If you have the money, go for it. Not needed, but wouldn't hurt. It will definitely be a head start in the first few weeks of RI's when people like me starting out didn't even know what an approach plate was or how to read it. Eventually everyone catches up, but I do know several guys with prior flight time and an instrument rating that killed the syllabus in Primary. On the other hand, I do know a guy where it didn't help so much. But that was one guy.
Bingo. It's about two-three weeks of ass-pain learning the stuff, then hopefully it'll click. Don't stress not knowing the material in advance. You'll learn it, we all have. If you feel like getting ahead, go for it. Pubs are online and there are tons of gouge sites for every phase of training. But I wouldn't spend money getting ahead. In fact, flight school is learning a brand-new topic from scratch, with little prep time, focused and compacted into a few weeks, being tested on it, graded on flying it, getting good at it, then starting something brand new all over again. Rinse and repeat 500 times. Edit- Let me add, while I had absolutely NO idea how much work, studying, and asspain it was going to be, I wouldn't trade the experience for the world.
The bottom line is that flight school is NOT THAT HARD. They will teach you everything you need to know to succeed. That's not to say you shouldn't take advantage of opportunities that may set you up for success, but there's no reason to go out of your way and spend a lot of money to create those opportunities. Plenty of people have done just fine with the things the Navy/Marine Corps will teach you.
Sorry but I have to disagree. Like everyone else has said, flight school will teach you EVERYTHING you need to know. All I had was IFS prior to flight school and I still finished near the top of my primary class, edging out guys who has previous flight time as well as one guy who was a previous airline pilot. The point is, flight school is not hard as long as you put in the appropriate study time. Don't waste your money on something you can get for free!
The women of Milton do not look like this... which helps with studying, not so much extracurricular activities.
Of course flight school teaches you everything you need to know. I'm not saying it doesn't. But it would be stupid to say having an instrument rating prior to starting RI's for the first time doesn't help. Of course there are those guys who never had prior time and excelled at it, but it's not like having prior instrument time hurt any. Most of those guys were ahead of the game in the beginning, even if it's just radio comms. Is it worth $5,000? Probably not. Would it help at all? Probably. Like I said, everyone eventually catches up. Honestly, I could care less what the thread starter does with his money but I'm just chiming in that in my experience, I think it would help. To each their own.
An instrument rating definately helped me. I will admit my experience differs from some others that had similar prior time going in and "to each his own" definately applies. I had about 250 hrs. with a private/multi/instrument. The big difference it made in primary was in the instrument phases. I definately had a leg up, but I caveat that (building on with Uncle said) that a large chunk of what I had learned before had to be dumped and relearned the way the Navy wanted it. You don't want to be that guy with prior time that's simply unteachable. What helps is the experience on the radio, basic attitude instrument flying, and just general common sense in the cockpit as it applies to instruments. The proof positive of this theory was evident in my primary selection. One of my best friends and formation partner in primary, who was (and still is) as good if not better of a pilot than I was, was in the running with me. He had no prior experience, and we both put tailhook as our first choice. When selection day came, he mentioned that he had around a 51 NSS (right at the tailhook cutoff) and he was sweating it a little bit. I was shocked, because after flying formation with him, and based on his reputation, I thought he had done better than me! It turned out my NSS was over 15 pts. higher, and you could trace it back to basic and radio instrument phases. We both ended up getting our first choices, but I was definately in a much more comfortable position going in. Aside from all of that, my advice to you is get your eyes checked by a Navy flight surgeon. I had 20/25 vision and still needed PRK due to the amount of astigmatism in my eyes. No sense doing anything else until you've got that locked down. Then at the very least get some instrument instruction time in the airplane. It can't hurt as long as you don't develop stubborn habbits.
More training/experience is NEVER a bad thing, but the return on the investment may or may not be worth it, depending on how quickly you pick it up, and how much different the "Navy way" is from what you learn.
I think I just shit a kidney! Paying $5000 to have to go through PRK would be much worse than paying $5000 for an instrument rating haha! I have an astigmatism in my right eye which is the primary reason I have 20/35 in that eye. My two cents:
I get what you are saying. Don't get me wrong, it would certainly help at the initial portions of instrument training. But I believe that is all. Maybe a couple of weeks, after which most people who get it have caught up. On top of that, someone mentioned it already, is that you are going to have to dump alot of what you learned anyways because the Navy will teach you THEIR way. So will it help you? Absolutely. Is $5000 worth having a leg up on your peers for a couple of weeks? No way.
Well if we're raising the stakes here ($10 a bottle), this is about the only good thing that's come out of Canada.
Back to the initial discussion (sad, I know) - Two weeks can break you out if they're the right weeks. Case in point - it's very hard to break out in late stage fams and RIs because MIF is a 4. Making 4s on a maneuver or procedure one stage earlier can and will put you ahead of the average stud. Whether PPL/instrument ratings will do that is up to you.
