most useful flight training prior to entry

[batteryguy4]

Hey I'm planning on doing some ground school and about 10 - 15 hours of civilian flight training before I head off to OCS in a few months. Anyone have suggestions on what topics or skills I should focus on? The point of this is just "contact" with the subjects and skills--I have no illusions about becoming a skilled pilot with such little time invested. What's hard? What has a steeper learning curve in primary? Any input other than "save your money to punish your liver" is useful (not that this is terrible advice, but I'm going ahead with this regardless). Thanks.

 

[mid1510]

This question has been asked before..most of the winged guys would tell you to not do ground school or civilian flight training. It will not do any good and you will just waste your money. They will also say to focus on the first task - OCS. Use your money to get in the best shape of your life prior to arrival.

 

[KBayDog]

Or you could, you know, like, save your money for when you're all like, "old" and stuff.

 

[squorch2]

Waste of perfectly good beer money.

 

[jollygreen07]

Waste of perfectly good beer money.

This is what you'll get out of most of the guys with wings on this site. Take it or leave it. What do we know..

 

[Uncle Fester]

What they said. 10-15 hours isn't enough to give you any 'skills", and you'll get that in IFS on the gummint dime anyway. Save your money.

 

[helolumpy]

You could save the money and put it towards a bitchin' Ensign-mobile....

 

[wlawr005]

Flying, at the early stages, is about repetition. If you get 10-15 hours now and then spend at least 2-3 months before you class up IFS, you won't remember anything and you'll lose all your muscle memory. Hell, if you go more than 14 days without flying in Primary, they give you a mando warmup flight before they give you any graded events.

Save your money, not because you should spend it on beer, but because it REALLY isn't going to help you out much. The only guys that I see having a distinct advantage in Primary are the guys who are already instrument rated and you are a long way from that.

 

[jtmedli]

Unless you can get 100+ hours in various aircraft and environments, then prior flight training wont help much. Save your money and just go read some good aviation/study guide books if you want to know more about it.

 

[81montedriver]

The only reason I'm answering this is just to have one more winged guy tell you it's not worth the money. Not only will 10-15 hours be a waste of money, the ground school and any knowledge you picked up during that time be totally lost by the time you get to any kind of Navy flight training. It may seem cool at the time and seem like a good idea, but let this be a lesson to you not only in flight training, but in listening to those who have been there before you.

Civilian flying differs greatly in military flying. Even if you are a prodegy genius and can remember everything ever taught to you, military flying is taught differently than civilian flying, and you will have to "unlearn" things taught to you on the civilian side.

But like previously said, what do I know, I only have wings and currently fly in the fleet...

 

[MIDNJAC]

Just to pile on, 10-15 hours would be a waste. I'd say that my previous civilian flying experience helped me in some ways during primary, but I also had a lot more than 10-15 hours of it.

 

[BusyBee604]

This is what you'll get out of most of the guys with wings on this site. Take it or leave it. What do we know..

Amen to that...do you have to hear it from every AW Naval Aviator on this site? I was winged 53 years ago, & I have heard of more instances where previous GA flight time was more of a detriment to the SNA than an advantage (either way, very minor). The most often cited reason: cleansing learned GA habits/procedures & re-learning "the NAVY way"! Most Navy Basic Instructors I have discussed this with actually preferred SNAs starting with a "clean slate".

Save your $$$ and focus on physical prep for OCS.
BzB

 

[Python]

Prior experience does help in primary....but not 10-15 hours. Usually its noticeable with only the commercial-certificated, instrument-rated guys.

 

[NavAir42]

Find a hobby that doesn't involved flying until you go to OCS. For the same price you could probably set up a pretty decent home brewing system and drink yourself silly. Then when you get to primary and do have the odd couple hours to get a batch of beer done you can use it to bribe both your classmates and instructors.

 

[phrogpilot73]

He probably wants jets and thinks that ground school + 10-15 hours (what the government is going to pay for) is going to get him his leg up in jets. We all realize that it's wasted money, better spent on drinking and chasing skirt... But what do we know? He's going to do it whether we think he should or not...

For the OP - If you waste your money and do ground school/10-15 hours, you're going to do what the CFI has you do. What's going to help you get jets? A shit-ton of instruments. I don't think many CFI's are going to be willing to skip the taxi/takeoff/landing/not sounding like an idiot on the radio phase and jump straight into instruments. Save your money, and let the government pick up the tab for IFS...

For the same price you could probably set up a kick ass home brewing system and drink yourself silly.

Fixed it for you. If I had money to waste on non-IFS IFS, I'd be working on nothing but this all day, every day...