As I kinda promised, I'll give you a short summary of the RAG about until winging. I finished my third nav flight yesterday, which basically means unless I go full retard I'm basically winged at this point (according to my instructor as he debriefed me yesterday).
So here's a short summary of the things you do in the intermediate/nav phases.
Classes. You will have a bunch of seminars on the computer and how to utilize it. You'll also have a lot of lectures on all your comm equipment, to include data link, TTY, wideband SATCOM, narrowband SATCOM, the MINI DAMA, and CIP stuff. The comm lectures will initially blow your mind, don't really worry about it as a lot of the stuff will make more sense when you get on the plane and get to touch boxes and stuff. At this point I highly suggest learning Nav and Comm signal flows to the best of your ability. I still have trouble describing it, but the more you study it the easier your flights will be and the more you'll understand how to deal with troubleshooting on the plane. Study the lectures (most are on the MPRA University link on NKO so you don't even need to go into VP-30 to study) along with the NATOPS references and you'll be good. One word of caution: the tests now are more difficult now than they were with the LSI guys. Case in point: on one of my tests in the UMFO phase one of the LSI guys happen to walk behind me as I was clicking on an answer and basically told me I was retarded if I chose that. The Navy instructors won't do that for you. Now you're expected to have a lot more of that NATOPS details in your head.
Device sessions. You had a bunch in the UMFO phase but you probably didn't really get much from them and had no idea what they were talking about during the rack walk throughs. The ones during these phase are TONS more helpful. The last ones you go through the entire preflight routine which helps immensely for your flights. The only thing that will suck for you, as it did for me, is if for these sessions you are constantly with a foreign student and as such you use different crypto. The first time I saw US crypto was on my first flight and that definitely slowed me down, but if that happens to you, oh well, deal with it. During these sessions you will see the comms, play with the computer, and deal with EPs. They are the most useful events before your flights as they make everything you learned in the lectures come together.
Discussions. During these phases you'll have nav, comm, and EP discussions. Come to them knowing everything you possibly can on the objectives in the student guide and questions on the stuff you honestly can't figure out. These times are wonderful for learning little tidbits you didn't cover in lectures or device sessions. Especially in the EP one, if your instructor is willing, go out to the plane to practice drills; it will help you know where you need to be for you flights.
Sims. You have two before you fly: NST-1 and NST-3 (they got rid of 2, don't know why). The main difference between these is that 1 is in the trainer you did you NT sims and are using the UIII computer and with 3 you use the AIP computer. These, IMO, are a lot easier than the NTs in that the instructors aren't screwing with you every chance they get. On NST-1 the instructor basically sits with you while you do your computer preflight and will even hand-walk you through a fix, so don't worry about it. NST-3 is not really difficult either, but they test you on your SA as they actively try to run you into MSA and MESA. Don't run into mountains and you'll do fine.
Your flights. The first one is not bad. You have no critical items and it's pretty much a fam on how P-3 flights work. Your 2nd and 3rd ones you'll get more critical items and be expected to perform at higher levels though, so make sure you keep studying your systems and know your EP drills and station duties during FOUO and ditching cold. I highly suggest going out to the plane on your own and practicing the drills so you get faster. I did that, but even on my last flight I screwed up the bailout drill and as a result automatically got a fair grade. EPs are probably the easiest way to screw up or even fail a flight, so don't do it.
After you nav flights (well, once everyone in your class is done with their nav flights) you'll start the tac phase classes, but you can't really move on to the tac phase until the calendar says because you do that with an entire crew, not just yourself. You have a comprehensive test supposedly (I haven't gotten there yet), but once you finish the flights and have done the test, congrats, you're going to wing!
Now I just can't wait till April 23. I bought my wings already, just want to pin them on!
Although since the Navy gets its pound of flesh eventually, I fear that karma might be a bitch.
