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Selected P-3 out of Advanced

Selected P-3 out of advance. Not too much concrete info from the instructors on how the transition to P-8s will work. Any chance I could make aircraft commander in P-3 in one deployment before I go to the P-8? Are there any pros of going P-3 before P-8s? Most of the gouge has been that I'm at a disadvantage to my peers getting who got P-8s since I'll be short on quals because of the transition and I won't have time to excel at my ground job. Regardless, I'm excited to sundown the P-3 and be part of the community. Thanks for any info.
 

zippy

Freedom!
pilot
Contributor
Should take you about 18 months to qualify PPC on the P-3... If you deploy before then probably not, unless you qual on deployment.

If you're a golden child the command will manipulate your timing to keep you competitive even with the transition so don't sweat that too much. If you're not, you may get short toured before you transition (depending on what your squadrons timeline is).

You'll always have an appreciation for your P-3 time and it may come in handy in the future outside of VP (I got my current job because of my P-3 experience... And there are several opportunities to fly them outside of the Navy...). Go embrace the prop and enjoy your time flying it.
 

xj220

Will fly for food.
pilot
Contributor
Flying P-3s is certainly an experience and with the P-8 transition, I hope the fleet health is somewhat better than when I was around. That being said, you get to do some cool things in the P-3 that you don't anywhere else. It still blows my mind how we'd just pull a power lever on take off for training, or you'd be standing in the flight station for touch and goes. Flying both aircraft is a great chance to see how far aviation has come in that amount of time.
 

CommodoreMid

Whateva! I do what I want!
None
Super Moderator
Contributor
As far as qualifying PPC in the P-3 before transition it's going to depend on which squadron you end up in. The legacy CPRW-10 squadrons are going to be the last to transition and if you're in the last one of those three if you're good/have good timing you could potentially make it as the last squadron will be transitioning in the 2019 time frame.

I was in the first squadron to transition and I qualified P-3 TACCO a couple months before we started, and I can say you aren't at a disadvantage if you start P-3s and then switch. Yes, it poses time management and qualification management oddities, especially if you don't get PPC/TC before transition starts and you have to finish your upgrading in the P-8, but lots of people have done it successfully and did well in the squadron and are on competitive shore tours.
 
BTW, welcome to the suck.
2BA2PLAND...

B- prop brake- no fluid
B- beta followup
A- autofeather
P- pitchlock- no fluid
P- pitchlock reset
L- low pitch stop- no fluid
A- 45 degree airstart
N- NTS
D- decouple- no fluid

Any thoughts on how it is going to work out since I'm going to Whibdey?
 

webmaster

The Grass is Greener!
pilot
Site Admin
Contributor
B- prop brake- no fluid
B- beta followup
A- autofeather
P- pitchlock- no fluid
P- pitchlock reset
L- low pitch stop- no fluid
A- 45 degree airstart
N- NTS
D- decouple- no fluid

Any thoughts on how it is going to work out since I'm going to Whibdey?
Beta follow up. Discuss.
 

Scruff

Registered User
None
Contributor
Transition will go:
-VP4 when they touch down in Whidbey (from HI) after the end of their deployment in about a month.
-VP47 who replaces VP4 on deployment then 6 months later lands in Whidbey.
-VP9 who replaces VP47. "..."
-Then the 3 Whidbey squadrons.

Do the PPC qualification time line math.

Unsure if they will try and mix in a couple straight stick Whidbey squadrons during the transition of the HI guys, but I don't see it happening. Somebody correct me if I'm wrong.
 
Transition will go:
-VP4 when they touch down in Whidbey (from HI) after the end of their deployment in about a month.
-VP47 who replaces VP4 on deployment then 6 months later lands in Whidbey.
-VP9 who replaces VP47. "..."
-Then the 3 Whidbey squadrons.

Do the PPC qualification time line math.

Unsure if they will try and mix in a couple straight stick Whidbey squadrons during the transition of the HI guys, but I don't see it happening. Somebody correct me if I'm wrong.
Thanks for the reply. So if I start the rag in October and check into a Whibdey squadron in June of next year with 36 month orders. What does that mean for me? I understand it takes 24 months to make aircraft commander.
 

zippy

Freedom!
pilot
Contributor
Thanks for the reply. So if I start the rag in October and check into a Whibdey squadron in June of next year with 36 month orders. What does that mean for me? I understand it takes 24 months to make aircraft commander.

No it should be much shorter... 24 months is the limit. If you take longer than 24 months to qualify, you can expect a FNAEB, or being asked to DOR from aviation in order to redesignate you to another community in leu of a FNAEB (since long green table proceedings bring negative light on squadron training etc. as they dig into why you couldn't get qualified with the resources available to you).

Unless of course you're med down for a long period of time (if you're close to the 24 month timeline the squadron will start counting up all your med down days to get you a day for day extension for every day you were down)...

Shoot for 16-18 months to board... You can board late but it should be an above average board. If your board isn't complete around the 20 month mark you're starting to fall pretty far behind and should expect and be okay with guys skipping ahead of you to complete the syllabus. Once you have the board done OPS will make sure you get the hours and events to complete the sllyabus asap so they can move on to the next upgrader.

Without a better idea of which squadron and their transition timeline: Sounds like you'll have a year to a year and a half in the P-3 before you transition or you'll have about 2-2.5 years and rotate early before you transition.
 

webmaster

The Grass is Greener!
pilot
Site Admin
Contributor
....be okay with guys skipping ahead of you to complete the syllabus. Once you have the board done OPS will make sure you get the hours and events to complete the sllyabus asap so they can move on to the next upgrader....
Not really. I've heard this before, so it doesn't surprise me, yeah there is an expected order that the Training Officer is tracking upgraders but you aren't going to hold back a guy or gal on the fast track because someone is taking too long to prep for the board. Yeah maybe some delays due to assets. But it's not that difficult to put a board together. Might be painful for a few of the qualled bubbas that have to sit a lot of the boards in a short time frame. Anyways, don't let the dude or duddette who's dragging their feet and on the 20-24 month plan slow you down.
 

Uncle Fester

Robot Pimp
None
Super Moderator
Contributor
...or being asked to DOR from aviation in order to redesignate you to another community in leu of a FNAEB (since long green table proceedings bring negative light on squadron training etc. as they dig into why you couldn't get qualified with the resources available to you)...

Seriously? If you're going to FNAEB a kid for not getting his quals, the only reason should be he just wasn't ready, not that he wasn't given opprtunities and training. "Turn in your wings so the squadron doesn't look bad" seems a bit fucked up. VAW had this issue when one squadron wasn't deploying for years due to the CAG-Boat imbalance; they fostered out their JOs to squadrons on deployment so they could get sign-offs and hours.
 

squorch2

he will die without safety brief
pilot
"Turn in your wings so the squadron doesn't look bad" seems a bit fucked up.
I saw a bit of this in the fleet, including a failed 2P check that evolved into "volunteering" for an IA (with an FRS refresher on the back end).
 
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