You don't need any gouge. Just study and go fly. IFS is easy. The instructors there aren't that bad and they know their shit. Dont let what everyone says about it scare you.
Try to hold your tongue when you get an instructor with long hair and a beard, in a flight suit, wearing wings and patches from Marine units he was never in. It's one thing to wear a squadron tee-shirt or hat. It's another thing to get dressed up like a Marine hornet driver to teach IFS in a 172... I didn't do IFS at Skywarrior, but because of a run in I had with a guy described above I will never suggest anyone go to that FBO. If I didn't have to pay for the exam prior to taking it I would have walked out and gone elsewhere.
Yes Pike, but you say that because you selected Jets right out of IFS you were that good. No one chair flys like you mofo, no one. Did you ever get those brown shoes? See you nxt week.
Does anyone know how long IFS is? A know a few months ago it was 3-4 weeks total, with 12-13 hours of flight time. Has any effort been made to lengthen it?
No. In fact it has been significantly shortened. A year ago it went from 25 to 15 hours. It ends with your solo, which you have to have by 13.5 hrs... It may be going away totally. There isn't really any significant data that says it reduces the # of attrites and DORs in Primary. In fact, we recently had 2 Marines DOR in Primary that did quite well in IFS.
You're correct. You have to finish your solo by 13.5 hours, and it's just the pattern solo (3 full stops). If you screw up or there are other issues beyond your control, you can be waivered to 15 hours.
Yeah just had the in-brief today. 13.5 to solo. 15 if needed you can get a waiver - or the plane breaks etc. Essentially what it's looking like is 2 weeks of ground school (mostly online classes actually....odd in contrast to most military instruction) and then 2 weeks of flying where you're basically flying almost all 14 days. Not too worried about it, but it is time to study a bit. Thanks for the gouge.
Sweet mother of Jesus, IFS has now lost all purpose. I didn't think the pendulum would swing back toward "no IFS" so fast. But I guess if it never proved able to meet its stated goal of reducing attrition rates in primary it really doesn't serve a purpose.
To be fair, there is attrition in IFS. Some folks don't like flying once they get a shot at it; I saw multiple people DOR in IFS. Given the cost to send a person to IFS versus the cost to get them ready to solo in primary... there's probably a positive return. Who knows; it seems hokie, but I can't count high enough to be a bean-counter.
Is there any chance they might let you be IFS exempt with 15 hours? I have right around that many and am thinking I would definitely use the IFS time as a refresher. Just hoping they wouldn't say I had to skip it.
^^ The only way to get out of IFS is to have a PPL or better. If you did some flight training, but didn't get your PPL, you're headed to IFS.
IFS still results in a lot of attritions, if anything because of the need to sit in that classroom all day and do 6 hours worth of mandatory computer-based learning every day. Plus some people find out aviation isn't for them. Works out.
On the other side of the rainbow, AF IFS is mandatory for the Guard guys now (not sure about AD and Reserve) - doesn't matter about previous civilian certificates/ratings/type ratings.
All AF pilots go through IFS. My question would be if you have your PPL but still want to go through Navy IFS is that possible?
Didn't think it merited its own thread since it's mentioned repeatedly in this one: There are several mentions of SNA's DORing at one point or another in the pipeline. What is the normal cause of this? A preferable ground MOS? I don't think I would have forgiven myself if I DOR'd at OCS and I'm sure 99% of 2ndLt's feel the same way. What makes flight school different? Is it that hard or do people just freak out?
Depends on the person. Some people legitimately fail out. Others quit because they get deathly ill while flying over and over and over again. (I'm speaking for Navy side, USMC might be different, but I know guys/girls from both branches who have quit/failed out). Others that I know DOR because flying isn't as much fun as they thought it was going to be or what they thought it would be/envisioned it. The ratio of studying to flying is heavily loaded on the studying side. There are others who don't realize just how much studying, preparation, and more studying you actually do once you're down here and get shocked once it all kicks in to start. Honestly, IFS/API don't even require THAT much studying to do well....ok API does, IFS, does not. But again, its dependent on the person. Every scenario I just named, I have a friend or someone I know that I could tie to those examples. If you are having trouble keeping up with IFS "academics" (that's sad) and you'll probably have some problems in API keeping up. If you have trouble keeping up in API, then primary might be troublesome, and so on. That's just my opinion....i'm sure there are guys on here who would disagree and who are the example of that not being true. If you're in it to win it, keep your eye on the prize, work hard, and stay motivated and you wont have a problem.
I thought IFS suddenly got hard for the people who were now being forced to take the tests and courses in the building rather than doing it at home. I remember the academics being quite a bit more daunting than I expected. I did well , but it did surprise me. I didn't have to take the course in the comp lab up in the schoolhouse, and I don't know how well I'd do in that environment.
Its really not that bad on the computers. We were the first few classes to try it, so we didn't have to sit there all day but we still had to do all our exams in the computer lab and not on your own time haha.. Its just like studying for any other test. And they give you a workbook that pretty much is the test questions. By the time you got to the FAA exam, you knew damn near half the questions asked by heart, just from seeing them so much.
