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Stupid Questions about Naval Aviation (Part 3)

Huffs09

Member
None
I know this is for stupid aviation questions, but I’ll force the fit...

Saw a picture about USNA “selection night” Happy future ensign picks a ship...View attachment 21329
How does this work, especially for other than SWO types? Does a sharp middie get to grab a card that says Flight School/VFA-25? Do future Marines get to go for a card that reads “Corps/Infantry/2nd Marine Regiment? Also, do the colors have any meaning? (You can pick a red ship, but not a white one).

So what you're seeing is only for Midshipman that have already been told that they're gonna be SWOs. They go up by order of class rank and pick the ship that they want to go to off the board. Some of the different colors correspond to special types of SWO where you do one tour and then get a guaranteed lat transfer to another community (Nuke, EDO, Cyber). If you are in one of those programs you can take that color, otherwise not.

Everybody finds out their service assignment (SWO, Marines, NA, NFO, Subs, NSW, EOD, and a few smaller ones) right before Thanksgiving. Nothing there is guaranteed but you get to submit preferences and usually a majority of people get what they want, unless the Nuclear Navy is in dire need of bodies.

I picked NFO, and we of course didn't get to pick a squadron or anything like that, but we did get to pick the date that we reported for flight school. I wanted to go down right after my commissioning leave and did, while others chose to TAD in Annapolis for a while and didn't report to Pensacola until November
 

PatrolFighter

Member
pilot
What is the current policy on using tablet based navigation apps in the pointy nosed cockpit? I seem to remember hearing about a pilot that flew home on his Garmin watch. It just seems that Foreflight with an adsb puck could be very useful. But having an iPad in the cockpit is where the buck may stop I imagine.
 

wlawr005

Well-Known Member
pilot
Contributor
You can fly with whatever you want. Now we have RNAV, so it's a little easier to get around without anything except an approach plate.
 

wlawr005

Well-Known Member
pilot
Contributor
What is the current policy on using tablet based navigation apps in the pointy nosed cockpit? I seem to remember hearing about a pilot that flew home on his Garmin watch. It just seems that Foreflight with an adsb puck could be very useful. But having an iPad in the cockpit is where the buck may stop I imagine.
Where/when are you heading to VTJ?
 

robav8r

Well-Known Member
None
Contributor
Obviously dudes can't pick a fighter squadron out of the Academy, they haven't even been to flight school.
And right there folks, we have illuminated the root cause of pilot retention. If only we would let mids pick not only their community, but actual squadrons as well. Geesh, this isn’t that hard people !!!
 

PatrolFighter

Member
pilot
Where/when are you heading to VTJ?

Headed to Kingsville in May!

You can fly with whatever you want. Now we have RNAV, so it's a little easier to get around without anything except an approach plate.

Flew last Friday and had unforcasted wx back at home plate. My relief took off in front of several Tornado warnings. I scooted on home on max e legit thinking I was diverting. My 2P had Foreflight with the ADSB puck and we pulled in and monitored the radar pic for the better part of an hour. I use Foreflight all the time but this was my first go with the puck. Life saver. Ended up getting in just fine. The talk is that PEDs will go away in the P8, which is sad because it is such an SA tool to have gucci weather in the cockpit. One use and I'm hooked. We tend to fly in weather that most of us would rather not fly in consistently and this only highlights the need to be able to make a better decision.
 

PatrolFighter

Member
pilot
Any reason why?

At this point it is currently Skipper dependent but there is talk from the wing that PEDs are going away. As it sits right now the general standard is that your device doesn't go past the lav in the tube when mission systems are online. Generally, from my chats with other squadrons, Skippers are allowing pilots to have devices up front. Our squadron has the crew lock up their devices in a pelican box that is maintained near the front of the aircraft. I see the reason for not having devices in tube, especially when we are preflighting and there are maintainers helping us get the bird ready. I also see the reasoning for the operators while in flight. Not to cast any shade on our enlisted brethren but they are generally not as responsible nor concerned about the damage that can be done with a phone and a classified mission screen.

Taking it out of the pilot's hands will create a huge uproar. About a year ago we went from all paper pubs for what we call a CF-20, which is a panasonic hard book that is full computer but with touch screen and tablet functions. We use that as the official nav, doc ref, and perf sources. It isn't user friendly and few like it. It also costs more than an iPad pro and Foreflight sub. The difference, other than costing double, is that it is made in Japan vice China (with US parts?).
 
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