Pensacola and flight training is constantly in flux, as a result, information is constantly changing.
Don’t ask me about timeframes because my time frame will look different than yours and mine is different than someone who checked in two months before me.
I’ll start by describing A-Pool (also known as Phase 1), the wait time between check in and the academic portion of NIFE (Phase 2). Then I’ll talk about Air Water Survival which is the swimming qualification you’ll complete shortly after arriving in Pcola.
A-Pool
____________________________________
Flight Management: The wait time between checking into Pensacola and NIFE, is principally run by Flight Management. Flight Management is your first step in your chain of command. They are predominantly other ensigns assisting with scheduling and admin.
Daily function: Everyone fills out of a google form in the morning. For the love of god, do not forget this. If you do not have a stash job or duty, you are mostly free to do as you please for the rest of the day.
PRT: NIFE PRT you’ll take soon after you get there. Please show up in half decent shape as the standard is lax and there are repercussions if you fail. Running this bad boy in the heat of summer isn’t fun, but its do-able.
There's two major groups of ENS in A-Pool. Those in duty sections and those with stash jobs.
Duty sections. You are automatically assigned a duty section upon check in. They meet up in person (muster) once a week then stand random watches. You won’t know where/ what/ when or why you’re standing a watch until about 2 days before. You can also get randomly picked for a work party which involves cleaning or another miscellaneous task. Pro is you do functionally nothing.
Stash jobs are a random job on base. You can work in admin, museum, legal, the pool, for an admiral ect.... There's a lot of variability between stash jobs. I know an Ensign who works 2 hours every other week and another who works a standard 40-hour job. Most are somewhere in the middle where you come in 2x or 3x times a week for a couple of hours. Pro is you typically know your hours and no standing watch.
How you are assigned a stash job also varies. You can ask, you can network and inquire to get specific ones, you can be in the right place at the right time or you can be voluntold to do one.
Air Water Survival
____________________________________
Water survival is a week-long course where they’ll teach and test the basics of surviving in the water with flight gear. Personally, I had a blasts as the instructors try to keep it fairly relaxed.
Remedial: Most people get pulled on Day 1 or volunteer to go to remedial hold swim. You’ll get extra pool time for a week as they teach you everything you need to know to pass the main course.
Day 1: Basic strokes along with modified breaststroke and side stroke.
Day 2-5: Meat and potatoes of water survival. You jump off the tower and need to swim a distance, tread and float in flight gear and learn other basic survival skills.
Day 6: Swim 1 mile under 80 minutes.
Overall, water survival is easy and nothing one should stress over. It is rare to have people pulled after the first day. If you’re going to get pulled, it will be on the tread and float with all the gear. Outside of that, the course is fun and basic.
Don’t ask me about timeframes because my time frame will look different than yours and mine is different than someone who checked in two months before me.
I’ll start by describing A-Pool (also known as Phase 1), the wait time between check in and the academic portion of NIFE (Phase 2). Then I’ll talk about Air Water Survival which is the swimming qualification you’ll complete shortly after arriving in Pcola.
A-Pool
____________________________________
Flight Management: The wait time between checking into Pensacola and NIFE, is principally run by Flight Management. Flight Management is your first step in your chain of command. They are predominantly other ensigns assisting with scheduling and admin.
Daily function: Everyone fills out of a google form in the morning. For the love of god, do not forget this. If you do not have a stash job or duty, you are mostly free to do as you please for the rest of the day.
PRT: NIFE PRT you’ll take soon after you get there. Please show up in half decent shape as the standard is lax and there are repercussions if you fail. Running this bad boy in the heat of summer isn’t fun, but its do-able.
There's two major groups of ENS in A-Pool. Those in duty sections and those with stash jobs.
Duty sections. You are automatically assigned a duty section upon check in. They meet up in person (muster) once a week then stand random watches. You won’t know where/ what/ when or why you’re standing a watch until about 2 days before. You can also get randomly picked for a work party which involves cleaning or another miscellaneous task. Pro is you do functionally nothing.
Stash jobs are a random job on base. You can work in admin, museum, legal, the pool, for an admiral ect.... There's a lot of variability between stash jobs. I know an Ensign who works 2 hours every other week and another who works a standard 40-hour job. Most are somewhere in the middle where you come in 2x or 3x times a week for a couple of hours. Pro is you typically know your hours and no standing watch.
How you are assigned a stash job also varies. You can ask, you can network and inquire to get specific ones, you can be in the right place at the right time or you can be voluntold to do one.
Air Water Survival
____________________________________
Water survival is a week-long course where they’ll teach and test the basics of surviving in the water with flight gear. Personally, I had a blasts as the instructors try to keep it fairly relaxed.
Remedial: Most people get pulled on Day 1 or volunteer to go to remedial hold swim. You’ll get extra pool time for a week as they teach you everything you need to know to pass the main course.
Day 1: Basic strokes along with modified breaststroke and side stroke.
Day 2-5: Meat and potatoes of water survival. You jump off the tower and need to swim a distance, tread and float in flight gear and learn other basic survival skills.
Day 6: Swim 1 mile under 80 minutes.
Overall, water survival is easy and nothing one should stress over. It is rare to have people pulled after the first day. If you’re going to get pulled, it will be on the tread and float with all the gear. Outside of that, the course is fun and basic.
