Flight School backed up

[Ozarky]

Good lord. Are these instructors purely teaching in the NIFE planes or are they instructors from the VT’s that pull double duty over there?

 

[Mouselovr]

Good lord. Are these instructors purely teaching in the NIFE planes or are they instructors from the VT’s that pull double duty over there?

Its civilian instructors. Then the NIFE checkride is done by military, typically someone at NASC.

 

[BarryD]

Good lord. Are these instructors purely teaching in the NIFE planes or are they instructors from the VT’s that pull double duty over there?

Skywarrior CFIs…

FWIW, I only have positive things to say about the CFIs I flew with during NIFE… but can’t say that was the same across the board.

It doesn’t take too much deep diving on AWs to hear some stories of Skywarrior’s past shenanigans as well …

 

[FlyNavy03]

NASC will always say there are too many SNAs. That's how they scare people into studying. The party line during my time was "The Navy is trying to cut 700 pilots over the next 10 years" which directly contradicted the Air Boss saying at my graduation that he needed everyone to wing since the Navy was hemorrhaging pilots. I'd reckon the Navy doesn't have too many SNAs, rather they can't train them fast enough. VT manning isn't amazing and there are also plane health issues, but still better than the Fleet on average. Two ways to stop the backup are to either cut it down or up production. Both have their pros and cons.

Careful making generalizations. While it's been a long time since they've followed through on those threats, it has happened. I had several people from my OCS class that ended up either getting redesignated or just kicked out during API (predecessor to NIFE). When the last API class of FY-04 started, they announced that they were out of SNA slots for the FY so the minimum passing grade was being raised to 92. Then right before graduation they said that they still had too many so anyone with less than a 96 average was sent packing. I had three OCS classmates in that class. They, along with all of the other SNAs in that class that scored too low, sent in redesignation packages. Every single one was rejected. Two of my classmates still managed to get a redesignation to HR and the third one became a civilian.

 

[FlyNavy03]

As a reminder, if you go COPTR (which is a good program), you will graduate with only rotary (helicopter) commercial and rotary instrument FAA certification. If you go the traditional route, you will get the helicopter privileges + airplane (single engine land commercial) and airplane instrument from the FAA as well - that opens a lot more doors after the military.

Yes and no. I'm sitting at about 4000 total hours, including my 125 hours in the mighty T-34C. I have a friend that's a recruiter for American Airlines. That SEL Commercial and Instrument means absolutely nothing to them. I would still need to finish an ME ATP course before I could fly for them and that course is the same whether I've got fixed wing ratings or not.

 

[Flash]

Careful making generalizations. While it's been a long time since they've followed through on those threats, it has happened. I had several people from my OCS class that ended up either getting redesignated or just kicked out during API (predecessor to NIFE). When the last API class of FY-04 started, they announced that they were out of SNA slots for the FY so the minimum passing grade was being raised to 92. Then right before graduation they said that they still had too many so anyone with less than a 96 average was sent packing.

Manning issues were quite a bit different back then, with the Navy having a lot less issues with retention particularly in aviation.

 

[sevenhelmet]

Manning issues were quite a bit different back then, with the Navy having a lot less issues with retention particularly in aviation.

True, however, VT throughput was less of an issue than it is today. I suspect there is still pressure from the brass to front-load attrition when the conga-line backs up.