T-6B Texan II enters service at NAS Whiting

[phrogdriver]

As far as contract primary IPs, it's definitely doable. It makes a ton of sense from a money standpoint.

However, the ripple effects to Navy/Marine pilot staffing would be the big issue. The biggest thing being that primary gives a couple hundred mid-grade officers their B-billet/shore tour. Take that location out, and you've got to put them somewhere. Leave them in the fleet longer and you've de facto reduced the overall requirement for fleet pilots, plus you've affected the career path "map," PLUS now there's one less 3-year break from sea duty/deployments in one's career.

One smaller issue to think about. The 46/V-22 transition is going to do weird things to primary/advanced IP manning. On one end, you've got 46 guys who, for whatever reason, aren't transitioning (not enough FRS spots, don't want to, bad timing, etc). Those guys are tailor-made for flight school billets. On the other, the actual V-22 pilots are not going to man many billets outside the community until the transition is complete. So, there might be a lower-than-normal number of Marine helo pilots available for Primary IP jobs.

Don't even get me started on whether V-22 guys will teach in Maritime or Helo advanced.

 

[BarrettRC8]

T34 to T45 has to be a monster leap.

It's really not that bad. You start in instruments and generally don't exceed 250.

Once you've finished BIs/RIs you've got a decent enough feel for the A/C to feel fine in FAMs, etc...

 

[desertoasis]

By my last count there's about 20 or so. They take up the first 20 spots on A line (25 spots per line), and have started on the first 4 or 5 of B line.

Flightline picture please.

 

[usmarinemike]

I'll get it tomorrow with the Nikon. I don't want to pull out my Blackberry on the flight line lest I get the flying elbow of justice.

 

[NightVisionPen]

I bet that thing is great to fly. There were E-2, C-2, and a couple of P-3 pilots as instructors back when I went through T-45s in Kingsville about ten years ago so I don't see why those guys or Helo guys would have a hard time with the T-6B. Heck, jet guys would have to get used to P-factor since they hadn't had a torque effect like that since they flew T-34s. When I was up for shore duty, they weren't letting jet guys go to primary. With the available manning they needed all of the jet guys to keep flying jets in some fashion for instructing or OpEval. As manning changes the ability for jet guys to go there will change.

As far as contractors goes, it makes financial sense. We are contracting out adversary work and early stage close air support training for ground troops. The Air Guard and Army both use technicians, which is not exactly the same, as instructors in their RTUs who just stay there for the long term. The question would be what to do with all those pilots rotating to shore duty if there weren't as many instructor spots due to the contractors. The answer is probably somewhere in the realm of downsizing and/or more sea duty. It might even be a combination where a portion of the instructors are contractors and a portion are active duty guys on shore duty.

 

[Python]

All of these things could already have been yours, if you gents had just gone to Vance. Cruise forms, 6G's regularly, Over the top stuff in formation....just go to the dark place and it will all be available to you...I got halfway to my Tac-Form checkride when they told me "good job...that was your last flight. Enjoy corpus."

The dark side is always tempting, but you must not forget that it is still dark.

 

[clonei09]

base PAO released this story on their facebook page with some pics of the first flight
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=217296&id=218368599953&ref=mf

 

[scoolbubba]

Hmm, the survival gear looks very different from what I wore.

 

[CommodoreMid]

Ya, different from what we wore at TW-6 too I think.

 

[NightVisionPen]

Since the Texan is a very high performance ejection seat plane those guys are wearing G suits, full harnesses, and standard jet survival gear. What I can't tell from the pictures is if the survival gear is on a separate vest or it they are wearing integrated harnesses. Never liked the integrated ones myself. Anyway, it looks like they could climb right into a Hornet or Rhino with that gear and click right in.

 

[C420sailor]

Waist lobes?

 

[Homer J]

Since the Texan is a very high performance ejection seat plane those guys are wearing G suits, full harnesses, and standard jet survival gear. What I can't tell from the pictures is if the survival gear is on a separate vest or it they are wearing integrated harnesses. Never liked the integrated ones myself. Anyway, it looks like they could climb right into a Hornet or Rhino with that gear and click right in.

The harness is the new PCU-78. Basically a PCU-56 with the molle material of the CMU-36 built right in. The life preserver the stud is wearing is the new LPU-23D/P. A high speed, low drag version of the old one with zippers where the velcro used to be.

 

[SynixMan]

All joking aside, is there a reason I shouldn't be wanting to go to TW-5 now? With the pace they way it is right now, I'm not projecting to leave PCola until the fall, and the Texan keeps showing up, making my odds better. VT-3 now, 6 and 2 to follow.

In the past, the reasons I heard against Whiting were:

-Whiting's Course Rules were more complicated vice CC. Makes for a steeper learning curve.
-WX in Corpus is slightly better flying wise
-Socially, TW-5 is worse because most folks are married

 

[wlawr005]

Married guys are just more likely to spend less money eating better food and drinking better booze at home. Nothing wrong with that.

 

[scoolbubba]

Since the Texan is a very high performance ejection seat plane those guys are wearing G suits, full harnesses, and standard jet survival gear. What I can't tell from the pictures is if the survival gear is on a separate vest or it they are wearing integrated harnesses. Never liked the integrated ones myself. Anyway, it looks like they could climb right into a Hornet or Rhino with that gear and click right in.

That's what I mean. I'm assuming the seat is the same as the T-6A seat, which had a completely integrated survival pack. All that crap in the vest was in a seat pack that deployed after your time on mr toad's wild ride was over. All we had was a nifty harness rig with shoulder and seat attachments.