UPT Bases

[Jayjinks]

Columbus

You should try to go to Columbus if you really want to fly the Tweet. I wanted to fly the Tweet while I was at the zoo, but believe me you'd be better off flying the T-6. The Tweet was fun to fly during the formation phase, but otherwise it's a gas guzzling noise maker.

USAFA C/O 2003
Columbus SUPT 05-02

 

[freddriver]

Although I cant read his thoughts, I think RJP was just reliving in his mind the fun he had at Sheppard. As an ENJJPT grad and an ENJJPT IP, you can tell from my picture that the glorious drawdown of the early 90's changed my career path just a bit. No worries, though. I love FRED and the life it has given me.
Back to the issue at hand, I had an AWESOME time at ENJJPT because the the European contingent (they outnumber the Yanks) just wouldn't put up with some of the BS Air Force rules. I remember when the ASEV struck and they looked at our programs. They asked "Why aren't you complying with such and such" We would just show them the front of the regulation that said the ENJJPT Steering Committee took presidence. It was a beautiful thing. We didn't trip-turn students, our cross counties left on Friday and flew back on Sunday. We didn't fly on Saturday, so partying/skiing was on the menu.
Regardless of the location you choose or gets chosen for you, have a ball. You will never work so hard or have as much fun and camaderie (sp) as your year at pilot training. Enjoy!
BTW, did they really get rid of the Form O-96??? Fast neat average...

 

[Merlin'05]

BTW, did they really get rid of the Form O-96???

Yeah, for the most part. Every once in a while, they magically appear on the tables. The Air Force is trying to kill the old days and doing a pretty good job of it. Our class painting has Bring Me Men on it. Because of that, they will not allow it on base one those words are painted on. In order for it to be accepted by the academy, they need to make a digital copy, take out the BMM, and put in the new stuff. 05 was cheated out of a lot of stuff 04 and before did, but for the most part, it was still a four degree year. After 06, its gone and no one will remember what it was like. Sad really.

I know that was off topic. Thanks again for the help.

 

[Yahtzee]

Ah, Tony and Huey,

Just the responses I'd expect from guys that never flew single-seat and instead got helos and tankers. Whatever.

RJP,

Did you ever consider Huey passed on the chance to fly 38s like many others? And by the way he flew helos prior to joining the AF not as a result of a UPT assignment.

Wondering if you knew some guys graduated fourth in their class of 25 and "got" a tanker in 1993 while other folks graduated ninth out of 12 in 1996 and "got" an F-16. Whatever folks "got" particulary between 1991 and 1995 during the drawdown of the AF was often a result of what MPC had a surplus of training of at the time. The guy who graduated fourth in his class "choose" a tanker over a desk or a banked fighter, and yes their are plenty of ENJJPT grads who "got" tankers in 1995 since MPC was handed them out like candy at Halloween....six of them were in my class at Altus in the summer of 1995. Then the wave starting shifting back to what seemed to be "normal".

And did you ever consider some folks passed on fighters for humanitarian reasons like a family member with a medical problem while their son or daughter was in UPT? My dad got cancer three days into UPT. I graduated UPT, and my dad passed away three weeks later, just two days after I got to Robins AFB...a 45 min drive from my parent's and a bittersweet homecoming. Did I want a KC-135 first choice...no, but I'll take my tanker to Robins to be near my family in a time like this any day over the choice to fly a single seat anything just to feel good that I'm a fighter pilot. And no, I didn't pass on a fighter, but plenty of my friends in my UPT class did. I wonder if my experience might have been different had I been strong enough not to think about my dad during UPT and graduated higher in my class and gone to Luke instead. ??? I'm glad I'll never know the answer and therefore don't think about it.

Merlin05,

First of all congrats on getting the chance to go to UPT.

My .02, fly the T-38 if you have the chance and think you might want to fly a fighter as you can always switch to heavies later in life. The 38 is a blast to fly, and you will never get the chance to go from heavies to fighters if you choose that path. But if you ever have to make a choice between family or a cockpit, I'd choose family any day. Accordingly, if I were in your shoes, I'd pick Vance since you have family nearby...you never know if you'll be stationed near them anytime again, and you still may get the chance to fly the 37.

Don't pick a T-37,T-6, T-38, T-1, or T-44 because someone told you to do so. Ask other folks what they think about flying their KC-X, F-X, C-X or, T-X and choose your own path.

Yahtz

 

[HueyPilot]

What's for me is not for you

Just to set the record straight, I did indeed fly Hueys in the Army...and you don't "get" helos in the Army...that's all there is. I flew for the Army not out of desperation but because of family tradition. My father flew AH-1 Cobras, UH-1s and OH-58s and my grandfather flew Army fixed-wing and UH-1s. I don't know of too many other families who had three generations that flew the same model of aircraft (UH-1H).

Having lived around Army posts my whole life I got familiar with another aircraft...the C-130. They were common over most Army installations and I always thought it would be cool to fly one. Now I am flying Herks and I love the airplane.

