flight school phases

[Erk183]

Track selection

I am under the impression that in the Navy how and WHEN you finish primary flight training varies greatly on the individual and that selecting tracks/pipelines at that point depends on how good you did and what is available that particular week. In the AF, is everyone in a particular class set to finish with the T-37 phase at the same time and then everyone in that class gets placed accordingly based on rank and desire or is it more like the Navy where it goes week by week. Is it the same for the rest of the phases?

 

[BeanFighter]

Erk,
In the Navy / Marine Corps you will be awarded an aircraft via:
1. The needs of the USN/USMC.
2. How you rank with your peers.

You cannot control the needs of the Navy or Corps. You will have little if no control on timing once you enter training. You can only control your dedication to the task at hand, and that better be 100% all the time.

Keep the faith!

BeanFighter

 

[PTWOB]

AF training

I'm not sure how the Navy does their training, but the AF assigns everyone to a class. When you start you will know exactly when the class is scheduled to begin each phase and when you will graduate with your classmates. If, for some reason you get behind, you may wash back a class or two and then you will be in that class's time cycle. You start as a group and, hopefully, you will graduate as the same group. Hope this helps.

 

[kelleyadai]

Navy has classes too. The only way to move classes is failing a phase, being medically "down" for a bit etc etc. Within a phase you might be on a different flight, but the schedules officer will keep the whole class roughly in timeline together and tehy will get winged together, go to the boat together...blah blah blah.

There are incidents towards the end that might get a guy on a fast track to get to the fleet. Say if a particular squadron deployment schedule is moved up, the aircraft is in mod (modification) ..a hundred different things. This will really only happen after flight school when you are in whatever aircraft RAG (replacement air group) and you are learning the platform itself (I.e. F-14, F-18 etc etc)

 

[MercuryPilot]

In Navy Primary you are technically assigned a class #. However, the time from when the first person in that class completes Primary training to when the last person completes can very by days, weeks, or months. The AF system is nicely structured. The class moves thru the different phases of training together. In the Navy you move thru individually as fast as you can keep up.

Many variables cause the SNAs to move thru the program at different speeds. Some of these can be wx, onwing availability, SNA med down, onwing med down, onwing on leave, being held back for poor performance, etc. Since you are initially assigned to one IP (your onwing) you move thru according to their schedule. If it takes you a while to complete the initial contact phase (w/your onwing) then you will be behind the other SNAs in your class. Once you complete the contact phase and solo you can be scheduled w/any IP for the rest of the flights in Primary.

Some student's do well and will be scheduled for 2 flights/sims a day. Other's can barely keep up w/one flight/sim a day so they move thru slower.

Bottomline is to study hard and be ready to excel whenever you're on the flight schedule. The only sure way to select the pipeline you want is to beat out the other students.