I'm a civilian pilot, but look at my warfare pin <--------
What do you see? No, those aren't naval aviators wings.
What do you see? No, those aren't naval aviators wings.
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Prior Flighttime
- Thread starter Bighead
- Start date
I thought we had beat this to death ... but let's do it again. :icon_rast
In my opinion .... overall ... it doesn't make any difference. No difference at the end of the day --- when you get your Wings.
Guys who had beau coup hours got desks -- I remember one who got attrited -- and guys who had NO prior flight time got Fleet seats. It all depends on how well you adapt and do in the Navy system of flying .... save your civilian flight time money for other things.
In my opinion .... overall ... it doesn't make any difference. No difference at the end of the day --- when you get your Wings.
Guys who had beau coup hours got desks -- I remember one who got attrited -- and guys who had NO prior flight time got Fleet seats. It all depends on how well you adapt and do in the Navy system of flying .... save your civilian flight time money for other things.
This is kind of what I saidA4sForever said:
Bingo! Obviously, I didn't adapt too well.A4sForever said:
goplay234 said:
This is probably the most meaningful and true post in this thread.
As has been stated in many a thread before this one, 40 hours and a PPL isn't going to help you for long. But anyone who says several hundred hours isn't helpful WHILE doing what goplay is saying, is missing the boat.
In a sense, yes, if you didn't make MIF initially. Let's assume MIF for a maneuver is 4. The "average" of a 3, a 4, and a 4 is less than the average of a 4, a 4, and a 4. That's a simplified way to look at it, but it makes the point.
Hold on there Wind Triangle Guru. I don't most of us here are talking about the fellow who has several hundred hours with some instrument time. At least, I'm not anyway. I think we're talking about the average jack ass with some yoke time behind he belt.gatordev said:
Well, I guess I was expanding the discussion. Like I said, there's a bunch of other threads about this, and it usually breaks down into guys w/ a PPL and guys w/ several hundred hours or more. Either way, you need to adapt to the FTI. I can tell you that even fleet pilots have issues with this at first, it's just overcome pretty quickly.
gatordev said:
I didn't miss the BOAT ... got nearly 500 traps. But man, some of you guys are REALLY hard sells on this question ... you have your minds made up on the subject of prior flight time. Great, it's a big sky ... and you're entitled to your opinion.
GoPlay sez: "It all depends on how flexible you are..."
So what else is new?? But ... If you are:
1. "flexible" (i.e., capable of learning)
2. have basic motor skills
3. pay attention
4. have a good attitude
--- you will succeed in Naval Aviation --- whether you have 2000 hours of prior time or zero hours. The flight training syllabus is NOT designed for people who have prior flight time.
ANYTHING ... "MIGHT" ... be .... "helpful" ... a cup of coffee, a chocolate covered donut, or a good bowel movement prior to flight.
I had three guys in my Primary Flight @ Saufley who had over 500 hours --- one had over 2000 hours. The 2000 hour guy was even instructing HIS PRIMARY FLIGHT INSTRUCTOR IN ACROBATICS !!! HE WAS BETTER THAN HIS PLOW-BACK INSTRUCTOR IN ACRO ... !!! But at the end of Primary flight .... Two other fellows with NO prior flight time and I beat them and got jets. They didn't ...
At the beginning of jet training, I had NO PRIOR FLIGHT TIME IN INSTRUMENTS. And yet I "aced" BI and RI hop in every stage, all phases, every aircraft, every base.
I don't have any ax to grind here. I went through with hundreds of other STUDs ... I've instructed hundreds of STUDs ... prior flight time didn't affect the final outcome. Only #'s 1, 2, 3, and 4 (above) did ...
Good guys were good and generally got what they wanted ... the average guys were average .... and the plumbers were plumbers --- no matter how much prior time they may have had in their logbook. Prior time will NOT make you the Naval Aviator you want to be .... only #'s 1,2,3, and 4 (above) will ....
An instrument rating would help a lot in the RI stage. As far as everything else I would have to say that prior time isnt that big of a help. The radios are really easy, all the calls are in the course rules book. I dont know a lot of people who did PA's and forms on the civilian side. IFS prepares people well the techniques of landing a small airplane. I found the t-34 easier to land than a c-152. If I were to get useful prior flight time prior to primary I would do instrument stuff. Dont get an instrument rating just do a few VOR approaches and some holding(obviously not tacan). Knowing those concepts would help out a lot in RI's.
