Tweetdrvr
Well-known member
- Joined
- Apr 11, 2003
- Posts
- 133
Part II
You can screw up and lose your fighter slot from a Guard/Reserve unit. Those who don't finish in the top 50% of the Phase II class (T-37/T-6) get phone calls made to their unit commanders who make the call. Sometimes the answer is send you to 38s, because in the old days we all flew 38s and sometimes a guy from the near bottom would catch on and graduate in the top. Sometimes the answer is no, because they will trade you to a heavy unit and give you what they feel is the best chance of getting wings. Sometimes poor performers in the 38 track are graduated but not recommended for fighters, so they have to find a Guard/Reserve unit that flies big planes. If you go active duty, don't fall into the trap after you get sick of UPT and think what a lot of people say "I'll take a T-1 and run." The 38 program presents its own challenges, but the T-1 while being a Beech business jet is easy to fly, the program is very challenging from a mental planning and mission planning perspective. There are many who will say that the Navigation Phase checkride in T-1s is one of the hardest checkrides they ever took in the Air Force.
I agree with Hueypilot on the C-130 stance. Active duty, Guard or Reserve, the C-130 is a great plane if you don't get a fighter. The only bad assignments on Active Duty IMHO are Japan (too far away) and EC-130s (not really true C-130 scarf and goggle down in the weeds getting dirty flying). If you go to Corpus for Phase III, you just got FAIP immunity (means the air force can't make you be a first assignment IP and teach for the first 3 years of your career in a craphole UPT base which is a bad deal for most single people), a better chance at getting a Gunship or Talon Spec Ops assignment. You can transfer to C-17s later on, because it is the same mission only bigger, or there are too many Guard/Reserve units with C-130s that will take you if you decide not to continue an active duty career after your commitment is finished. You can come back and be a T-37/T-6 or T-1 IP if you desire. It is a good life. I loved every minute of my 2,000 hours in the Herk, and only like my Tweet time in a different way because I get to go upside down, spin and fly formation.
Once you get to UPT, your prior flying experience will help. Flying is flying and nothing changes that. Talking on the radio, shooting an ILS, navigating visually, tracking VOR radials and course intercepts, entering a traffic pattern at a non military field are all the same regardless of whether you are wearing shorts and tennis shoes or flying in a nomex flight suit. Military flying is different only because our ultimate goal is to break things and kill people to support and defend the constitution and save democracy. We demand precision and discipline. Precision because ultimately how precise you fly may determine the difference between nailing the target or having a bunch of Al Jazeera reporters screaming about collateral damage; or getting beans and bullets to good guys on the drop zone instead of having the enemy eating the MREs you just dropped and shooting good guys with our bullets. Discipline to work as part of a team and do the right thing always. A good friend of mine often makes the following statement. "You can't play hockey and learn to skate at the same time. Your feet and balance have to be nearly automatic while your brain keeps track of the puck, thinks about swinging the stick, and all those rules." At the beginning of UPT for most students it is very much like learning two things at once. The T-37 is an easy but demanding plane to fly. It goes 2.5 to 3x faster than what most civilian pilots came from (we cruise everywhere at 200 IAS and fly final at 100-110 IAS), it has a stick and just to make things fun, it doesn't have split differential ailerons like all those GA planes so adverse yaw in turns is a big player. One of the biggest hurdles most students have is making level turns. The biomechanics of turning with a stick cause most people to add premature back pressure as they roll into the turn, then they forget or don't use rudder and boom they just gained 200' plus in a turn in the traffic pattern. The sooner students chairfly, mentally learn their procedures, radio calls, visual pitch settings, and power settings, the better they can learn because I don't have to constantly harp on basics, but can start talking about judgment calls and finesse issues. You know how it goes as a CFI, the difference between the first time you hit the pattern with student versus the ride before solo when they put in cross wind controls without you saying a word, or they look for traffic based on a radio call between tower and another plane versus a traffic advisory issued directly to them.
