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Corpus or Whiting? And current primary length

Dr. J

API
I’m coming up on API and (apparently) due to a balancing-the-numbers game, they’re currently trying to get people to whiting. I wound up getting whiting but someone is willing to swap with me. Can anyone who’s gone through tell me the pros and cons of each?

Also can anybody going through or just finishing primary tell me what I’m looking at as far as time from check in to check out with regard to both stations?
 

Maxillarious

Registered User
pilot
I've been out of the game for a bit, but:

1. If you already know that you want helos, consider Whiting so you can just stay in the area when it's time for Advanced if that is indeed what you end up selecting.

2. After living in Corpus for a total of 5 years, I'm personally not a fan of the town in general, but everyone seems to have their own preference. Some people love it, some people hate it. I've heard people say the same about Whiting.

3. Course rules are a bit more simplified in Corpus than they are for Whiting, but in the overall scheme of things I don't think that really matters much.

My best advice to you for your career and for the rest of your life in general: bloom where you are planted.
 

Meyerkord

Well-Known Member
pilot
I’m coming up on API and (apparently) due to a balancing-the-numbers game, they’re currently trying to get people to whiting. I wound up getting whiting but someone is willing to swap with me. Can anyone who’s gone through tell me the pros and cons of each?

Also can anybody going through or just finishing primary tell me what I’m looking at as far as time from check in to check out with regard to both stations?
Obligatory "don't try to time it because you're gonna be wrong anyways" because it's true. It changes literally all the time and there's no point in trying to sniff out the faster track. There's a reason this meme exists, and it was only created a few months ago:

22289

Same goes with total time to train. Primary is a shit show of predictability. Bad weather, maintenance issues, DETs, they all have an affect on your total time. When Corpus did their DET to Roswell earlier this year, they (at least VT-27) pumped through a ton of people. Some finished primary in ~24 weeks when it's been taking others over 40.

As for pros and cons, personally, I like Corpus better than I liked Pensacola. Pensacola has better beaches and a better night life, but Corpus IMO is the better city with better infrastructure and more things to do, including outdoor activities. Especially if you live on the island. Everyone has a different opinion, but you'll learn to love wherever you end up.

@Dontcallmegump, how's it looking on the Whiting side?
 

Hopeful Hoya

Well-Known Member
pilot
Contributor
As someone who was dead set on going to Corpus and got switched to Whiting the week before I started API, I was initially pissed but ended up having an awesome time in Pensacola. And most people I talk to that went through Corpus feel the same about living there. Either way you’ll look back on your time in either extremely fondly if you’re “lucky” enough to end up in Meridian, or god forbid Kingsville :D
 

Dontcallmegump

Well-Known Member
pilot
Apon checking in at TW-5 (in mid April) we were told by the student control officer a likely minimum of 18 weeks to start ground school and that the pool of students waiting for primary would grow by 200 during the summer becoming some 400 between all services.

In fact we've gotten so big that the whole of the pools (students waiting for primary and advanced) have been formed into a platoon and squad system to make it possible to organize anything. Now the only time we gather as a whole pool is for the weekly safety brief on Friday's. Typically the wing Deputy Commodore, a Marine Colonel, comes in and does the typical safety thing in addition to trying his best to keep us informed. Last week he explained that the ever slower pace of primary was due to an inability to reliably obtain just one part for the T-6 and that it had become such a problem they the SECNAV and SECAF held a meeting with the companies in the supply chain to figure it out. One of these days I may wonder into maintenance control and see if I can find out more just for kicks.

At the same time it seems that Marine students are getting a larger share of seats. The usual suspects including weather and others keep the pace low too.

Today is actually 2 months since I checked in and its laughable that I'll start before August, Maybe September. However life in the pool is what you make it, the watches are spread so thin that they're barely an annoyance, MWF musters with Wednesday being "PT" and TTH are phone musters. The only time we see any staff is on friday.

The new system allows for leave during the first two months of waiting then only if it's really important during the second two months to keep people around for watches and ready to class up if need be. Up to three weeks of leave at a time is being approved pretty easily, assuming you have that much to spend and a few days in reserve for delays/emergencies.

Even when anyone gets started if there isn't a seat in the next phase of training, sims/groundschool/any portion of flying, you just hold until a spot opens up and do refresher sims/flights once a week. Meaning groundschool isn't a greenlight for smooth sailing.

@Meyerkord that's what I've seen and heard so far...
 

Jim123

DD-214 in hand and I'm gonna party like it's 1998
pilot
Here's some reverse psychology for being in the student pools during these student production slowdowns:

Go out and do something epic to get yourself in the news, in a bad way, and kicked out of the flight program. When the student pool is on phone muster for most of the work week and physical muster for only a few specific days, be the next "that guy" who gets the good deal ruined for everybody!
 

