papacarter
College Student
Disclaimer: I’m writing this because I know there are many people here who are looking for honest feedback of what Primary is really like. I remember scrolling through Reddit and Airwarriors a few years ago, trying to find any personal experiences on flight school. I hope this post finds you well.
I first came to Corpus Christi in June, classed up in November, and finally finished in July. I’ll be honest, I hated almost every bit of Primary. The unpredictable flight schedule (not to mention the weather), certain sim instructors/IPs, and the constant stress of being able to regurgitate information at will that needs to be verbatim/memorized, made it very unenjoyable and stressful. All of this is certainly understandable given the nature of the job, but preparing for briefs, getting grilled in the plane, and occasionally getting chewed out for making mistakes, wears down on you and makes you perpetually question whether or not you want to be there (especially in the Contacts Stage). Unexpectedly, the fear of failure was my main motivator that drove me through Primary, rather than the enjoyment of flying itself. I’ve wanted to be in military aviation my whole life. Yet, the constant suck I endured everyday during Primary is certainly not what I pictured when submitting my OCS package two years ago.
Living by myself certainly did not help. Although there were a few friends from NIFE and OCS that came over to Corpus at around the same time as me, it still felt like I was moving to a new city alone. There were many times where I would feel lonely and go days and days without seeing anybody, for reasons like not getting scheduled, COVID, or having that constant, sinking feeling that I should be studying something.
My FAM block was one of the worst experiences of flying I’ve ever had. My onwing was notorious for being a huge dick (and a yeller) in the plane, and he certainly lived up to his reputation. The combination of my onwing constantly grilling me, being passively airsick in the FAM block, and not expecting the fast pace, T-6 flying for the first time made me seriously question whether or not flying in the military was for me. However, it did get better. I got desensitized to my Onwing’s cancer as fuck attitude and just got better at flying. For me, going offwing for the first time was an odd experience, especially when hearing my first offwing IP’s soothing, reassuring voice over the ICS, which is something that came as a shock to me at first. Although I had to eventually go back to my onwing for four more flights after going offwing (really six for weather), I quickly understood that the experiences I’ve had with my onwing is not the norm of Primary and that all IPs are different regarding their expectations, behavior, and tolerance, and this understanding gave me more perseverance and confidence to power through Primary. I took the situation for what it was and used it to better myself. He made it so that flying with any other IP would not be as bad and actually prepared me to be more ahead of the plane in terms of radios, altitude/heading/airspeed corrections, etc. Despite all the yellings and the day-to-day depression I endured during Contacts, I actually ended up warming up to my Onwing and he became more of a mentor after my initial checkride.
PAs were fun and too short (4 flights and a checkride). Have fun with the IP you are assigned with and go to places with good food. Remember for your Aero Checkride, they are more concerned with how safe you are in the landing pattern rather than how well you do your aero maneuvers. With that said, be ready for some out-of-the-blue contact UA recoveries.
Instruments. I hated it when I started, and then ended up loving it halfway through. Couple days into ground school, you will naturally feel lost. However, after memorizing the procedures and applying them into the RIOT trainer that you can download from home, you will feel pretty confident going into the sims. With the exception of the discuss items, the Instruments stage was the easiest part of primary for me.
Formations. I finished forms in 5 days. My forms partner and I were scrambling/borderline-panicking to learn the Forms brief last minute and to chairfly the profile. Don’t be like us. Use the “days off” in instruments or in aero to learn the brief as soon as you can. 90% of the discussion items in forms are covered in the Forms brief, so learning the brief makes your life so much easier and allows you to focus your studies on other things. Our admin (comms, signals, etc.) didn't get cleaned up until the last day it mattered and our grades suffered for it.
If I have to give one advice in preparation for enduring Primary, it’s living with people, preferably with someone who is at or near the same stage of training you are in. Not only does it help to quiz each other on things and keep each other accountable, but it helps with your mental/social health as well as being able to occasionally decompress and confide in each other. I had two roommates back in NIFE (one stayed in Milton, the other attrited), and although NIFE was only about 8-9 weeks long, it was definitely more or less stressful at times, and it was nice to occasionally hang out and crack open a cold one with the boys. Primary already sucks, you don’t need to make it worse by going through it alone.
