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The only reason the designator fan exists is because of the infinitesimally small likelihood that a missile sees backscatter right at the designator and identifies and hits that as the target. An actual method of employment is to not even put it in remote mode, snuggle up next to the...

Damn Zoomies, can’t trust those pilots ?

Ok, that makes more sense. Are there any negative transfers/trends if PLM is inop, or is it just a higher workload on the pilot?

How does a LSO grade passes for someone using PLM? And how do the award top hook for each period if the F-18s are all using PLM while the fat kids (C/E-2) are still doing it by hand? My take, and it’s for all aviation (from general aviation to top end military), there’s too much reliance on...

I’ll see your helo thread jack and raise you an Air Force thread jack... There’s a concerted push in the Air Force to reduce the time to train by reducing hand flying events and relying more on automation, be it sims or using automation in the jet. There have been a few recent fatality mishaps...

Does CV NATOPS still only require official ‘plane guard’ during launch and recovery? Also, can’t said plane guard be filled with a cruiser or destroyer in shotgun off the carrier? In other words, I’m pretty sure the answer is already there if the Navy wants to reduce helo plane guard, it’s just...

I smile a little bit seeing this. We were called pariahs and cowboys at 85 when we pushed so hard for this helmet. Now folks with some real weight may actually be understanding why it’s such a better helmet.

A compilation of pictures, a cruise video from my time in the Navy.

. For comparison, some Air Force reserve tanker units that was taking pretty much anyone from any service a year ago are now only considering qualified and current instructor pilots. I’d venture to guess it’s the same for a lot of Navy reserve units as well.

I got a pair of the overlord gloves in 2008 and I still have them. They are absolutely bomb proof.

In today’s Navy rum and the lash are forbidden...

Holy shit, that’s insane.

As a guy who has done pretty much whatever I’ve wanted career/job wise, I gotta recommend putting in for the transition to P-8s. The worst they can do is say no, and you might just pull it off. You’d be surprised how often people say yes.

Seems oddly specific...? ?

Aim low and see how far that gets you in any astronaut program, NASA or commercial. NASA upped their requirements to apply on this board from a bachelors to needing a masters degree and they still had almost 15,000 qualified applicants. If you think the requirements will become less stringent...

Statistically you have about a 0.05% chance of becoming an astronaut. I recommend finding something you love to do and pursue that. Being a Naval Aviator for a career is something to be proud of in itself. You will also need a masters or more advanced degree, regardless if you apply as a pilot...

I wish I had insight on what the holdup is on the IST program, when it opens back up is anyone's guess. As to why it's a good deal, to me, it's because the AF gives you a lot more paths and avenues to fly your entire career. So far, since I started flight school 15 years ago I've never left the...

You are all wrong; white chocolate macadamia nut cookies are where it's at.

I think Huggy was being sarcastic.

I had utilities, wasn’t old enough to get dungarees. I didn’t mind the utilities but they did take a lot of work to make look sharp. My biggest complaint with them was that I looked like a garage mechanic, like you said there wasn’t much heritage to the uniform.

My brother had dungarees, said him and all his buddies loved them, comfortable, no ironing, easy to maintain. Utilities they despised.

Yes to 85, and my timing was perfect to get three consecutive (better @Jim123? ?) sets. Thats not common. I did have a buddy with me at 85, he is a year or two junior to me, that they did allow to go to VR. I talked to him a few weeks ago and reserve Navy is trying to force him into said NOSC...

I went as an active duty LT to a reserve squadron, switched to FTS, picked up O-4, and stayed until I was up for O-5. So, I officially had three concurrent sets of orders flying in the reserve world, one as an active duty guy then two as an FTS guy. When I tried to stay longer or switch to a...

The AF spice brown rank can super tough to see on OCPs, so there’s still the awkward staring at chests.

Helo water survival was the inversion chair from hell and the barrel of fun (dunker). Not sure what the other platforms do. I can’t remember the NASTP code for helo water survival but I do remember the NATOPS guys checking records to see if visiting aircrew had said code. Otherwise they were...