For the most part, CFIs do really well at UPT as long as they keep and open mind, and don't act like they know everything. Remember how tough it is to instruct since you've done it yourself and listen. I know of 2 CFIs that did not complete the program. One was in my Nav class back in 1988, he said he was just lazy and thought he knew it all, and one just recently got put out in the last class we had. I never flew with this one, but from talking to the other instructors, it sounds like somebody let one slip through the cracks and I would not recommend learning to fly with this individual. Not everything every IP says is completely correct and not every IP teaches the same way. If an IP says something you don't understand ask for clarification. If you think, it is wrong, ask the next IP you fly with, without mentioning the other IP’s name, to explain the concept. If the next IP asks who taught you that, then tell him or her, because sometimes the older more experienced guys have to mentor our younger instructors. Help out your classmates as much as you can without being a know it all, you'll find yourself teaching a lot during study groups, because unless you are that one "catfish" Yahtzee mentions, you will grasp stuff quicker than the students who only have their private tickets. Whenever there is an IP sitting around the flight room not doing anything, get them to explain or teach stuff because that is our duty. We won't pour knowledge into your head, but if you seek us out the cup will run over. UPT can turn a nobody into a pilot and if someone who is already an accomplished pilot comes through the program they usually leave as a much better pilot. Don't brag about your flight time or certificates, sometimes people will figure it out, and sometimes people can't tell you have prior experience.
You are ready, I just hope you get the chance. Keep an open mind and a positive attitude and you will do fine. The more you fly and most importantly the more you keep yourself in a learning mode is the best thing you can do. I recommend reading the AIM on radio communications techniques, I recommend to anyone the Jepps Commercial Instrument Manual as the book that will give you the big picture on flying in the real world. What would I do in your place? Get your Instructor, Instrument Instructor, your Multi Instructor tickets if you have time, fly aerobatics with a stick in a Citabria, get your tail dragger sign off if you don't have it. Go fly gliders if you get the chance. Do some of it if you can't do it all, or do none, you'll still make it! (OK all you other guys reading this post, Lucky has all those ratings, the rest of you keep putting stuff on your tickets and in your mind if you can afford it)
You can screw up and lose your fighter slot from a Guard/Reserve unit. Those who don't finish in the top 50% of the Phase II class (T-37/T-6) get phone calls made to their unit commanders who make the call. Sometimes the answer is send you to 38s, because in the old days we all flew 38s and sometimes a guy from the near bottom would catch on and graduate in the top. Sometimes the answer is no, because they will trade you to a heavy unit and give you what they feel is the best chance of getting wings. Sometimes poor performers in the 38 track are graduated but not recommended for fighters, so they have to find a Guard/Reserve unit that flies big planes. If you go active duty, don't fall into the trap after you get sick of UPT and think what a lot of people say "I'll take a T-1 and run." The 38 program presents its own challenges, but the T-1 while being a Beech business jet is easy to fly, the program is very challenging from a mental planning and mission planning perspective. There are many who will say that the Navigation Phase checkride in T-1s is one of the hardest checkrides they ever took in the Air Force.
I agree with Hueypilot on the C-130 stance. Active duty, Guard or Reserve, the C-130 is a great plane if you don't get a fighter. The only bad assignments on Active Duty IMHO are Japan (too far away) and EC-130s (not really true C-130 scarf and goggle down in the weeds getting dirty flying). If you go to Corpus for Phase III, you just got FAIP immunity (means the air force can't make you be a first assignment IP and teach for the first 3 years of your career in a craphole UPT base which is a bad deal for most single people), a better chance at getting a Gunship or Talon Spec Ops assignment. You can transfer to C-17s later on, because it is the same mission only bigger, or there are too many Guard/Reserve units with C-130s that will take you if you decide not to continue an active duty career after your commitment is finished. You can come back and be a T-37/T-6 or T-1 IP if you desire. It is a good life. I loved every minute of my 2,000 hours in the Herk, and only like my Tweet time in a different way because I get to go upside down, spin and fly formation.
