Aircraft specific info

[BluDevAv8r]

Nick,

My buddy from college tracked into 38's and was gung ho into fighters. He ended up choosing a FAIP slot over B-1's. He's now in his first year teaching in T-37's and loving every minute of......flying cross-country and getting out of Enid OK. He is enjoying the IP time but definitely looking forward to something with a more pointy nose in 2 years.

As for helo's...I am pretty sure you can go to them straight out of UPT. You do a conversion course at Ft Rucker in AL with the Army. One of his buddies at PIT at Randolph that I met flew HH-53's in the CSAR world. Low level high speed NOE type flying....lots of real missions. Sounds like a lot of fun actually. I think after fighters, the CSAR/Spec Ops world would be my next choice if I were in the position to choose.

I wouldn't worry too much about what to choose at the moment...finish school, keep building flight time, and do the best you can in everything you do. It will pay off later.

Neal

 

[Opie-wan]

Might as well join the list....

T-37 FAIP in Delightful Del Rio, KC-10 tour in McGuire (make that Abu Dhabi), a short stint back in the tweet at Randolph, then flying T-6s (the T-37/T-34 replacement) for the past 3 years. Still have about a year to go before freedom...

 

[Purple Haze]

T-6 vs T-37

Opie-wan,
Contrast & compare the Tweet & the Texan as a primary trainer. All I know about the T-6 is that it looks fantastic and it can pull a mean closed (saw it at Randolph). I'm a big fan of side-by-side seating in a primary trainer.

Curious what you think and how it stacks up overall. Thanks.
Purple

 

[trueblue]

No comparison. It's been too long since I've been in Tweets, but being a T-34C IP at NAS Pensacola, comparing the T-6 to the T-34 is like comparing a cheetah to a slimy slug. T-34 underpowered, but fun and reliable. T-6 nicely powered, new, probably a lot of fun, and reliability ??

 

[Opie-wan]

Opie's view of T-37 vs T-6

PH and Trueblue--

Here it goes--

Side by side vs tandem--being a high-time tweet guy, I had serious reservations going into the primary training arena with a stepped-tandem seat, (that's what the AF wanted with their new trainer, regardless of what airplane it was going to be.) But I was wrong. The airplane, from the back or front seat, tells the IP rather well what the student is doing either by the displays, aircraft feel,or one could simply look over the guys shoulder and see what they are screwing up at the moment, Every display repeats in the other cockpit. A little to get used to, but it's not that bad.

Airspeeds--The tweet trued out 240 TAS, we are about 10% faster on average. We can fly tweet speeds in the pattern, but are more comfortable a tad faster. 316 max a/s. It can fly 270 kt low-levels.

Legs--900 miles vs 300. Questions?

Engine--PT6-68, 1100 shp motor. it's gets you out of trouble in a hurry. It will get you in one quickly too if it hiccups.

We can't ditch in a prepared field like the T-34.

Gs--7.0 pos and 3.5 neg. (tweet was 6.7?)

Avionics--GPS, glass, etc vs. the tweet bastardized crosscheck. The transition to 38s and T-1s will be easier.

Pressurized cockpit, zero/zero seat, on-board O2 generating system--it's not a bad toy.

However, being a part of the Ops test team that ran it through it's paces when it was 1st delivered, I can say that we are still ironing the wrinkles out of it. Reliability rates are on the rise as our maintainers and TOs get up to speed. It will be interesting to see the rates after we've flown it for awhile in the field (DLF, Moody, etc).

Overall--I'd recommend it to anyone looking for job in AETC, AD or Reserves.

Shoot back with more Qs if you like...