A little backstory: I arrived in Kingsville in late 2022, and was sent to student pool. We were told the wait would be around one month, and there were only a dozen or so students waiting to start. Flash-forward a few weeks, all the jets were grounded due to Bladegate 2.0, and the wait was now indefinite. Seven months in K-vegas later, the jets were all up again, and I finally classed up as one of the first students in the new Charlie Syllabus that had been developed during the wait. This new syllabus included a lot more sims, and a few less flights than the preceding syllabus, and introduced a totally new phase of training. The following is some gouge and an overview of the new syllabus, as well as some takeaways.
Housing / Pre-Class Up:
For new studs checking into K-vegas there are multiple apartment communities that are very friendly to SNAs: Oak Tree, Hawks Landing, and Hunters Cove are where 90% of students live. Finding housing that isn't in an apartment can be a little difficult; you need to know someone about to rent a house, or really hawk the housing market to snatch a good rental up. Paulson Falls occasionally has openings, the housing there is really nice.
Life in student pool is very easy. Unlike primary where there was a lot you should be studying and prepping for prior to class up, there isn't a lot you need to know for I/A Jet. There is no natops brief you need to have memorized verbatim. There are no N/W/C you have to have memorized verbatim. There is no Hollywood script. The checklists are done according to your own flow, and don't have a lot of dual concurrence items. The ground school is cooperate to graduate. Outside of EPs, and maybe working on a checklist flow, I actually don't recommend getting deep into the books. As far as duties, you can expect to stand duty driver a fair bit, or random duties such as pub restocking or building cleaning. You might be able to go onto a detachment like WEP det, or CQ det; these are great experiences, and I highly recommend trying to get in on one if you can. If you get lucky, you may be able to trunk a flight while in student pool too (assuming you get your level A brief and gear all set up). Use your time before classing up to settle into K-vegas life and make some friends, you will busy enough later on in the curriculum.
INTERMEDIATE/PHASE 1
Initial Ground School: One new difference that the Charlie syllabus brought was new tests and classroom material. Almost all the original lectures were replaced by online videos. My class as a whole did not get a lot out of the videos, but did get a lot out of the in person lectures preceding all the tests. With the exception of the first test, all of the tests were cooperate to graduate, and not too difficult with the review sessions. This aircraft is a bit older and less technical than the T6; there isn't as much to know systems wise. Ground school lasted two and a half weeks, and we went straight to the simulators the day after ground school.
Initial Sims: One of the things that the Charlie Syllabus changed was the balance of sims to flights in the early stages. Around 10 flights were changed into sims, and the total amount of sims prior to getting to the plane was increased. There were a total of 41 sim events before we touched a t-45 split into the following groups: cockpit familiarization, eps, generic RI/BI sims, cross country sims, and transition hops (including dedicated ball flying events to introduce the IFLOLS lens). Unlike primary, the sim IPs briefed all the discuss items to you (with some limited exceptions), and there was no board to set up for the sims. The sims were much less of an evaluation and much more of an instructional event when compared to primary. After the 41 sims in the OFT, there was also a VR event where multiple students would practice the landing pattern and comms together with virtual headsets. We were doubled everyday through these and finished in around a month.
Transition Flights: Flight side was honestly a relief after going through so many sims. With Bladegate 2.0 it had been almost a year since I had touched an aircraft. The flight side IPs also briefed almost every discuss item in stage (again with some limited exceptions). Our class learned quickly that we were supposed to shut up in the brief (a major departure from the regurgitation of information that every primary brief was). The first flight is conducted in the backseat under the bag, and consists of basic instruments, and approaches around Kingsville. The next twelve flights are all front-seat, and focus on high-work, low-work, and a small amount of instruments. Following this is the check-ride, followed then by your first solo in the jet. The jet was honestly easier to fly than I thought it would be, and it was a relief to not have to do left wing down top right rudder to land. Ball flying was still very rough at this stage, and it was considered a good pass if the ball was anywhere on the lens at touchdown. The instructors (for the most part) were silent in the backseat unless you were screwing something up, and the expectations were higher than in Primary. Prepare to see a lot more Below-mifs then you did in Primary; unsats are a lot more common too. This being said, I only know of a couple of attritions for the duration of my time in K-vegas; if you are really struggling you can expect to be awarded ET flights to get up to speed with standards. As a class we were slammed through the flights and completed the transition stage in just under two weeks.
