Ha!
But seriously ADS B In is a beautiful thing, real (enough) time traffic, wx, METAR, TAF, etc.
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IFS affecting future learning
- Thread starter BenFrm
- Start date
But seriously ADS B In is a beautiful thing, real (enough) time traffic, wx, METAR, TAF, etc.
No doubt. And I know someone who did their IFS at Eglin’s Aero Club a long time ago. In any case, the locations than can handle the throughout of students the Navy has will generally be the FBOs and not the clubs. Additionally, anything other than an airworthy engine and wings will suffice for this screening program. No creature comforts or Garmins necessary. IFS is not flight training. It is screening.
I just finished IFS at Skywarrior, and all of my flights were in Cessna 172s, all of which were probably 20+ years old. All had carburetors and steam gauges. Some flight schools use Pipers from what I hear though. All but two of the instructors at Skywarrior were young guys trying to build up hours for the Airlines.
Everybody does IFS, including SNFOs, Marine & CG SNAs, and Foreign Nationals (mostly Saudi it seems like). The USN/USMC program is between 13-15 hours and the Coast Guard program is around 25 hours. The CG requires their SNAs to do night flying and cross country's in IFS.
I don't really think they make the flight school decision with any regard to putting you near where you live. All Marines go to Lightning in Foley, and all Coast Guard goes to Skywarrior at PNS. Navy students are assigned any and everywhere, and many are not assigned to the closest airport.
With respect to IFS as a screening program, I know one DOR and two that are having significant airsickness issues that may lead to redesignation since they are no longer prescribing meds to IFS students. So attrition does happen.
I think the quality of instruction is probably similar at most schools, but there are big differences in scheduling. Some places will get students through flight phase in two weeks if the weather cooperates, whereas at others you'd be lucky to fly once every 2-3 days and it takes you a month to solo.
I've seen it weed it out some of my peers who definitely did not have the aptitude to fly. They stopped it for a couple years after I completed it, but brought it back since they were having more attrition later in the program. Paying $150 per hour for 14 hours and figuring out someone sucks in the plane or doesn't study is cheaper than someone in the T-6, or by the time they make it to advanced and fail out.
So, I remember the days when the USAF used the T-41 for screening, and had heard about the problems associated with the move to another aircraft. So I did a little reteach and learned a lot. As I remember, in the late 90's the USAF had switched to the T-3A Slingsby, a UK product, purchasing over 100 of them. Otherwise a fine plane, they put a 260 HP Lycoming in it so it would perform at the AFA. That created problems and the aircraft experienced many engine failures. In Short order there were 3 fatal crashes with the loss of both cadet and military instructor. The T-3 was grounded. The program went into a state of flux. As a stopgap while they figured out what to do about the T-3 they contracted with a number of civilian schools. This was the finding in the USAF report I just read. "Civilian flight schools lacked the rigor and discipline required to complete military flight training."
During this time the program morphed from screen to training and cadets had 50 hours to get a Private ticket. That turned out to be too much as most folks take 60-70 hours. If you didn't solo in 25 hours you got the boot. And most guys were doing that. But you had to get your private ticket within 50 hours and that was causing attrites.
There were a few options considered. Today they have a single site and single contractor. That is a major change since the USAF always owned and operated their screening program. But the T-3A program failure caused extensive review that resulted in assigning a contract. They no longer reach for the Private check ride. It is a 25 hour solo program. They fly nice new Diamond DA-20s out of Pueblo, CO. Contract civilian instructors teach to a USAF syllabus with all check rides given by military pilots to insure a quality program of instruction.
USAF is running about 8% attrites in UPT with this program. It was over 17% with a T-41 screen.
During this time the program morphed from screen to training and cadets had 50 hours to get a Private ticket. That turned out to be too much as most folks take 60-70 hours. If you didn't solo in 25 hours you got the boot. And most guys were doing that. But you had to get your private ticket within 50 hours and that was causing attrites.
There were a few options considered. Today they have a single site and single contractor. That is a major change since the USAF always owned and operated their screening program. But the T-3A program failure caused extensive review that resulted in assigning a contract. They no longer reach for the Private check ride. It is a 25 hour solo program. They fly nice new Diamond DA-20s out of Pueblo, CO. Contract civilian instructors teach to a USAF syllabus with all check rides given by military pilots to insure a quality program of instruction.
USAF is running about 8% attrites in UPT with this program. It was over 17% with a T-41 screen.
Have I been approaching IFS too aggressively if I go through the modules, take notes on them, and then study the notes later? This seems like it's taking more time than it should and I want to study smarter not harder. Especially if we just go over the same concepts later I'd rather memorize this stuff the Navy way because that's what counts.
Except for the RPA program, where they get 40-50 hours. They have everything they need for a PPL except the night time.
Austin-Powers
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I crashed, what the hell man?!
Austin-Powers
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Austin-Powers
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Why do this in IFS when they could possibly learn it in Primary?
It's not like he had a lot of friends in the Air Force to begin with as CSAF but General McPeak lost some of the few he had when he said this about the three T-3 accidents;
McPeak, a former F-15 pilot, suggests the fact that all three dead T-3 instructor pilots flew bulky cargo planes before coming to the academy might have contributed to the accidents. "Maybe if you'd had three fighter pilots in there instead of three C-141 pilots, you wouldn't have had the same result."
CG has a community of under 1,000 pilots - and they have a significantly lower tolerance for flight school attrites - when CG does send a young ENS / JG to flight school, its desired to have near certainty the candidate will succeed - the extended IFS helps accomplish this.