That's part of it. The dorm sim is just a VR system though, not a full sim.

CharlieBrown17 said:

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Yeah it's a recent change due to pipeline backup.

I believe your daughter went through IFS (screening vs training) and it was considerable more difficult per the rumor mill.

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Actually was discussing this with her last night. You are right, it was screening, not training. Apparently, there was a problem of too many people washing out in T-6 phase. So IFS was set up to be where people washed out of pilot training, and saved a lot of time, trouble and dollars in the T-6 phase.

Then, as bureaucracies are wont to do, the Air Force decided they needed more pilots, and the screening was washing out too many people. So it was changed back to training, and as you say, people with private licenses skip it.

And, of course, now people are washing out of T-6 at higher rates.

Along those lines, she has also heard that the night sorties are being cut in UPT. It's possible you could make it all the way through to your B school without flying at night.

Imagine if your first night flight ever is in a four ship fighter formation.

And the pendulum swings left, and right, and back to the left again.

Hadn't heard about night week yet, as far as I know its still part of the newest curriculum.

Yeah, if the pendulum had not been at "OH MY GAWD WE ARE SHORT OF PILOTS", daughter would probably had been discharged after her accident.

I had a good friend, class of '75, who went through A&M on a pilot scholarship. A little before graduation, they decided they had a pilot surplus (post Vietnam) and didn't need him. I don't think they even allowed him to commission.

Ten years later, all you read about were the pilot shortages.

Minimum "night" hours is currently 7.0 in the T-6, but only 1.5 is required to be in the actual aircraft. Sounds like they just change the time of day in the sim.

With that said, there's a waiver for everything.

Yeah guys for sure aren't flying 7 night hours in the airframe.

Does falcon in your handle relate to the corps? I was in Sq. 16 class of 17 if it does.

I kind of figured you were Sq16. I was too, just class of 2009. It took the scenic route to UPT.

Boeing is on fire. They have been kicking Lockheed Martin in the junk on big contracts repeatedly this year.

T-X $9.2B
MQ-25 Stingray $800MM
MH-139 Huey replacement $2.4B
DLA depot maintenance contract $427MM

Add to that the fact the Lockheed go beaten by Raytheon on the Aegis recompete and suddenly the biggest of the big five looks as if they are in serious trouble. At this rate they will be able to rename themselves "The F-35 JSF Company".

Hey man you never know, I could just be really into the Peanuts.

Yeah I remember you saying on the OB you were coming over from CSO.

There's 2 class of 16 guys at Vance. One just dropped U-28s and the other should be about halfway though T-1s

Ulysses90 said:

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Boeing is on fire. They have been kicking Lockheed Martin in the junk on big contracts repeatedly this year.

T-X $9.2B
MQ-25 Stingray $800MM
MH-139 Huey replacement $2.4B
DLA depot maintenance contract $427MM

Add to that the fact the Lockheed go beaten by Raytheon on the Aegis recompete and suddenly the biggest of the big five looks as if they are in serious trouble. At this rate they will be able to rename themselves "The F-35 JSF Company".

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Any chance its backlash from the f35 cost/duration? Maybe Lockheed not able to keep up, or perceived, with the f35 project? I saw that they're testing on the new British carrier now as well.

Lockheed's numbers are probably not that different from Boeing's winning bid but probably vary in terms of where the cost is located in the program lifecycle. For example, the up-front per unit procurement cost could have been lower on a losing bid if the analysis of lifecycle cost across the year of sustainment indicated that the cheapest bid to buy was more expensive to own because of expected maintenance or contractor support costs. I suspect that part of the reason that Lockheed is losing to Boeing is that their cost estimates are being viewed with suspicion because of the copious amounts of current data on the delta between the "should-cost" and the "did-cost" for F-35.

It's probably not backlash from the government but rather the inability of Lockheed to make a compelling proposal that competes on "best-value" criteria established in the request for proposal and F-35 program performance data entered into CPARS (Contractor Performance Assessment Reporting System) plays a big role for Lockheed. On the whole their CPARS data for F-35 is not helping them win big contracts right now which is how CPARS is supposed to work.

Any contract award where they believe that there is a ghost of a chance that they could win a protest through GAO or a Federal Court of Claims will be filed (because their board and shareholders expect them to win). Lockheed has filed a protest over the Huey replacement contract but none of the others (T-X is too soon for them to have filed). Lockheed is also protesting the loss of the "crown jewels" of being the prime contractor for Aegis to Raytheon last year. I doubt that they will win those protests because the points they are losing probably relate to evaluation of past performance. Lockheed and the other companies are very astute at "pricing to win" the contract in their proposal.

Lockheed also has obstacles to overcome in the area of program schedule claims because the F-35 deliveries have lagged what they promised because of failing to pass operational test & evaluation the first time. Re-doing failed T&E events costs both time and money. The company is supposed to eat those costs but it the long run they have to take the cost of failed T&E out of the profit margin for current and future proposals.

That was well more than I expected to read, thank you for the detailed answer on that one!

Another bird went down. This time at Del Rio.

Initial reports aren't sounding great.



Edit for link.

https://www.airforcetimes.com/news/your-air-force/2018/11/14/breaking-t-38-crashes-at-laughlin/

Rumors last night were right. One dead, one in serious condition.