Instrument Rating Ground School/Sims/Flights: After transition flights, it was back to ground school to start working on getting our Instrument Rating. Ground school was only a couple of days, and we were thrown into the sims right after. There are 16 sims before you get back to the jet. These sims were honestly about the least fun thing you will do in all of Intermediate or Advanced. These IR sims are honestly sort of a haze-fest by the sim-IPs. You make a route and plan for approaches based on an instruction sheet, and then execute in the sim. You will experience all manner of EPs, partial panel approaches, routing changes, emergency fuel diverts, approach changes, etc on almost every event. Following these sims you have 5 flights; this block of training is usually conducted as a cross country, and the flights themselves were fun. After this batch of flights you go back to the sim for 4 more simsculminating in the Instrument Rating check ride where you finally earn your cloud card.
Forms Ground School/Sims/Flights: There are handful of sims in the OFTs, and two or so VR's, they adequately prepared us for flight side. Flight side was eight flights and two solos. We flew a lot tighter, and a lot more dynamically then in Primary, and used much more straightforward arm signals (no more patting your head three times like in primary before passing a signal lol). You also learn to do section go's and approaches in this stage which you will use on a lot of bad weather days later in the syllabus. It is important to get proficient at these by the end of the block, because forms is all considered admin after this stage and they will expect you to perform.
Night-Transition Sims/Flights: Two normal sims and an EP sim, and three dualed up flights and two solos. You can expect to do these concurrently with forms. You do some low-work and a lot of night bounces on the lens, and a canned night route that uses timing. Only a few IP's wanted to use timing for the route, most of the time we just used dead reckoning off city lights or just used the system. The solos were fun, I recommend that you get a lot of bounces in to meet your FCLP requirement for later stages to avoid having to do ETs. For whatever reason, I found ball flying easier at night than day.
DIV Ground School/Sims/Flights: A couple of VR's only, and straight to the jet. Three flights, one solo. Some of the most fun you will have in flight school. These were very canned flights with no surprises; the hardest part were the BnRs as -4 for me. It was easy to pick up a lot of closure by getting acute at distance, which made it more difficult to execute a join with the 10 knots max closure requirement. Coming into the break as a 4 ship with 3 solos for the first time was one of the most fun things I had done so far in the syllabus. Div is a ton of fun, enjoy it.
FCLP Sims/Flights: The hardest part about this stage was having the 180 FCLPs required to start. You have to actively push to make the requirement to avoid ET pattern hops, almost all my buddies had 2-3 extra flights to make up the requirement since mid-stage bouncing was eliminated in the Charlie Syllabus. There were a couple of sims, one safe for solo, three normal flights and a check ride. These are formal flights with an LSO, where there is some expectation that you can fly a good pass up to the in-close position. The hops themselves are very short and canned, and kind of fun if you set up a tac-freq with your buddies (think ghost wave-off calls, or power calls lol). Very easy stage, not a lot you need to learn outside of the LSO shorthand.
CQ Ground School/Sims/Flights:
CQ is a little weird right now due to the CQPP waivers. Everyone does ground school for the boat, and executes a handful of boat sims and ep sims, and everyone does all 13 bounce periods followed by the check ride; however, not everyone goes to the boat. Depending on what squadron you are in, you will either find out if you are waived from qualifying at the boat before you start the stage or after your check ride (last event in stage). The expectation is that you can fly a good pass to touchdown off of the lens at this point, and LSO's will not tolerate unsafe tendencies or bad passes by the end of the CQ stage. You may or may not go to the boat, the gouge keeps changing; have fun dealing with the Kingsville crosswinds!
Advanced/Phase II
Airnav Sims/Flights: You may or may not end up doing these events at the start or end of advanced; these flights were thrown in wherever there was room for them in our flight sked. There are three sims, and five flights separated by two sets of two solo out and ins. These are a lot more fun than IR's because they are all front-seat, there are barely any partial panel approaches, and the sims are more relaxed than IRs. The objective in this stage is to build instrument time, and to get more approaches in. The flights are very chill, and you have the opportunity to do two sets of solo out and ins almost anywhere in southern Texas. It was a confidence booster to do all of the ops myself, and go to foreign fields and back based on my own plans. Really fun stage.
