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Computing NSS Quesstimate

Lucky3

P-8 Driver
pilot
Early classes for all the squadrons fresh from transition had it a little rough but the real variation seemed to come when they un anchored a squadrons NSS.


There is a lot of truth to this. I was one of the first few studs in a VT squadron to complete the T-6 syllabus and a friend who finished from the same squadron a year later finished with the same multiple (1.17 or .18 I think) and his NSS was 10 points higher than mine.
 

SkywardET

Contrarian
If you get a lot of incomplete flights due to weather, it may also be because some of your IPs care about getting you into the cockpit so you can actually continue learning to fly instead of sitting on the ground for another day and forgetting how to fly. :rolleyes:

I'll agree with that, definitely. Unfortunately, the law of unintended consequences applies. Being good at flying and/or not forgetting how to fly does not necessarily mean getting a good NSS. There is a disparity between flight grades and simulator grades which means that, for all students in all squadrons, an incomplete flight mathematically translates into a lower NSS on average because flight grades have higher MIF standards than simulator grades. Hence, every incomplete flight will lower your block mean % score unless you were horrible at the early block simulator events, and a lower mean % score translates into a lower NSS.

This discrepancy leading to a lower NSS for incomplete flights is further compounded if you are in a lower-grading squadron than one which tends to grade higher. To find out which squadron is which, ask a sample of students who have completed Contacts how many 5's they got for the whole block. If they got so many they can't remember, they might be Chuck Yeager reincarnate or they are in a high-grading squadron.

This doesn't really matter so much for students because it's just another aspect of their NSS that they have no real control over. It's just another one of life's little unfairities. ;)
 

wlawr005

Well-Known Member
pilot
Contributor
Why do you think incomplete flights lower your NSS? They don't.

From the MCG:

2 . For events flown exclusively to clear an incomplete, grades on maneuvers repeated from the incomplete event do not count towards the student’s PAS
 

SkywardET

Contrarian
Hm, I didn't remember that portion of the JPPT. TIMS has led me to believe otherwise.

Thanks for the heads-up. Hopefully it is true, accurate, and applied correctly.
 

wlawr005

Well-Known Member
pilot
Contributor
If you look at your gradesheet for the completion flight you'll see that only the ungraded items from the incomplete flight make it to the section for items carried at the bottom. It doesn't matter how many items the IP grades.
 

Hammer10k

Well-Known Member
pilot
If you look at your gradesheet for the completion flight you'll see that only the ungraded items from the incomplete flight make it to the section for items carried at the bottom. It doesn't matter how many items the IP grades.

This holds true with one exception - the lower grade will count for any maneuver that had been graded multiple times. For example, if you incomplete a flight and had been graded 5's on every maneuver, and then received straight 4's on the repeat for those same maneuvers, the 4's would count towards your overall stage score.
 

sparky

Member
This holds true with one exception - the lower grade will count for any maneuver that had been graded multiple times. For example, if you incomplete a flight and had been graded 5's on every maneuver, and then received straight 4's on the repeat for those same maneuvers, the 4's would count towards your overall stage score.
@Hammer10k (or anyone willing to correct me), I don't usually pay much attention to single-anchor angst, though I find this exception intriguing if only because of the example provided; so to use a slightly different example, if the prior incomplete grade was a 3, and the repeat a 4, are you asserting the prior lower grade of 3 carries forward?

Just wondering if I parsed the "the lower grade will count for any maneuver that had been graded multiple times" portion of the post correctly, where the example supports the most recent grade counts [too].

Excuse me while I service that Beer Level Low caution ...
 

Hammer10k

Well-Known Member
pilot
@Hammer10k (or anyone willing to correct me), I don't usually pay much attention to single-anchor angst, though I find this exception intriguing if only because of the example provided; so to use a slightly different example, if the prior incomplete grade was a 3, and the repeat a 4, are you asserting the prior lower grade of 3 carries forward?

Just wondering if I parsed the "the lower grade will count for any maneuver that had been graded multiple times" portion of the post correctly, where the example supports the most recent grade counts [too].

Excuse me while I service that Beer Level Low caution ...

You're correct. The lower grade carries forward regardless of whether it occurs on the first or second event.

Had this happen when my sim event got cut short due to a firm alarm - some of the 5's I got on the first attempt were erased by the second, and some of the 5's that I got on the second attempt were erased by the first. Luckily, there were a couple that overlapped.
 

RandomGoat1248

Well-Known Member
This is more of a selection question but I don't know where else to put it.

Do the recommendations IPs can give in grade sheets such as "Recommend for Strike" matter at all when it comes selection time?
 

FLGUY

“Technique only”
pilot
Contributor
This is more of a selection question but I don't know where else to put it.

Do the recommendations IPs can give in grade sheets such as "Recommend for Strike" matter at all when it comes selection time?
I’m far from an expert on the topic, but I would imagine not. The roughly 80+ grade sheets that you accrue in Primary would have to be sorted through for every selectee every week, which I would think is far too time consuming for CNATRA, given that NSS is thrown into a formula, not calculated by hand. I was told that your skipper has to recommend you for strike though, and if he/she gives you the thumbs down you won’t get it.

But hey, I’m just a CAT 1. Take it with a grain of salt.
 

Jim123

DD-214 in hand and I'm gonna party like it's 1998
pilot
When a primary IP writes "recommend strike" in the general remarks then that feeds the CO's selection recommendation to CNATRA. It basically means the SNA has the SA and task management to fly single pilot in something that is fast.

That is unless the TA manual got changed (which does happen from time to time whenever somebody gets a good idea to replace whatever old, good idea had been working perfectly fine all along...).
 

Eulenspeigel

I-JET
pilot
This is more of a selection question but I don't know where else to put it.

Do the recommendations IPs can give in grade sheets such as "Recommend for Strike" matter at all when it comes selection time?
It's anecdotal but I didn't have a single grade sheet that said that. I selected strike. I knew a dude who selected maritime who bragged about how many grade sheets of his said that.
 

Gatordev

Well-Known Member
pilot
Site Admin
Contributor
It's anecdotal but I didn't have a single grade sheet that said that. I selected strike. I knew a dude who selected maritime who bragged about how many grade sheets of his said that.

It can also depend on how much weight the CO puts on these comments, as well. I had one CO (Attack guy) that put a lot of emphasis on the endorsement, specifically during TACFORMs. I'd argue he put too much emphasis on it, but hey, he was the CO.
 

zippy

Freedom!
pilot
Contributor
This is more of a selection question but I don't know where else to put it.

Do the recommendations IPs can give in grade sheets such as "Recommend for Strike" matter at all when it comes selection time?

The way it used to work was after the student completion of the program there was a final jacket review done by class leader/flight lead (who would see such comments as well as other trends). They would write a summary for the COs endorsement and it would go to the CO who would make their endorsement.

Some variation of that process likely still exists.

Don’t underestimate the power of the COs endorsement. There have been dudes who had jet grades with jet slots available but they were assclowns in the squadron/ had bad reputations amongst the instructors/ had low grades for headwork/SA and the COs recommendation placed them multi-piloted communities.
 

kejo

Well-Known Member
pilot
My primary onwing was a Hornet dude and kept writing "recommend for single seat" on my gradesheets. Not that I was anything special, he just wanted his first onwing to select strike. Either way, I asked him politely go back and remove those comments. There are no (Navy) fighter squadrons in San Diego.

*edit in ( )
 
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