Once you get to UPT, your prior flying experience will help. Flying is flying and nothing changes that. Talking on the radio, shooting an ILS, navigating visually, tracking VOR radials and course intercepts, entering a traffic pattern at a non military field are all the same regardless of whether you are wearing shorts and tennis shoes or flying in a nomex flight suit. Military flying is different only because our ultimate goal is to break things and kill people to support and defend the constitution and save democracy. We demand precision and discipline. Precision because ultimately how precise you fly may determine the difference between nailing the target or having a bunch of Al Jazeera reporters screaming about collateral damage; or getting beans and bullets to good guys on the drop zone instead of having the enemy eating the MREs you just dropped and shooting good guys with our bullets. Discipline to work as part of a team and do the right thing always. A good friend of mine often makes the following statement. "You can't play hockey and learn to skate at the same time. Your feet and balance have to be nearly automatic while your brain keeps track of the puck, thinks about swinging the stick, and all those rules." At the beginning of UPT for most students it is very much like learning two things at once. The T-37 is an easy but demanding plane to fly. It goes 2.5 to 3x faster than what most civilian pilots came from (we cruise everywhere at 200 IAS and fly final at 100-110 IAS), it has a stick and just to make things fun, it doesn't have split differential ailerons like all those GA planes so adverse yaw in turns is a big player. One of the biggest hurdles most students have is making level turns. The biomechanics of turning with a stick cause most people to add premature back pressure as they roll into the turn, then they forget or don't use rudder and boom they just gained 200' plus in a turn in the traffic pattern. The sooner students chairfly, mentally learn their procedures, radio calls, visual pitch settings, and power settings, the better they can learn because I don't have to constantly harp on basics, but can start talking about judgment calls and finesse issues. You know how it goes as a CFI, the difference between the first time you hit the pattern with student versus the ride before solo when they put in cross wind controls without you saying a word, or they look for traffic based on a radio call between tower and another plane versus a traffic advisory issued directly to them.
For the most part, CFIs do really well at UPT as long as they keep and open mind, and don't act like they know everything. Remember how tough it is to instruct since you've done it yourself and listen. I know of 2 CFIs that did not complete the program. One was in my Nav class back in 1988, he said he was just lazy and thought he knew it all, and one just recently got put out in the last class we had. I never flew with this one, but from talking to the other instructors, it sounds like somebody let one slip through the cracks and I would not recommend learning to fly with this individual. Not everything every IP says is completely correct and not every IP teaches the same way. If an IP says something you don't understand ask for clarification. If you think, it is wrong, ask the next IP you fly with, without mentioning the other IP’s name, to explain the concept. If the next IP asks who taught you that, then tell him or her, because sometimes the older more experienced guys have to mentor our younger instructors. Help out your classmates as much as you can without being a know it all, you'll find yourself teaching a lot during study groups, because unless you are that one "catfish" Yahtzee mentions, you will grasp stuff quicker than the students who only have their private tickets. Whenever there is an IP sitting around the flight room not doing anything, get them to explain or teach stuff because that is our duty. We won't pour knowledge into your head, but if you seek us out the cup will run over. UPT can turn a nobody into a pilot and if someone who is already an accomplished pilot comes through the program they usually leave as a much better pilot. Don't brag about your flight time or certificates, sometimes people will figure it out, and sometimes people can't tell you have prior experience.
You are ready, I just hope you get the chance. Keep an open mind and a positive attitude and you will do fine. The more you fly and most importantly the more you keep yourself in a learning mode is the best thing you can do. I recommend reading the AIM on radio communications techniques, I recommend to anyone the Jepps Commercial Instrument Manual as the book that will give you the big picture on flying in the real world. What would I do in your place? Get your Instructor, Instrument Instructor, your Multi Instructor tickets if you have time, fly aerobatics with a stick in a Citabria, get your tail dragger sign off if you don't have it. Go fly gliders if you get the chance. Do some of it if you can't do it all, or do none, you'll still make it! (OK all you other guys reading this post, Lucky has all those ratings, the rest of you keep putting stuff on your tickets and in your mind if you can afford it)
; 2) the leading cash crop in Mississippi.
). After OTS we went to different UPT bases. I saw him again at survival school and asked what he got ------- F15.
Sorry to hear that. Pat's a good dude and was even liked by the T-1 folks. 