Tacform Ground School/Sims/Flights: This is the first time you get to employ the jet "tactically", and a good introduction to the rest of the syllabus. Tacform is a foundation that the rest of the curriculum is built on; good tacform will be required in just about every other stage of training. There is a short ground school, and two VR sims followed by 4 flights dualed up, and 4 solo flights. Tacform was definitely not intuitive and required a decent amount of studying to understand properly. There used to be more flights and sims in the Bravo syllabus, and a lot of IPs were complaining that the new syllabus wasn't properly preparing us by the end of the flights. These flights were hard at first, but very rewarding once you had the right sight pictures and timing figured out. It is important to have a solid understanding of Tacform prior to finishing the stage, because it will be admin/tacadmin for almost the entire rest of the syllabus. You do a sort of intro to BFM at the end of each tacform flight that is essentially the 6K set with or without a deck redefinition. It was not uncommon for students to get a pink in this stage or an ET due to poor Tacform by the end of the fourth flight; avoid this by studying and knowing the right timing for each set and developing the right sight pictures by practicing in the VR. It might not be a bad idea to trunk a flight or two in this stage to see the proper sight pictures before your flights.
Divtac Sims/Flights: Two VR sims and two flights, no solos. These events were essentially exposure events to performing basic tacform in a division. It honestly was easy after finishing tacform, and was very straightforward. No real surprises here; being in a division again was good warmup for the upcoming strike events.
ONAV Ground School/Sims/Flights: I'll be honest, the ground school and sims are about the most annoying thing I've done in flight school. This is funny because the flights are the exact opposite, and about the most fun I've ever had. More than likely you will do these events either on the way to strike det, or during strike det. If you do the flights out on strike det, you get to do amazing routes that are a ton of fun (1266,1267,etc) especially when compared to the local routes. The ground school consists of long days in the JMPS lab making maps, adding a ton of layers that more than likely won't be referenced in the sim or plane. Each chart takes about 9 hours or more to create if you do it by the FTI, and you need one for every event in block. For the flight events, I have had IP's say "Thanks for making the chart, we aren't using it today.", which kinda sucks if you put the 9 hours of work into making the chart just to throw it away. The flights are all system, and are a ton of fun. You may or may not need to do them via timing (IP dependent).
Section Lows Sims/Flights: One VR sim and two flights. The flights are also more than likely done on strike det, and are mostly exposure events. These flights were difficult, but the expectation was low since there wasn't a solo in block. Splitting your focus between your scan in the low environment, your system, and your flight lead was difficult. You get to do tacform around mountains, and a level laydown attached attack which was a lot of fun.
Strike Ground School/Sims/Flights: This was probably the most challenging part of flight school for me. One new thing from the Charlie syllabus vs the Bravo was that manual bombing was completely removed. All bombing was done in CCIP mode in the wagon-wheel pattern. There were 4 normal pattern sims, an ep sim, and several VR pattern sims linked up with the other devices. Flight side consisted of four dualed up flights and two solo strike flights. The VR sims were fantastic for practicing comms, since these 4 ship events are ridiculously comm heavy. There isn't a lot of dead space on the frequencies in the pattern, so knowing what and when to say your comm piece was equally as important as your runs in the 30 degree and 10 degree pattern. The knowledge expectation was higher for these flights than any other single stage in Intermediate or Advanced. There are pages of information you need to know cold, and you will be asked for it in these briefs. All flights were conducted in El Centro as either 4 ship or 3 ship events to the local ranges. Although the FTI briefs attacks in the 30 degree pattern, the 15 degree pattern, and the 10 degree pattern, only the 10 and 30 degree patterns are utilized. The flights are short, fast paced, and very involved. Quite a few unsats are awarded in this phase on det, there are quite a few ways to fail these events. To avoid an unsat, you need perfect master arm discipline, quick professional joins, and adherence to all abort criteria. It was an equally fun and stressful stage.
TAM Ground School/Sims/Flights: This stage consists of several standard sims, one VR sim, two dualed up flights and a solo. These flights were conducted in El Centro as part of strike det to the normal target areas without Mark 76s. These flights are incredibly canned, and are mostly admin/tacadmin. You know what the 9 lines are going to be before you take off, and have your system set up for them prior to reaching the range. The hardest part of these flights was solving for timing to make your TOT. This was a very fun stage, and honestly relaxing compared to the strike pattern.
