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Vt-31
- Thread starter KTBQ
- Start date
NavyLonghorn
Registered User
Go to book issue, and get the little green book that has it all lined out.
I'm not being mean, honestly its the best source of info out there for what the syllabus is.
Expect a winging date when you class up. Expect to finish sooner then that, but not later.
Heres a brief summary of the VT-31 program... I might have forgot something, anyone who notices- feel free to add onto it.
Checkin on a friday, get your winging date thats 5 and a half months down the road- maybe you wanted to be a P3 guy, maybe not but at least it shouldn't take too long... realize your are the minority as a Navy guy in the squadron. break for lunch and go to ground school- 3 weeks long. Multi Engine Aero, Weather, Flight rules and INav stuff. Listen to the Air Force kids comment on how stupid Navy training is... ask them how they like the beachs and girls in Enid, laughlin and Columbus. Marvel at how they have been studying NATOPS and doing profsits since the week after they got here. Fear you are behind, but get told not to worry by your buds, that the Air Force kids are tools who haven't deprogramed yet. Last week of ground school have friends run you through the static bird and profsits... Cringe at the thought of how long the checklists take you. Listen intently as your friends tell you flying with anyone who has a last name beginning with a K is bad, and that if you go to an FPC here you have no hope of passing it... wonder what you got yourself into and vow to keep as much of a low profile as possible.
The day after ground school ends start CPTs. 6 of those- first one get told how you're never going to get them done in 30 minutes by the crusty sim guy who doesn't shutup and let you do it... Laugh at the Air Force kids who are more clueless then you, even though they've been studying the whole time. As the CPTs progress, magically your time to run through the checklists decreases and by the end, it only takes you 25 mins... realize the sim guy just stopped talking as much. Get your fam partner and onwing assignment the last week of CPTs.
Fam 0.. meet your onwing, $.02 tour of the squadron, see the plane etc.
FAMS (12 of those- 7 or 8 with your onwing)... early FAMS= early brief times... sometimes 0445 early.
Learn the plane, and how to fly it, get told how much your checklist speed makes the IPs want to kill themselves... do turn patterns, slow flight, approach to stalls, single engine flying, dynamic engine cuts at altitude, and a buch of ditching, some SSE flying. Listen to the IP talk about how sporty the T-44 is... you think the short bus is a flying couch and miss being able to see things when you look outside of the plane (the visibility sucks).
A lot of work in the pattern- mostly dual engine early on... throw in flap malfunctions and different engine loss scenarios the closer you get to your checkride. Realize that flying with sunglasses and a headset is pretty damn cool... so is bringing your lunch with you and kicking your legs up in the back seat while the other stud is flying. Also realize that your buds weren't kidding when they said it was easy to get airsick in the back seat in early fams... be glad you brought your heavy duty ziplock freezer bag. Realize early on that you aren't going to do much better then MIF throughout program and that there are two extremes of training- You either fly all the time, or barely at all. No matter what extreme you are on, you are going to wish for the other one...
EP sim- get random eps thrown at you to prep you for your solo.
C4390- A lot easier then your C4206... congrats you passed... take 3 laps around the cabinass pattern with another student on your "solo" and then off to BIs.
BIs 7 sims long- learn the instrument scan... insturment patterns, partial panel stuff etc. Wonder WTF is the point of all the stupid patterns they have you do, then back to the plane. Whats this HSI thing again???? Remember how much you hated the sim guys in primary, and are impressed that even the jerks are nice to you here.
Night flights- 3 flights of doing laps around the pattern- cringe every time the Italian you are flying with exceeds 30AOB to the left with the left engine SSE... pray they don't kick in the wrong rudder after the powerup the next pass.
Cue 6 RI sims... WTF is an NDB?? and how does this No heading stuff work? Listen to the AF kids talk about how the RMI is the devils tool and talk about how much easier ILSs are then PARs. Wonder what an ILS is...
RI flights... First blocks totaling 8- Marvel at the amount of comms on Buttons 5and 6 as you fly around the local area early on... Non percision approaches, PAR/ASR and single engine circling, and a lot of it at that. Become real good at rattling off the No heading speech. Hope you'll never have to shoot another approach at Kleberg again. Realize that your instrument training in Navy primary paid off, and that the Air Force didn't get as much of it.
Somewhere along the line you have your second batch of INAV class.
I4390 Develope your own, easy profile- maybe the IP buys off on it, maybe they don't.
