I don't want to go too far out on a limb here because we are talking about a Navy program and I'm a USAF guy, but the AF has been doing IFS for about 9 years now, and was doing light aircraft flight screening for about 30 years before that. There is a well established purpose and track record for flight screening in the land of "lead wings", and I have to assume that it works the same for gold wingers.
The problem with your thinking is that you are ignoring the third word in the title -- screening. As much as you may not want to believe it, the purpose of IFS is to screen. It is not to actually TEACH you anything about flying.
They are screening first off for adaptation to flying. They are seeing if people have the basic ability to get in the airplane without being sick or scared. There are some people who get assigned to flight school who have never flown, but have this great Top Gun inspired idea that they want to fly. There are some of these guys who get airborne and realize that they simply don't like it.
Second, they are screening for a future SNA's ability to learn at a particular pace. Their ability to learn and adapt to a new concept both academically and in flight in a specifc time period. Why? The syllabus at Primary has been designed to get the best learning in the least amount of time and money. Adherence to the syllabus is a given when you're actually flying to earn your wings, and you won't be given extra time outside of that syllabus. The same thing goes for IFS, and is one of its most important purposes.
The 'teaching someone to fly' portion, which you probably see as the main mission of IFS, is really just a mechanism to see if students are able to pass purposes 1 and 2 stated ablove.
That is an oft misunderstood aspect of military flight training. I used to teach Fighter Fundamentals for the USAF in T-38s. When students would wash out of the program, they would often tell their buddies that they washed out for "bad BFM" or something like that. What they were missing was that the goal of that program was NOT to teach BFM, but to teach fighter wingman admin responsibilities: being in formation, not over-flying bingo fuel, not hitting your flight lead, etc. Teaching BFM was simply a mechanism with which to test a student's ability to learn and apply this whole wingman concept. Just the same, the purpose of IFS is NOT TO TEACH YOU TO FLY A GA AIRPLANE...it is to test your ability to adapt to the military way of training pilots (and statistically, for the USAF at least, it does an excellent job of it meaning far fewer washouts).
It seems to me that your real criticism is this: why is a civilian making a determination about my future career.
Well, even though they are civilian CFIs, they are operating within a syllabus and using grading standards given to them by the Navy. As such, it doesn't matter if they have a commission hanging on their wall at home or not -- they are executing a plan developed by the Navy and applying standards proscribed by the Navy. Get used to it -- it's not the last time in your career you'll be working with civilians.
The problem with your thinking is that you are ignoring the third word in the title -- screening. As much as you may not want to believe it, the purpose of IFS is to screen. It is not to actually TEACH you anything about flying.
They are screening first off for adaptation to flying. They are seeing if people have the basic ability to get in the airplane without being sick or scared. There are some people who get assigned to flight school who have never flown, but have this great Top Gun inspired idea that they want to fly. There are some of these guys who get airborne and realize that they simply don't like it.
Second, they are screening for a future SNA's ability to learn at a particular pace. Their ability to learn and adapt to a new concept both academically and in flight in a specifc time period. Why? The syllabus at Primary has been designed to get the best learning in the least amount of time and money. Adherence to the syllabus is a given when you're actually flying to earn your wings, and you won't be given extra time outside of that syllabus. The same thing goes for IFS, and is one of its most important purposes.
The 'teaching someone to fly' portion, which you probably see as the main mission of IFS, is really just a mechanism to see if students are able to pass purposes 1 and 2 stated ablove.
That is an oft misunderstood aspect of military flight training. I used to teach Fighter Fundamentals for the USAF in T-38s. When students would wash out of the program, they would often tell their buddies that they washed out for "bad BFM" or something like that. What they were missing was that the goal of that program was NOT to teach BFM, but to teach fighter wingman admin responsibilities: being in formation, not over-flying bingo fuel, not hitting your flight lead, etc. Teaching BFM was simply a mechanism with which to test a student's ability to learn and apply this whole wingman concept. Just the same, the purpose of IFS is NOT TO TEACH YOU TO FLY A GA AIRPLANE...it is to test your ability to adapt to the military way of training pilots (and statistically, for the USAF at least, it does an excellent job of it meaning far fewer washouts).
It seems to me that your real criticism is this: why is a civilian making a determination about my future career.
Well, even though they are civilian CFIs, they are operating within a syllabus and using grading standards given to them by the Navy. As such, it doesn't matter if they have a commission hanging on their wall at home or not -- they are executing a plan developed by the Navy and applying standards proscribed by the Navy. Get used to it -- it's not the last time in your career you'll be working with civilians.