BFM Ground School/Sims/Flights: This stage was challenging, but in a fun way. It is separated into three different portions: defensive, offensive, and high aspect. There is only a single sim in stage, followed by one tacform refresher flight, three dualed up offensive flights and a solo, two dualed up defensive bfm flights and a solo, and two dualed up and two solos for high aspect. Your confidence in the jet is very high at this point in the curriculum, and it will be tested with the dynamic maneuvering you perform against your lead. The sets are canned, but taken to their logical conclusion or knocked off early at flight leads discretion. The two hardest sets for me were the roller and the flats due to the low airspeed and proper lift vector placement for the pirouette mech. The 6 and 9k sets were relatively easy because they were similar to the gunsight tracking done in the basic Tacform stage (with redefinitions and potentially going neutral/defensive mid-set). You need to have solid admin/tacadmin on your flights in this stage; the IP's didn't care if you sucked at BFM, but I know of multiple students who got unsats for bad tacform/admin/tacadmin. I felt like I only got ok/decent at the type of BFM we were doing by the solos in stage, and at that point it was time to learn a new type of BFM. Stay on top of the basics, and the BFM will come with time. Defensive BFM wasn't too different from Offensive BFM, with the exception that your neck is going to be a lot more sore afterwards. High aspect was a completely different beast, and I struggled keeping sight anytime I went 1c nose high. I thoroughly recommend trunking one of these flights before doing it in the plane so you have a good idea of where the bandit can/should be post merge. This stage was definitely some of the wildest flying I have ever seen or done, and was incredibly rewarding.
FTX Sims/Flights: The last stage in the jet is incredibly canned. One sim, one VR, three flights, and one solo. The intercepts are very straightforward, if slightly busy. At the end of each set, you may execute high aspect BFM to simulate a vanished run. This is a great stage to end the syllabus on.
All in all, Kingsville was a fantastic experience. You will fly a lot faster, a lot lower, and a lot more aggressively than primary, and learn a whole lot more about forms. The standard was a lot higher, and unsats were more common; this being said, no one was out to get you, and the command was very supportive with anyone who was struggling. The syllabus lasted a lot longer than I expected it to, but the friends I made along the way really helped make it a great time. My squadron was great and the IPs were all fantastic. I can't wait to see what the FRS has in store. NIFE/Primary/Advanced took a little over three years (thanks to bladegate), but the reward at the end was worth all the time and effort.
Housing / Pre-Class Up:
For new studs checking into K-vegas there are multiple apartment communities that are very friendly to SNAs: Oak Tree, Hawks Landing, and Hunters Cove are where 90% of students live. Finding housing that isn't in an apartment can be a little difficult; you need to know someone about to rent a house, or really hawk the housing market to snatch a good rental up. Paulson Falls occasionally has openings, the housing there is really nice.
Life in student pool is very easy. Unlike primary where there was a lot you should be studying and prepping for prior to class up, there isn't a lot you need to know for I/A Jet. There is no natops brief you need to have memorized verbatim. There are no N/W/C you have to have memorized verbatim. There is no Hollywood script. The checklists are done according to your own flow, and don't have a lot of dual concurrence items. The ground school is cooperate to graduate. Outside of EPs, and maybe working on a checklist flow, I actually don't recommend getting deep into the books. As far as duties, you can expect to stand duty driver a fair bit, or random duties such as pub restocking or building cleaning. You might be able to go onto a detachment like WEP det, or CQ det; these are great experiences, and I highly recommend trying to get in on one if you can. If you get lucky, you may be able to trunk a flight while in student pool too (assuming you get your level A brief and gear all set up). Use your time before classing up to settle into K-vegas life and make some friends, you will busy enough later on in the curriculum.
INTERMEDIATE/PHASE 1
Initial Ground School: One new difference that the Charlie syllabus brought was new tests and classroom material. Almost all the original lectures were replaced by online videos. My class as a whole did not get a lot out of the videos, but did get a lot out of the in person lectures preceding all the tests. With the exception of the first test, all of the tests were cooperate to graduate, and not too difficult with the review sessions. This aircraft is a bit older and less technical than the T6; there isn't as much to know systems wise. Ground school lasted two and a half weeks, and we went straight to the simulators the day after ground school.
