Aviation BS and Photo Thread

Reported.

 

We had 2/4 get it this year. Last year, we had 4, plus one CSO, one RPA. However, #s from each det isn't a very useful metric because selection is nationally competitive. Feel free to pm me if you have any questions!

 

Hmm, okay. I would love to fly for the air force, but I don't want to risk not getting a pilot spot. If I continue my training through the civilian way, I know I will be flying. If I join ROTC, there's no guarantee

 

I was working my my license when stationed at Travis AFB. I had 40 hours logged and my instructor said I would probably only need maybe 15 more before he would sign off, but had a family emergency and had to use my savings on that. So I got my A&P and just kept working on them. I did get to meet Gen Chuck Yeager. He came by the aero club once. Said he had a dentist appointment at David Grant. I shook his hand but couldn't say a word. That would have been somewhere around 89-91 or so. Took me a hour to get my mouth closed! He was a legend. Missed seeing John Levitow, Medal of Honor winner, by about an hour once at Travis too. He came through our maintenance shop and I was out on the flight line.
But my hats off to you pilots. Keep me flying!

 

It's completely obtainable. You just have to want it bad enough!

 

Great looking Cardinal! One of my favorite GA piston single planes. Too bad during production Cessna couldn't sell more. More comfortable than a 172.

 

Thanks! I'll be sure to share the news!

Affirmative. My plan afterwards is to jump right in and get my instrument rating.

 

See that really doesn't tell me anything. Haha, if I got a non-flying job for my 4-6 year commitment (whatever it is), I would be VERY far behind in airline seniority.

Thanks, Much more comfortable than a 172 for sure. Those extra couple inches make a tremendous difference!

Good! Even if you don't plan to utilize the instrument rating very much, the training will make you a much better and more aware VFR pilot.

 

FWIW the Air Force is reporting a 500 pilot shortage this year and is expecting that to grow to 800 by 2022.

I'd say your chances are pretty good.

 

Them Predators don't fly themselves. Well, most of the time they do, but, well...

...carry on. C-130s are useful. KC-135s are old but needed. C-17s don't have the legs (hence more tankers). C-5s are HUUUUGE. B-1s are LOOOOOOUD. U-2s are virtually impossible to get into, but you qualify as an astronaut.

Fun fact - U-2 Pilots downrange have been known to play Pokemon on their Gameboys en route to their mission locations. When they land, they're met by Camaro, Mustang, and GTO chase cars.

 

They also take other service's pilots. I have a buddy flying (he might be done now) who flew U-2s who tried to recruit me. Got to see them practice landings with the chase cars while in Korea. I heard it's got the finesse of a bus and heavy stick inputs.

Too bad we didn't keep the Blackbird though...

 

I'm not sure I agree with the equivalencies they're giving to RPA/UAV pilots to those with time in the cockpit. It's pretty much a job flying the sim on crash override (they don't die if they crash), for lack of a better description. It's a lot different in the air in so many ways.

I digress...

 

Me either anymore

 

I'm not knocking them as pilots as they have to go through the same training as everyone else at the start. But what they miss out on is sitting in the seat and having the stressors of working through an emergency where it may not be just their life on the line, or trying to get gas on fumes in bad wx, etc. you get the idea. They are sitting there at 1G safe in their pod and can walk away from anything that can go wrong. They miss out on a lot of that kind of that experience. The consequences are only money lost.

Edit: I reference my statement to those few unfortunate ones who get relegated to RPAs right out of flight school. There are still a large number of pilots with a lot of hours in actual aircraft that that fly RPAs as well but I believe those numbers are dwindling.

 

That's something else people have been telling me. That if I were to get a pilot slot, there's a good chance it could be flying a UAV, which I would not be happy with.

 

For anyone interested in a direct path to the right seat with Jet Blue, they are selecting candidates with no flight experience for a 4 year program to become First Officers with the Airline. Very cool. They also offer other alternatives if you already have some flight time.
http://pilots.jetblue.com/gateway-select
Look here for other options:
http://pilots.jetblue.com

 

They've been putting the bottom two from each UPT class in MQ9's. I don't know if it's permanent or temporary. I have also heard that ENJJPT is not dropping MQ9's. I can't vouch for the reliability of this information however. You can lurk on baseops.net if you want to see what the drops for each class are.

And I feel you - I would not be stoked to go all the way through UPT to drop an MQ9. All the more reason to not suck!