Track Selects and Assignment Nights

[Arkbird]

6 hours ago, Biff_T said:

It gets better in the real AF.  Have fun and take care of your wingmen!  

Thanks for choosing to serve!   You won't regret it.  No matter how much sport bitching you see on here we all love or miss flying military aircraft.  Do your best at flying!   Treat every ride like checkride.  Do what's right not what's easy and you'll be able to live with your decisions later on in life.

 

Once again congratulations!   Make us (old s) proud! 

I will for sure! I'm actually a mid level Capt so I'm a little late to the pilot party. Previously flew MQ-9s and blew up bad dudes but I'm glad to be in the cockpit supporting everyone. Dream come true. Almost didn't make it through. Had my share of 88 and 89 rides going through but here we are. Definitely going to try to do what's right. I know I'm not going to be some general so the least I can do is help others. The guys taking everyone out of Afghanistan during the pull out (sts) are what made me want to get to UPT so I'm just glad I got the opportunity.

[Biff_T]

29 minutes ago, Arkbird said:

I will for sure! I'm actually a mid level Capt so I'm a little late to the pilot party. Previously flew MQ-9s and blew up bad dudes but I'm glad to be in the cockpit supporting everyone. Dream come true. Almost didn't make it through. Had my share of 88 and 89 rides going through but here we are. Definitely going to try to do what's right. I know I'm not going to be some general so the least I can do is help others. The guys taking everyone out of Afghanistan during the pull out (sts) are what made me want to get to UPT so I'm just glad I got the opportunity.

This.  Arkbird has it figured out.

Another cool thing.   When you make it you your first operational unit.  Nobody cares how you did in UPT.  You're gonna be one of the good ones.  Good Job duder!

[NoFlyZone]

I'm seeing buffs dropping from T-1s in the last few drops. Do you think this is a new normal or just special circumstances/a weird coincidence?

[BashiChuni]

23 minutes ago, NoFlyZone said:

I'm seeing buffs dropping from T-1s in the last few drops. Do you think this is a new normal or just special circumstances/a weird coincidence?

bro you're overthinking it

drops change on a whim. less is more.

[NoFlyZone]

Thats fair. I'm not really pressed about it, I was just wondering if you guys had any thoughts since it seems a little weird for it to happen two drops in a row.

[LookieRookie]

5 hours ago, NoFlyZone said:

I'm seeing buffs dropping from T-1s in the last few drops. Do you think this is a new normal or just special circumstances/a weird coincidence?

It is a new normal. Per HAF in coord with AFGSC, B-1s and B-2s are FBF/T-38 drops.

B-52s are AMF-F/AMF-S drops.

J-85s can’t support Buff drops and fighter production is prioritized and the B-52 isn’t a fast jet and doesn’t make A model IPs straight out of UPT.

 

cue the wailing of B-52s being even more a red headed stepchild.

Edited January 19 by LookieRookie

[Danger41]

12 hours ago, LookieRookie said:

It is a new normal. Per HAF in coord with AFGSC, B-1s and B-2s are FBF/T-38 drops.

B-52s are AMF-F/AMF-S drops.

J-85s can’t support Buff drops and fighter production is prioritized and the B-52 isn’t a fast jet and doesn’t make A model IPs straight out of UPT.

 

cue the wailing of B-52s being even more a red headed stepchild.

What is the “A model IP straight out of UPT” thing referring to?

[LookieRookie]

10 minutes ago, Danger41 said:

What is the “A model IP straight out of UPT” thing referring to?

If a stud drops B-2s they go to T-38 PIT to be a CTP IP for seasoning, so they need to know how to fly a T-38.

Edited January 19 by LookieRookie

[Danger41]

Which I also find funny given the high G, highly maneuverable profiles of the B-2.

[SurelySerious]

Which I also find funny given the high G, highly maneuverable profiles of the B-2.

9+ specialty course at the fuge

[hindsight2020]

apropos of nothing, CTP is prob going the way of the neanderthal with the B-21.

