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At the Nellis O'Club, she's enlisted.

Dude, if you want to fly for the Navy, just keep trying. You've got the time to adjust course on your recruiter situation. ANG seems like real good living, but every organization has its issues/baggage. Do the research to see what's the best fit for you. You shouldn't be desperate to take...

I would say that a lot of active duty aviators flying gray jets are complaining that the reserves are flying the wrong gray jets also. The Chuck doesn't cut it anymore for adversary support, and hasn't for awhile. That said, it is kind of cool to see a Rhino done up in the blue paint job.

Nice, the old ones! They switched over to plastic poker chips a few years back.

I'd recommend not talking to this person anymore. Just tell him you decided to go a different direction and break contact and stick with the officer recruiter from here on out.

I don't mind the side stick at all but honestly I don't know which I prefer. It's easy and comfortable to fly but it generally makes it harder to use your right hand to manipulate the displays or take notes because you can't fly with your left hand. Not the worst thing in the world, but...

One decision may make you look back and be mildly curious of what could have been if you did the opposite. The other decision may make you regretful for the rest of your life. Over to you where those options break out, but it'd be a no-brainer if I were in your situation; I'd take Navy pilot...

I wasn't a big fan of the city of Corpus Christi, but I had a blast going through Primary. Split up a nice house on the island and get after it. If I could do it over again I'd still pick Corpus.

Completely slick is awesome for BFM training with the reduced drag, but the norm is and will continue to be a single centerline tank. Whoever published that and said it is currently becoming the norm is wrong.

Looks pretty damn good. FA-18s don't have the little scroll wheel below the "castle" switch where your thumb would go but that's minor. It's possible they did at some point (maybe a legacy guy can chime in). It's also possible that the little wheel is in the F-15 too, the two planes have...

Also the least gas... And not by a little.

I get that the VOX comment is a joke, but I couldn't disagree more that this is an example of what not to do. Is it a good example of doctrinal CAS or how to teach guys to execute on a SFWT hop? Of course not. Was it effective integration of fires in close proximity to friendlies under an...

Oh man, missed opportunity! "Excuse me sir, I think the Master Chief over here has a comment on your jacket."

We did that too. We floated the idea of 3 wet with 2xGBU-54s/2xAIM-9s in the gulf also... Also, 5x tanks (no ARS on the centerline) is not an authorized loadout. I hate that I know that.

Honestly, you're right. Many people got boned a few years back completely inexplicably. I know plenty of them and agree that they fit the bill of people who should have been promoted, so I'll walk back what I said a bit. But when I said "many," that wasn't intended to mean "most." I still...

Want to make O-4? Be good a good dude, be good at your job, and legitimately give a shit. The rest takes care of itself. Turns out that you will actually get a lot of things you want out of the Navy if you can do the above. Timing can always screw you, but I've found that many people who are...

You should be concerned. It's literally not possible and no one has ever done it.

I agree with this being a great benefit and you also get Gold with Starwood Preferred Guest, which you can link to your Marriott Rewards account and get free Gold status there as well. It gives you a lot of flexibility if you're a frequent traveler.

It absolutely is if it goes off in the night pattern. The bolter/wave-off pattern is flown at 1200' and most set it to 1000-1100' prior to starting the descent to land. It's always fun when it goes off as you're crossing steel though because you forgot to reset it from 40' during CQ. Not that...

No idea about those communities honestly. In F-18Fs, the WSO owns most of the administrative comms and the pilot and WSO split the tactical comms based on certain standards, with the WSOs generally talking on the radio more than pilots in tactical situations. I can't imagine older communities...

"Front" and "Aft" is usually just a way to say "Pri(mary)" and "Aux(iliary)" or "Comm1" and "Comm 2," etc.

This is the most COD thing I've ever heard. Not so much the ingenuity as much as the extreme desire to not spend an extra second on the boat. Props (pun intended-ish).

I applied for SNA only and got picked up on the first try thankfully. I think at the time if you failed to select you had to wait 6 months before re-applying. My plan was to apply SNA only every time until I became too old then start putting other designators. By no means is this the right...

I'm 6' 2" and fit as comfortably as can be expected and I know several VFA pilots who are noticeably taller than me. In the 6'4" - 6'5" range. Just hope the anthros work in your favor is all.

I don't know many details, but a former skipper of mine was in her airwing as a JO. He didn't seem to care for her personally and the feeling I got was that she was a liability around the ship (and potentially just in a jet in general). As was eluded to, the old Pilot to Intel lat transfer is...

