Civilian training prior to flight school

[bunk22]

A good friend of mine entered flight school with 2000 flt hours. He does the accelerated program and ended up with an 86 NSS as I recall. With that amount of flight hours, it's hard not to do well. Oh, he is a marine and currently flying F-18's out of Japan.

 

[Rex]

Prior flight time helps, don't let anyone tell you different. The more the better. It won't make things easy, but you'd be worse off without it. Being accelerated definitely helps your grades. If you've got the money to do it make sure you constantly push yourself to the edge of your comfort level. Focus on instruments and comms. Generally speaking instruments is where you make your money, whether its primary, intermediate or advanced. Go to as many different airports as you can so you don't settle into a routine. Just taking the 152 around the home field pattern won't help as much as flying a retractable to a new airport, ifr and shooting an approach. In flight training you never really get a chance to get comfortable cuz then you move onto a new phase and when your finally really comfortable in the aircraft you switch planes. And BCH don't worry about the crab, you'll get to do it again in the T-45.

 

[bch]

Rex, not worried at all. It was just to make the point that the kid had no idea what he was talking about. That was the first difference that came to mind.

 

[Av Fan]

BCH: How does the Navy teach you to correct for a crosswind on final? Are there any other things that come to mind that are different than civi stuff? thanks

 

[Banjo33]

Wing down - top rudder......low wing controlls side slip (caused by the wind "pushing" you), rudder keeps you lined up on final

Not difficult to do once you've nearly mastered the flair. Instructors will 'humble' you though when they bring it in and sit the plane down on ONE main gear and ride it a few feet before letting the other main gear down.

 

[bch]

exactly, none of these changes are hard, but once you have been doing something one way for a number of years, it does take a little more concentrated effort to correct.

You also will fly oval (ractrack) patterns instead of rectangles. a few others, but none of them are hard

 

[Fly Navy]

In my prior civilian days, all I learned was the low-wing method. We never crabbed on final.

 

[Av Fan]

Yeah ,I was taught the low-wing way as well. I guess thats one thing I dont have to worry about.

 

[Bliz]

Hey guys, brandee new here.

I'm at a civilian flight university right now, (Embry Riddle) and I am really interested in the differences between military and civilian training. I've wanted to be a Naval Aviator my entire life, and it's always been my goal, but I also wanted a guaranteed career in flight... hence me going to civi school for an Aeronautical Science BS. I just finished my private and I'm busting right into instrument in a week or two.

So yeah, you guys who have gone through the training, especially ones with prior civi hours, how was the transition and what were the hardest parts?

 

[Garrett]

One other question: is the radio protocol pretty similar?

 

[KSUFLY]

Another reason for not doing the upwind-wing-low and opp. rudder for direction is because you are extremely cross controlled which is dangerous and you can cause a compressor stall on a turbine engine due to the air not entering the engine correctly in extreme conditions!!! Just my 2 cents.

 

[squeeze]

Wing-down-top rudder has nothing to do with a compressor stall or not. We don't slip the jets for a couple reasons (neither of which has to do with comp stalls)... 1) Control Augmentation Systems don't exactly know what to make of such inputs and 2) If you touch down with one main first on the boat, you can easily damage gear.

Sure, I suppose you COULD cross control an a/c to a compressor stall, but that'd be a while after you departed from controlled flight anyhow.

And flaring is for sissies. I've flown both onspeed and flared approaches....and I'd take onspeed anyday.

 

[Fly Navy]

And flaring is for sissies. I've flown both onspeed and flared approaches....and I'd take onspeed anyday.

Reminds me of a joke:

"Navy to Air Force: Flaring is like squatting to pee."

 

[Punk]

Hey guys, brandee new here.

I'm at a civilian flight university right now, (Embry Riddle) and I am really interested in the differences between military and civilian training. I've wanted to be a Naval Aviator my entire life, and it's always been my goal, but I also wanted a guaranteed career in flight... hence me going to civi school for an Aeronautical Science BS. I just finished my private and I'm busting right into instrument in a week or two.

So yeah, you guys who have gone through the training, especially ones with prior civi hours, how was the transition and what were the hardest parts?

I had my multi and had quite a few instrument hours under my belt (never did do those stupid x-country's) before primary. The more you get beyond your private, the better. Like was said before, the more bad habits you had to shake was because of poor instruction or you just felt like doing your own thing anyways. There were two things I had to shake in primary. 1.) how everything had a procedure so that a monkey could fly, some things came so natural because of the my hours, trying to think through the steps would slow me down 2.) the pattern, had a habit of leveling my wings at 90 because I was use to a base leg, not a big deal and I got rid of it fairly easily. Those were the only two things that come to mind.

Radio calls are the same. The Navy likes you to shorten some things at home field but out in the rest of the airspace, its all the same. Some sim instructors are stuck in their own special world (cough Lacroix) and all coms have to be verbatim from the book. You just have to learn to play their game.

Basically, if you have a good civilian instructor, you won't learn any bad habits. Yes, some things are different, but they're easy enough to distinguish between and you shouldn't have any trouble.

FYI: out of the 12 Navy TS guys waiting to start down here in Kingsville, 4 are former FO's, 5 all have civilian ratings (2 CFI's), only 3 didn't have any prior flight time (not including IFS). You can make any conclusion you want from that.

 

[Rainman]

Hours are good. Even general knowledge of sectionals and other trivia that was never emphasized came up on more than one occasion @ primary.

It seems to me on something like crosswind landings you get many chances to master the basics in primary. As it was said, many aircraft require you to land in a crab b/c of wing/ground clearance, assymetric wing stores, some nosewheel steering systems, shipboard concerns, and others.

Every phase, aircraft, and squadron will require you to relearn at least some skill or procedure (usually many). You will learn the (new) way to do something and rehearse it until you're flawless; it's your job.

The benefits of flight time (landings, confidence with new airspace, radio proc, stick/rudder, comfort in the air, airsickness tolerance, instrument procedures, etc0 far outweigh any possible negatives.

goodluck