Selection is in, and it's official...

[Devil 505]

Congrats!

[deSelys]

Awesome! WTG!!

[DaveBB]

Congrats!

It takes a lot of guts to want to fly the latest incarnation of the losing aircraft of the Lightweight Fighter Competition.  Especially when pilots describe landing as more difficult and scary than combat.

[WaffenVW]

Congratulations young Sir! 

Now be careful with it. You we can easily replace, but a Hornet is a very expensive investment of taxpayers' money. 

[TheBug]

Congrats Serenity! 

[Serenity]

Congratulations young Sir! 

Now be careful with it. You we can easily replace, but a Hornet is a very expensive investment of taxpayers' money. 

It's funny you say that, they're always telling us "don't worry, there's a thousand other people who want your job. We can replace you."

[eagl]

I'm so excited! It hasn't even sunk in yet for real. But I gotta get back into the rhythm of hydrating. You don't worry about G-tolerance in the T-6, so I've gotten lazy, but I go the centrifuge in mid-january.

Maybe in the Navy syllabus you don't worry about G tolerance in the T-6...  The syllabus at Sheppard AFB pushes it up a bit.  And of course when the IPs go out for a little continuity training without students...

And congrats!  The F-18 is a great fighter.  Almost as good as the F-15E

[Serenity]

Maybe in the Navy syllabus you don't worry about G tolerance in the T-6...  The syllabus at Sheppard AFB pushes it up a bit.  And of course when the IPs go out for a little continuity training without students...

Lol I don't know about the AF syllabus, but nothing we did ever exceeded 5 Gs.

[eagl]

It's funny you say that, they're always telling us "don't worry, there's a thousand other people who want your job. We can replace you."

Yea, they say you're replaceable until you soak up a few million in advanced training expenses.  Then the story changes.

[eagl]

Lol I don't know about the AF syllabus, but nothing we did ever exceeded 5 Gs.

I also had an Iraqi student, a Major who had flown the Mig-29 before we blew up his air force, and he though he was the king shxt.  Kind of arrogant, what could even an American fighter pilot teach him in a T-6?  Well, another Sheppard IP and I went up and went through our advanced formation syllabus instructor training a few times to get warmed up, and then we did some maximum performance "extended trail" exercise, basically follow the leader within the constraints of a few safety rules of course.  After 15-20 minutes of that the poor Iraqi was worn out, unable to do anything but stare straight ahead and try not to pass out or puke.  I was of course happy as a could be, chattering away with my usual advanced formation instructional lesson even under around 6.5 Gs.

I gave him a break and to help him save face I had him lead a nice sedate formation recovery back to base.  He listened to my briefings and debriefings a little closer after that.  It also put our training programs into perspective a bit... The Sheppard IP in the other plane was a Lt FAIP who had never flown anything but the T-37, T-6, and T-38, but that Lt had skills the Iraqi Major simply couldn't understand until we showed it to him with relatively unrestricted maneuvering.  The Iraqi treated the Lt a little better after that too.

I never told the Iraqi major that the Lt FAIP was one of our top 3 or 4 young IPs and had benefitted from the mentorship of a dozen eagle and viper drivers for the previous 3 years

[Dichotomy]

SMH... I remember when you were just another Squeaker.  Proud and happy for you Spaz.  Way to go. 

[Nilsen]

congrats!

[Serenity]

For any interested in seeing me **** a brick, or hearing some embarassing (albeit mostly untrue) stories, I've got the videos up on youtube now.

a little background: So selection was first, and what they do there, is, fill a cup with a bunch of different platforms, and some other silly stuff sometimes (Like Kite, or SWO) and you draw a piece at random. If it's NOT what you're going to, you have to make a toast. If it IS, then the CO shakes your hand and you know. I was the very last if the 4 to select.

https://youtu.be/1ovHTwu7qC0

Then, after selection, we had tie-cutting, where your on-wing (Your main instructor) and you tell a few brief stories about each other. They only have to be 10% true, lol, so keep that in mind. After you tell stories, he actually cuts the neck-tie you're wearing.

A few things to know: The smirnoff bottles at the beginning I had printed new labels with his name and face on them, to get back at him for punking me the day before. He also happens to be a HUGE Katy Perry fan, hence the tie.

https://youtu.be/7dx8eGdBk4k