Thanks for the reply. So if I start the rag in October and check into a Whibdey squadron in June of next year with 36 month orders. What does that mean for me? I understand it takes 24 months to make aircraft commander.
No it should be much shorter... 24 months is the limit. If you take longer than 24 months to qualify, you can expect a FNAEB, or being asked to DOR from aviation in order to redesignate you to another community in leu of a FNAEB (since long green table proceedings bring negative light on squadron training etc. as they dig into why you couldn't get qualified with the resources available to you).
Unless of course you're med down for a long period of time (if you're close to the 24 month timeline the squadron will start counting up all your med down days to get you a day for day extension for every day you were down)...
Shoot for 16-18 months to board... You can board late but it should be an above average board. If your board isn't complete around the 20 month mark you're starting to fall pretty far behind and should expect and be okay with guys skipping ahead of you to complete the syllabus. Once you have the board done OPS will make sure you get the hours and events to complete the sllyabus asap so they can move on to the next upgrader.
Without a better idea of which squadron and their transition timeline: Sounds like you'll have a year to a year and a half in the P-3 before you transition or you'll have about 2-2.5 years and rotate early before you transition.