Current SNA at Kingsville - Send Questions

[PMPT]

Since OP hasn't answered, I recently winged out of KNQI so I'll take a stab at a few questions.

O Club - has been shuttered and reopened several times throughout the coronavirus adventure. It used to be pretty lively for winging Fridays, and during the bladegate fiasco it became fairly popular on thursday nights with people who were also going bowling. For those of you who went to NASK for I jet/ advanced, it probably hasn't changed much at all since you were there other than that the Country Luau is now either closed down or basically no longer visited by SNAs. A few folks went to the silver spur but its still a complete shithole (a friend saw someone smoking meth in the toilet, he says, and I can believe it). There was a bar on the north end of town called Nucky's that was very popular for quiz nights, but that also obviously died an early death with covid. The HEB in town is now also actually pretty decent.

The one upside of the Kingsville O Club is that some genius in MWR got permission for there to be a van to shuttle SNAs onto and off of base from the O Club to the 2 or 3 most popular places for SNAs to live, so you could safely go and get shithoused at the O Club and then come home without having to worry about racking up a DUI with the local fuzz or base fuzz. Solid idea. Unfortunately again though, covid pretty much wrecked this, and I think it was from about St Patricks day until some time in the summer completely closed, then reopened for a bit with limited hours and capacity, closed again, and then reopened, etc etc. I had a beer or two there after I winged but it certainly wasn't the more or less all-hands (commissioned, at least) TW2 rager I'd have expected before covid.

 

[PMPT]

Is there a functional O'Club there?

Just letting you know I threw in my $0.02 about the O Club. Recent winger.

 

[PMPT]

Hey Im glad I saw this thread. I am going to OCS as SNA this September and I wanted to study as much as I can. Is there anyway you can send gouges or information to study? Id love to know aviation radio jargon and what they teach in API and Advanced. Thank you and good luck! @FaithbyFlight also your videos are insane helpful haha

There's no crazy gouge out there that your friends in TW4/5 won't already have. Study your ass off in primary. The amount of effort people put into primary seemed to overwhelmingly be the determining factor in how well they did. Generally speaking, my impression of primary is that it was more an assessment of how hard you were willing and able to study and how much information you were able to retain and regurgitate in the brief rather than being primarily an assessment of your raw stick and rudder skills (it helps to not suck at that too, but they're pretty good at getting most people to where they need to be to mostly safely solo the thing a few times). Chairflying, while boring, is also of paramount importance.

So study hard.

 

[PMPT]

How did your prior flight experience help (or hurt) you during primary? What habits were hard to break and how did you over come them? Thanks!

Most of the guys with PPLs or IRAs were at a clear advantage. And that's not surprising ... primary is principally about teaching you the fundamentals. Preflight preparation, wx, notams, etc, walk to the plane, preflight, start up, checklists, get ATIS, talk to ground, talk to tower, talk to approach/departure, etc ... The guys who have done this several hundred times in a cessna and already know all the basic aviation stuff (wx, talking to ATC, airspaces, and so on and so forth) are just way less nervous about it all than the rest of us are.

That being said, while these guys still did well in intermediate/advanced, the advantage seemed to rapidly diminish in the T-45, simply because 1) its moving much, much more quickly than most GA pilots are used to; and 2) a significant portion of the intermediate/advanced syllabus isn't really testing that basic stuff. Then it becomes about flying formation, flying the strike pattern, BFMing etc. With the exception of a few things that were new in advanced, e.g. getting onto and off of VRs and IRs, and my instrument safe for solo, we barely talked about any of the regular flying stuff. on deck, takeoff etc. That just became the minimum expectation that you could safely and competently do. In this respect prior flight time can be of limited help when you get to that stage. 70 hours in a cessna won't much. help you get MK76 practice bombs within 75' of bullseye in the strike pattern. diminishing returns, you see.

 

[PMPT]

Do you happen to remember your multiplier after contacts? I just finished the 4200 block and am watching my multiplier torpedo into the depths of oblivion as the mif slowly rises from 2/3 to 3/4. It's pretty fun getting destroyed on a daily basis. Now I get to sulk back to my Onwing after flying with 2 of the 4 horsemen in the 4200 block.

I finished up with a high 60s NSS and had something like 70 5s coming out of contacts and maybe 50-60 5s coming out of instruments. no below MIF. your multiplier will go down no matter what you do, even if you are doing well. The question is just how low.