As far as advice for the actual syllabus of Primary, like most people who went through, I highly recommend knowing your EPs and Limits, cold. When I was in waiting pool, I only studied the EPs and Limits quiz thinking that it was enough. Little did I know that I was expected to know all the cleanup checklist items following the critical action items as well as ALL the Notes, Warnings, and Cautions verbatim, ALL of Section VI of NATOPS, and Post-Ejection procedures as well as Life Raft and Rescue Operations. Some of the NWCs may not make sense when first trying to memorize, but the understanding of this information will come as you progress through the early stages of Primary. I also suggest practicing your Hollywood Checklist over and over again, until you can run through the whole thing with no pauses or issues. You can go in the sim bay and practice the checklist in the static trainer, but really all you need is a cockpit poster that you can buy ahead of time from Office Depot to practice in front of. I was able to practice this all by myself, no problem. Don’t feel like you need to practice this with someone, but it helps to fill in the gaps of knowledge you may be missing. Additionally, I recommend memorizing your NATOPS brief at a minimum of a week before FAM 0. Not only does the brief need to be memorized verbatim, the IPs expect the brief to be fast. The last thing an IP wants to hear is you pausing occasionally to remember what to say in your NATOPS brief. Memorizing the brief requires absolutely no skill, and it sets the event off in a good tone if said fast and accurately, as well as a very strong understanding of the discussion items associated with the event.
Grades. If you want jet grades, you need to prof advance (at least in my squadron). My Onwing never prof advanced anyone, so I was hesitant to ask any of the IPs during Contacts. I slightly regret this decision, especially when I saw my final computed NSS at the end of Primary and going down the whole should’ve would’ve could’ve mindgame route. But at the end of the day, you get what you get on selection day and there’s nothing you can do besides embracing your newly assigned platform. I’m convinced that the platform I got would ultimately be more healthy and better for me in the long route. There really is no wrong answer for selection.
Lastly, take care of yourself. That is really what this post amounts to. Take care of yourself not only physically, but mentally. It’s easy to convince yourself that you don’t have time to workout when you have all this information that you need to study/memorize/chairfly. I gained about 15 pounds during the first half of Primary and was constantly ordering food. Halfway through Primary, I was able to stop my bad habits and go out of my way to eat more healthily and exercise regularly. This lifestyle change, while it may seem normal/habitual for most people in military aviation, improved my daily mood significantly and ultimately affected my performance in the cockpit. Take time on the weekends to enjoy your hobbies. Get out once in a while and do some things, whether it's going to the beach, golfing with friends, or taking a walk around the block. Although Corpus is probably the least attractive city I’ve been to, you can still make memories here and get the most out of what may be the most stressful time in your military career.
I first came to Corpus Christi in June, classed up in November, and finally finished in July. I’ll be honest, I hated almost every bit of Primary. The unpredictable flight schedule (not to mention the weather), certain sim instructors/IPs, and the constant stress of being able to regurgitate information at will that needs to be verbatim/memorized, made it very unenjoyable and stressful. All of this is certainly understandable given the nature of the job, but preparing for briefs, getting grilled in the plane, and occasionally getting chewed out for making mistakes, wears down on you and makes you perpetually question whether or not you want to be there (especially in the Contacts Stage). Unexpectedly, the fear of failure was my main motivator that drove me through Primary, rather than the enjoyment of flying itself. I’ve wanted to be in military aviation my whole life. Yet, the constant suck I endured everyday during Primary is certainly not what I pictured when submitting my OCS package two years ago.
Living by myself certainly did not help. Although there were a few friends from NIFE and OCS that came over to Corpus at around the same time as me, it still felt like I was moving to a new city alone. There were many times where I would feel lonely and go days and days without seeing anybody, for reasons like not getting scheduled, COVID, or having that constant, sinking feeling that I should be studying something.
My FAM block was one of the worst experiences of flying I’ve ever had. My onwing was notorious for being a huge dick (and a yeller) in the plane, and he certainly lived up to his reputation. The combination of my onwing constantly grilling me, being passively airsick in the FAM block, and not expecting the fast pace, T-6 flying for the first time made me seriously question whether or not flying in the military was for me. However, it did get better. I got desensitized to my Onwing’s cancer as fuck attitude and just got better at flying. For me, going offwing for the first time was an odd experience, especially when hearing my first offwing IP’s soothing, reassuring voice over the ICS, which is something that came as a shock to me at first. Although I had to eventually go back to my onwing for four more flights after going offwing (really six for weather), I quickly understood that the experiences I’ve had with my onwing is not the norm of Primary and that all IPs are different regarding their expectations, behavior, and tolerance, and this understanding gave me more perseverance and confidence to power through Primary. I took the situation for what it was and used it to better myself. He made it so that flying with any other IP would not be as bad and actually prepared me to be more ahead of the plane in terms of radios, altitude/heading/airspeed corrections, etc. Despite all the yellings and the day-to-day depression I endured during Contacts, I actually ended up warming up to my Onwing and he became more of a mentor after my initial checkride.