Initial Sims: One of the things that the Charlie Syllabus changed was the balance of sims to flights in the early stages. Around 10 flights were changed into sims, and the total amount of sims prior to getting to the plane was increased. There were a total of 41 sim events before we touched a t-45 split into the following groups: cockpit familiarization, eps, generic RI/BI sims, cross country sims, and transition hops (including dedicated ball flying events to introduce the IFLOLS lens). Unlike primary, the sim IPs briefed all the discuss items to you (with some limited exceptions), and there was no board to set up for the sims. The sims were much less of an evaluation and much more of an instructional event when compared to primary. After the 41 sims in the OFT, there was also a VR event where multiple students would practice the landing pattern and comms together with virtual headsets. We were doubled everyday through these and finished in around a month.
Transition Flights: Flight side was honestly a relief after going through so many sims. With Bladegate 2.0 it had been almost a year since I had touched an aircraft. The flight side IPs also briefed almost every discuss item in stage (again with some limited exceptions). Our class learned quickly that we were supposed to shut up in the brief (a major departure from the regurgitation of information that every primary brief was). The first flight is conducted in the backseat under the bag, and consists of basic instruments, and approaches around Kingsville. The next twelve flights are all front-seat, and focus on high-work, low-work, and a small amount of instruments. Following this is the check-ride, followed then by your first solo in the jet. The jet was honestly easier to fly than I thought it would be, and it was a relief to not have to do left wing down top right rudder to land. Ball flying was still very rough at this stage, and it was considered a good pass if the ball was anywhere on the lens at touchdown. The instructors (for the most part) were silent in the backseat unless you were screwing something up, and the expectations were higher than in Primary. Prepare to see a lot more Below-mifs then you did in Primary; unsats are a lot more common too. This being said, I only know of a couple of attritions for the duration of my time in K-vegas; if you are really struggling you can expect to be awarded ET flights to get up to speed with standards. As a class we were slammed through the flights and completed the transition stage in just under two weeks.
Instrument Rating Ground School/Sims/Flights: After transition flights, it was back to ground school to start working on getting our Instrument Rating. Ground school was only a couple of days, and we were thrown into the sims right after. There are 16 sims before you get back to the jet. These sims were honestly about the least fun thing you will do in all of Intermediate or Advanced. These IR sims are honestly sort of a haze-fest by the sim-IPs. You make a route and plan for approaches based on an instruction sheet, and then execute in the sim. You will experience all manner of EPs, partial panel approaches, routing changes, emergency fuel diverts, approach changes, etc on almost every event. Following these sims you have 5 flights; this block of training is usually conducted as a cross country, and the flights themselves were fun. After this batch of flights you go back to the sim for 4 more simsculminating in the Instrument Rating check ride where you finally earn your cloud card.
Forms Ground School/Sims/Flights: There are handful of sims in the OFTs, and two or so VR's, they adequately prepared us for flight side. Flight side was eight flights and two solos. We flew a lot tighter, and a lot more dynamically then in Primary, and used much more straightforward arm signals (no more patting your head three times like in primary before passing a signal lol). You also learn to do section go's and approaches in this stage which you will use on a lot of bad weather days later in the syllabus. It is important to get proficient at these by the end of the block, because forms is all considered admin after this stage and they will expect you to perform.
Night-Transition Sims/Flights: Two normal sims and an EP sim, and three dualed up flights and two solos. You can expect to do these concurrently with forms. You do some low-work and a lot of night bounces on the lens, and a canned night route that uses timing. Only a few IP's wanted to use timing for the route, most of the time we just used dead reckoning off city lights or just used the system. The solos were fun, I recommend that you get a lot of bounces in to meet your FCLP requirement for later stages to avoid having to do ETs. For whatever reason, I found ball flying easier at night than day.
DIV Ground School/Sims/Flights: A couple of VR's only, and straight to the jet. Three flights, one solo. Some of the most fun you will have in flight school. These were very canned flights with no surprises; the hardest part were the BnRs as -4 for me. It was easy to pick up a lot of closure by getting acute at distance, which made it more difficult to execute a join with the 10 knots max closure requirement. Coming into the break as a 4 ship with 3 solos for the first time was one of the most fun things I had done so far in the syllabus. Div is a ton of fun, enjoy it.
