2026 NIFE Phase 2: Academics

[GoBoilers25]

I get the logic of "upping" the NIFE bar as the easy solution, but to anyone who's completed a flight school syllabus, we know that
NIFE success =/= VTs success and onward.

I totally agree; unfortunately we were told that Airboss was unhappy with the recent performance in primary, so this was the solution. The hardest part about the new standard is you don't get rolled back a week anymore to get extra time to study. If they keep this up, the right way to do it would be to roll them right after failing an exam to get another week to catch up. That or when someone has 2 pink sheets, its less of an auto attrite and more of a case by case basis based on their overall performance, especially if they've made it to flight phase before picking up the second one. We've lost a lot of people who could have very well been great aviators to the new policy already.

Is BLADE still a thing

I haven't ever heard of this so I don't know. Maybe a recent marine grad can confirm but I don't know if it's a thing anymore.

In my class, our instructor said he'd fail anyone who didnt get it "verbatim-verbatim"

I understand the "why" on why this is the standard with some instructors, but yeah it's pretty harsh, especially if you really do know it.

 

[Gatordev]

Obviously you’ll be using it for exams but is it expected to be used in practice during primary and beyond?

It's been way too long since I took the API Nav exam to remember what the rules were. I want to say you had to use the whiz wheel, but I may be misremembering. For the next two instrument exams in Primary and Advanced, I just used a calculator and did the standard equation, like Mouse said. It's faster and more precise. If you know how to manage cos and sin of an angle, you can do the same with winds.

When I did mandatory jet logs for flights, I'd cheat and just use DUATs (now 1800WXBRIEF).

I understand the "why" on why this is the standard with some instructors, but yeah it's pretty harsh, especially if you really do know it.

It does get better. After the FRS (at least on the helo side), you'll get a little more leeway, and after you make AC it gets better except the random dickhead O-4. The last time I went through the FRS as a contractor, I had a good rep with the IPs and a very good rep with the NATOPS officer. While taking the closed book, the NATOPS Officer walked in and I said, "Dude, what's up with this question?" And he just gave me the answer.

Like I said, it gets better with time.