And my track select "wish list" looked something like this:

T-1
T-44
T-38
UH-1

UH-1 was last simply because I had already "been there, done that" and didn't feel like going back through the entire helicopter training syllabus again.

Sorry, I just never had the urge to be a fighter pilot. Sure, I'd love to go take a Viper for a spin, but as for the job itself? No thanks. As a kid I wanted to fly fighters, but as I got older I realized there's a difference between flying fighters and being a fighter pilot.

Not digging on anyone who wants that career path...just stop digging on my choices.

 

[Grizz]

Who cares what you fly..you just can't get better than Del Rio by the Sea-O.
DLF 86-03

 

[RJP]

You guys are way too uptight.

 

[Swede]

Glass = overrated. If you can shoot a good approach with the tweet toilet bowl, then you can fly any panel designed after 1919. I applaud your decision to seek out this worthy primary trainer.

Pilot training went to hell when the first aircraft that was not a T-37 or T-38 became part of the program. Every USAF pilot deserves a shot in the T-38. The thought process was "If you can fly a '38, in a pinch you can fly anything in the inventory". It's true. The T-38 was and is a challenging jet to operate correctly. A bonus - it looks better than a buckeye, and chicks dig it when you go cross country.

 

[HueyPilot]

If you can shoot a good approach with the tweet toilet bowl, then you can fly any panel designed after 1919.

Exactly. Figuring out a glass cockpit is easy.

 

[spanky2]

CBM rocked...then...not sure about now.

Water skiing, fishing, hunting, multiple pizza buffets for starving Lt's, all-you-can-eat Ten Tom catfish for more starving Lt's, bad wx, easy xc to FL, had to buy beer on Sat cause you couldn't on Sun, the W, the list goes on...

CBM 81-08 and former Live Oak controller

 

[Tweetdrvr]

I agree with Yahtzee choose family anytime you get the chance, you never know when the AF will implement OP Deny Christmas for the umpteenth time. When I was AD AF, I was always pretty far from home so there was always a little pressure to make it home for the holidays which cost time, money and leave. Those that were a 6-10 hour drive from home could go home on any three day weekend or get home to family and still be in that vaguely defined local area pass and not leave zone over the Christmas to New Year's lull in the Ops Tempo without having to deal with airline hassles. That freed them up to do things they wanted like skiing and tropical trips when they took leave.

The glass in the T-6 is overrated. Take a look at the pictures on baseops.net of the instrument panel. The T-6 has digital representations of traditional analogue round dials. There are no Multifunction Displays, there is no flight director, it is all raw data flying. I struggled with the scan in the RJ and that was after having flown the T-6 as an IP for almost a year. The T-6 really won't help you adapt to the glass of the C-17 or any modern airliner. Yes it has a GPS, but the GPS is really not emphasized in the early phases of contact. You still have to stay in your area, clear for traffic in the pattern, fly the final turn on speed and do traffic pattern stalls and slow flight. No GPS can help you do that. When you go cross country, you can't load an approach or play with the green screen magic the little box provides unless you know where you are and where you are going to be in the next 5 minutes unless the plane is trimmed and you have SA. You can learn to work an FMS/INS/GPS nav system in follow on training when you know how to fly a plane and talk on the radio, you can't get to follow on if you don't learn the basics. The T-6 has a lot of capability that is not used in primary, GPS being one of them and fuel efficiency to do more complicated longer T-1 type missions or longer more complicated 4 ship formation training being the other. If we go to a modified UPT where the T-6 is used for an intermediate phase before going to T-1s or 38s then we have already spent the money for a capable trainer. Just as a side note, the T-6 can do nearly everything. The RAAF uses the PC-9 for their entire pilot training program then sends graduates straight to follow on training for their major weapon system.

The Tweet is tried and proven. The T-6 is new and shiny. But what matters is how hard you work, chairfly and bond with your classmates. You only get out of UPT what you put into it. Both airplanes have their merits and lessons to teach fledgling aviators.

Go to Vance, be close to family and whatever happens is fate, grab it by the stick and rudder pedals and tame the beast, you will do fine.

Good luck and fly safe.

 

[psysicx]

It sucks for the helo guys.Being a Tweet IP they have a couple thousand hours jet pic which looked good for the airlines.

 

[Jax12]

For what it's worth

I have a few friends who started tweets last year during the summer. All of them said that they would have preferred to have flown the Texan solely because of its air conditioning.

 

[hawg2hawk]

Ah, Tony and Huey,

Just the responses I'd expect from guys that never flew single-seatandinstead got helos and tankers. Whatever. Used to be that guysworkedtheir asses off to get to SPS to get a fighter. Times havechanged andnow they seem to be more worried about cool glass cockpitsand what theColumbus, MS nightlife is like.

Bottom line. Be happy you GET to UPT.

I agree with the last sentence. Not so much with the first one.
As a side note, if your community has a D-model, I'd take it easy on the single-seat talk.

 

[RJP]

I agree with the last sentence. Not so much with the first one.
As a side note, if your community has a D-model, I'd take it easy on the single-seat talk.

Point taken. But actually the community only had an A model. The only true "single-seat" jet.