Treetop Flyer

Well-Known Member
pilot
Here's some reverse psychology for being in the student pools during these student production slowdowns:

Go out and do something epic to get yourself in the news, in a bad way, and kicked out of the flight program. When the student pool is on phone muster for most of the work week and physical muster for only a few specific days, be the next "that guy" who gets the good deal ruined for everybody!
 

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Meyerkord

Well-Known Member
pilot
Apon checking in at TW-5 (in mid April) we were told by the student control officer a likely minimum of 18 weeks to start ground school and that the pool of students waiting for primary would grow by 200 during the summer becoming some 400 between all services.

In fact we've gotten so big that the whole of the pools (students waiting for primary and advanced) have been formed into a platoon and squad system to make it possible to organize anything. Now the only time we gather as a whole pool is for the weekly safety brief on Friday's. Typically the wing Deputy Commodore, a Marine Colonel, comes in and does the typical safety thing in addition to trying his best to keep us informed. Last week he explained that the ever slower pace of primary was due to an inability to reliably obtain just one part for the T-6 and that it had become such a problem they the SECNAV and SECAF held a meeting with the companies in the supply chain to figure it out. One of these days I may wonder into maintenance control and see if I can find out more just for kicks.

At the same time it seems that Marine students are getting a larger share of seats. The usual suspects including weather and others keep the pace low too.

Today is actually 2 months since I checked in and its laughable that I'll start before August, Maybe September. However life in the pool is what you make it, the watches are spread so thin that they're barely an annoyance, MWF musters with Wednesday being "PT" and TTH are phone musters. The only time we see any staff is on friday.

The new system allows for leave during the first two months of waiting then only if it's really important during the second two months to keep people around for watches and ready to class up if need be. Up to three weeks of leave at a time is being approved pretty easily, assuming you have that much to spend and a few days in reserve for delays/emergencies.

Even when anyone gets started if there isn't a seat in the next phase of training, sims/groundschool/any portion of flying, you just hold until a spot opens up and do refresher sims/flights once a week. Meaning groundschool isn't a greenlight for smooth sailing.

@Meyerkord that's what I've seen and heard so far...
Sweet Jesus, that’s insane. I checked in 2 months ago, waited 2 weeks for ground school, pooled for another 3 weeks, and I’m starting sims this week. Our pool when we first got here was MAYBE 20 students, and the pool between ground and sims is less than that.

Hopefully everything speeds up soon, otherwise enjoy the pool life ?
 

BigJeffray

Sans Remorse
pilot
I wasn't a big fan of the city of Corpus Christi, but I had a blast going through Primary. Split up a nice house on the island and get after it. If I could do it over again I'd still pick Corpus.
 

RandomGoat1248

Well-Known Member
Sweet Jesus, that’s insane. I checked in 2 months ago, waited 2 weeks for ground school, pooled for another 3 weeks, and I’m starting sims this week. Our pool when we first got here was MAYBE 20 students, and the pool between ground and sims is less than that.

Hopefully everything speeds up soon, otherwise enjoy the pool life ?

Word is to not expect the current aircraft availability issues to get any better before next spring, so Whiting is going to be this way for a while.
 
I wouldn't say Corpus had all that much outdoors stuff going on. First, it's hot. Really hot and humid. It's hot in FL too, but it didn't seem as bad. It's also the Texas gulf coast, so you get some red tide and fish die off every once in a while. Mercury run off from all the industry, so you can't eat the fish. Let's just say the beach in Corpus isn't anything near Pensacola. There's not really much public land there to go camping or anything. Everything in Texas is privately owned, at least anything near Corpus. I like outdoors type stuff, and I struggled to find activities. I remember trying to camp near the reservoir (the only body of water near by that wasn't the ocean), and it was pretty miserable.
 

Birdbrain

Well-Known Member
pilot
When I checked into API all the staff said Corpus was backed up so mostly everyone was getting pushed to Whiting. When I checked into Whiting, all the staff said Whiting is backed up and we'll be waiting for Primary for about 3 months. Once you check into your squadron and start ground school it's steady but once you finish sims and class up to flights you will play roulette for a plane and/or good weather.

Living in Milton is so-so. It has some good restaurants and shops but the main attraction is NASWF.

If you want two pieces of advice, take some time off and relax and then hit the checklists and EPs/Ops Limits so you won't have to study them as much during ground school. If you want to, you can browse through systems too but ground school gives you enough time to do that.

My other piece of advice is don't get complacent and miss a muster while you're in the pool. You'll feel (rightly) like a jackass.
 

Dontcallmegump

Well-Known Member
pilot
Sweet Jesus, that’s insane. I checked in 2 months ago, waited 2 weeks for ground school, pooled for another 3 weeks, and I’m starting sims this week. Our pool when we first got here was MAYBE 20 students, and the pool between ground and sims is less than that.

Hopefully everything speeds up soon, otherwise enjoy the pool life ?

It ain't too bad, I've just accepted that between every training the waits between will be triple the trainings time. I'll actually get into the studying shortly I guess...
 
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