Ifs

[Twasilew]

Just curious how the IFS program is running these days. Is the Air Force now sending every UPT candidate through, including guard and reserve guys who may already have a PPL and several hundred hours of flying time?

 

[frog_flyer]

All Reservists will be going through as of August, and I believe all ANG folks already have to.

I have 300 hours, but I'm happy to take the 6 weeks of orders!

 

[SIG600]

Navy won't let anyone with prior flight time go through it.

 

[Twasilew]

Wow, I know a guy that just picked up a UPT slot who has about 2000 hours. What a waste of taxpayer money to teach him to fly a Diamond.

 

[SIG600]

I dump more gas on a single flight then he'll spend on katana time. You haven't seen anything yet.

 

[Twasilew]

You may have dumped plenty, but your sortie was still fulfilling some type of purpose. You've missed my point completely.

I've seen plenty of government waste to the point where it is sickening. In this economy, every little bit counts. Eventually, this war will end, and so will our funding.

I wonder what Doss Aviation charges the American taxpayer to teach a 2000 hour airline pilot how to do turns around a point...or better yet stand up EP's. Totally ridiculous, that money could be spent much better elsewhere.

 

[AlbieF15]

In fact, if this guy is ID'd as someone who can't learn to fly the "standard" way or to relearn and adapt to military training, he could easily be removed from training.

I agree that if it was just stalls and landings that they were training, it would be a waste. But this is also a way to find how a person handles a standup, deals with being part of a class, and takes instruction from others. I'd say its 99% he will do very well at all the above, but if they eliminate ONE person who does not they probably have saved the cost of the program.

I had a CFII when I went to UPT, one guy had 2000 hours of learjet time, and another guy was an Army helicopter pilot. We each did great in tweets, but also both know to STFU and listen and do what we were told to do. Although I never saw it, I've heard horror stories of guys showing up unable to adapt to the rigors of the military style training despite tons of expereince in other areas.

Just my two cents...

 

[Twasilew]

I see your points. It's my opinion that seeing how a person handles standup (or stressful situations), being part of a team, and taking instruction can be weeded out at OTS, AMS, ROTC...etc. Hell, even a UPT board. I'd be curious to know what the IFS washout rate is? I'd hate to be that guy! As a Kitana Instructor, you'd have to have some huge balls to wash out a guy with thousands of hours. I just don't see it happening. I could be wrong.

I think you could scrap the whole program, send guys to the local FBO for 30 hours of straight and level flight and take-offs and landings, and still get very close to the same result. Some will do well in UPT, some will wash.

Anyone can fly a single engine piston within 30 hours of instruction. Not everyone can pull G's, do acro, fly form and deal with 12 tweets in the pattern at once. You're not going to screen for that at IFS.

 

[frog_flyer]

I'm gonna back up Albie on this one. I've heard that they try to put the haze on you pretty well to see how you can handle pressure.

Like I said earlier, I'll just happy to get paid for the weeks I'll be there and to get the flight time.


Speaking of weeding "one guy out," whatever happened to the guy that crashed the diamond a few months ago?

 

[SIG600]

You may have dumped plenty, but your sortie was still fulfilling some type of purpose. You've missed my point completely.

Launch off the front end of the boat at night, turn downwind while dumping 8K #'s of gas. Land. Total flight time, 0.2. That just ONE story, from just one dude.