2 ILS sims... Ah, so thats what an ILS is... can I go back to PARs??? Air Force Kids laugh at you.
2 ILS flights- feel burned out, and ready to go on cross country.
Put in cross country request form- get assigned to a random IP who wants to go nowhere near any place you put on your list... wonder what the point of putting in the request form in the first place was. Do 4 XC flights on the road, out of sequence, some left seat and some right seat... Relaxed atmosphere-minimal EPs, fleet comms. Hopefully you got an airplane that can pressurize well enough without having the bleed air from the engines cook you. Get the IP to talk to you about anything and everything that can be done to you during review stage. Come back and finish your last XC flight in the local area... ask your IP to show you the valley.
You start Review stage while your Air Force classmates do some more right seat rides.
4 Review stage flights... Anything you've ever heard before is fair game. Get homework to bring to every flight... think that is gay. Approaches you've never seen before-Lots of lights and limits questions, and distractions. Anything that can go wrong is possible. Its not really the difficulty of the EPs, its the timing of them. Maybe you wonder if it was really a smart move to have people buy tickets to come down to your winging.
Be assertive- you don't have to make the perfect decision, just make one that keeps you safe. Dual engine flameouts to single engine relights, no heading, precautionary shutdowns followed by a fire on the opposite engine, etc. dual inverter failures to No gyro PARs partial panel. Just be happy they can't you single engine and no heading at the same time...By the time you are done, calculating times for your turns is automatic- you think something is wrong with there is silence in the cockpit. Make sure to double check that the approach checklist is complete and don't forget the gear on the SSE circling.
Somewhere along the line, you have your last EP sim, and lasted graded event in building 89... upon its completion do cartwheels down the hallway and yell "FREEEEEEEEEDOM!!!" once you are out the door. Then go drink with your buds to celebrate.
I4390- you are still very jumpy from review stage... constantly parinoid that you are missing something. Pass it and congratulations, you are an instrument rated pilot.
Airnav solo- take the plane out with another student, and get some lunch. Feel pretty good about yourself.
ONAV/VNAV flight- like a primary VNAV with some rigging thrown in at the end. Really laid back flight. If you are lucky you get to go to the class after you are done with review stage, if not- you get pulled out half way through, and put back in once the class is done.
Form flight- real laid back as well... same principles as primary forms except the visiblity sucks.
You are done, about a month before your winging date. Chuckle to yourself as the Air Force still has a bunch more Lowlevel tacforms and a checkride to do. Forget this on your third or fourth straight night of going out- call them at 1am telling them they are wusses for not going to wiskey river/lighthouse or whatever bar you are at- Have them remind you in a not so nice way that they have to get up at 0345 to go in for their early am brief. Remind them how much that sucks, and that you are done. Hangup the phone and order more drinks.
The rest of your days are going to be filled with standing duty, flying co-pilot for sims and airnav solos, or phone muster. Phone muster is preferable. Airnav co-pilot duty is a distant second... at least you get some lunch though and get out of Corpus for an afternoon. If you get American studs, life is good- all you have to do is pull the gear up and put it down when told, and maybe talk on the radios. If you get an Italian, go in there early and do all the planning yourself because they don't give a ****. Get asked by your buddy why you are doing everything... remind them that since you are signing for the plane, its your wings on the line- cue the gripe about not getting soft winged here. Make it clear to the Italian that you will do all the talking- they won't have any problems with that. The CDO will tell them that they are the Aircraft commander... remember that you signed for the plane, and that all they care about is getting home as quick as possible so they can go to Utopia for the 20some th Friday in a row that they've been in Corpus. They will probably want to use the autopilot as soon as you guys make that intial turnout off the Arrow 3- you will probably be better off if they do. Just watch the autopilot because that thing is possessed.
Get winged on the date told to you on that friday... your clock starts ticking then. Wheter or not you wanted to be there in the beginning doesn't matter anymore, because right now all your buds who went jets and helos still have months left in their training and you have wings. They tell you they are jelous of you and you smile because life really isn't that bad afterall.
Checkin on a friday, get your winging date thats 5 and a half months down the road- maybe you wanted to be a P3 guy, maybe not but at least it shouldn't take too long... realize your are the minority as a Navy guy in the squadron. break for lunch and go to ground school- 3 weeks long. Multi Engine Aero, Weather, Flight rules and INav stuff. Listen to the Air Force kids comment on how stupid Navy training is... ask them how they like the beachs and girls in Enid, laughlin and Columbus. Marvel at how they have been studying NATOPS and doing profsits since the week after they got here. Fear you are behind, but get told not to worry by your buds, that the Air Force kids are tools who haven't deprogramed yet. Last week of ground school have friends run you through the static bird and profsits... Cringe at the thought of how long the checklists take you. Listen intently as your friends tell you flying with anyone who has a last name beginning with a K is bad, and that if you go to an FPC here you have no hope of passing it... wonder what you got yourself into and vow to keep as much of a low profile as possible.