Be that as it may, all bombers could drop from AMF-potato and the J85 hampered production wouldn't substantively improve. 

 

[BashiChuni]

11 minutes ago, hindsight2020 said:

apropos of nothing, CTP is prob going the way of the neanderthal with the B-21.

Be that as it may, all bombers could drop from AMF-potato and the J85 hampered production wouldn't substantively improve. 

 

just waive the engines! problem solved.

[URTSelect 19]

Does anybody know the process on how drops/airframe assignment actually function? What I mean is: when I went to Intel Officer school we were handed a sheet about halfway through that had all of the available assignments for our class specifically and then we picked our top choices, instructors racked and stacked based on grades yada yada and you got first, second, third choice etc. 

Is the same similar for drop night? At some point is your class given a list of “hey, these airframes are what we’re trying to fill from this class, rack and stack your preferences from it” and then your ranking in the class starts to determine what you actually get or does everybody just build their dream sheet regardless of whether that airframe is even a possibility/available for that drop. 

[Danger41]

Pretty much the same except they don’t say airframes available (at least they didn’t at Sheppard when I went through with Orville and Wilbur). We wore told how many engines we had in the drop and we all tried to figure out what the combination was when our resident crusty bastard came in and said “It’s 3 Buffs, one with an engine failure, and the rest of you washed out”. God Bless you Guido, wherever you are.

[nsplayr]

3 hours ago, URTSelect 19 said:

Does anybody know the process on how drops/airframe assignment actually function?

Not sure on how current UFT drops are working work, sorry. Having done the process twice previously though, here's how it went for me:

Back when I went through Nav school with Magellan, we were a class early in the FY and my flight commander was quite gregarious and had made great relationships with the folks at AFPC, who happened to be co-located at Randolph. He apparently regularly went over there, brought candy, beers, told tall tales, charmed the ladies, etc.; god bless you Capt. Gerry. Long story short, when our drop came up he had us all fill out dream sheets a bit earlier than typical, and then went over to AFPC and tried to acquire the jets we wanted. He succeeded wildly! Everyone in our class got their first or second choice, understanding that folks who kinda knew they were near the bottom didn't ask for the moon. He then released the final class ranking and aircraft list the day before the drop and said, "Look, I got you all what you wanted, but you are free to change your minds. We'll pick in rank order from these airplanes. Good luck!" Our class held fast to our dream sheets and basically everyone walked away happy. It was a great night! I got hammered at the Auger Inn in volleyball shorts and a sports bra (Olympics themed drop night haha), eat your hearts out gents 😘.

When I went through URT more recently I was a Guard guy so who cares how it went, right? I already had my assignment; problem solved. But for the active duty kids they got to rank MQ-9 or RQ-4 #1/#2, and for MQ-9 got to list I think a top three locations (e.g. Shaw, Creech, Cannon, etc.). My flight commander there (who was much less cool) then did some voodoo based on his judgement, what was available, class rank, etc. and we all just found out when we were called up in no particular order at drop night. He never even released our actual class rankings other than the DGs at graduation. Most people were fine, especially since the range of choices was much smaller to begin with, but the problem IMHO one of the dudes who was a DG (i.e. either #1 or #2 overall in our class of I think 23 studs) didn't even get his top aircraft. The flight commander in an executive decision assigned him to MQ-9s at Creech when what he really wanted was RQ-4s. Truly puzzling to (mildly) crush the dreams of a guy who worked his butt off and performed extremely well. OTOH another guy (not a DG but a top third performer) got the first-ever MQ-9s to Hurlburt so he could be close to his kids that his ex had anchored to NWFL. I got hammered at the Auger Inn once again dressed up as a woman (Captain Marvel for an Avengers theme), so there's a bit of a trend-line here...

May the odds ever be in your favor!

