thus far (between 11U, 18A, 18S); I'm curious to see how GC and company plans to build any degree of long-term experience/continuity in the RPA world

Bottom line: the take rate continues to be underwhelming. Over three quarters of this year's eligibles were the true-blue types who signed up for the bonus early last year. The slow trickle of takers this FY further indicates Big Blue has some retention issues (shocker, I know).

TT

 

[Jaded]

I'm hearing that there is serious talk of bringing back the ART bonus this year as well, which could further incentivize people to get out. Additionally, around the squadron there are serious fears about stop-loss which are driving people to get out ASAP when they might have stuck around a year or two more as they explored outside options.

[Runr6730]

If you have an ADSC that extends beyond your pilot training commitment, does that affect when you are offered the bonus?

[pawnman]

  On 3/30/2016 at 9:23 PM, TnkrToad said:

Interesting--the latest update to the ACP take rate also includes take rates for the 18Xers' bonus. I'll get to that in a sec, but first a few highlights from the 11X community. From 8 Feb to 15 Mar, here were the following changes:

Overall 11x: 16 more takers, for a 37.6% FY16 take rate thus far

- Bomber: 1 more taker; 26.9% -- lowest of all communities--surprising, since they've historically had a pretty healthy take rate

 

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Two words: Global Strike.

[Jaded]

 

  On 3/31/2016 at 6:39 AM, pawnman said:

Two words: Global Strike.

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What's so bad about it?

[pawnman]

  On 3/31/2016 at 6:44 AM, Jaded said:

 

What's so bad about it?

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Constant exercises, control exerted from on-high at a level far exceeding anything in ACC, and this strange commitment to forcing people to change platforms.  Pretty much none of my B-1 bros wanted to go fly a BUFF, resulting in an email to all B-1 aviators from the wing commander questioning our patriotism and loyalty.

[Jaded]

If I was a wing commander, I would question the mental faculty of any B-1 aviator who volunteered to go to the BUFF.

I keed, I keed....

[Homestar]

  On 3/31/2016 at 5:41 AM, Runr6730 said:

If you have an ADSC that extends beyond your pilot training commitment, does that affect when you are offered the bonus?

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No

[Azimuth]

  On 3/31/2016 at 6:52 AM, pawnman said:

Constant exercises, control exerted from on-high at a level far exceeding anything in ACC, and this strange commitment to forcing people to change platforms.  Pretty much none of my B-1 bros wanted to go fly a BUFF, resulting in an email to all B-1 aviators from the wing commander questioning our patriotism and loyalty.

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They also deploy to Guam, not the desert (exception to policy is now) and do six month rotations there like your community.  

[BADFNZ]

  On 3/31/2016 at 5:18 PM, Azimuth said:

They also deploy to Guam, not the desert (exception to policy is now) and do six month rotations there like your community.  

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And?  It's still a BUFF and I'm sure there are exactly zero Bone pilots that would like to fly one.