The upside for you is that you can still make MONEY in the instrument sims and the instrument flights. The T-6 isn't a tremendously challenging plane to fly instruments in and I think this is probably getting even easier as you guys (I think?) are now allowed to use EFBs/foreflight on your kneeboard, which dispenses with the massive pain that is juggling paper pubs in the cockpit.

 

[Treetop Flyer]

Since OP hasn't answered, I recently winged out of KNQI so I'll take a stab at a few questions.

O Club - has been shuttered and reopened several times throughout the coronavirus adventure. It used to be pretty lively for winging Fridays, and during the bladegate fiasco it became fairly popular on thursday nights with people who were also going bowling. For those of you who went to NASK for I jet/ advanced, it probably hasn't changed much at all since you were there other than that the Country Luau is now either closed down or basically no longer visited by SNAs. A few folks went to the silver spur but its still a complete shithole (a friend saw someone smoking meth in the toilet, he says, and I can believe it). There was a bar on the north end of town called Nucky's that was very popular for quiz nights, but that also obviously died an early death with covid. The HEB in town is now also actually pretty decent.

The one upside of the Kingsville O Club is that some genius in MWR got permission for there to be a van to shuttle SNAs onto and off of base from the O Club to the 2 or 3 most popular places for SNAs to live, so you could safely go and get shithoused at the O Club and then come home without having to worry about racking up a DUI with the local fuzz or base fuzz. Solid idea. Unfortunately again though, covid pretty much wrecked this, and I think it was from about St Patricks day until some time in the summer completely closed, then reopened for a bit with limited hours and capacity, closed again, and then reopened, etc etc. I had a beer or two there after I winged but it certainly wasn't the more or less all-hands (commissioned, at least) TW2 rager I'd have expected before covid.

Ten years ago SNA’s waiting to class up were duty drivers for winging parties (generally two drivers and two vans) and they drove anyone home who wanted it, not just to three arbitrary spots but anywhere within reason.

What’s bladegate?

 

[PMPT]

Ten years ago SNA’s waiting to class up were duty drivers for winging parties (generally two drivers and two vans) and they drove anyone home who wanted it, not just to three arbitrary spots but anywhere within reason.

What’s bladegate?

even better

Bladegate ... silly name for when the LPT started throwing blades in 2019. Resulted in one class A in May I think and then another which ended with a PA into Orange Grove with a fire light (I think). They didn't quite ground the fleet but they reduced the hours they could go between inspections substantially which resulted in a ~4-6 months backlog developing. Loads of people sat idle for months. Ended up not being a huge deal and them getting the jets back into decent health relatively quickly, but it seemed pretty grim at the time when they were forecasting tacking an extra 9 months on to training to account for the slowdown.

 

[RoarkJr.]

might set yourself on a dangerous road. 1) you shouldn't want to be ok being a useless below average shitbag (or even average, shitbag); and 2) you don't leave yourself much margin for error if you're just skating by. 'ima just chill and take in the sights' can quickly turn into you being redes'd into some job you didn't ever want to do. nobody is going to go to bat for the guy that isn't putting himself into performing. plus as well. don't you want to have a say in what you get? where you go? you aren't necessarily guaranteed helos (could easily get tilt) and when you're in the HTs you might want to do well and get the type of helo and location you want.

What I’m garnering from the people that are quoting my post is that in order to not be a shitbag, you have to worry about grades. What happened to “do not worry about grades” ...? It is literally written in our FTI to not worry about grades. “Not worry about grades” does not equal “don’t give a shit.”

It means you’re not worrying about grades.

 

[Treetop Flyer]

What I’m garnering from the people that are quoting my post is that in order to not be a shitbag, you have to worry about grades. What happened to “do not worry about grades” ...? It is literally written in our FTI to not worry about grades. “Not worry about grades” does not equal “don’t give a shit.”

It means you’re not worrying about grades.

Half the people you meet are below average shitbags

 

[0621 Hertz]

I finished up with a high 60s NSS and had something like 70 5s coming out of contacts and maybe 50-60 5s coming out of instruments. no below MIF. your multiplier will go down no matter what you do, even if you are doing well. The question is just how low.

The upside for you is that you can still make MONEY in the instrument sims and the instrument flights. The T-6 isn't a tremendously challenging plane to fly instruments in and I think this is probably getting even easier as you guys (I think?) are now allowed to use EFBs/foreflight on your kneeboard, which dispenses with the massive pain that is juggling paper pubs in the cockpit.

For anyone else reading this, do not get discouraged by this guy's NSS. It's in a very high percentile range. I had a much lower NSS and got selected for NASK.