That is the proper day technique, but you can go into rate as soon as you're trimmed up and on-speed, no need to wait until the 180 to select FPAH if you're trimmed up and on-speed before then. The Ship's Speed/Basic Angle HOTAS only works in Rate, not Path, and from what I'm hearing, most...

Alpha is always displayed in degrees in all -18 variants. The ability to point the nose and fly at high alpha is pretty awesome. Alpha in the 20s would indicate pretty dynamic maneuvering, but still a good bit to go before max performing.

Typically 1.5-2 hours but each squadron is different. On my cruise our O-5s rarely stood ALT 5's and we almost never stood 5s or 15s in the middle of the night. Each CSG is different though. Earlier this year on the Truman, we launched probably a dozen alerts. Typically we would contact our...

Nose over the edge always makes me nervous, even in the daytime. At night, I often hate it more than the trap.

A couple books I enjoyed that are relevant to our world: The Looming Tower by Lawrence Wright - traces the origins of al Qaeda All the Shah's Men by Stephen Kinzer - the origins and aftermath of the 1953 Iranian coup Black Flags by Joby Warrick - the origins and formation of ISIS, my favorite...

The squadron and platform don't affect who waves. There are usually 4 Wave Teams made up of a member of each squadron in the Airwing and one of those Paddles will be a team lead. The team lead usually determines the duties for each recovery on that wave day. This is based on everyone's...

Current VFA LSO here so I'll give my $.02. On my cruise each squadron ideally had 4 LSOs (this varied as senior guys left and they trained up new guys, but 4 was the goal). That meant we would wave every fourth day which also meant we didn't stand SDO. We did stand Romeo still and being an...

The moments that keep me wanting to do this: Landing the clown jet on a boat for the first time Landing a grey jet on a boat for the first time Landing a jet on a boat in the daytime A well-executed (important caveat) Shit Hot Break VR-1355 JOPA cross-countries Pretty much every moment ever...

Do the online thing to finish the law degree if able but go to OCS. My girl is a lawyer, that shit sucks. I'm a Naval Aviator, this shit rocks. I'd say there's a good chance you'll agree.

I've seen it before and for the life of me I can't remember where. I remember thinking "That's a dumb idea that I'll never use," so I didn't spend much time reading about it. I'm curious where I found it though so I may look it up again (no promises there).

FLIR Designation

They're out there and one was there in July/August actually but I agree that they aren't nearly as common as people who went other routes. As for taking time out to get your Masters before flight school, I know more people who got bit in the ass doing that than didn't. Timing is extremely...

Agreed, this was either poor employment or proper employment on a poorly vetted target. My guess is the latter but it's a guess. Regardless, it's a shit-sandwich for everyone involved and I truly feel for the people hurt by it. Unfortunately, at the end of the day, that's life in a War-Zone.

http://www.theappstrap.com/store/as-mini-ipad/ I've been using this for a couple years. It's very simple and I think it was cheaper when I first got it, but I've been very happy with it.

THIS. The reason the A-10 is seen as such an invaluable CAS asset has so much more to do with its community of pilots who train exclusively to A/S employment, particularly CAS, than it has to do with the actual platform. This seems to be lost on many, but it really is true. The Air Force is...

Navy OCS will give you the same "guaranteed" spot. You apply for the designator you want and go to OCS knowing what designator the Navy expects you to commission with. The same caveats that apply to Navy SNA spots apply to Marine SNA spots i.e. NAMI whammy, not hacking it, etc.

Nice.

I got to be a guinea pig for this up at Pax when I was in 106 last year. It's absurdly easy to fly.

Same in the Rhino. I was going to say this same thing too; the first time I cycled both GENs it scared me because of how quite it got in the cockpit.

I can't give you any hard data on decibles, but anecdotally with a helmet and ear plugs, the noise level is very manageable and doesn't make me uncomfortable. I wear foamies under my helmet instead of CEPs. With the foamies it's quiet enough and they don't impede me from hearing the radios or...

I didn't wear gloves in the FRS but at my current squadron we can get the Wiley X fingerless gloves through the supply system, so I started wearing them and I really like them. The UFCD may work with regular gloves, but I hate using it with them. The Wiley Xs will last less than a year...

Great video buddy!

http://www.nola.com/military/index.ssf/2014/11/military_jet_crashes_off_flori.html Hoping for a positive outcome.

Replace F-15 Strike Eagle with F-15C Eagle. Minor distinction but AF guys get spooled up about it. But on second thought...

Sounds horrible...