...I'm a little skeptical of the NVG training in HTs.... 2) Are we saving training time at the FRS or somehow enhancing training there? If not, NVGs in HTs aren't that productive.
From the Marine side of the house: I can only speak for myself, but based on conversations with my peers, I feel they would echo my thoughts (hence the usage of "we" and "us"):
The NVG syllabus in the HTs was
very beneficial in prepping us for the FRS. By the time we did the NS block in the HTs, we had well over 100 hours in model, we had our could cards, and we were comfortable in both the aircraft and the local airspace. The ground school was (painfully, at the time) thorough, and the flights were good NS fams, good BAW drills, and good NS NAV intros. (As a side note, while I don't have access to the actual figures, it is also probably much, much cheaper to give NVG fams in a Jet Ranger vice fleet aircraft.)
The NS transition at the FRS was nearly seamless. We only had 30+ hours in model, but the basics learned in the HTs gave us a good baseline comfort level. The briefing items were straight out of the MAWTS manual - from which the HT FTI was derived - so it just required a quick review. The "wow" factor of using NVGs was already experienced at the HTs, so in the FRS we could fly the aircraft, and not just marvel at the cool green images in front of our eyes. Thanks to the HT NS flights, in the FRS we could focus on more "advanced" NS skills - NAV, CALs, etc. - all with much larger and complex aircraft and (for the CH/UH guys) a larger crew than just the pilot/copilot. We only had a small handful of NS hours in the FRS, so already having a good NS fam prior to the FRS, in my opinion, made our FRS training much more efficient.
NVGs are here to stay. It is great that the HTs have incorporated them into the syllabus.