F-35 Stealth Fighter

[Drex]

With the huge cuts projected by POTUS and DOD, the USAF plans to retire a lot of F16s in the AD sector and platforms like the A10 in the NG sector to simply pay for the F35. I read the initial estimate last week and it will be a huge cut. The NG brass is in heated debate with the Active component about which side should take the right share of cuts. Interesting shit (to me anyway)


A country worth living in is a country worth fighting for.

 

[Flapjack]

I worked for Lockheed-Martin on development for this plane... specifically, the air-to-ground encrypted communication systems. Most was classified, so I can't really say much about it, but it was definitely one of the coolest things I've done in my career. Got to see one take off and land in Texas. So freaking cool!!

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[k_aimone]

Cool to see we have some crew chiefs on the board. I spent 11 years on f-16s and now I'm on C-17s. I think me and you have spoke before Jinx. You were stationed an Cannon right?

i was statiioned at the armpit of america, i mean cannon from 94-98. but only worked 111's there. saw the transformation to the 16's, worked 16's for about 10yrs 30's, 40's, and 50's.

how did you end up on the C-17.

here is the article on 87-0487 for those that are interested.

http://www.bagram.afcent.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123286330

 

[Jinx]

Cool to see we have some crew chiefs on the board. I spent 11 years on f-16s and now I'm on C-17s. I think me and you have spoke before Jinx. You were stationed an Cannon right?

Bingo. 524th. Yellow.

 

[LSlayer]

i was statiioned at the armpit of america, i mean cannon from 94-98. but only worked 111's there. saw the transformation to the 16's, worked 16's for about 10yrs 30's, 40's, and 50's.

how did you end up on the C-17.

here is the article on 87-0487 for those that are interested.

http://www.bagram.afcent.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123286330

They have been pulling a ton of us from fighters to heavies that last few years. The reasoning is all manning related. Long story short its the Air Forces way to keep us employed since these new fighters that we barely have supposedly need less people to maintain them.

I miss the fighter world but I'll take this break fwiw. Its nice lax and boring. Combined with the facts that the C-17 is pretty solid, hardly ever breaks, and that crew chiefs dont do anything here but service, insp, change tires and brakes, its pretty slack compared to the fighter world.

 

[Jinx]

What you miss 20 turn 20 mondays with a skeleton crew? Lol. Jk.

 

[LSlayer]

What you miss 20 turn 20 mondays with a skeleton crew? Lol. Jk.

Before I left Luke, we where keeping mids just to launch first goes. I miss doing the maintenance. We don't do much maint on C-17s since we have hydro and eng guys that actually work the jets. I don't miss the fighter world b/s but I do miss the sense of accomplishment you get after a 13-14 hr shifts during surge week. Heavy world is nothing like that unless you become a flying crew chief. Some of the missions these C-17s go on are pretty cool and its always good to see troops coming home to their families off of them.

 

[Jinx]

If I were to do it over again......I would have done heavies instead so I could be a flying crew chief. Only time you go up as a fighter crew chief was on incentive flights.

I loved Luke btw. Phoenix had more going on and the flightline kitchen was better. Cannon's burrito truck sucked and Clovis was a ghost town. I wonder what its like after the ACC pulled out, I heard Special OPs went in.

 

[LSlayer]

From what I heard spec ops came in with a bunch of money and built a lot of new stuff on base and renovated base housing. Good for them cause that base was ran down we hell. Luke is still a nice base, just a lot of over the top bs. I would love to be there when the F-35 gets there. Even the F-16s are still getting nice upgrades.

But FCC is the way to go. From what the the FCCs tell me, on average you make another 20-30k a year, go to all kind of crazy places and your basically working like your tdy everyday.

 

[Jinx]

Funny, you should say that.....I went to work on those birds and got out and can't even get a job anywhere aircraft related. Not even at the local Hondajet plant. But I guess a kid straight out of an A&P classes know more and the FAA only back that. I should of stayed in, or joined the army with a better civilian parallel job. But you know what they say about hind sight.

Don't get me wrong, I wish I was still in the aircraft game though, could be making much more money.

 

[LSlayer]

Yeah, everybody is riding out till they hit their high year tenure due to the difficulty of finding a job. I'm going for my a&p and a bachelors before I retire. On the otherhand a lot of these employers want current experience and not someone who has been in the office the last 6 years. But above all else its who ya know more than what know trying to land a job. A lot of guys get out and try to land the gig in U.A.E but that is a real hard one to land if you don't have your ducks in a row and know somebody