Usnavy2019
10-Year Member
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- Mar 31, 2013
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Just wanted to drop a thread and provide a write up and answer questions related to the flight school process for Navy, Marine, and Coast Guard students. I am one flight away from completing flight school, so I am at the tail end of my time in the orange and white (color of Navy training aircraft). For clarification, I am a Student Naval Aviator (pilot). I can speak to very basic generics about the NFO side of flight school. Anyway, here goes nothing and I look forward to your questions:
Step 1: Commissioning. Whether it is through USNA, NROTC, OCS, SSMP, USCGA, USMMA, PLC or any other program, congrats and welcome to the Officer Corps! In aviation, being an ENS/2nd Lt is not a bad life. People don't expect too much out of you (i.e. not a lot of responsibility) and you get a decent paycheck.
Step 1.5: Marines complete TBS. I am Navy, so I headed straight down Pensacola after my TAD time at USNA, but new Marines go to learn the rifleman stuff for 6 months in Quantico.
Step 2: Naval Introductory Flight Evaluation (NIFE)/Naval Aviation Schools Command/NAS Pensacola:
NIFE is a four-phase program. The course is identical for all branches and designators (Pilot and NFO). There also could be other designators like flight surgeons or AVOs (UAV pilots) in your class. The Navy also provides flight training to allied countries, so you will most likely see international students too. Phase One is known as A-Pool and you complete water survival training, get your initial NAMI flight physical completed, do an inventory PRT (called the APIT), knock out a couple classes on ethics and Naval Aviation history, and muster. I also heard they just started a JO course to keep all the new students busy. Otherwise, your time is yours. Some people pick up a hobby, others day drink, most people go to the beach, but needless to say you have a fair amount of time on your hands. After a short to long wait, you head to Phase Two.
Phase Two is academics. You will take seven tests: Aerodynamics, Engines, Flight Rules and Regulations, Navigation, Weather, and Flight Prep. Classes typically are three to four days long. You will take ~2 tests a week. The minimum passing score is an 80. Class averages usually hover in the low to mid 90s. This is your first exposure to flight school learning: learning stuff you knew nothing about in a short amount of time and then being evaluated on your comprehension soon after your introduction. In less words, the fire hose. If you fail a test, you get a pink sheet (UNSAT grade sheets are printed in pink) a PRB and a roll to the next class. Two fails might mean you're done. The difficulty is not the material itself, but rather the volume of it. Not all of it is need to know and determining which information is fluff can be hard. After you pass your last test (Flight Prep), you have your first big milestone of your Naval Aviation career: Flight Suit Friday. You take all your tests in khakis/chucks/trops. You have proved you can hang knowledge wise and now can wear the bag! You also get to drink at the O Club with your classmates! Next, you head to the airplane.
Phase Three is flying. You get seven flights in a Cessna 172. You complete takeoffs, landings, aerial maneuver, and emergency procedures training. Every flight begins with a brief on items you are assigned to learn about for that day's flight. They can vary from airspace, to airport markings, to a specific maneuver. After the brief, you then head to plane to go fly. Some people get airsick, but airsickness is treatable and the airsickness remediation program in flight school has something like a 98% success rate. Your last flight is a checkride and then it is off to Phase Four.
Phase Four consists of two days of training and the lag time between finishing the course and graduation. The two days of training are land survival and water survival. Land survival focuses on ejection, survival radios, and parachuting. Water survival is mainly focused on swimming with flight gear on, helicopter rescue, ejecting over water, and underwater egress. This is where you'll do the infamous helo dunker. You have to do three rides (two day and one night/blindfolded). Pretty much everyone makes it through. The instructors are really good about easing you into it. After that, pilots will do PCS admin and NFOs will do admin to head to their Primary squadron, VT-10. Pilots will head to NAS Whiting Field in Milton, FL (just outside Pensacola) or NAS Corpus Christi for Primary.
