But what all is involved in ones progressions from a FNG out of the FRS through HAC?
It all depends on your community, your CO, your OpsO, schedule, FRAG requirements, etc...
What causes some to take longer than others?
Abilities, timing, your CO, your OpsO, schedule, FRAG requirements, etc... (seeing a trend?)
Is your destiny somewhat in your own hands, or is it left to the scheduling gods?
A little of both, throw in some ability that you can't control as well...
Also, is the 500 hours time in type or does that include pre-wings?
OPNAV provides for only 500 hours total time, don't know about any NATOPS other than mine, but for us - it was dependent on CO's perogative.
If anyone would be nice enough to either explain the process to me or point me in the right direction to find out (I've looked, but can't seem to get a full explanation) I'd greatly appreciate it.
I don't remember where it was - but there's something that says that you have to be in the syllabus by 750 flight hours total. Of course, that might be Marine specific.
My first CO, you just had to hit 500 hours total - then you were in the syllabus. Then we had a change of command. All of a sudden, we had to have 500 hours in model to be in the syllabus. A guy I went to the RAG with was a Section Lead before I was even a HAC because of this. We had the exact same amount of flight hours.