The day after ground school ends start CPTs. 6 of those- first one get told how you're never going to get them done in 30 minutes by the crusty sim guy who doesn't shutup and let you do it... Laugh at the Air Force kids who are more clueless then you, even though they've been studying the whole time. As the CPTs progress, magically your time to run through the checklists decreases and by the end, it only takes you 25 mins... realize the sim guy just stopped talking as much. Get your fam partner and onwing assignment the last week of CPTs.
Fam 0.. meet your onwing, $.02 tour of the squadron, see the plane etc.
FAMS (12 of those- 7 or 8 with your onwing)... early FAMS= early brief times... sometimes 0445 early.
Learn the plane, and how to fly it, get told how much your checklist speed makes the IPs want to kill themselves... do turn patterns, slow flight, approach to stalls, single engine flying, dynamic engine cuts at altitude, and a buch of ditching, some SSE flying. Listen to the IP talk about how sporty the T-44 is... you think the short bus is a flying couch and miss being able to see things when you look outside of the plane (the visibility sucks).
A lot of work in the pattern- mostly dual engine early on... throw in flap malfunctions and different engine loss scenarios the closer you get to your checkride. Realize that flying with sunglasses and a headset is pretty damn cool... so is bringing your lunch with you and kicking your legs up in the back seat while the other stud is flying. Also realize that your buds weren't kidding when they said it was easy to get airsick in the back seat in early fams... be glad you brought your heavy duty ziplock freezer bag. Realize early on that you aren't going to do much better then MIF throughout program and that there are two extremes of training- You either fly all the time, or barely at all. No matter what extreme you are on, you are going to wish for the other one...
EP sim- get random eps thrown at you to prep you for your solo.
C4390- A lot easier then your C4206... congrats you passed... take 3 laps around the cabinass pattern with another student on your "solo" and then off to BIs.
BIs 7 sims long- learn the instrument scan... insturment patterns, partial panel stuff etc. Wonder WTF is the point of all the stupid patterns they have you do, then back to the plane. Whats this HSI thing again???? Remember how much you hated the sim guys in primary, and are impressed that even the jerks are nice to you here.
Night flights- 3 flights of doing laps around the pattern- cringe every time the Italian you are flying with exceeds 30AOB to the left with the left engine SSE... pray they don't kick in the wrong rudder after the powerup the next pass.
Cue 6 RI sims... WTF is an NDB?? and how does this No heading stuff work? Listen to the AF kids talk about how the RMI is the devils tool and talk about how much easier ILSs are then PARs. Wonder what an ILS is...
RI flights... First blocks totaling 8- Marvel at the amount of comms on Buttons 5and 6 as you fly around the local area early on... Non percision approaches, PAR/ASR and single engine circling, and a lot of it at that. Become real good at rattling off the No heading speech. Hope you'll never have to shoot another approach at Kleberg again. Realize that your instrument training in Navy primary paid off, and that the Air Force didn't get as much of it.
Somewhere along the line you have your second batch of INAV class.
I4390 Develope your own, easy profile- maybe the IP buys off on it, maybe they don't.
2 ILS sims... Ah, so thats what an ILS is... can I go back to PARs??? Air Force Kids laugh at you.
2 ILS flights- feel burned out, and ready to go on cross country.
Put in cross country request form- get assigned to a random IP who wants to go nowhere near any place you put on your list... wonder what the point of putting in the request form in the first place was. Do 4 XC flights on the road, out of sequence, some left seat and some right seat... Relaxed atmosphere-minimal EPs, fleet comms. Hopefully you got an airplane that can pressurize well enough without having the bleed air from the engines cook you. Get the IP to talk to you about anything and everything that can be done to you during review stage. Come back and finish your last XC flight in the local area... ask your IP to show you the valley.
You start Review stage while your Air Force classmates do some more right seat rides.
4 Review stage flights... Anything you've ever heard before is fair game. Get homework to bring to every flight... think that is gay. Approaches you've never seen before-Lots of lights and limits questions, and distractions. Anything that can go wrong is possible. Its not really the difficulty of the EPs, its the timing of them. Maybe you wonder if it was really a smart move to have people buy tickets to come down to your winging.
Be assertive- you don't have to make the perfect decision, just make one that keeps you safe. Dual engine flameouts to single engine relights, no heading, precautionary shutdowns followed by a fire on the opposite engine, etc. dual inverter failures to No gyro PARs partial panel. Just be happy they can't you single engine and no heading at the same time...By the time you are done, calculating times for your turns is automatic- you think something is wrong with there is silence in the cockpit. Make sure to double check that the approach checklist is complete and don't forget the gear on the SSE circling.
