Air Force way to fly...

[Vandal]

I've heard a lot about how in UPT they are going to teach me the Air Force way to fly. People have said that I am going to have to unlearn a lot of the stuff I was taught in civilian flight school in favor of the "air force way". Unless it's classified, can anyone tell me the main differences, or what distinguishes the Air Force way?

 

[HoursHore]

Removing your brain and replacing it with "Ask the SOF"

 

[AlbieF15]

Okay, okay...no navy verses AF diatribe for a minute...

How about "military turbojet" verses civilian recip as a start? I think "most" of us can agree on some examples. I had a CFII and about 700 hours when I went to UPT (all SEL), so I'll give you my impressions.

1- Power now controls airspeed. Set PITCH with ADI for level flight, climb, or descent...then make POWER adjustment to control airspeed. "wait a minute...isn't that backwards?" Not anymore.

2- Right radio call, right place, right time..the first time. No personality or conversations on the radio...we don't have time. You can waste a lot of brain cells trying to make radios calls (if you don't know them cold beforehand) that can better be served moving the stick and throttle.

3. Sticks! Turbojet throttles! Speed brakes! Retractable gear!Ejection seats! More noise than you have ever heard or made in your life.

4. Gs! Now! Lots of them (4-5 in T-37, 5-7 in T-38). Sucking air out of a hose and wearing a helment. Takes a bit to get used to but by 3 or 4 flights you will forget they are there.

5. Rigid flight profiles...takeoff, stalls, acro, EP landings, etc. You are expected to know numbers, parameters, etc before the brief...no CFI giving you any "pre and post" instruction over coffee and donuts...its a more stern enviroment.

6. Fear, sarcasm, and ridicule. Handy tools for the IPs...they will impress you with their mastery of the craft of making you feel like an idiot at times.

7. Speed....you touchdown at your C172 cruising speeds. 250 knots or so cross country in a tweet, about 450 knots in the T-38. Things happen FAST!

8. Formation. 3 feet wingtip clearance at 400 knots at 85 degrees of bank. You won't learn overnight...but you will learn.

9. Smoooooth is good but being in position or on parameters is more important. You'll likely have to "horse" an airplane around a few times more than you ever did in civilian planes. I thought many of the manuevers were exceptionally abrupt at times...but with practice I learned aggressiveness is sometimes required.

Gotta be more than that...I'll defer to the experts at AF AETC bases and our Navy bros down in P'cola.

Bottom line...I thought my experience helped me. Yes...I learned lots of new stuff...and by T38s many guys who had nowhere near my experience were doing as well or better than me in some phases. However...I loved flying, and the previous experience gave me the confidence I could learn and master the new skills. There are plenty of stories about guys who were regional pilots, lear jet guys, or whatever that washed out of UPT, and they aren't old wive's tales. However...for every one of those guys there are ten success stories. You need to go in with an open mind, a hard work ethic, and a sense of adventure--and you will do just fine.

 

[Draginass]

Use your previous flight experience as a bonus and great foundation. However, you're going to be flying high performance aircraft (and I'm not talking about a "controllable" propellor). When you go to an airline, the same thing happens. They want you to do it their way. I had to "unlearn" some things from the USAF.

 

[Vandal]

Thanks a lot guys, great info Albie!

 

[JaimeZX]

If you're interested in reading about pilot training, there are many SUPT journals on the internet. Perhaps the best was done by (now Capt.) Randy Haskin.

Enjoy it here:
http://web.archive.org/web/20011030141117/http://www.militarypilot.net/index.html

That taught me far more than anything else prior to actually coming here to Columbus.

 

[talondriver]

Having been in AETC for awhile and I've seen my share of students with lots of civilian time. Some of them were awesome, some of them sucked bad. Albie is accurate about civilian time possibly helping in tweets ( it's a Cessna!) but not giving you much of an advantage in T-38s.

Making your civilian time known to IPs may actually hurt you because some may expect more of you. Personally, I don't want to know how much civilian time you have. You're not going to impress me...and probably not your classmates either.

 

[MDPilot]

Reminds me of the stud in my T-38 flight who, upon hooking yet another pre-solo contact sortie, stood up in the middle of the debrief, loudly commenting to his IP "I don't care what you say, this says that I'm a pilot!!!" as he threw his PPSEL cert down on the table. The IP calmly picked up the cert and frisbeed it across the room saying " That don't mean **CENSORED****CENSORED****CENSORED****CENSORED** around here!" He was gone (washed out) two weeks later.

One of my best students happened to be a CFII, flew the T-38 great, after one demo, could do any maneuver perfectly, but flew instruments by chasing the VVI and course needle. After much consternation and instructional techniques (see several posts above) I finally got him to fly control/performance instruments (the AF way). Upon graduation he thanked me saying that I had helped him immeasurably in instruments and it was so much easier this way.

Attitude is everything, as they say.

 

[talondriver]

People have said that I am going to have to unlearn a lot of the stuff I was taught in civilian flight school in favor of the "air force way".

You would only have to "unlearn" habits (notice I didn't say bad habits) that are contradictory to how the Air Force wants you to do operate. Remember, the military standardizes the training (or tries to) of it's pilots to successfully accomplish the respective service's mission. The "Air Force way" or the "Navy way" will kill MiGs and get bombs on target.
Vandal, what's your objective?

 

[Vandal]

Not sure what you mean by objective...I guess i would say I want to excel in Pilot training. I am going to a c-130 unit regardless so the track select isn't that important to me, but I still would like to excel in the program.

 

[talondriver]

Oops! I forgot "Power Projection" as part of the mission. I didn't mean to leave out our tanker/airlift folks.

Vandal- My question was leaning more towards you wanting to be an Air Force pilot. If that's the case you'll have to learn the "Air Force way". Let your previous experience help you and not get in the way.