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Flight School Attrition

thenuge

Cleverly disguised as a responsible adult
NOMI says:
Approximately 22% of pilots and 25% of flight officers attrite from aviation training each year, which have proven to be costly figures for the Navy and Marines because of the high costs associated with training each student
.

Why is this? I thought pilot would have a higher attrition rate.
 

Fezz CB

"Spanish"
None
Funny someone brought this up. I was just tasked yesterday to shred report interviews of NFOs that DOR, NPQ, or attrited between 1998-2001. Needless to say, it was quite depressing :( Very detailed criticism by the instructors. Is it possible to be so pressured to be perfect that one is compelled to quit? From some of the personal statements I read (oops :D), it appeared some felt they couldnt handle the pressure and felt they would be a hazard to the Navy. Heavy stuff.
 

usmcecho4

Registered User
pilot
Actual attrition as in being deemed unable to complete the program is extremely rare IMHO. Looking at our big board of completes, attrites, and DORs. It works out to around 2-4% attrition rate from primary. With DORs running around 8%

Semper Fi,
usmcecho4
 

pdx

HSM Pilot
NOMI says:
.

Why is this? I thought pilot would have a higher attrition rate.

Studs go around making up myths to make us feel better. I think one of the more popular gouge sites even says that "you should be proud after your solo because 90% never make it." This is pure exaggeration. Maybe 90% of the people who dream in college about flying Navy never make it. Once you are actually selected, however, it is in the Navy's best interests to see you complete. After API, there is a slow but steady attrition rate. My class in primary had an unusually high number of attrites (3 DOR + 2 actual attrites) out of 15.
 

MasterBates

Well-Known Member
I saw about 5-10% per phase, DOR/Attrite total.

API OCT-DEC 01
Primary Jan-May 02
Int- June 02
PropAdv (Ground school only) 1 DOR July 02
HeloAdv Sep02-Jan03. Closer to 10%

Helo advanced had the highest attrite rate, but I think that was because they were trying to push studs really fast to meet fleet demand numbers.

With a less frantic pace, that probably would have been closer to 5%.

These are not scientific numbers, just a "guesstimate" from what I saw.
 

TurnandBurn55

Drinking, flying, or looking busy!!
None
Remember that the Chair Force and Marines allow pilot attrites to go back as NFOs (potentially). I've seen a lot of those guys... and more than a few wash out (again).
 

A4sForever

BTDT OLD GUY
pilot
Contributor
Don't know about NFO's ... but back-in-the-day, with a hot, Mother-lovin' Navy Air war going on in SEA (that's not Seattle, BTW :)) , the Aviator jet side attrited/DOR'ed @ 50% from coming in the front door at Saufley Primary to the exit door of Wings of Gold in Kingsville or Beeville.

That's .... 50%. :)
 

BlkPny

Registered User
pilot
Don't know about NFO's ... but back-in-the-day, with a hot, Mother-lovin' Navy Air war going on in SEA (that's not Seattle, BTW :)) , the Aviator side attrited/DOR'ed @ 50% from coming in the front door at Saufley Primary to the exit door of Wings of Gold in Kingsville or Beeville.

That's .... 50%. :)

Yup. Our class was about 50% DNF, for whatever reason. And we started out with 65-75 in a class, only SNA's and NFO's, every week.
 

HAL Pilot

Well-Known Member
None
Contributor
NFO has almost always had a higher attrition rate than pilot (during my time in the Navy). I remember my winging ceremony. They were telling us how great we were for making it. They flashed up a sign board (no power point in those days....) that showed 50-55% of the SNAs that entered AI made it to wings while only about 35-40% of the SNFOs that entered AI made it to wings.

Throw on a maximum of a 40-45% commissioning rate from AOCS (meanwhile Neport's OCS had a 99% commissioning rate....) and it easy to see why those who made it knew they were better than SWOs.....:D
 

Pugs

Back from the range
None
class size

That class size is enormous.

My AOCS class at the end of the Reagan era started at about 60 and we graduated 38. And they were doing that every week or two weeks. Of course some of those just slid to the next class for some issue so not saying they all went home. We had 3 or 4 DOR. VT-10 basic started with about 30 and have no idea what happened to the prop guys who went off to Mather but they drafted 4 out of the 15 of us that went jets and every one of them was attrited befere we go out of T-2's. Combined with another class in VT-86 and made up a class of 12 and we all graduated. (Well, a couple of the "students" were Marine OV-10 AO's with a bunch of time in Broncos already so it was assumed they could do it)

Overall if you tried to work out a DOR/Attrite/Medical rate through all those phases it might well be upwards of 50%. Certainly by the time they pin your wings on your chest you've proven that you want to be there and you're trainable.

I've never found the stats in my casual searching but any ideas of how many Tac Air NFO's have been winged over time? I have to think we're the smallest group of aviation designations compared to NFO prop or any of the 1310/1315 community.
 
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