Heading to Vance

[NavyLonghorn]

Alright, flightline wise, heres the deal:

The day is broken up into three four hour blocks. Your "showtime" is decided upon what time your earliest jet is. For instance, if your flight has an 8am jet (7am brief), then you will probably show up around 6am.

You will show up fifteen minutes prior to "formal breif" and prepare, and then you will have the breif, which is a giant pain in the ass. You will go over weather, do a daily time hack, and have a stand up EP where someone stands infront of the class and acts out an emergency. You may also have shotgun questions, or notes warning and cautions, depending on how far along you are.

At this point, the day can be broken up in any multitude of ways. You may have a jet period one, a sim period two, and an academic class period three. Or you may have a jet and nothing else. In which case you sit around and study for 8 hours.

Moral of the story? For atleast two months, your day will be completely controlled. During the 12 hour day their will be no PT, no lunch break (bring food), nothing but flight room, or scheduled event. The day could be totally occupied, or completely empty, but either way you are there.

Yeah, it sucks.

 

[jamnww]

Alright, flightline wise, heres the deal:

The day is broken up into three four hour blocks. Your "showtime" is decided upon what time your earliest jet is. For instance, if your flight has an 8am jet (7am brief), then you will probably show up around 6am.

You will show up fifteen minutes prior to "formal breif" and prepare, and then you will have the breif, which is a giant pain in the ass. You will go over weather, do a daily time hack, and have a stand up EP where someone stands infront of the class and acts out an emergency. You may also have shotgun questions, or notes warning and cautions, depending on how far along you are.

At this point, the day can be broken up in any multitude of ways. You may have a jet period one, a sim period two, and an academic class period three. Or you may have a jet and nothing else. In which case you sit around and study for 8 hours.

Moral of the story? For atleast two months, your day will be completely controlled. During the 12 hour day their will be no PT, no lunch break (bring food), nothing but flight room, or scheduled event. The day could be totally occupied, or completely empty, but either way you are there.

Yeah, it sucks.

D@mn sounds like fun...sorry to hear that though I am sure they have their reasons.

 

[FLY_USMC]

I concur with everything NavyVance said, but I also will give you the "opposite" view on it. You don't always show at 6am, just as often you will sleep in till 8 or so and show maybe 9 for a 0915 formal brief. As for the emergency procedures STANDUP as they like to call it, if you don't suck, it's only hard THE FIRST TIME....not that NavyVance sucked. If you suck, and consistantly act like a nevous pu$$y, they will call on you time, and time, and time again. It's called trial by fire. As for shotgun questions, on the T-37side of the house, EVERY POSSIBLE question is a folder that hey, guess what, the an Air Force student's brother's mother's ex-fiancee's sister gave to him, so he has them. Know what you need to know, once again, and extremely painless process, kind of like trivial pursuit, only with jets. For us T-6 guys, he, guess what, we don't even have to search for the question bank, it's issued to us. Weekly STAN tests. A 20 question test each week with questions concerning your phase of training. Guess what, we got the question bank for these as well. 20 minutes of study in the morning, and I haven't failed one yet. As for studying for 8 hours, I'm not sure what everyone else did, but some days I'd study a good bit, but the majority of it was spent bull****ting with my buds, going to the bowling alley and eating chow(ask and you shall receive), and reviewing stuff that I would've been doing at home anyways. 12 hours a day? Never did it, 10 maybe, 8 is average. An Air Force Flight Commander(Captain) is not a Marine Captain at TBS, they are approachable, open to help, and if you have a PLAN that allows your class to accomplish the tasks, and enjoy life a bit, they are all for it. Examples, last event of the day and your done, guess what, beer light is on, get one out of the fridge and go at it. This is my view on JSUPT.

 

[NavyLonghorn]

Almost every day for the first three months was 12 hours for me, and their is no way we woulda been allowed to go to the bowling alley.

Flight commander specific, sounds like you got off easy fly.

Beer light? Maybe firday. You got off /very/ easy.

