Fate, destiny and the needs of the Navy.

[Dave Shutter]

We all know of the fated day for any Navy pilot when his or her NSS is stacked up to every other Primary student graduating that week, and of what immediately follows...

I'm wondering how one gets selected, or gets to select, the aircraft they will finaly fly in the fleet after advanced jets??? If one goes to helos' carrier props, maritime or E-6, their anxiety or uncertainty about what they'll fly is basically over, but I'm wondering about the jet/strike students? Besides "needs of the Navy" (of course) what factors decide whether you become a Prowler, Viking or a strike fighter pilot???

D

 

[Phoenix]

I don´t know, but I think those prone to suicide get the fighters .

DEATH FROM ABOVE!

 

[Jeff]

This works the same as it does in Primary. Based on your grades and were you stand in your class. You fill out a card of your top 3 and then going down the line, they place you into the available aircraft. However, I have been informed by some current f-18 pilots that it is not uncommon for the student with the top landing scores to be sent to the Prowlers due to their more complex avionic systems.

 

[Phoenix]

Wait a minute! Does this mean, that I can get the best scores available and still not get my desired jet, the F/A-18?

DEATH FROM ABOVE!

 

[Dave Shutter]

You can have the highest scores in the history of military aviation and not get what you want, or perhaps not even close for that matter.

The magic words: needs of the Navy!

D

 

[ASUPilot]

I have been told by an Instructor Pilot firend from NAS Pensacola that the USN needs fixed-wing pilots VERY, VERY badly. I've read some other posts here that suggest that many people are getting helo slots recently after Primary. Is there any more current information available? I'm in the 5 August OCS class; I have a pilot slot. Thanks in advance.

Hayden

 

[webmaster]

Hayden,

This is really a cycilical thing, that the Navy it trying to iron out. You can't figure out what slots are going to be available to you at your time of selection. Even when I selected, all I had to go on was the previous couple of weeks worth of selections to get an idea of what was going on. And yes, right now, from what I have heard from friends in Primary, that everyone is getting mostly helos. But this as with everything changes. Here is one comment that I got from an instructor that seems to explain everything:

"The Navy has more Helos than everything else, so the majority of students are going to go there..."

Also, when the pipelines back up, then the slots dry up for those communities/platforms.
The one recourse left to you is to do well in API and Primary, and end up with the best possible NSS that you can, if you have the highest scores that week, then you don't have anything to worry about. Basically it boils down to a crap shoot on what is available, and what the "Needs of the Navy" are at the moment you select. [Note: that this is all from a student's perspective, and I don't know what all the manning numbers are...]

 

[Phoenix]

So, even if there are NO jet slots available, the student with the top NSS score will actually get a jet if he wishes to?.

DEATH FROM ABOVE!

 

[webmaster]

People who get 65+ NSS scores (remember 80 is max) usually end up getting what they want. There are SNAs who crush the program with high 70s, one guy I knew got a 79 and they made an E6 (TACAMO) slot for him, then again this guy had tons of civilian flight hours. If you do well, you are probably going to get what you want, and they never seem to have enough jet guys, but they don't always have the people qualified to go to them, ie NSS > 50. As always, do your best, and you probably won't be disappointed.

 

[Dave Shutter]

Would this NSS:79 gentleman be the distinquished Mr. Werner? It also seemed in his journal that he was getting "aboves" for just about everything.

D

 

[Phoenix]

Yeah, was that Dave? He made the training look really easy in his journal. But actually, the E-6 is a lot more rare than the F/A-18. So he DID get what he wanted, right?

DEATH FROM ABOVE!

 

[webmaster]

I honestly don't know what Dave's NSS was when he went through, I am talking about another person that smoked the program. Also, way back when, when Dave went through, they counted your simulator grades towards your total NSS, which is NOT the case nowadays.