Having lived in the [E]P-3 and Tacair worlds I would argue that the vast majority of the 'fun' that the P-3 folks subject themselves to is self-inflicted. The best was one Whidbey VP squadron that made their guys get a 3P qual, complete with board. Having had the benefit of being a part of the P-3 community that took itself slightly less seriously, in a good way, than the VP guys showed me that there was a better way to do business than some of the silliness that the pilots in 'straight-stick' P-3s seemed to subject themselves too. This was displayed in stark relief when we had two former P-3 IPs show up while I was in the squadron. Their attitude towards 2P and AC quals were much different than the IPs who were born and bred in VQ (or not, most of the DHs in my squadron were transitions) and who frankly I thought were much more realistic, focused more on mission than minutiae. When the former VP IPs tried to bring their VP IP 'fun and games' into the squadron they were quickly quashed. Flying the same basic airframe and yet we still got the job done without a lot of the stupidity.
The excuse that a lack of flight hours nowadays is a cause of this is making the current situation fit what makes little sense to begin with, it was the same fun and games when they had twice the flight hours. So why do things that way? Why make it a more difficult process than it needs to be? This was the subject of many a ready room and O Club discussion when I was in the squadron. The conclusion was that since it was difficult to differentiate the good pilots from the not-so-good pilots just by stick skills in the P-3 and that systems knowledge, no matter how inane or useless it may be, was the how you picked the good from the bad. Several former and and current VP guys have said the same when it was discussed and debated. I also think that since VP doesn't have to play with the other parts of naval aviation very often they don't get contaminated by the common sense that prevails in other parts of naval aviation. The fact that the primary mission, ASW, so dramatically declined after the end of the Cold War doesn't help either.
I am not so sure that things will change with the P-8 coming into service, a former VP pilot knows one of the P-8 test pilots helping write the book and it doesn't sound good.
The excuse that a lack of flight hours nowadays is a cause of this is making the current situation fit what makes little sense to begin with, it was the same fun and games when they had twice the flight hours. So why do things that way? Why make it a more difficult process than it needs to be? This was the subject of many a ready room and O Club discussion when I was in the squadron. The conclusion was that since it was difficult to differentiate the good pilots from the not-so-good pilots just by stick skills in the P-3 and that systems knowledge, no matter how inane or useless it may be, was the how you picked the good from the bad. Several former and and current VP guys have said the same when it was discussed and debated. I also think that since VP doesn't have to play with the other parts of naval aviation very often they don't get contaminated by the common sense that prevails in other parts of naval aviation. The fact that the primary mission, ASW, so dramatically declined after the end of the Cold War doesn't help either.
I am not so sure that things will change with the P-8 coming into service, a former VP pilot knows one of the P-8 test pilots helping write the book and it doesn't sound good.