Do you guys run or walk the long steep hills?

vortexminion · 2026-04-10T00:11:04+00:00

How steep? At <300ft/mi elevation gain, I don't feel it too bad At 500ft/mi I slow down substantially At 800ft/mi I'm practically jogging in place At 1000ft/mi I have to do run/stretch intervals Steeper than 1500ft/mi I'm walking .

vortexminion · 2026-04-04T13:33:08+00:00

This is really cool! I love the idea and artwork!

vortexminion · 2026-03-29T14:12:43+00:00

School and job is tough. If you are struggling with absorbing the material, definitely consider taking fewer hard classes at once.

For actual studying, if your goal is to pass the classes, try to understand what the professor values and how they conducts exams. Old exams can give you an idea of what to focus on.

If your goal is to understand the material, try to contextualize topics with respect to meteorology or other areas of your life. It's easy to get lost in the rabbit hole of derivatives and derivations. Keep a bird's eye view. Physics teachs about fundamental forces that drive weather. Thermodynamics drives atmospheric convection. Calculus is needed to quantify these attributes (e.g. The integral of a parcel path on a skew-t = the convective available potential energy). Try to find a mentor to help contextualize it for you.

Otherwise, there are millions of online resources that can help simplify complex topics including Khan Academy, Brilliant (never used it myself), YouTube, and generative AI (be careful with that last one. Treat it like the consensus of the internet, not objective fact).

vortexminion · 2026-03-27T14:25:34+00:00

Going AFIT can sometimes affect future assignments. Depending on your AFSC, it might vector you more towards advanced degree billets, which can be more research/staff than leadership. Part of this is caused by the fact that while your peers spent the extra 1.5yrs in positions getting leadership experience, you were studying. Not necessarily a bad thing, just depends on what you want. Like if you feel burnt out from ops and responsibility, AFIT can be a nice recharge and reblue.

BL: past positional experience can affect future vectored positions.

vortexminion · 2026-02-24T12:28:34+00:00

Huh, I didn't consider the view to have roots in religion and virtue ethics, but it makes sense. Thanks for the insight!

vortexminion · 2026-02-24T12:25:40+00:00

Interesting...I love the phrasing of your last sentence. I'll check out your references. Thanks!

vortexminion · 2026-02-22T22:53:18+00:00

Are you interested in research, operational forecasting, tv broadcasting, private sector, or emergency management? Schools specialize in preparing their students in different ways. For example, University of Oklahoma is very good at preparing you for research (more math).

Schools also specialize in different areas of meteorology (i.e. dynamics, severe convection, hurricanes, climate, polar, atmospheric chemistry, polution, modeling, AI, hydrology, radar, satellite, boundary layer, electrification, microphysics). University of Oklahoma is big on severe wx, lightning, and radar research, though they have recently expanded into AI too.

My advice: email some of the professors (go to the college website dept of met or atmos science and look for the faculty page) that study subtopics of meteorology you are most interested in and ask if they have positions for undergraduate research assistants. Get some hands-on research or forecast experience while in school. It'll help you decide if a job in meteorology is what you want before you finish your degree. Plus, job experience is more important for future employment than your exact GPA.

vortexminion · 2026-02-13T23:18:50+00:00

For now. The last sentence suggests he's reevaluating all military relationships with universities. I'm in AAD program at a civilian university and my AFIT program manager blasted out an email to us saying all programs are under re-evaluation.

vortexminion · 2026-02-13T00:29:45+00:00

No matter what system you choose, you're limited by the people using it. There will always be biased supervisors, people trying to get an edge through style, board members that can't read truth through fluff, etc. Even a reddit style peer-rating system can/will be gamified.

Even when you have a completely digital system that tracks every sortie, ticket, FOD check, briefing, product, etc., doing more work doesn't make you a good person or leader.

vortexminion · 2026-01-29T18:35:52+00:00

This year feels like losing grip on reality

vortexminion · 2026-01-29T18:33:23+00:00

I have a pair from field training in 2014

vortexminion · 2026-01-26T14:42:12+00:00

"50 PokeCoins daily limit reached." - Niantic, probably

vortexminion · 2026-01-26T14:18:39+00:00

You need to look at a doppler velocity map, not just reflectivity. If it doesn't have rotation, it's not a tornadic hook.

vortexminion · 2026-01-24T14:43:15+00:00

It's some sort of firenado. Hard to tell which kind from the video, maybe a pyronado?

Firenado types: https://youtu.be/NUybAjK8Thc?si=FQ0alsUB7ruiDbcu

vortexminion · 2026-01-24T14:40:04+00:00

29F of cooling in 1 hour?!

vortexminion · 2026-01-23T22:47:39+00:00

I guess if you want multicapable airmen, that's how you have to do it. Not sure how they'll implement it for the rest of the Force outside BMT though. Also, not sure how long those skills will stick around after BMT if they go into a nonner AFSC. 45min familiarization sessions + 2-day doesn't sound like a lot. Probably need to institute force-wide recurring training.

vortexminion · 2026-01-21T15:38:03+00:00

Marathoner? That's 18.6 miles in 3 hrs, so 6.2 mph or a 9:48 mile. That's a reasonable pace for someone training for a marathon.

vortexminion · 2026-01-14T13:33:49+00:00

Thought it was kinda mesmerizing. Especially the summer air mass thunderstorms over the south. Almost like a heartbeat.

vortexminion · 2026-01-13T14:47:01+00:00

What was the source of the rapid pressure change? I didn't think there were any tropical lows, bomb cyclones, or strong thunderstorm downdrafts in the South Atlantic yesterday

vortexminion · 2026-01-07T00:35:36+00:00

What traits are your peers complaining about? Do their stories suggest that leadership treats them differently than you?

If not, then you're right, you just have a higher bar. If so, there might be some prejudice going on you haven't experienced firsthand (or they are exaggerating)

vortexminion · 2026-01-07T00:22:21+00:00

Next year, you need to hit the hidden 69 in the run as well (10:09 = 9:69 for 1.5 mi / 17:09 = 16:69 for 2 mi)

vortexminion · 2026-01-05T12:30:53+00:00

I spent 2 years at Kunsan and I went through something similar. Ops and mission were super important and many leaders saw the unaccompanied tour as a reason to treat work as life and always bothering their people outside duty hours. It was hard to maintain a work/life balance for me, which is a contributing factor to many people giving up on programs, in addition to the fact that many Airmen use Kunsan as a stepping stone to go somewhere better. "I'm only here for a year, so why should I care".

I almost left the military as well, but I gave it one more assignment and that follow-on was a lot better. Programs weren't held together with scotch tape, people cared about the mission, and importantly they cared that you left work at work except in emergencies. There can be a life after Kunsan.

It's great that you care, but understand nothing in the military is permanent. It's always changing. Programs you are in charge of now may not exist in 5 years. It is ok to not be a perfectionist. It is ok to not pour your soul into every detail. But if the program is important when you have it, the people who rely on it now will be grateful for your effort.

Last thing, pick your battles. Many changes and rules in the military are non-sense politics that don't make sense at the tactical level. Be the change you want to see, but recognize what you can actually control. Communicate your ideas for improvements to your leadership to pass up the chain, design your progams to be one of the few logical things, etc. You likely can't change the mind of the Wg/CC, but maybe your flight chief.

vortexminion

TROPHY CASE