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Choice of Aircraft after Flight School

porw0004

standard-issue stud v2.0
pilot
For pilots you put down Maritime (P-3/E-6's), tailhook, or helo's at the end of primary.

P-3's and E-6's are two different selections, giving Navy SMA's a total of 4.
Maritime for P-3's and TACMO for E-6's.

Tailhook
Maritime
Rotary
TACMO
 

BACONATOR

Well-Known Member
pilot
Contributor
The PCS thing isn't BS based on the above arguments. You guys are arguing a situation where, regardless, the student IS PCSing. The argument for geographical selection is for the case of Corpus for Maritime and Whiting for Helos. In those cases a corpus stud wouldn't PCS for maritime, and a Whiting stud wouldn't PCS for helos. There is NO cost to move them.

If the stud is already moving from Corpus or Whiting to Kingsville or meridian, then it really isn't going to be THAT much more money to move them one place or the other. It may cost more, but if they are moving anyway, there may not be motivation to keep one location correlated with another. I thought it was someone in my CoC at the time who mentioned the maritime/helo selection thing based on PCS, especially since that was the timeframe where people weren't being PCSed since the Navy was out of money...
 

insanebikerboy

Internet killed the television star
pilot
None
Contributor
My favorite that I remember from my time at VT-2 was one week when the guy at Whiting who wanted helos but got sent to Corpus for maritime and the guy in Corpus who wanted maritime but got sent to Whiting for helos. True story.
 

picklesuit

Dirty Hinge
pilot
Contributor
After searching around online, and in this sub-board, ive gotten mixed signals about this. Is it only the top graduate of your class that gets his/her choice of what Aircraft he/she wants to serve on? Or is it the top 10%? For the rest of the graduates, do they get like a.. wish list? And then based upon class ranking and Navy needs they assign you to your aircraft? Also, do NFO's have to go through like Aero 1, Aero 2, and that stuff?

Thanks, just a couple questions. ;) Im leaning towards the NFO side of things..


Who picks NFO?! Didn't you watch Top Gun?
 

xmid

Registered User
pilot
Contributor
Not saying I don't trust the ENS rumor mill, but is do you have anything to back that up? Or from a real source? I've heard the whole "Whiting jet guys to Meridian and Corpus jet guys to Kingsville" thing to save on PCS costs, but that one is a bit harder to believe.

Yeah. Straight from CNATRA. Without going in to too much detail when I selected I asked why I didn't get P-3's when the two guys I knew from Corpus that week got much lower grades than I. I was told straight up, that it was because they were running out of PCS funds and didn't have the money to be PCS'ing guys at the end of the fiscal year. The key word in what I said was "sometimes" as in its really a crap shoot and you really have no control over how well the timing will work out for you. As far as the jet thing if you're really worrying about whether your going to get Merridian or Kingsville then you need to kick yourself in the fucking nuts. If you want jets and have the timing and luck to select them, then just be happy you got them and forget where they're sending you. As someone already said they have to PCS you no matter what for jets, so where you go has less to do with cost and more to do with manning at that location.

@Pepe, go back and read my post. I didn't say shit about jets. And I don't know how a PCS move regardless (Kingsville/Merridian) correlates to them not having to pay a dime to move you. As I said I got the word directly from the horses mouth... So no Ensign rumor mill here... Besides I'm a JG.

@porw0004 That was how it was for the class right after me in primary. They did not allow those guys to put down a preferrence between P-3's and E-6's. They just had to put down Maritime. I don't know if that has changed back again, but at least that was the way it was right after I went through.
 

zippy

Freedom!
pilot
Contributor
I think you guys are giving all the monitors/manpower bubbas WAY too much credit. You're all basically implying that they know what they're doing and are trying to save money through a logical thought process. :)

They speak the truth... you should try sitting through a Monitor/Detail brief where they address things like PCS and career progression and community needs etc. They are painful, but you do learn a lot about all the tools they have available to use to ignore your wants and match your future up with their needs.
 

Ducky

Formerly SNA2007
pilot
Contributor
Well, you could try putting the following three choices:

1. Tailhook
2. Tailhook
3. Tailhook

It worked for a buddy of mine. When he was confronted about it he said,"I joined to fly jets and If I can't I'll let the Navy decide."

As for me it was:

Tailhook
Helos
P-3
 

VulcanRider

New Member
pilot
When I selected, I put Helos, tailhook meridian, p-3s. The stucon clerk would let us ask for the tailhook location but we couldn't put down more than one. Otherwise people would put do exactly like what Ducky said.

1. tailhook
2. tailhook
3. whatever, it's my third choice, not like I wanted it anyways.

Oh, and I've heard of the same PCS rumor. Though the only examples I heard of were guys who were on the fence with grades anyways. If you have rockstar grades, don't think that they are not going to give you your first choice if it's available because they didn't want to send you to Whiting from Corpus.
 

MIDNJAC

is clara ship
pilot
When I selected, I put Helos, tailhook meridian, p-3s. The stucon clerk would let us ask for the tailhook location but we couldn't put down more than one. Otherwise people would put do exactly like what Ducky said.

Same for mine. I put T1, Helos, E-6. That said, I would have been excited to go to either of the other choices had Merids not worked out.

I think the biggest crapshoot I have seen so far was platform selection out of advanced. Only one guy in my group got his #1, with many getting #4 and #5 choices. I lucked out and got a really awesome deal, but there were lots of confused faces that day to be sure.
 

SynixMan

HKG Based Artificial Excrement Pilot
pilot
Contributor
Yeah. Straight from CNATRA. Without going in to too much detail when I selected I asked why I didn't get P-3's when the two guys I knew from Corpus that week got much lower grades than I. I was told straight up, that it was because they were running out of PCS funds and didn't have the money to be PCS'ing guys at the end of the fiscal year. The key word in what I said was "sometimes" as in its really a crap shoot and you really have no control over how well the timing will work out for you. As far as the jet thing if you're really worrying about whether your going to get Merridian or Kingsville then you need to kick yourself in the fucking nuts. If you want jets and have the timing and luck to select them, then just be happy you got them and forget where they're sending you. As someone already said they have to PCS you no matter what for jets, so where you go has less to do with cost and more to do with manning at that location.

Roger that. Just wanted to make sure. Sometimes big decisions get distilled too much by the ENS crowd. And I wasn't saying shit about selecting jets, just anecdotal things I've heard about where they send people. Back to the IFS books...
 

porw0004

standard-issue stud v2.0
pilot
I think the biggest crapshoot I have seen so far was platform selection out of advanced. Only one guy in my group got his #1, with many getting #4 and #5 choices.

#4 or #5 choices out of Advanced?? How many things are there to pick from? I had though it was just Oceana or Lemoore at that point, until I found out Miramar is also an option. Are you also picking C's, D's(?), E's, F's, or G's at that point?
 

SynixMan

HKG Based Artificial Excrement Pilot
pilot
Contributor
#4 or #5 choices out of Advanced?? How many things are there to pick from? I had though it was just Oceana or Lemoore at that point, until I found out Miramar is also an option. Are you also picking C's, D's(?), E's, F's, or G's at that point?

I'd think: EA-6B, Electric Rhino, Rhinos East, Rhinos West, Hornets East/West/Miramar. That's 7, no?
 

OUSOONER

Crusty Shellback
pilot
I guess from the early 90's and before ...people were getting like their 11th-12th choice? Ah, I was born in the wrong generation.
 
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