This helps too in addition to prior time:
1. Cross your fingers and toes for a good FAM onwing. (FAM grades can carry you through the program)
2. Tell them you have tons of prior flight time.
3. Tell them all you want to fly is jets. (proven theory)
4. And those 4 things A4's mentioned.
But seriously, I had no prior time (just IFS)(wish I had a little instrument time as mentioned by BLWHLE2) studied hard and did exactly what the FTI and instructors told me to do and I made it to Meridian.
1. Cross your fingers and toes for a good FAM onwing. (FAM grades can carry you through the program)
2. Tell them you have tons of prior flight time.
3. Tell them all you want to fly is jets. (proven theory)
4. And those 4 things A4's mentioned.
But seriously, I had no prior time (just IFS)(wish I had a little instrument time as mentioned by BLWHLE2) studied hard and did exactly what the FTI and instructors told me to do and I made it to Meridian.
midhusker
Discovering my inner nerd-ness
maybe I am confused, but how could prior flight time and/or ratings that cause you to VALIDATE part of the syllabus and ADD free points to your NSS not be a good thing? If I would have known about the validation (accelerated) program, I would have spent my year of TAD duty getting my instrument rating instead of coaching meathead football players. Sure would have lowered the "I wonder what I am going to select" stress level if my NSS was so high because my TGI was so low.
A4sForever said:I didn't miss the BOAT ... got nearly 500 traps. But man, some of you guys are REALLY hard sells on this question ... you have your minds made up on the subject of prior flight time. Great, it's a big sky ... and you're entitled to your opinion.
GoPlay sez: "It all depends on how flexible you are..."
So what else is new?? But ... If you are:
1. "flexible" (i.e., capable of learning)
2. have basic motor skills
3. pay attention
4. have a good attitude
--- you will succeed in Naval Aviation --- whether you have 2000 hours of prior time or zero hours. The flight training syllabus is NOT designed for people who have prior flight time.
ANYTHING ... "MIGHT" ... be .... "helpful" ... a cup of coffee, a chocolate covered donut, or a good bowel movement prior to flight.
I had three guys in my Primary Flight @ Saufley who had over 500 hours --- one had over 2000 hours. The 2000 hour guy was even instructing HIS PRIMARY FLIGHT INSTRUCTOR IN ACROBATICS !!! HE WAS BETTER THAN HIS PLOW-BACK INSTRUCTOR IN ACRO ... !!! But at the end of Primary flight .... Two other fellows with NO prior flight time and I beat them and got jets. They didn't ...
At the beginning of jet training, I had NO PRIOR FLIGHT TIME IN INSTRUMENTS. And yet I "aced" BI and RI hop in every stage, all phases, every aircraft, every base.
I don't have any ax to grind here. I went through with hundreds of other STUDs ... I've instructed hundreds of STUDs ... prior flight time didn't affect the final outcome. Only #'s 1, 2, 3, and 4 (above) did ...
Good guys were good and generally got what they wanted ... the average guys were average .... and the plumbers were plumbers --- no matter how much prior time they may have had in their logbook. Prior time will NOT make you the Naval Aviator you want to be .... only #'s 1,2,3, and 4 (above) will ....
Either people have it or they don't. If a guy with 2000 hours doesn't have it, he won't make make it regardless. If a guy has what it takes and has 2000 hours, it's going to help, especially in the beginning......period. Flight school is not that difficult and anyone with an inkling of flying ability is going to make it through. Things like CQ, BFM, TAC forms, etc are things that will probably equal out everyone since it's stuff that normally isn't available in the civilian world.
bunk22 said:
True. And I was basically talking about Primary, and not all of the pipeline.
@A4s: I think we're in agreement that ability has a major role. But in a previous post, you were echoing what goplay was saying, as you did in your last post, and that's that you still have to be flexible (a cornerstone of Naval Aviation, in general). I just picked GoPlay's post as it was the most....succinct.
Just because you have a rating doesn't mean you can fly the aircraft well initially. You may have the concepts down, but making the plane do what you want is a major part as well. So if you're skipping ahead, you don't get as much time to adapt to the aircraft, which may not give you as high as grades by the end of training than you would have had. Flying a cessna at 90 knots on an approach is night and day from flying an aircraft that never seems to want to be trimmed at 150 knots. I really wouldn't look at it as a missed opportunity.