COPC--how to crush it?

[gradygibson]

I don't post here often, but I'm trying to exhaust all resources.

I was doing great in flight training all the way up until my FAM 0, never had a single failed event and always had great comments on flights in NIFE and sims in Primary. When I met my on-wing though, I wasn't as prepared as my partner and we got off on the wrong foot from there, it's felt like I've just been trying to dig myself out of the hole I started in for the past few weeks since then. I own not knowing as much as I should've early on when we started flying, but I've made big strides to improve and it still doesn't feel like enough.

Long story short, I got a ready room unsat when I was briefing FAM4102 a couple of weeks ago for the second time (got airsick the first time I did FAM4102 and had to redo it), and when I was up for an IPC, he wasn't confident enough in my knowledge to pass me on that either. I'm up for a COPC next week, and if I fail that, that's it for my career in naval aviation. I've been studying my ass off (and I'm going to get back to it as soon as I'm done typing this out), but the bar keeps getting higher with each progress check. It stops being a FAM4102 and starts being an assessment of you overall. I met with the instructor who'll be conducting my COPC, he said it's going to be on everything leading up to FAM4102 to include all the sims. That's a lot to prep for, which isn't necessarily impossible, but I'm afraid the depth of what they're looking for is going to be deeper than my understanding, even with all the preparation I'm doing. I'm trying to figure out how to impress the instructor this time around because this situation keeps snowballing on me and this will be my last shot. Getting an unsat, let alone a COPC, is incredibly rare in this block and everyone I tell my story to seems blown away that I even wound up in this situation. I'm not sure what I need to do differently to show that I give a shit and have good judgment as an aviator.

For what it's worth, both my on-wing and the person who conducted my IPC commented that I had a good attitude. Like I said, I'm not trying to deflect blame, I'm just feeling a little exasperated trying to unfuck myself right now.

All I really want is to knock this out of the park so I can get out from under the microscope and go back to being a normal student. I'm getting with other people as much as I can and am just trying to swallow my pride so I don't triple tap a FAM4100 block event and lose my shot at getting my wings. Any advice is appreciated.

 

[MIDREGS]

Know your briefing items well enough to teach them to a ground school class full of IUTs.

 

[mad dog]

@gradygibson…you sound like me 40 years ago in the T-34C.

I will offer this which may or may not be helpful…but it helped me…

ONE

DAY

AT

A

TIME

 

[croakerfish]

The main thing that the CO is going to be worried about is assessing your potential to be successful going forward.
Basically, you need to show that despite the scenario that led to the progress check, you have remediated yourself to a level that matches your point in the syllabus. With the information you have posted, it sounds like a knowledge issue. That will be the main focus of the COPC in that case. If you can get to the aircraft, then you are most likely good to go as long as you don’t let it go drastically off the rails.

 

[nbedore23]

It already seems like you got the extra studying part, my biggest piece of advice is compartmentalize. If you get a shot back in the Briefing Room/Cockpit you cant let your previous mistakes hold you back from doing good in the moment. I do realize this is easier said than done, best of luck at the CO-PC!

 

[kejo]

As a former HT CO I passed more students on their CO-PCs than failed them. Don’t read too far in to that statement. The usual x-factor that separated pass/fails, other than the obvious “were they able to correct the difficulty” that brought them to me was actually something I put more weight on: potential for success in the FRS and the fleet.

Every student has a bad day from time to time, so a good CO-PC instructor (CO or otherwise designated) should do a thorough jacket review looking for trends, attitude, ability to bounce back, etc etc. and consider those factors in the final decision. I never expected perfection on their CO-PC (just like any other flight) but if they made MIF, they made MIF. The students that I attrited out of CO-PCs, let’s just say…it was always obvious…and more often than not due to a clear lack of preparation, studying, and/or give-a-shit.

Edit for typo.

 

[MIDNJAC]

Every one of us struggled with something at some point in training, or later on in the fleet, or wherever else. Some of us, more than once, and some of us more than others. Some good reflection on your past study habits is smart, but don't let it overcome you. Don't approach any of this as "trying to impress" the IP. Just do what you need to do to know you shit, and that'll give you the confidence in the brief and in the flight to "impress" that person without artificially trying. And my second piece of advice, which is probably the most important. If you screw something up on the ride, you have to move on. You'll get debriefed on it, but we expect students to make mistakes. Your ability to compartmentalize, move on, and do other things right afterwards are what we are looking for. Do not let one mistake train wreck the whole event going forward. To Kejo's well written point above, I need to see improvement from whatever got you here, I need to see a good attitude, and I need to see you putting in the work. Which is to say, I need to see that you can bounce back from failure, and that you can make a mistake and recover. That is how we know you will succeed later on in the RAG and fleet. I don't need you to be chuck Yeager, or even more impossibly, perfect. Good luck brother, you'll do fine if you take this seriously and put in the work. If you do, you'll see that your IPs will give you everything they have to give to get you there.