Somewhere along the line, you have your last EP sim, and lasted graded event in building 89... upon its completion do cartwheels down the hallway and yell "FREEEEEEEEEDOM!!!" once you are out the door. Then go drink with your buds to celebrate.
I4390- you are still very jumpy from review stage... constantly parinoid that you are missing something. Pass it and congratulations, you are an instrument rated pilot.
Airnav solo- take the plane out with another student, and get some lunch. Feel pretty good about yourself.
ONAV/VNAV flight- like a primary VNAV with some rigging thrown in at the end. Really laid back flight. If you are lucky you get to go to the class after you are done with review stage, if not- you get pulled out half way through, and put back in once the class is done.
Form flight- real laid back as well... same principles as primary forms except the visiblity sucks.
You are done, about a month before your winging date. Chuckle to yourself as the Air Force still has a bunch more Lowlevel tacforms and a checkride to do. Forget this on your third or fourth straight night of going out- call them at 1am telling them they are wusses for not going to wiskey river/lighthouse or whatever bar you are at- Have them remind you in a not so nice way that they have to get up at 0345 to go in for their early am brief. Remind them how much that sucks, and that you are done. Hangup the phone and order more drinks.
The rest of your days are going to be filled with standing duty, flying co-pilot for sims and airnav solos, or phone muster. Phone muster is preferable. Airnav co-pilot duty is a distant second... at least you get some lunch though and get out of Corpus for an afternoon. If you get American studs, life is good- all you have to do is pull the gear up and put it down when told, and maybe talk on the radios. If you get an Italian, go in there early and do all the planning yourself because they don't give a ****. Get asked by your buddy why you are doing everything... remind them that since you are signing for the plane, its your wings on the line- cue the gripe about not getting soft winged here. Make it clear to the Italian that you will do all the talking- they won't have any problems with that. The CDO will tell them that they are the Aircraft commander... remember that you signed for the plane, and that all they care about is getting home as quick as possible so they can go to Utopia for the 20some th Friday in a row that they've been in Corpus. They will probably want to use the autopilot as soon as you guys make that intial turnout off the Arrow 3- you will probably be better off if they do. Just watch the autopilot because that thing is possessed.
Get winged on the date told to you on that friday... your clock starts ticking then. Wheter or not you wanted to be there in the beginning doesn't matter anymore, because right now all your buds who went jets and helos still have months left in their training and you have wings. They tell you they are jelous of you and you smile because life really isn't that bad afterall.
I'm helos and got my wings before friends of mine from 28 got theirs' in 31. But I totally agree with your sentiment about Bldg 89, I hated that place.
Im the first of the group of people I went through primary with to get winged, including my friends who were a month or so ahead of me... a couple of the helo guys were close, but the reduction in flight hrs and the accidents bumped them off track big time. I only waited three weeks to start (and was originally supposed to class up 5 days after I selected)... Like everything else, its all timing I suppose.
I finished back in April before the big reduction in hours. People were flying thru in 4 months or so right at my winging. Yeah, all luck of the draw I'd say.
Are they still there???
Life really isn't too bad, just grin and bear it through VP-30 and make it to the mythical "FLEET" and be happy
NavyLonghorn
Registered User
Nice summary Zip.
Airfocewife7178
New Member
My husband is an instructor in 31...I was wondering if anyone knows the etiquette of the winging ceremoney? I have a friend who is winging tomorrow and I have never been to one...I want to know what not to do!!! Can't ask my husband...don't want to look stupid. HELP!!!
Act naturally, say please and thank you (as appropriate), make eye contact with people you talk to. You know, basic social skills.
Brett
The E2/C2 side of Vt-31 is pretty much the same until RI's. Then the syllabus is about half of what the P3/C130 guys do. Only 4 x-country rides and no air/nav solo. Not that hard, but the back half of the program comes really quick.
DirtyShirt
New Member
A pretty good rundown. A few points to ponder:
Squid: "Eww, brown ocean water. Corpus sucks."
Zoomie: "Holy shit......water!"
BTW, this is only a intro to the VLL world for the AF guys, so the checkride is extremly low threat. The point is to get the future Herk drivers thinking in a tac mindset.
When I was there the squids where the only ones I ever heard griping about the location.
Squid: "Eww, brown ocean water. Corpus sucks."
Zoomie: "Holy shit......water!"
Riiiiiiight.
Thanks for disproving your last point for me.
3-ship low-levels to simulated airdrops. Poor AF guys.
BTW, this is only a intro to the VLL world for the AF guys, so the checkride is extremly low threat. The point is to get the future Herk drivers thinking in a tac mindset.