[stlpilot11]

Vance 24-06

F16

C17 JBLM

A10

C130 Little Rock 

C130 MO guard 

Mc130 kirtland 

C17 Charleston 

T6 faip 

F35

C17 Travis 

T6 Faip 

C130 ramstein 

C17 Dover 

C17 Charleston 

C130 MN guard 

135 Mildenhall

U28 

F16

135 kadena 

B-2

C130 CA guard 

T-6 faip

F22

[CaptainMorgan]

Vance 24-06
F16 C17 JBLM A10 C130 Little Rock  C130 MO guard  Mc130 kirtland  C17 Charleston  T6 faip  F35 C17 Travis  T6 Faip  C130 ramstein  C17 Dover  C17 Charleston  C130 MN guard  135 Mildenhall U28  F16 135 kadena  B-2 C130 CA guard  T-6 faip F22

Are B-2s now a guarantee to fly B-2s, or is it still a T-38 first and later up to the Squadron if they want you to go B-2s?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Boomer6]

4 hours ago, CaptainMorgan said:

Are B-2s now a guarantee to fly B-2s, or is it still a T-38 first and later up to the Squadron if they want you to go B-2s?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The latter for dudes fresh out of UPT.

[Biff_T]

16 hours ago, stlpilot11 said:

Vance 24-06

F16

C17 JBLM

A10

C130 Little Rock 

C130 MO guard 

Mc130 kirtland 

C17 Charleston 

T6 faip 

F35

C17 Travis 

T6 Faip 

C130 ramstein 

C17 Dover 

C17 Charleston 

C130 MN guard 

135 Mildenhall

U28 

F16

135 kadena 

B-2

C130 CA guard 

T-6 faip

F22

Good drop duders!!!!   Now go tell all the chicks at  Crappy's that you're real pilots now.  

[Arkbird]

All CBM

24-06:

• 2xT-6 FAIP
• C-17 Travis
• MC-130 Kirtland
• KC-135 MI ANG
• KC-46 SJ
• KC-46 McGuire
• C-130 Ramstein
• C-130 Little Rock
• U-28 Hurlburt
• C-130 CA ANG
• LC-130 NY ANG
• C-130 MN ANG

24-07:

• KC-135 Eielson
• C-130 Ramstein
• KC-46 Travis
• C-130 Little Rock
• 4xT-6 FAIP
• C-17 Dover
• C-17 Elmendorf
• AC-130 Hurlburt
• C-5 Westover
• 2xKC-135 MacDill
• KC-46 McConnell
• C-17 McChord
• F-16 Homestead
• F-15E SJ
• F-22 Langley
• F-16 Tulsa
• F-35 TBD
• B-52 Barksdale

[Danger41]

Good Lord that’s a lot of T-6 FAIPs.

[Swizzle]

3 hours ago, Danger41 said:

Good Lord that’s a lot of T-6 FAIPs.

Reminds me of an old, sensational video where matter was shared via a vessel in a detestilbly recycled fashion.

[stlpilot11]

Vance 24-08

F16

AC130 Hurby

C17 Charleston 

F16 

C17 Charleston 

C17 Travis 

KC135 Kadena 

B52 Barksdale 

T-6 FAIP

KC135 Fairchild 

F15 guard 

KC46 Travis 

KC135 Guard 

C17 Reserve 

C17 JBLM 

T-6 FAIP

F22

RC135 Offut

KC46 McConnell

[Vito]

Can someone please explain the EA-18 drops? Is that the Growler, or are they Navy dudes cross training, or is the USAF flying F-18’s now? 
 

[Arkbird]

7 hours ago, Vito said:

Can someone please explain the EA-18 drops? Is that the Growler, or are they Navy dudes cross training, or is the USAF flying F-18’s now? 
 

It's the Growler. Dudes go to B course with the Navy and learn to fly the EA-18 then report to the 390th Electronic Combat Squadron at Whidbey. You do a tour with them then transition to an AF airframe. From what I've heard it's because we don't have the EF-111 anymore and this is our last dedicated attack/electronic warfare platform and to bring some of the skills to other platforms. You also don't do any carrier stuff. I've heard from some Air Force guys saying it's a good gig and my Navy friends love the Growler.