Crown Posted September 13, 2011 Posted September 13, 2011 I think we are finally overcoming amany of the negative effects from the VSP, at least at the tactical/operational level. Most of the guys that were junior pilots/navs when the VSP hit are now instructors and evaluators. If anything there might be a shortage of FGOs available to man key staff billets at ACC and due to the high ops tempo and experience needed in the squadrons--but again the guys that were not in the VSP window are now Majors and Sr Captains and beginning to branch out into those areas.
skinny Posted November 23, 2011 Posted November 23, 2011 Crown - Heard from one of the instructors down here (P-Cola) that HC drops to DM are highly unlikely D2 the J-model swap and training for currently assigned crewmembers. How accurate is this?
Crown Posted December 6, 2011 Posted December 6, 2011 While I dont really know what AFPC is doing, I would say your instructor is probably correct. The RTU at Kirtland will teach the first class of transition CSOs and pilots in March of 2012. Due to the compressed timeline in getting the operational unit spun up, I imagine pipeline slots will be far and few until at least the end the year.
BADFNZ Posted July 20, 2012 Posted July 20, 2012 Bringing this back up. Our faip dreamsheets came out today and there is an hc-130j to DM on there. HC's were my #1 on my upt dreamsheet but I got faip'd instead. What's the latest on ops tempo, manning, deployments, etc in the hc-j? Has the mission changed at all since the j has came online? I've read on here that career progression isn't great due to being one of the red-headed step children of ACC. Any truth to this? I'm just looking for anything recent in the community. Thanks.
bronxbomber252 Posted July 20, 2012 Posted July 20, 2012 What I have heard second hand, is that the HC-J has not started deploying or anything yet, and that there is only 1 at DM currently, and 2 at Kirtland... Can't comment much on the other issues as I haven't heard much about them. THere is a good comment about mission and deployment cycle for the legacy version in the CSO forum.
stract Posted July 21, 2012 Posted July 21, 2012 there is one J at DM. I HAAR'd off it Tues night. There is an HC WIC standing up at DM, with the first class slated to be 14A. I'm not sure when the 79th will be IOC, so those who haven't jet gone for the J transition have been augmenting with the 71st for their deployments. Sooner rather than later, tho, all the 79th folks will be J qual'd, waiting for taskings.
busdriver Posted July 21, 2012 Posted July 21, 2012 The mission hasn't and won't change, it's personnel recovery. How the HC contributes to that mission may change or evolve over time, but the overall mission remains the same. Don't pick HC-130s if you want to do tactical airdrop/mod-contour/HAAR, pick it because you want to help save lives.
BADFNZ Posted July 21, 2012 Posted July 21, 2012 The mission hasn't and won't change, it's personnel recovery. How the HC contributes to that mission may change or evolve over time, but the overall mission remains the same. Don't pick HC-130s if you want to do tactical airdrop/mod-contour/HAAR, pick it because you want to help save lives. Yeah, I didn't literally think the mission was going to change to ISR or dropping bombs, I was referring to the quote below which I read in the CSO forum... Hey Bra, I am currently on the King as a Nav. I will try and give you some insight for what its worth. We actually seem to get alot of ACC's left overs. There are several fast mover types that found their way here for one reason or another. There also seems to be an inordinate amount of FAIPs also; weird. Anyway, Kings are still hackin the mish but the ops tempo has slowed down a bit. The DM unit is pretty much stood down until they completely stand up the J which should happen shortly. Then the Moody unit will take a SLIGHT break and stand up their J program (FYI, the Nav stays on the J and gets called CSO instead). Compared to AMC or AFSOC units that are heavily deployed, the Kings can usually get a way with 120 gone and 360 home if you want. More guys are looking to deploy than guys trying to stay home. The PR (personell recovery) sphere is dynamic for us and I would excpect to see some changes more towards old school SAR and PR (think Vietnam) compared to what we do now because of the J capabilities. Our currently planes suck and are old and hot as hell all the time. Morale is pretty good and the future is brighter than most I'd say. There is a little talk about us going back to AFSOC instead of ACC (good and bad) but time will tell. In my oppinion there is actually good chance for career progression and leadership. That old saying of "Navs are second class citizens" doesnt really hold true here. There are just as many shop chiefs wearing bug smasher wings as radiator wings. They kept the Nav on the J for a reason. Good luck man and remember, dont be an asshole. I just want to know what kind of flying these guys do locally and what they do downrange. I think the CSAR mission is one of the best in the biz (which is why I put it #1 out of UPT), but how much of this are they doing these days? How is the J going to change the game? Also, the quote above says you can get away with 120 gone and 360 home, but earlier in this thread someone stated they were worse than 1:1. Any clarification? We can take it to PMs or .mil emails if need be.
stract Posted July 21, 2012 Posted July 21, 2012 During our OPD session with the RQG/CC today, I learned that there's something in the works to get rocket pods installed on the HC, and talk of a further upgrade to mount .50 cals below said pods. Given his drive to get the HC back into an RMC role, this doesn't surprise me, and would seem to be well suited for that role.
JSChmed Posted July 21, 2012 Posted July 21, 2012 During our OPD session with the RQG/CC today, I learned that there's something in the works to get rocket pods installed on the HC, and talk of a further upgrade to mount .50 cals below said pods. Given his drive to get the HC back into an RMC role, this doesn't surprise me, and would seem to be well suited for that role. It's nice to see that we have our head on straight and are developing a sound tactical gameplan for the future of the community . . . . Christ Almighty.
BADFNZ Posted July 23, 2012 Posted July 23, 2012 How many J's is DM slated to get? How many P-models do they have? At what rate are the swapping them out?
busdriver Posted July 23, 2012 Posted July 23, 2012 Badfnz, The biggest advantage of the J will be reliability. As MX cancel rates go down, guys will get to train more and then we can really look at what more the HC can do.
BADFNZ Posted July 23, 2012 Posted July 23, 2012 Badfnz, The biggest advantage of the J will be reliability. As MX cancel rates go down, guys will get to train more and then we can really look at what more the HC can do. That's good to hear. What I'm curious about is the fact that DM only has 1 -J-model now, how will that affect how often the pilots actually get to fly. I'm sure they're going to wait until they get a few more tails before deploying, but when that happens will there still be one or two on the ramp to get some locals done? I just want to fly my ass off but I know that will be difficult when a squadron is going through a transition like this. That's why I was wondering how many J's they're slated to get and when they'll be showing up. If someone wants to take this to PMs or .mil's, let me know.
nonflyboy Posted September 10 Posted September 10 Revival on this thread? More insight on exactly what the mission set looks like for a HC-130J driver? 1
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