NFO's instructing at Meridian/Kingsville

Followed by: "Shit, knock it off, over-G"

And BTW I heard that same call outside my friends room on Prom Night. Think he already had ACM on his mind?

...And, point.

RADM Guadagnini came by yesterday and informed us that not only is this happening, but it'll be in place by next year.
VT-4 has selected an F-15E WSO, F-18D WSO, and P-3 Tacco to begin the process of earning a NATOPS qual in the T-6 to eventually train instructor pilots going through the FITU. The local pipeline is being developed by a senior Marine Prowler pilot who runs our STAN shop.
Not the same as placing guys folks in the back of the -45 with SNA's, but interesting that NFO diversification is coming from many angles within CNATRA.

Interesting times...

This will last right up to the point where we lose a plane and/or crew because they didn't have a pilot in the back TEACHING SOMEONE HOW TO FLY.

Dumb Idea.... Save money... Saves money until they plant one... Again Dumb Idea... Save it for the later when dudes have proven their skills... And as for IUT... Instructor Under Training to me means being taught by another Instructor trained to instruct in said phase... ????

Sergrad ~= faip = PLOWBACK.

I like that term mo' bettah ...

more notes from Friday...RADM Guadagnini also stated "The future of naval aviation is multi-crew aircraft" (JSF aside). The NFO training VT's are not going away, they (instructor NFO's) will spread out to Meridien and Kingsville as well as P-cola.

As far as the test subjects for the T-6 Natops qual:
The F-15E WSO has a lot of stick time. The Hornet WSO and Tacco have none.

The NATOPS qual is still a little fuzzy (i.e. Inst qual? Solo?...)

Also, OP-T guys have been approved a "specialty career path" as of 3 weeks by NavPers...what that means after the Department Head tour is anyone's guess. Promotion, supposedly yes but probably not at the rate of Operational folks. Nevertheless, folks could stay in the VT command pipeline...could be a good deal, and a ton of flying...

No shit?? Meridien ?? I'd take that over Kingsville any day; that chain has some VERY nice hotels .... damn NFO's always get the cushy deals ...

Okay, you got me A4's. It's Saturday and the bloody mary's were a little stiff this morning...

Isn't the point of the FITU (or whatever you call it) to teach about the handling characteristics and procedures for actually flying the jet (meridian/krock specific)?? A portion of the instructor syllabus is actually stick and rudder, the rest is how to actually teach another pilot how to do it all and common student mistakes (I almost died stories for validity). One sea tour complete WSO's do some flight instructing in a pretty busy environment on cruise, but with natops qualed pilots at the controls.

They used to waive lots of the syllabus for digital cockpit folks, there is indeed some overkill if those folks have to do every flight, thus some flights where NFOII's (instructor instructors) could possibly be utilized... but why not cut out those flights and pocket the $?

When a single seat dude shows up to his NA-x spin hop and has a double anchor dude in his back seat it will make for an interesting flight... Ive seen scarier departures, landings, passes and PA's from IP's than students (you know when to take the controls from the students, NFOIP's can't take the controls ever)...

Folks at CNATRA obviously think their smarter/funnier/faster than anyone in the trenches... stand by for fistycuffs in the FITU!

Just so long as the HUD tape is on, and shared on YouTube.

How can an NFO honestly grade a student PILOT on his “piloting” skills when the NFO instructor has never flown himself? Fucking comical in my mind! Nothing personal against NFO's but if I was getting critiqued by an NFO IP on, let's say my landings or my Form/TacForm's/Wep's Pattern/BFM, I'd say "you have controls, demo me a pass" ... I feel sorry for the NFO's selected for this "program", they will have zero credibility with the students ... not only will the students not take them seriously, neither will the pilot IP's.

What the fuck is going on in Naval Aviation? What I’d like to know is who’s getting the Navy Comm with this brilliant idea?

Semper Fidelis

Ditto ... at least to a certain extent.

To back up even a little further -- it was virtually all pilots in the A-4 RAG (obviously), but when I reached the Intruder Rag, most of our ground instruction, weapons & weapons delivery instruction, and virtually ALL of the systems instruction was done by RAG B/N's ... and most of our instructional FRP hops were conducted w/ a RAG B/N in the right seat ... it worked.

I just don't know about the TRACOM and providing NFO instructors for pilot STUDs IN the airplane ... my chief concern is w/ airborne emergencies. By the time we had reached the RAG, we knew "how to fly" ... we were still learning, granted, but you're ALWAYS "still learning" -- it never stops.

But I really cannot think of one TRACOM airborne application where an Instructor NFO would have been at least equal to the Aviator Instructor -- other than the obvious: to fill a seat as a "safety" observer. But then ... what could the NFO have done if things got out of hand and became "unsafe" ... ??? He couldn't very well say: "I've got it".

But in the A-6 RAG -- it worked beautifully. Our first 500'/500 KIAS LABs delivery was with an Instructor B/N in the right seat. It took guts balls for the B/N to go over the top and ride through that -- but then again, the FRP "knew" how to fly ...

I suspect NFO Instructors could/would work as well in the FA-18 RAG ...

I'm not talking about NFO's teaching pilots ... I'm talking about them teaching student pilots at advanced, dudes who don't have their wings.

I met one of the NFOs that's going to be an NFO IP at the club this week when I was installing stuff on the CubiCat, and he was really unsure of what the hell he was going to do. Talked about stuff, and when the 45D comes out and they download stuff from the RAG to the VTs, then it may make sense.

T-45 OCF flight. Recover when he fucks it away.

Just busting balls.

How many hours does the average IP have when he shows up at Jet Advanced?

Old days/good days:

Average Fleet Aviator -- 1200-1500 hours USN

Average Plow Back -- 256 hours USN

800-1200.

BTW, NFOs teaching SNAs is just plain dumb.