 

[Gatordev]

During the 12 hour day their will be no PT, no lunch break (bring food), nothing but flight room, or scheduled event.

So how is this in keeping with the CNO's directives to PT at least three times a week during work hours? [/rhetorical]

 

[CUFocker]

Squadrons

One thing that NavyVance and USMC didn't mention however, is the different squadrons. Now I'm certain this changes over time with different commanders, etc, but right now, the 33rd (Dragons!) is the place to be to have a little more relaxed life. That's the gouge. There's the 8th (8-Balls), who apparently have a bit harder time because of the EP's they're required to do and not some of the other squadrons. If anyone from either squadron wants to elaborate, that's be greeeeat, mkay? Alls I know is that it's a good thing to be a Dragon right now (yay!).

Also, a little birdy just told me this morning that Navy and Marines are definitely out of the Tweet from now on. Tweet salute! *fingers in ears*

~Wm

 

[NavyLonghorn]

So how is this in keeping with the CNO's directives to PT at least three times a week during work hours? [/rhetorical]

From my flight commanders mouth: "I don't care what you gotta do, just log 30 minutes, log the ten minute walk to the sim building if you have to"

 

[NavyLonghorn]

One thing that NavyVance and USMC didn't mention however, is the different squadrons. Now I'm certain this changes over time with different commanders, etc, but right now, the 33rd (Dragons!) is the place to be to have a little more relaxed life. That's the gouge. There's the 8th (8-Balls), who apparently have a bit harder time because of the EP's they're required to do and not some of the other squadrons. If anyone from either squadron wants to elaborate, that's be greeeeat, mkay? Alls I know is that it's a good thing to be a Dragon right now (yay!).

Also, a little birdy just told me this morning that Navy and Marines are definitely out of the Tweet from now on. Tweet salute! *fingers in ears*

~Wm

Its flight commanders that decide the enviroment, not squadrons. Therefore, squadron gouge is kinda bunk. Squadron cultures are alot more pertinent back in the Navy commands, where you are exposed to so many more instructors.

 

[Gatordev]

From my flight commanders mouth: "I don't care what you gotta do, just log 30 minutes, log the ten minute walk to the sim building if you have to"

Not that you nor I nor anyone else can do anything about it, but that's unsat.

 

[NavyLonghorn]

Not that you nor I nor anyone else can do anything about it, but that's unsat.

I found a way to PT, it was do-able. It became alot easier three months in when they finally let us go to the gym during the day.

 

[EastCat]

Okay more on the money side of things... Is dislocation allowance an option or does that come into play only after your first PCS move?

Right now the main things they said you get reimbursed for are your TDY orders to Pcola and then your drive to Enid... all handled supposedly when you check in at Vance.

Anyone out there been SOL because they signed a lease before they got to Vance? Right now Vance housing won't give a straight answer whether or not the BOQ is full so I'm considering just signing a lease before I get there next week. I know they say you won't get BAH if the BOQ is not full but has this ever happened to someone you know?

 

[BOMBSonHAWKEYES]

you WANT to be in the 33rd.

 

[reapergm]

Why? Whats so good about the 33rd?

 

[JayManC]

reguarding the whole PT thing: you JSUPT guys got it easy, im at the 562nd for Heavy NFO training (PanelNav) and we are required to be at a formal PT session at 7am at least 3 times a week, and in addition we do a formal 3 mile run every friday. They keep quoting AETC 11-202 something or other (vol 3?) stating that all undergraduate students in aviation communities are req'd to PT 3x/wk. and they see to it that you follow the regiment. I think they had a few too many PT failures and someone dropped the ball. but it reminds me of high school PE, sans team sports.

 

[larbear]

About the environment, it seriously depends on the flight commander. We have one flight in the 8th that has the students (i.e. the whole flight) wear blues/khakis and/or come in on weekends when they suck at stan. There are both extremes at Vance. My flight was completely the opposite--totally relaxed. It's just the luck of the draw.