Crappy new seat?¿ Those Martin Bakers zero zeros are the best thing that's happened to the -38 since, well, forever.

Same series as the Texan II seat. Those seats are choice. I actually feel like using the seat on the Texan gives me a realistic chance to survive. In the BUFF and the pre-Baker 38s, it was a coffin corner on the slow end and placebo effect on the fast end.

New seat rumored to cost 1 Million each. No stowage inside nor underneath, so must carry a travel pod for XC.

Advantages:

1. Slightly improved envelope.

2. Don't have to lug 45-lb parachute to the airplane.

Disadvantages:

1. Takes 5 minutes to strap in. You'd think, 50 years down the road, that the same leg-garter idea they used in the Phantom would be improved. Nope...much more difficult to use than the Phantom's.

2. Seat is about 2 inches closer to the instrument panel. It's too upright for my taste; I can't get comfortable in it.

3. Large gap between sides of seat and consoles; easy to drop stuff you can't reach.

4. Emergency egress, with practice, takes 30 seconds. Students usually take a minute (I make mine practice it).

5. Ejection Handle can interfere with full-aft-stick movement. (!!)

6. If the seat doesn't fire, you're boned. No manual back-up.

7. Without going into proprietary or priveleged info, we've had maintenance issues that make you wonder: "Was this thing really installed correctly, and will it work?"

8. Visibility from the rear seat is now EVEN WORSE. We all had to do a two-ride re-qual to learn to fly with the thing.

9. Since you have to take a pod, XC pretty much limited to instrument stuff only. But at least the pod limits your g, range, TOLD, and kills the radar altimeter.

I would gladly have kept lugging the 'chute to the jet.

April 14?! Retire. No doubt about it. You know the drill on what you need to do but 3 highly recommend things learned the hard way;Emerald Coast , get a couple certified/unopened college transcripts, and making sure your logbook is pristine.

Then you gotta track down 1 rec at each place you want to apply. Airlineapps takes recs from all sources. It does help to have somebody carry your water at any company.

Even flying on a deployment is no fun while the hiring train starts filling up. Flying a desk during a deployment?

Go.

Similar question for me. I'm a Herk driver with about 3400 hours. However, I am currently deployed to Afghanistan (a 365) and due to come home in 2 months. I could drop retirement papers when I get home. However, this deployment has had me train Afghans how to fly. I've been flying C-182's and Caravans for the past year (little over 200 hours worth). Could I apply for the airlines right away or should I get a local requal in the Herk (J model) to regain heavy recency? Thanks.

Apply right now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You're current/qualified.

Wow.
I have to vehemently disagree with that statement,... although I see your perspective.

The old T-38 seat is fine. Most of the T-38 accidents in Road to Wings would not happen today, since we learned so much about how NOT to fly the T-38.

And of those, very few,... if any,... would have had different outcomes with the MB ejection seat.

So,... how many millions of dollars did it cost the AF to "upgrade" the T-38C fleet with these seats?
Anecdotal: I'm told that the seat installation was delayed extensively due to some sort of rail corrosion,... but that the MB folks were still at the initial UPT base to get the seats. I'm sure they were being paid. If anyone knows if this is valid, chime in. If it is, that's a lot of $$ getting forked out for the delay.

Had the AF taken that money and invested it in the T-X, they would have made a better choice.

Not 1 life will be saved by this new seat, that the old seat wouldn't have saved. It will take me 10+ years to validate this statement,... so I guess it is irrelevant.

In any case,... I'm still flying an -A model, and couldn't be happier. I can see pretty well out of the backseat, unlike those pilots sitting behind the MB seat.

And I don't have to deal with the crappy -C model cockpit. The one that Boeing low-balled, and which, after the cost overruns, came out to be more than the Northrop cockpit,... which had already been installed in South American F-5's, and was pretty sweet.
Sorry,... I digress.
As you can see, I'm not a fan of the -C model. Shoot, if the AF had spent all the -C model "upgrade" money and MB ejection seat money on T-X procurement, we'd be flying the T-50 by now.

But I'll take my -A any day!!!

Are you referring to Emerald Coast Interview Prep? Also, in regard to my log book I haven't done much research into this but from what little I've seen, my military flying hour printout is all I need -- true statement?

Finally, didn't really intend for this to be a post about the T-38 seat. Appreciate the bumps and my only input there is the Viper annihilated my back, I'm thankful I don't have to pull 5gs with 40 lbs on my back.

Don't do a logbook unless you have some civilian bug-smasher time. Just your mil flying printout. All the airlines trust and understand that.

True. An accepted technique is to put a coversheet in your AF flight records. Use this when you bring the records to an interview to detail any adjustments you made to your times and how you arrived at the totals you put on that particular airline's app. Military sortie factors and PIC definition vary from airline to airline so you'll need to recomputed your times to adhere to each airline's rules (not the FAR definition of PIC). Obviously, you'll still need a logbook for your ATP flights and any other civilian time on your applications.

Finally - Yes, EC Interview Prep is a must.

This ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^. +1