Has 3710 updated lately? It’s been awhile, but I thought I remembered night overwater pax transfers that landed on a boat were verboten, regardless of where the flight originated. I also thought all swims weren’t equal, aka a jet guy needs helo dunker training, to be considered a full crew member.

The geedunk here ordered a nametag for me and it came in with silver AF wings and silver Navy wings. My daughter had a yellow/gold paint pen that I was able to use to make it the right color. I’ve since ordered my own name tags with the correct thread color.

It’s harder to homestead in a squadron these days as FTS. PERS pushes the FTS more towards the ‘reserve management’ role, aka, working in a NOSC or some other reserve related staff or billet. If you go FTS, go with the knowledge that you’re guaranteed one flying tour as a DH. If you switch...

Yeah, it’s a KC-135 block 45-ism. If I remember correctly (I fly the block 40, so doesn’t even have vnav), if you’re flying an approach in VNAV, you can only use it in day/VMC and you have to discontinue using VNAV at the final approach fix.

Just you wait, the Air Force will surprise you with requirements you would never expect.. Congrats though, welcome to the quasi-dark side.

It's been over 10 years since I sat in that brief but the takeaway that I remember is that, legally, you're not required to fly the vector unless you roger up to the heading. Obviously 99.9% of the time we all roger up right away because it's in our best interest to fly what ATC gives us. Of...

That's interesting you were violated for refusing a vector. One of the first briefs I got when I first moved to San Diego was from SOCAL TRACON and the briefer talked about vectors. Specifically, he told us that if ATC gives you a vector, you can refuse it and ATC will have to give you something...

https://www.liveatc.net/recordings.php Truncated ATC feed.

If I was to guess, a big-ass crane, pull the wings and engines off somehow, and then put everything on huge flatbeds. The Marines have an ‘off-road’ aircraft recovery capability I’ve seen used with helos but for an aircraft this size, who knows? And yeah, in that picture both outboard engines...

Pilot ejected and the C-130 landed in a farmers field. No fatalities. Could’ve been a helluva lot worse!

It’s pretty easy actually... ...plus booze...

So, it's been over two years in the making, but here's my gouge on how to move to Mother Blue. The caveat, the Air Force has temporarily put a hiatus on active-duty rated (pilot) transfers. I ran into a lot of roadblocks with conflicting instructions being an active duty-active duty transfer. I...

10 years is a long time but I think you're gonna lose that bet.

As it were, that’s all I have with me on deployment right now!

Yeah, it's surprising how fast the plane can change altitude with a microscopic change in attitude. I'll let George do his thing while I drink my coffee.

I can't speak to airlines but most younger guys in the tanker seem to takeoff and couple up the autopilot almost immediately. The older guys seem to fly the jet to cruising altitude by hand, and will typically do the letdown by hand vs autopilot. At altitude it's almost entirely autopilot.

Call me crazy, but a 100% sortie completion rate that supports a customer or give a chance to complete planned training objectives is soooooo much more effective than a 90% sortie completion rate that you now have to scramble to fix in the next days schedule. 100% completion in running a...

Yeah, a trained short dude will dominate an untrained tall dude. Knowing what I’ve seen at the prt in the past, it’s highly doubtful a lot of dudes will be training for this. They’ll just show up and do it, so advantage tall guy.

To be fair, a lot of it depends on body size too. I’m fairly tall, by no means a ‘trained rower’, but I can easily maintain a 1:45 split on a 500. I never knew what simulated a real boat, I’ve just always used 8 as 10 seemed pointless. Put an untrained Penguin and untrained Lurch on the rower...

I’d take a guess that the plan was already to double pump them and no one expected the first to go that long. Or, the carrier that was supposed to go is delayed in the yards, etc, and the Ike is the only carrier that can fill the spot.

I don’t remember how many people we loaded up on those Haiti flights but I do recall one flight where the left gun sat on the left wing until after we landed. Apparently the cabin was so full of supplies to offload he had nowhere to sit. Of course he didn’t actually tell us he was sitting on the...

Just like how I read Playboy for the articles, I drink 151 for the taste.

Did someone say business ethics?

Talk about probably the most competitive helo job out there, flying the S-70 for Cal Fire.