T-6B NATOPS, Primary Contact - Thinking Ahead

[Hammer10k]

Hi all,

Thanks for the early responses to this thread, they helped immensely with hitting the ground running in Primary. Knowing the EPs/Limits and Notes, Warnings, and Cautions up-front made learning the checklists and briefing items much easier.

My next flight is the first Contacts solo and I feel like I've stalled out with studying, especially with the amount of time off due to Hurricane Harvey. I've been reading ahead for aerobatics and reviewing maneuvers/radios/course rules for my last Contacts flight, but after two weeks of this I'm starting to burn out. Is there anything for Instruments, Forms, or Nav that you would highly recommend getting a head start on? I'm afraid that I'll regret not doing something ahead of time when the firehose comes back on.

Thank you!

 

[nukon]

My next flight is the first Contacts solo and I feel like I've stalled out with studying, especially with the amount of time off due to Hurricane Harvey. I've been reading ahead for aerobatics and reviewing maneuvers/radios/course rules for my last Contacts flight, but after two weeks of this I'm starting to burn out. Is there anything for Instruments, Forms, or Nav that you would highly recommend getting a head start on? I'm afraid that I'll regret not doing something ahead of time when the firehose comes back on.

No.

Reason 1: It's a long war brother; you've got to come up for air at some point. I went full-throttle for all of primary and was still fighting through a motivation hangover a month into intermediate. Enjoy the time off, practice your hobby, stay fresh. Try to find a balance that'll be healthy and sustainable for a few years.

Reason 2: After aero, there's typically no certainty which stage you're headed for now, it's purely up to the cruel vicissitudes of Skeds. It'd be a bummer to nerd out on the forms brief then be in instruments for a month and have to learn it all over again. If you really need to lean forward, I'd reluctantly recommend increasing your familiarity with the FMS/glass features using the FMS trainers (things like rose map view, ground track), as that will help you in all stages.

Congrats on completing contacts, and enjoy your first solo! It's a special day for sure.

 

[Rugby_Guy]

Honestly man, the only thing I would do is make notecards if you are a notecard guy, so when it's time to study you can do so immediately.

You'll have ground school for Instruments and forms is more of a com/hand and arm signal drill than anything.

 

[AllYourBass]

Congrats on completing contacts, and enjoy your first solo! It's a special day for sure.

Seconding this. Also, if you're departing the OLF for course rules and can't figure out why you're charting a substantially slower cruise speed than you should be, check to make sure you remembered to raise the gear.

....*ahem*...heard it, uh, happened to somebody. Else. Someone who, uh, wasn't...weren't me, is who it was. It was me.

 

[sickboy]

Seconding this. Also, if you're departing the OLF for course rules and can't figure out why you're charting a substantially slower cruise speed than you should be, check to make sure you remembered to raise the gear.

But in the T-6 it's probably already too late.

 

[Hammer10k]

CNATRA talked to us last week and basically said the sign of late summer fatigue will be over speeding the gear. My roommate overspeed the gear the next day.

 

[Hammer10k]

Congrats on completing contacts, and enjoy your first solo! It's a special day for sure.

Honestly man, the only thing I would do is make notecards if you are a notecard guy, so when it's time to study you can do so immediately.

You'll have ground school for Instruments and forms is more of a com/hand and arm signal drill than anything.

Seconding this.

Thanks!

 

[TexasForever]

CNATRA talked to us last week and basically said the sign of late summer fatigue will be over speeding the gear. My roommate overspeed the gear the next day.

Go skids, You can't overspeed the gear when you gear is welded down... and not wheels

 

[Hammer10k]

Primary students recently switched over to the "B" syllabus - BIs are now before the FAM block, a couple additional RI sims, and some more focus on the HUD being the big changes. So far it's been a positive reception.

I'm in the second or third class on the new syllabus and was curious about what will happen when old syllabus students and new syllabus students are selecting together. As well as how NSS will work with only a couple completers. Any thoughts? Thanks!

 

[Python]

Primary students recently switched over to the "B" syllabus - BIs are now before the FAM block, a couple additional RI sims, and some more focus on the HUD being the big changes. So far it's been a positive reception.

I'm in the second or third class on the new syllabus and was curious about what will happen when old syllabus students and new syllabus students are selecting together. As well as how NSS will work with only a couple completers. Any thoughts? Thanks!

How is the HUD being used differently now?

 

[Hammer10k]

How is the HUD being used differently now?

It was an SSR during PAs. Introducing it for the maneuvers and landing pattern. Showed up a couple times as a discussion item too. Seemed like this wasn't the case before.

 

[Jim123]

How is the HUD being used differently now?

It's been waived up until now.

A lot of the HUDs don't work properly anyway: they turn blurry after being on for a few minutes or else they simply don't work at all. A few years ago, many of the HUDs used to come on full bright at random and often inopportune times of the day and night, no matter what you did with the brightness knob or the day/night/auto switch (or if you did nothing at all). Not sure what fixed that problem but it hasn't happened for a while; I do remember some ridiculous bureaucratic resistance to unplugging them and zip tying that cannon plug because that would require an airframe change or something. Instead a lot of guys would just put an approach plate on top of the projector glass if it happened.

The other funny thing about the HUD is you need to lean forward a bit or bob your head up and down to see everything. If you sit in a natural position then you can see either the heading at the top of the display or the ball (slip indicator) at the bottom, but not both at the same time. The unit is just a couple inches too far forward from where it needs to be. That's a shame, because most of the rest cockpit is ergonomically really good.

 

[sickboy]

The other funny thing about the HUD is you need to lean forward a bit or bob your head up and down to see everything. If you sit in a natural position then you can see either the heading at the top of the display or the ball (slip indicator) at the bottom, but not both at the same time.

Here I thought I was the only one.

 

[Rugby_Guy]

The only time I remember having a working HUD was during my form checkride, so really the only time it was a major help.

 

[Gatordev]

It's been waived up until now.

A lot of the HUDs don't work properly anyway: they turn blurry after being on for a few minutes or else they simply don't work at all. A few years ago, many of the HUDs used to come on full bright at random and often inopportune times of the day and night, no matter what you did with the brightness knob or the day/night/auto switch (or if you did nothing at all). Not sure what fixed that problem but it hasn't happened for a while; I do remember some ridiculous bureaucratic resistance to unplugging them and zip tying that cannon plug because that would require an airframe change or something. Instead a lot of guys would just put an approach plate on top of the projector glass if it happened.

The other funny thing about the HUD is you need to lean forward a bit or bob your head up and down to see everything. If you sit in a natural position then you can see either the heading at the top of the display or the ball (slip indicator) at the bottom, but not both at the same time. The unit is just a couple inches too far forward from where it needs to be. That's a shame, because most of the rest cockpit is ergonomically really good.

But how about that AT-6 capability, right!