FCLP Sims/Flights: The hardest part about this stage was having the 180 FCLPs required to start. You have to actively push to make the requirement to avoid ET pattern hops, almost all my buddies had 2-3 extra flights to make up the requirement since mid-stage bouncing was eliminated in the Charlie Syllabus. There were a couple of sims, one safe for solo, three normal flights and a check ride. These are formal flights with an LSO, where there is some expectation that you can fly a good pass up to the in-close position. The hops themselves are very short and canned, and kind of fun if you set up a tac-freq with your buddies (think ghost wave-off calls, or power calls lol). Very easy stage, not a lot you need to learn outside of the LSO shorthand.
CQ Ground School/Sims/Flights:
CQ is a little weird right now due to the CQPP waivers. Everyone does ground school for the boat, and executes a handful of boat sims and ep sims, and everyone does all 13 bounce periods followed by the check ride; however, not everyone goes to the boat. Depending on what squadron you are in, you will either find out if you are waived from qualifying at the boat before you start the stage or after your check ride (last event in stage). The expectation is that you can fly a good pass to touchdown off of the lens at this point, and LSO's will not tolerate unsafe tendencies or bad passes by the end of the CQ stage. You may or may not go to the boat, the gouge keeps changing; have fun dealing with the Kingsville crosswinds!
Advanced/Phase II
Airnav Sims/Flights: You may or may not end up doing these events at the start or end of advanced; these flights were thrown in wherever there was room for them in our flight sked. There are three sims, and five flights separated by two sets of two solo out and ins. These are a lot more fun than IR's because they are all front-seat, there are barely any partial panel approaches, and the sims are more relaxed than IRs. The objective in this stage is to build instrument time, and to get more approaches in. The flights are very chill, and you have the opportunity to do two sets of solo out and ins almost anywhere in southern Texas. It was a confidence booster to do all of the ops myself, and go to foreign fields and back based on my own plans. Really fun stage.
Tacform Ground School/Sims/Flights: This is the first time you get to employ the jet "tactically", and a good introduction to the rest of the syllabus. Tacform is a foundation that the rest of the curriculum is built on; good tacform will be required in just about every other stage of training. There is a short ground school, and two VR sims followed by 4 flights dualed up, and 4 solo flights. Tacform was definitely not intuitive and required a decent amount of studying to understand properly. There used to be more flights and sims in the Bravo syllabus, and a lot of IPs were complaining that the new syllabus wasn't properly preparing us by the end of the flights. These flights were hard at first, but very rewarding once you had the right sight pictures and timing figured out. It is important to have a solid understanding of Tacform prior to finishing the stage, because it will be admin/tacadmin for almost the entire rest of the syllabus. You do a sort of intro to BFM at the end of each tacform flight that is essentially the 6K set with or without a deck redefinition. It was not uncommon for students to get a pink in this stage or an ET due to poor Tacform by the end of the fourth flight; avoid this by studying and knowing the right timing for each set and developing the right sight pictures by practicing in the VR. It might not be a bad idea to trunk a flight or two in this stage to see the proper sight pictures before your flights.
Divtac Sims/Flights: Two VR sims and two flights, no solos. These events were essentially exposure events to performing basic tacform in a division. It honestly was easy after finishing tacform, and was very straightforward. No real surprises here; being in a division again was good warmup for the upcoming strike events.
ONAV Ground School/Sims/Flights: I'll be honest, the ground school and sims are about the most annoying thing I've done in flight school. This is funny because the flights are the exact opposite, and about the most fun I've ever had. More than likely you will do these events either on the way to strike det, or during strike det. If you do the flights out on strike det, you get to do amazing routes that are a ton of fun (1266,1267,etc) especially when compared to the local routes. The ground school consists of long days in the JMPS lab making maps, adding a ton of layers that more than likely won't be referenced in the sim or plane. Each chart takes about 9 hours or more to create if you do it by the FTI, and you need one for every event in block. For the flight events, I have had IP's say "Thanks for making the chart, we aren't using it today.", which kinda sucks if you put the 9 hours of work into making the chart just to throw it away. The flights are all system, and are a ton of fun. You may or may not need to do them via timing (IP dependent).
Section Lows Sims/Flights: One VR sim and two flights. The flights are also more than likely done on strike det, and are mostly exposure events. These flights were difficult, but the expectation was low since there wasn't a solo in block. Splitting your focus between your scan in the low environment, your system, and your flight lead was difficult. You get to do tacform around mountains, and a level laydown attached attack which was a lot of fun.
