Jet selection?

[Dave Shutter]

Matt...

Just got back from Fighter Country: NAS Oceana and the Blue Angel show. I met a VF-101 RAG Stud' and we talked about training. He said that in addition to all the demands of getting through to jets that there was a grade requirement in advanced to get tactical (pointy nosed) jets ie: 14's & 18's. He said that yes, most stud's will get Hornets, but that getting below a certain grade automatically means EA-6b's and S-3's (S-3 pilot LCDR. McGarvey says no one is getting Vikings anymore) Do you know anything about this?

Also, he reinforced that CQ performance is a huge determining factor in final selection, that doing too good in CQ's will land you at VF-101, and that despite rumors, that the big Cats, especially B's and D's, will be around until the end of this decade.

On the E/F issue: he said that only two advanced students got sent to VFA-122 this year that he knows of, and that the only people who will get to fly the SuperHornet for some time will be Tomcat Squadron pilots who transition with their units as the Superbug will be taking over their role. No word on when E's will replace regular 18's.

He said it's a great time to get in becaue of the shortages, if you get the scores, you can get almost whatever you want.

Just what I've heard...

D

 

[Jeff]

Dave,

I too was at Oceana last weekend and spent some time talking to studs from VF101. The studs I spoke with said that basically in order to land an S-3 right now you must have pretty poor grades through training and have a very low CQ. In the year that they were in Kingsville they only saw 4 guys go S-3. The guys who go Prowlers are the occasional poor grades with high CQs.

They said it is pretty easy to get what you want right now. They also told me that it is pretty easy to get jets out of Primary also. Granted you still have to bust your ass, but for the most part if you can get the minimal grades for jets your pretty much set because they are having a tough time getting guys who even want jets. Can you shed any light on that Matt.

Same info on the cats. I asked when they would have to retrain for Hornets and they said by they would have to train for hornets it would be to late for them. Which brings me to the question how long does the Navy expect a pilot to be flying. These guys are saying in 10 years they will not be able to retrain. I know several pilots at Oceana that have been flying for 12 or so years and they have never mentioned that they were nearing the end of thier flying careers.

 

[OracleMSU]

Okay, so is that to say that if you are toward the end of your flight career, you can do nothing else in the Navy, or you cannot retrain on other aircraft.

Just want to clarify, because it would seem odd that you could not progress in the Navy after flying for so long. What if you wanted to do something else after that time? Like become a SWO or what have you....

-----OracleMSU--------