PAs were fun and too short (4 flights and a checkride). Have fun with the IP you are assigned with and go to places with good food. Remember for your Aero Checkride, they are more concerned with how safe you are in the landing pattern rather than how well you do your aero maneuvers. With that said, be ready for some out-of-the-blue contact UA recoveries.
Instruments. I hated it when I started, and then ended up loving it halfway through. Couple days into ground school, you will naturally feel lost. However, after memorizing the procedures and applying them into the RIOT trainer that you can download from home, you will feel pretty confident going into the sims. With the exception of the discuss items, the Instruments stage was the easiest part of primary for me.
Formations. I finished forms in 5 days. My forms partner and I were scrambling/borderline-panicking to learn the Forms brief last minute and to chairfly the profile. Don’t be like us. Use the “days off” in instruments or in aero to learn the brief as soon as you can. 90% of the discussion items in forms are covered in the Forms brief, so learning the brief makes your life so much easier and allows you to focus your studies on other things. Our admin (comms, signals, etc.) didn't get cleaned up until the last day it mattered and our grades suffered for it.
If I have to give one advice in preparation for enduring Primary, it’s living with people, preferably with someone who is at or near the same stage of training you are in. Not only does it help to quiz each other on things and keep each other accountable, but it helps with your mental/social health as well as being able to occasionally decompress and confide in each other. I had two roommates back in NIFE (one stayed in Milton, the other attrited), and although NIFE was only about 8-9 weeks long, it was definitely more or less stressful at times, and it was nice to occasionally hang out and crack open a cold one with the boys. Primary already sucks, you don’t need to make it worse by going through it alone.
As far as advice for the actual syllabus of Primary, like most people who went through, I highly recommend knowing your EPs and Limits, cold. When I was in waiting pool, I only studied the EPs and Limits quiz thinking that it was enough. Little did I know that I was expected to know all the cleanup checklist items following the critical action items as well as ALL the Notes, Warnings, and Cautions verbatim, ALL of Section VI of NATOPS, and Post-Ejection procedures as well as Life Raft and Rescue Operations. Some of the NWCs may not make sense when first trying to memorize, but the understanding of this information will come as you progress through the early stages of Primary. I also suggest practicing your Hollywood Checklist over and over again, until you can run through the whole thing with no pauses or issues. You can go in the sim bay and practice the checklist in the static trainer, but really all you need is a cockpit poster that you can buy ahead of time from Office Depot to practice in front of. I was able to practice this all by myself, no problem. Don’t feel like you need to practice this with someone, but it helps to fill in the gaps of knowledge you may be missing. Additionally, I recommend memorizing your NATOPS brief at a minimum of a week before FAM 0. Not only does the brief need to be memorized verbatim, the IPs expect the brief to be fast. The last thing an IP wants to hear is you pausing occasionally to remember what to say in your NATOPS brief. Memorizing the brief requires absolutely no skill, and it sets the event off in a good tone if said fast and accurately, as well as a very strong understanding of the discussion items associated with the event.
Grades. If you want jet grades, you need to prof advance (at least in my squadron). My Onwing never prof advanced anyone, so I was hesitant to ask any of the IPs during Contacts. I slightly regret this decision, especially when I saw my final computed NSS at the end of Primary and going down the whole should’ve would’ve could’ve mindgame route. But at the end of the day, you get what you get on selection day and there’s nothing you can do besides embracing your newly assigned platform. I’m convinced that the platform I got would ultimately be more healthy and better for me in the long route. There really is no wrong answer for selection.
Lastly, take care of yourself. That is really what this post amounts to. Take care of yourself not only physically, but mentally. It’s easy to convince yourself that you don’t have time to workout when you have all this information that you need to study/memorize/chairfly. I gained about 15 pounds during the first half of Primary and was constantly ordering food. Halfway through Primary, I was able to stop my bad habits and go out of my way to eat more healthily and exercise regularly. This lifestyle change, while it may seem normal/habitual for most people in military aviation, improved my daily mood significantly and ultimately affected my performance in the cockpit. Take time on the weekends to enjoy your hobbies. Get out once in a while and do some things, whether it's going to the beach, golfing with friends, or taking a walk around the block. Although Corpus is probably the least attractive city I’ve been to, you can still make memories here and get the most out of what may be the most stressful time in your military career.
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