Strike Ground School/Sims/Flights: This was probably the most challenging part of flight school for me. One new thing from the Charlie syllabus vs the Bravo was that manual bombing was completely removed. All bombing was done in CCIP mode in the wagon-wheel pattern. There were 4 normal pattern sims, an ep sim, and several VR pattern sims linked up with the other devices. Flight side consisted of four dualed up flights and two solo strike flights. The VR sims were fantastic for practicing comms, since these 4 ship events are ridiculously comm heavy. There isn't a lot of dead space on the frequencies in the pattern, so knowing what and when to say your comm piece was equally as important as your runs in the 30 degree and 10 degree pattern. The knowledge expectation was higher for these flights than any other single stage in Intermediate or Advanced. There are pages of information you need to know cold, and you will be asked for it in these briefs. All flights were conducted in El Centro as either 4 ship or 3 ship events to the local ranges. Although the FTI briefs attacks in the 30 degree pattern, the 15 degree pattern, and the 10 degree pattern, only the 10 and 30 degree patterns are utilized. The flights are short, fast paced, and very involved. Quite a few unsats are awarded in this phase on det, there are quite a few ways to fail these events. To avoid an unsat, you need perfect master arm discipline, quick professional joins, and adherence to all abort criteria. It was an equally fun and stressful stage.
TAM Ground School/Sims/Flights: This stage consists of several standard sims, one VR sim, two dualed up flights and a solo. These flights were conducted in El Centro as part of strike det to the normal target areas without Mark 76s. These flights are incredibly canned, and are mostly admin/tacadmin. You know what the 9 lines are going to be before you take off, and have your system set up for them prior to reaching the range. The hardest part of these flights was solving for timing to make your TOT. This was a very fun stage, and honestly relaxing compared to the strike pattern.
BFM Ground School/Sims/Flights: This stage was challenging, but in a fun way. It is separated into three different portions: defensive, offensive, and high aspect. There is only a single sim in stage, followed by one tacform refresher flight, three dualed up offensive flights and a solo, two dualed up defensive bfm flights and a solo, and two dualed up and two solos for high aspect. Your confidence in the jet is very high at this point in the curriculum, and it will be tested with the dynamic maneuvering you perform against your lead. The sets are canned, but taken to their logical conclusion or knocked off early at flight leads discretion. The two hardest sets for me were the roller and the flats due to the low airspeed and proper lift vector placement for the pirouette mech. The 6 and 9k sets were relatively easy because they were similar to the gunsight tracking done in the basic Tacform stage (with redefinitions and potentially going neutral/defensive mid-set). You need to have solid admin/tacadmin on your flights in this stage; the IP's didn't care if you sucked at BFM, but I know of multiple students who got unsats for bad tacform/admin/tacadmin. I felt like I only got ok/decent at the type of BFM we were doing by the solos in stage, and at that point it was time to learn a new type of BFM. Stay on top of the basics, and the BFM will come with time. Defensive BFM wasn't too different from Offensive BFM, with the exception that your neck is going to be a lot more sore afterwards. High aspect was a completely different beast, and I struggled keeping sight anytime I went 1c nose high. I thoroughly recommend trunking one of these flights before doing it in the plane so you have a good idea of where the bandit can/should be post merge. This stage was definitely some of the wildest flying I have ever seen or done, and was incredibly rewarding.
FTX Sims/Flights: The last stage in the jet is incredibly canned. One sim, one VR, three flights, and one solo. The intercepts are very straightforward, if slightly busy. At the end of each set, you may execute high aspect BFM to simulate a vanished run. This is a great stage to end the syllabus on.
All in all, Kingsville was a fantastic experience. You will fly a lot faster, a lot lower, and a lot more aggressively than primary, and learn a whole lot more about forms. The standard was a lot higher, and unsats were more common; this being said, no one was out to get you, and the command was very supportive with anyone who was struggling. The syllabus lasted a lot longer than I expected it to, but the friends I made along the way really helped make it a great time. My squadron was great and the IPs were all fantastic. I can't wait to see what the FRS has in store. NIFE/Primary/Advanced took a little over three years (thanks to bladegate), but the reward at the end was worth all the time and effort.
