Drop night at Vance AFB

aggie83

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Anyone have a son/daughter that had drop night tonight at Vance AFB? Son is there awaiting start of UPT and heard that tonight's drop had a lot of fighters. Even had one 22.
 
Anyone have a son/daughter that had drop night tonight at Vance AFB? Son is there awaiting start of UPT and heard that tonight's drop had a lot of fighters. Even had one 22.

I left town earlier in this afternoon and missed 13-14s assignment night but 13-13 did have a great drop several weeks back and included a F22. Hope the trend continues for the next 16 or so classes!
 
I left town earlier in this afternoon and missed 13-14s assignment night but 13-13 did have a great drop several weeks back and included a F22. Hope the trend continues for the next 16 or so classes!

Is this the class that include the blogger on Vance web page? I have read all of his blogs on their website. I wish him the best.
 
From a different site here is the drop.

Vance 13-14 tonight.

38s:
T-38s:
F-22
F-16 x 3 (one international)
A-10 x 2
F-15E
T-6
B-52

The 22's have been dropping now for probably a yr. They just rotate them out between the bases.
 
Pima,

Where do you find the drop info? Thanks.

Aseanag - looks like that was his class, and his FB page shows he changed his profile picture to F-22's so I am guessing he got the F-22 drop.
 
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Pima,

Where do you find the drop info? Thanks.

Aseanag - looks like that was his class, and his FB page shows he changed his profile picture to F-22's so I am guessing he got the F-22 drop.

Thanks for the update. He hasn't updated his blog yet. I so enjoyed his detail account of his journey thru UPT.
 
Can you explain what "drop" night is?

As the parent of a child still at USAFA but looking ahead hopefully to a pilot slot, what does all of this mean? Where can you read this bloggers detailed journey?
 
Hey Hornet,

Can you expound on your prediction for the A-10 drops?
 
As the parent of a child still at USAFA but looking ahead hopefully to a pilot slot, what does all of this mean? Where can you read this bloggers detailed journey?

Journal from 2nd Lt. S. Tucker Browne, Joint Specialized Undergraduate Pilot Training Class 13-14

There is also a good primer HERE for those who want to read up on UPT. It is a little dated, but it is still accurate for the training times and flights. One change is that there is no longer a T-44 rack for turboprops. The C-130 hopefuls go through the T-1 track with the rest of the heavies.

Stealth_81
 
Hey Hornet,

Can you expound on your prediction for the A-10 drops?

As of right now they cut funding completely for the 2 training squadrons at DM. They were told the AF plans to shut the AD squadrons next year and the Reserve/Guard squadrons the year after.

I would have loved trying to get the A-10.....but doesn't look like the case. They might actually be successful in shutting the fleet down this time. It's a shame.
 
What airframe are they converting them to? I know when the 111's and 4's were boneyarded, the majority went to the Strikes.
 
What a weird system to drop slots at UPT to where there is no funding for training. I know the pilots are at the mercy of the AF but that seems a pretty sorry way to do them...
 
Pima: For us non-military families, can you explain what the process for perspective pilots going into/at UPT & what's happening now? Thanks
 
I am not sure what you are exactly asking, but if you read the blog from Vance than you can understand the whole system while at UPT.

The only things to be aware of are:
1. IFS can be waived if they have a PPL. IFS is a month long course at Pueblo that they need to go to before UPT if they do not have a PPL.

2. Many cadets will go casual status prior to the start of UPT. Our DS's class started in April, and half of his class is AFA grads.

3. It is no exaggeration regarding the amount of time they spend studying while at UPT. We talk to our DS typically 1x a week for 10-15 minutes. Their nose is to the grindstone Sunday through Friday.
 
What a weird system to drop slots at UPT to where there is no funding for training. I know the pilots are at the mercy of the AF but that seems a pretty sorry way to do them...

Pretty common when they close down an airframe. My understanding is that it happened to people in the past with other closures.

Pima- their commander is asking them who wants to go to other air frames. While I'm sure they're favoring 16s and 15Es, they are even being offered 15C/D and other aircraft (most seem to want to avoid those lol). In the squadron they are preparing for the closures.
 
I believe someone's son on this forum is training on A-10's? Maybe they can add some insight.
 
I remember when the 111 was beggining to be boneyarded....it was not pretty, especially because we were going through RIF and BRAC at the same time. People were fighting for slots out of Heyford. Many took ALO position with follow ons to their dream jet, instead of sticking it out to fly the last 111.

aggie,

It may seem inane to bring people through while closing down but typically FTU can be about 6-9 months, and closing a squadron is a slow drawn out process, especially for 2 squadrons...typically they will slowly people, a few every month, and than combine the 2 into 1 squadron, and repeat the process until they shut the doors.

When the 90th converted to 22s from Strikes it took them over a yr to complete the transition. There were strike people arriving even though it had been announced that the 90th was converting to the 22.

Hornet, is DM completely closing or will they transition the squadron from 10s to another airframe?
 
I remember when the 111 was beggining to be boneyarded....it was not pretty, especially because we were going through RIF and BRAC at the same time. People were fighting for slots out of Heyford. Many took ALO position with follow ons to their dream jet, instead of sticking it out to fly the last 111.

aggie,

It may seem inane to bring people through while closing down but typically FTU can be about 6-9 months, and closing a squadron is a slow drawn out process, especially for 2 squadrons...typically they will slowly people, a few every month, and than combine the 2 into 1 squadron, and repeat the process until they shut the doors.

When the 90th converted to 22s from Strikes it took them over a yr to complete the transition. There were strike people arriving even though it had been announced that the 90th was converting to the 22.

Hornet, is DM completely closing or will they transition the squadron from 10s to another airframe?

They originally were going to convert one Tx to reserve and bring the cadre from the closed Barksdale A-10 squadron but then just decided to axe both of them instead. I believe they will convert or open a new squadron for an F-16 Tx to take some of the Luke flow. Though I can't remember if that will be on DM or at the Guard base where there are already F-16s.

Anyone who starts the A-10 training by Sept 30th should be able to finish, they just won't take any new students for FY14. Anyone dropping A-10 now likely won't make it in time since they have to accomplish IFF and SERE first on top of finishing off training.

The one operational squadron at DM will probably start closing over the next year. They will freeze people in the squadron to close it down and then they will get their transition to ALO, another air frame, retirement, etc.

They don't have to keep the squadrons since they still have the EC-130 and HH-60 squadrons - no MOC yelling.

As of now, it looks like they will close barring some miracle in congress that demands we keep them....again. If those Tx courses close, it's all over.
 
When they do the stop loss to close a squadron that is when it usually gets nasty.

I can't see how anyone right now could go, because of IFF, SERE could be delayed until after FTU, but IFF would have to occur prior. Plus, I don't know any FTU that has a class only a month long for training.

I went back to look at the drops for 10's since end of March, I think in total I counted 12 over the past 5 months. 6 since end of July, which I guess would be the ones now that would not be going A-10s. I wonder how many of them will get 38s as FAIPS instead?
 
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