I begin Primary in two weeks. What should I be studying for a good head start? EPs out of the NATOPS MANUAL?
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Prepping for Primary
- Thread starter SpankenStein
- Start date
NATOPS is always a good option. Read the FTI too.
Here are some productive things you can work on every day:
1. EPs: These will become important starting yesterday. Learn them well and always review them. I go through my deck on my phone between sets at the gym.
2. Lims: This won't be too important until you're a couple blocks in, but it wouldn't hurt to make flashcards and have them ready.
3. Course rules: The sooner you understand course rules, the better. If you are at NAS Whiting, I made a somewhat interactive Google Maps guide to course rules. Whether you are at Corpus or Whiting, learn the course rules and fly them in Google Earth from the proper eye altitude. Being able to see the checkpoints as you'll see them from the plane will help you immensely. On that note, you may want to look up the YouTube user "IJTRL" and watch those T-6B training videos.
4. Checklists: Right now, you've probably got the "Hollywood Script" (if you don't have it yet, you'll get it soon or you can find it in the gouge Dropbox). When I was rolling through the intro sims, you were allowed to use the "Blue Brains" (smaller Hollywood script) for your first two or three sims. Aim to use it for none of your sims. Learn the script and practice it in the static cockpit trainer so that you can move through your checklist with the quadfold. While it might impress your sim instructors, it will more importantly prepare you for expeditiously moving through the quadfold checklist once you get to the plane.
Make sure you've got all your gouge together for ground school. It'll help tons with the exams. You can PM me for a Dropbox link if you don't have it already. I've also built Anki decks for Lims and EPs, so if you want those decks, I can send you the file. Anki is an amazing spaced-repetition flashcard program that will sync between your Apple/Android smartphone and your desktop version.
Also awwww yiss Banjo-Kazooie.
Get a buddy and get in the sim and fly. It will help all the above stuff make more sense, it's a Hell of a lot more fun than looking at flash cards, and you'll learn how to trim the aircraft.
Get in there and practice slowing down and speeding up without climbing or descending, put the gear down and back up while staying level, practice climbing and descending to different altitudes while maintaining a constant airspeed.
Did I mention to trim?
After all that, practice starting the plane, takeoff, and land. Over and over.
You should probably trim the aircraft while you practice.
After you've done all the above, the EPs will make more sense and you will be light years ahead of your peers.
Because...most of your peers won't know how to trim the plane.
Get in there and practice slowing down and speeding up without climbing or descending, put the gear down and back up while staying level, practice climbing and descending to different altitudes while maintaining a constant airspeed.
Did I mention to trim?
After all that, practice starting the plane, takeoff, and land. Over and over.
You should probably trim the aircraft while you practice.
After you've done all the above, the EPs will make more sense and you will be light years ahead of your peers.
Because...most of your peers won't know how to trim the plane.
Oh, you know it!
Striving to be the almighty king of trim is most honorable...and makes life much more enjoyable!
For the record, I was NOT the almighty king of trim...but [now] wish I had worked harder at becoming the almighty king of trim during primary.
"Trim? We don't need no stinking trim!"...is NOT a good motto to fly by.
Wish I had gone through flight school with guys like you! That's a pretty sweet tool. Nice job.
Thanks for the advice Everybody. And I'll have to check out this whole "Trim" thing.
In all seriousness dude, definitely get into the gouge and NATOPS (ch 4&12 specifically). That being said, ground school will hopefully teach you a lot and get you worked into it. Good on you for asking, but don't stress it too much.
Caveat all with this with the fact that I'm a T-34 dinosaur and the maybe the T-6 shit is all computer based trash, but that's 2 cents from a certified primary slacker/blind squirrel who finally found the nut.
Caveat all with this with the fact that I'm a T-34 dinosaur and the maybe the T-6 shit is all computer based trash, but that's 2 cents from a certified primary slacker/blind squirrel who finally found the nut.
In addition to the specifics AllYourBass listed above, I recommend the following.
You can find all your pubs here: www.cnatra.navy.mil/publications.htm Find the student syllabus book. There is a block diagram toward the front which graphically depicts the event flow so you can always tell what is a prerequisite to what. Find your first sim and flight events and then look that block up in the book. For each block, there is a table that lists the maneuvers and required grade for each manuever (MIF). Then go the FTI (ch. 5 & 6 I think) and memorize all procedures from that block in the syllabus. Boil them down into something you can quickly and accurately perform, not a total verbatim thing. If you want a high NSS, you have to score above MIF as much as possible. MIF is almost always a 4 in later blocks of a stage, so the only time you have a margin to break out is in early flights in the stage. So, getting high primary grades is all about doing better earlier. Two studs may end the stage with roughly similar grades, but the one who got 4's back when MIF was 2 will have the monster NSS.
What does all this tell you? That the system is messed up, and gamesmanship is the way to win? No. It means that the separation is in the preparation. The stud who studies his briefing items and maneuvers like he studied for his history exams in college will flounder and possibly pass while the stud who gets all the gouge he can by studying with friends and looking online; reads through for familiarity; then memorizes, memorizes, memorizes; then visualizes and chairflies; then meticulously pares down his cockpit setup so that every detail including the length of the lanyard for your pen, the type of pen you use, and the way your chart is folded is tested and perfect...that guy will still feel like an idiot sometimes, but far less often and will pick it up MUCH more quickly. And you somehow have to relax, incorporate heavy criticism, and not take yourself too seriously while you relentlessly pursue perfection in the cockpit.
You can find all your pubs here: www.cnatra.navy.mil/publications.htm Find the student syllabus book. There is a block diagram toward the front which graphically depicts the event flow so you can always tell what is a prerequisite to what. Find your first sim and flight events and then look that block up in the book. For each block, there is a table that lists the maneuvers and required grade for each manuever (MIF). Then go the FTI (ch. 5 & 6 I think) and memorize all procedures from that block in the syllabus. Boil them down into something you can quickly and accurately perform, not a total verbatim thing. If you want a high NSS, you have to score above MIF as much as possible. MIF is almost always a 4 in later blocks of a stage, so the only time you have a margin to break out is in early flights in the stage. So, getting high primary grades is all about doing better earlier. Two studs may end the stage with roughly similar grades, but the one who got 4's back when MIF was 2 will have the monster NSS.
What does all this tell you? That the system is messed up, and gamesmanship is the way to win? No. It means that the separation is in the preparation. The stud who studies his briefing items and maneuvers like he studied for his history exams in college will flounder and possibly pass while the stud who gets all the gouge he can by studying with friends and looking online; reads through for familiarity; then memorizes, memorizes, memorizes; then visualizes and chairflies; then meticulously pares down his cockpit setup so that every detail including the length of the lanyard for your pen, the type of pen you use, and the way your chart is folded is tested and perfect...that guy will still feel like an idiot sometimes, but far less often and will pick it up MUCH more quickly. And you somehow have to relax, incorporate heavy criticism, and not take yourself too seriously while you relentlessly pursue perfection in the cockpit.
Also, a lot of the free money in terms of getting above MIF is in the instrument sims. Do tons of profsits and chairflying so you can get the airwork and procedures down, prep well for the brief, and you should be seeing plenty of 4's and 5's.
Say what?
4's and 5's?
I thought it was AA (above average), A (average) and BA (below average) regarding the grading criteria for each graded item on the hop.
So there's a "new" grading system?
Got it!
Per chance, did the USAF have a hand in this "better" system?
Just wondering!