New Member

Welcome to the FSM Forum and building scale models! Sounds like you're a hobbyist through and through. Can't wait to see the F-16.

Welcome aboard. It does sound like you have plenty to keep you busy. Look forward to seeing that F-16.

Welcome to the gang!

Welcome to the Forums mkeith54! Glad to have you aboard! Thank you for your service!

Don't forget to post pics of your builds.

Jim 

 There is nothing wrong with your thermostat. Do not attempt to adjust the temperature. We are controlling your power consumption. If we wish to make it hotter, we will turn off your air conditioner. If we wish to make it cooler, we will turn off your heater. For the next millennium, sit quietly and we will control your home temperature. We repeat, there is nothing wrong with your thermostat. You are about to participate in a great adventure. You are about to experience the awe and mystery which reaches from the inner mind to… your Local Electric Company.

Welcome mkeith54!  So were you an avionics troop?  If you were, were you flightline or backshop?  I did my 20 working on the best aircraft ever (I know, I just opened the can of worms, but hey, we are all brothers in arms!), the F-15.  I did do some F-16 avionics near the end....cute little plane!  

Again, welcome aboard! And please post pics of the F-16!  I was born and raised in Tampa and didn't leave until going into the AF.  Many an airshow I went to at McDill! 

Eagle90

I started on the F-111, Moved to the F-15 test program, then the F-16 Test program followed by the B-1 test program. When I retired my DD-214 showed I was qualified on all the aircraft in the inventory plus a few that hadn't appeared yet.  Yes I was Avionics as well.  Earned my aircrew wings at Edwards which drove people crazy trying t figure out how I qualified for them. Never have been able to tell them.

LOL!  That's awesome!  Funny how you can't tell anyone how you got your aircrew wings.  I worked with the Army doing "some stuff", and everyone thinks fly boys just sit around and watch airplanes!  Some of us are just crazy enough to volunteer for the "out of the ordinary" assignments!  Test program for the F-15!  Very cool!  Were you on the ground floor for the TITE (now known as TISS) avionics test stations?  Hated those buggers!  I was a radar guru on the manual side of the house (before they combined everyone!).

I worked strictly the flight line side of the house on the F-15s and F-16s.  Some of the other aircraft I worked both sides of the house.  I retired as a Flight Chief in a Fighter Squadron before they moved the specialists back to the shops.  I had about 50 guys working for me, more than any other flight.Yet when the time came for upward selections the crew chiefs were always favored.  I hope that changed when they went back to the shops.

I was backshop.  And no, it didn't change much.  Crew chiefs were the "chosen ones"!  I finished as an Instructor Supervisor at Sheppard, but before that I was only a shop chief.  Sometimes I miss it.....sometimes I don't!

Eagle90

Welcome to the Forum!

Thanks for the welcome.

There are times I wanted to go back, in fact was recalled once. By the time I got the notification they already had enough so I got sent home.  I miss the structure of life in the military, I don't miss the BS, plus there is no way I could serve under the current administration.

mkeith54

Thanks for the welcome.

There are times I wanted to go back, in fact was recalled once. By the time I got the notification they already had enough so I got sent home.  I miss the structure of life in the military, I don't miss the BS, plus there is no way I could serve under the current administration.

Agreed!  The structure was nice, the BS, not so much.  As for the current admin.....well, I retired in 2010 and when the wife and I got our big brown envelopes from the White House, I think she opened hers.  I threw mine in a plastic tote, never opened, and it has been there ever since!  Just saying!

I hear you I got two one Signed by Clinton and a second signed by Bush 2.  The second is framed.  Not sure how it happened it just came in the mail one day.

I don't remember that test station, We used a system that went by the name of CITS

I would have framed that one too!  Nice you got the second one in the mail!

That must have been the test bed for the TITE, which later turned to TISS.  Very cool you were on the ground floor for that.  I had the opportunity to work with some engineers when the F-15's started using the APG-70 radar.  Really neat to work with those guys!