F/O PeterNorth
Member
- Joined
- Feb 27, 2002
- Posts
- 7
I did a year at ERAU and promptly realized that going to college in Daytona Beach was going to kill me. So I went up to Jax Univ and got an NROTC scholarship.
Got aviation and went to primary with about 60 hours/private, 3 years old. Prior flight time helps but everybody catches up in a couple of months and the edge is gone. I wouldn't highlight myself by asking for an accelerated program, let them decide that. You'll learn that Murphy was an aviator and the day you get the accelerated program is the day you goon something up.
Don't lie about it, don't brag about it and forget every habit pattern you had flying civilian. The one time you say "well, this is how I did it in blah blah blah" is the day you get squashed. Hard.
I instructed Hornets for 3 years and the biggest advice I can give you is this: "What were you thinking/why did you do that?" are 99.9% of the time rhetorical questions... When I was a student the answer was "I don't know sir, I f*cked up, it won't happen again...".
It seems like today the first response is to pull out the excuse matrix...everything else was AFU, not you. Wrong answer. Even if it wasn't you say it was and let us correct you.
IP's talk and you get a reputation as a student pretty quickly. Don't blow your first impressions.
And lastly, have a good bar act. Don't sit inside every night studying or you'll go crazy. Grab a beer...you'll bump into some IP's and they usually will buy you a beer and extoll all the secrets of Naval Aviation. I learned most of my experience in a bar or the club listening to the old salty guys telling me what not to do or how to do it right. And I've found myself, sadly, as that crusty aviator talking to my own students telling them of my own travels.
It's a great trip. Don't spot the deck and fly the ball all the way to touchdown...
Got aviation and went to primary with about 60 hours/private, 3 years old. Prior flight time helps but everybody catches up in a couple of months and the edge is gone. I wouldn't highlight myself by asking for an accelerated program, let them decide that. You'll learn that Murphy was an aviator and the day you get the accelerated program is the day you goon something up.
Don't lie about it, don't brag about it and forget every habit pattern you had flying civilian. The one time you say "well, this is how I did it in blah blah blah" is the day you get squashed. Hard.
I instructed Hornets for 3 years and the biggest advice I can give you is this: "What were you thinking/why did you do that?" are 99.9% of the time rhetorical questions... When I was a student the answer was "I don't know sir, I f*cked up, it won't happen again...".
It seems like today the first response is to pull out the excuse matrix...everything else was AFU, not you. Wrong answer. Even if it wasn't you say it was and let us correct you.
IP's talk and you get a reputation as a student pretty quickly. Don't blow your first impressions.
And lastly, have a good bar act. Don't sit inside every night studying or you'll go crazy. Grab a beer...you'll bump into some IP's and they usually will buy you a beer and extoll all the secrets of Naval Aviation. I learned most of my experience in a bar or the club listening to the old salty guys telling me what not to do or how to do it right. And I've found myself, sadly, as that crusty aviator talking to my own students telling them of my own travels.
It's a great trip. Don't spot the deck and fly the ball all the way to touchdown...