JimNtexas
Well-known member
- Joined
- Dec 1, 2001
- Posts
- 1,590
Recently I discovered on YouTube a Discovery Canada TV show that follows a class of Canadian military pilots through their initial F-18 training school:
http://youtu.be/nQyXQOe7nBA
The eight episode series is called 'Jetstream', and it's really excellent. The show doesn't pull any punches. You see students have great rides and horrible rides. Several of the student pilots wash out or self-eliminate, and the viewer sees their agony. They even record the deliberations of a flight evaluation board.
To the extent that 'Jetstream' accurately portrays new Canadian fighter pilots, I'd have to say their student pilot egos may be a bit smaller than the student fighter pilots I flew with, at least going in to the school. Or perhaps Canadian heads just in general don't swell as large as American heads.
Be that as it may, the Canadian instructors cut student egos down to size as well as our American military instructors.
You also see why 'Cold Lake' is called 'Cold Lake'.
If you normalize out some of the weird Canadian stuff I'd say that this show does the best job I've ever seen of showing what military flight training is really like. Highly recommended.
http://youtu.be/nQyXQOe7nBA
The eight episode series is called 'Jetstream', and it's really excellent. The show doesn't pull any punches. You see students have great rides and horrible rides. Several of the student pilots wash out or self-eliminate, and the viewer sees their agony. They even record the deliberations of a flight evaluation board.
To the extent that 'Jetstream' accurately portrays new Canadian fighter pilots, I'd have to say their student pilot egos may be a bit smaller than the student fighter pilots I flew with, at least going in to the school. Or perhaps Canadian heads just in general don't swell as large as American heads.
Be that as it may, the Canadian instructors cut student egos down to size as well as our American military instructors.
You also see why 'Cold Lake' is called 'Cold Lake'.
If you normalize out some of the weird Canadian stuff I'd say that this show does the best job I've ever seen of showing what military flight training is really like. Highly recommended.