Also as far as foreflight, IPs were issued tablets recently. But I finished primary a month ago but no word was given about students using it. Would be nice though because it would be a money saver.

edit: just my two cents on having a PPL with 130ish hours coming into primary. Primary and API/NIFE does a really good job teaching you EVERYTHING you need to know. I haven't flown a Cessna in over 3 years in my first T-6 flight. I was kinda rusty but what probably set me from students was mostly the confidence factor.

 

[colonial-aviation]

For anyone else reading this, do not get discouraged by this guy's NSS. It's in a very high percentile range. I had a much lower NSS and got selected for NASK.

Also as far as foreflight, IPs were issued tablets recently. But I finished primary a month ago but no word was given about students using it. Would be nice though because it would be a money saver.

edit: just my two cents on having a PPL with 130ish hours coming into primary. Primary and API/NIFE does a really good job teaching you EVERYTHING you need to know. I haven't flown a Cessna in over 3 years in my first T-6 flight. I was kinda rusty but what probably set me from students was mostly the confidence factor.

Yeah seeing the number of 5s he had made me pee myself a little, but I’m in that Avenger weirdness so there’s hope yet

 

[RandomGoat1248]

For anyone else reading this, do not get discouraged by this guy's NSS. It's in a very high percentile range. I had a much lower NSS and got selected for NASK.

Not to go in the opposite direction, but it seems like I had essentially the same grades as PMPT and didn’t get strike. Shit happens.

Do the best you can, have fun, and realize that selection involves luck.

 

[nittany03]

Most of the guys with PPLs or IRAs were at a clear advantage. And that's not surprising ... primary is principally about teaching you the fundamentals. Preflight preparation, wx, notams, etc, walk to the plane, preflight, start up, checklists, get ATIS, talk to ground, talk to tower, talk to approach/departure, etc ... The guys who have done this several hundred times in a cessna and already know all the basic aviation stuff (wx, talking to ATC, airspaces, and so on and so forth) are just way less nervous about it all than the rest of us are.

That being said, while these guys still did well in intermediate/advanced, the advantage seemed to rapidly diminish in the T-45, simply because 1) its moving much, much more quickly than most GA pilots are used to; and 2) a significant portion of the intermediate/advanced syllabus isn't really testing that basic stuff. Then it becomes about flying formation, flying the strike pattern, BFMing etc. With the exception of a few things that were new in advanced, e.g. getting onto and off of VRs and IRs, and my instrument safe for solo, we barely talked about any of the regular flying stuff. on deck, takeoff etc. That just became the minimum expectation that you could safely and competently do. In this respect prior flight time can be of limited help when you get to that stage. 70 hours in a cessna won't much. help you get MK76 practice bombs within 75' of bullseye in the strike pattern. diminishing returns, you see.

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Back in the day, I had a classmate in Meridian and 129 who was a CFI and had flown bizjets pre-Navy. He beat me NSS-wise in Phase 1. I beat him NSS-wise in Phase 2, I think I got more bombing Es, and we could BFM each other to a draw, as much as being able to do that in SNA land meant anything (cosmically, basically nil, but bragging rights are fun at any skill level, right?).

Of course, in the end, he still figured out how to CQ in the Big Jammer and it kicked my ass, hence the three anchors . . . no HUD back then, let alone PLM PFM . . .

 

[PMPT]

FWIW I am a Marine also and felt like I had to knock it out of the park to ensure I got what I wanted.

Timing plays a big role unfortunately. You can minimize that as much as you can by scoring as well as you can, but you can never escape that. Luck will always play a role. You could win big one week when you'd have been shafted the next, and vice versa.

 

[PMPT]

What I’m garnering from the people that are quoting my post is that in order to not be a shitbag, you have to worry about grades. What happened to “do not worry about grades” ...? It is literally written in our FTI to not worry about grades. “Not worry about grades” does not equal “don’t give a shit.”

It means you’re not worrying about grades.

well, you didn't garner that from my post because I never said anything about worrying about grades. I said work hard and don't just cruise by because you can get your ass bitten at any point and in quite unforeseeable manners and if the reputation you fall back on is that of an idler, your CO might decide to be less forgiving of mistakes during your FPC.

don't worry about grades; do however care about them. even if you just want helos, like I said ... who says you don't accidentally bust the MOA on your C4490 during spin recovery? or cut off your interval in the pattern? Can happen to anyone on a bad day or an off day. And then you've failed your check and go straight to an IPC or FPC. And then what? Your work ethic, grades, and character will be looked into. My point is that it pays to want to do well, regardless of where you want to go.