I'm 3 years into a 4 year contract and I'm just super dissatisfied in my current position because I've spent my time in an admin job that doesn't really deploy and haven't even had the chance to go to Korea or anything. I almost have my associates via TA I used with a local university so commissioning is a possibility. I guess my options right now would be re-train into enlisted aircrew but I'm honestly not too keen on re-enlisting active duty now that we're more peacetime. It just feels like I'd be taking another gamble on whether I like it or not.
The other option would be to get out, obtain a pilot license (I have the money), and do ROTC. That also seems totally doable I think.
Anyone been in both or know someone that got out and went Guard/Reserve aircrew? I don't really know a whole lot about the Guard/Reserves besides that fact that they all made the base packed one weekend a month, but I know an aircrew member would still have to maintain flying hours and such. Are they all jumbled up in a unit together when deployed? I know the Guard falls under the state and everyone has to maintain flying hours but I'm just curious how life in both would compare judging from unit size, culture, etc.
Price Range: Would like to stay under 75, less is better. If you have something outside of that to recommend, I'll still gladly take a look. I have no special batteries or chargers currently.
Purpose: I'm a USAF Aircrew member, so interior/exterior inspection of the airplane and it's equipment will be my primary use. Multiple brightness settings would be very desirable, as well as an option to switch to a red light. I'm not sure if the latter is possible, I'm sure you lot would know!
Battery Type & Quantity: I've been told by a friend to get something 18650. A 2AA format would be desired, as covered in the next section.
Size: Size may be one of the most important aspects. Would love if the light could fit into my thigh knife shroud (see pics of flight suit online for reference). I currently have a Thrunite Archer V3 that fits almost perfectly. Dimensions on that are 155mm x 22mm. I have a little wiggle room in length, but not much in width. A clip would also be nice, I usually keep flap on my pocket clipped down with my current light if I know I'm going to be reaching for it often.
Type: Handheld.
Switch Type: I'm a fan of tail switch, as its harder to accidentally activate in my pocket. Ultimately, not too picky.
Any recommendations or input would be greatly appreciated. From my browsing of this forum, it seems like there's a lot of knowledge between the lot of you folks. I've tried doing some searching on my own but found myself shocked at how much there was out there.
Thank you for taking the time to read!
I ship for BMT end of the month, reserves flight engineer.
I have a deviated septum, nothing TOO crazy, just caused a little bit of uneven breathing sometimes (especially when sleeping, looks a bit crooked from the outside, and I blow my nose a lot during allergies.
I've undergone meps physical twice, and neither time was it brought up (Can't remember if they even look up your nose at meps?)
Is this something they are going to see/look at/freak out about at my flight physical at bmt??? Please tell me this isn't something I need to be worried about. Can't remember where I saw it but I read somewhere that it can be a big deal??
*also, worst case scenario, if they DQ me, what are the odds I can either get a waiver, or just come home and get the corrective surgery and get back in???
I'm confused on this point. I want to go CTI, and that requires volunteering for aircrew. Apparently this entails flight training and testing, and then operation aboard P-3 and P-8 aircraft.
This sounds a lot like the training AWO receives, and the duties AWO carries out. Is CT aircrew duty basically a fill-in for AWO, or is it supplemental to the work AWO is already doing aboard these flights?
Apologies if I'm asking for info that's secret. I understand if people can't go into detail. I'm just curious because the flight/survival training sounds intensive, and I'm already looking at an almost two year training pipeline just to come out as CTI.
I was a former aircrew person on military helicopters around 2009-2013. I spent a lot of my time studying enemy aircraft and how they looked in the sky along with friendlies in skies; this means how the lights look mostly for identifying. In general state side “Reds not right” so all American aircraft had red lights on the left and green lights on the right side. This was easy to identify, along with the strobes either visual or IR during daylight or using NVGs. I was on a pier one night in North Carolina on my off time and saw something very odd, it was a bright red and white throbbing light which to my crew chief eyes looks to be some 20 miles inland, but the bright and low throbbing light had my visuals a little messed up. It wasn’t an aircraft, it wasn’t flares, this was a Saturday night in a mostly military area where operations were not going on. For this to be something to catch my eye had to be something out of the ordinary. I can at that time and still remember to this day it not looking right. The bright red and white was nothing like a military or civilian aircraft, it throbbed in one place and then moved to the right, then just sort of disappeared. I’m open to ideas. But at that time in my life when my whole life was flying and identifying things in the air both night and day, this was nothing I’d ever seen before.
I had my Massif CWAS (Sage Green) jacket stolen. If you separated or don’t need yours anymore, I want to buy it. My unit won’t be buying more for a long time.
I’m looking for a Large/Regular in good condition.
I just passed my DLAB and put 1N3X1 and 1A8X1 on my job list. Now I'm wondering if I will regret putting Airborne Linguist on my list. Are the deployments particularly dangerous, especially ones that require a foreign language interpreter on board?