Step 3: Primary Flight Training/Training Air Wing Four/Five/NAS Corpus Christi/NAS Whiting Field-North:
You will fly the T-6B Texan II, which is a high-performance, aerobatic, single-engine turboprop. You will fly with Navy, Marine, Coast Guard, and sometimes Air Force and international instructors. You will get around 70 hours and will cover basic airmanship (turns, landings, straight and level, stalls, emergencies, etc.), aerobatics, formation flying, instrument navigation, and visual navigation. It varies, but I'd say the average time to train is 6-9 months. You will learn a lot of information quickly and you will be expected to apply that information while flying the plane. Every flight is graded which is how they rank students when it comes to selection. After you complete Primary, you will select (in reality, you will be assigned) an aircraft track to fly. The choices are Jets, E-2s, Maritime (P-8s), Helos, CMV-22s and E-6s for Navy. Marines can select Jets, Helos, C-130s, or MV-22s. Coast Guard SNAs will either select Helos or Fixed-Wing. They are assigned with the following priorities: 1. Needs of the service 2. Your performance 3. Your preferences. You will only put your top three preferences down if you are Navy. Both Navy and Marine Jets and E-2s require you to be in the top half of your class to be considered. After your selection, you'll head to one of many different places for Intermediate and Advanced training.
Step 3.5: Intermediate Flight Training/Training Air Wing Four/Five/NAS Corpus Christi/NAS Whiting Field-South:
Both (C)MV-22s and E-2s have Intermediate syllabi. In other words, they will do an abridged syllabus at an Advanced location. -22s will do an abridged helicopter syllabus before heading to Multi-Engine Advanced and E-2s will do an abridged multi-engine syllabus before heading to Jet Advanced.
Step 4: Advanced Flight Training/Training Air Wing One/Two/Four/Five/NAS Meridian/NAS Kingsville/NAS Corpus Christi/NAS Whiting Field-South:
Advanced builds on the foundation set in Primary and applies it to aircraft resembling your ultimate platform. You also gain a basic exposure to skills required to operate in the Fleet (I.e. Helo students will learn logistics while Jet students will learn BFM). NAS Meridian and NAS Kingsville host Jet Advanced (T-45C) (E-2s do the first part of Jet Advanced for their Advanced), NAS Corpus Christi hosts Multi-Engine Advanced (T-44C), and NAS Whiting Field hosts Helo Advanced (TH-57/TH-73). I selected E-6s, so I am in Multi-Engine Advanced. For my syllabus, we learn crew coordination, single-engine handling (what happens when an engine fails), advanced instrument navigation, and concepts relating to handling large and complex aircraft (autopilot operation, usage of flight management computers, etc.). Crew coordination sounds easy, but it takes getting used to. In the T-6, you fly as if you are single-piloted. You run the checklists, fly the plane, talk on the radio, and set up the navigation systems. In the T-44 we have standard duties, phraseology, and procedures to ensure we back each other up. An easy example is the pilot not flying will say the checklist while the pilot flying will do the action item. Another example is that the pilot not flying will handle the radio communication so the pilot flying can focus on flying and the aircraft systems. Like Primary, every flight is graded. Multi-Engine Advanced is unique in the sense that most people know where they are headed. Marine C-130s will choose which squadron location they'll go to and Coast Guard will pick their location, and by virture, aircraft. For Navy, we know showing up where we are headed. Other Advanced locations will again have students select a coast and final platform (Ex. F/A-18s East, F-35s, F/A-18 West, EA-18Gs for Jet Advanced). After you finish, you get your wings of gold and you are a Naval Aviator!
There is my brief write-up. I could go into a lot of detail, but I can only write so much! Ask away!
Step 1: Commissioning. Whether it is through USNA, NROTC, OCS, SSMP, USCGA, USMMA, PLC or any other program, congrats and welcome to the Officer Corps! In aviation, being an ENS/2nd Lt is not a bad life. People don't expect too much out of you (i.e. not a lot of responsibility) and you get a decent paycheck.
Step 1.5: Marines complete TBS. I am Navy, so I headed straight down Pensacola after my TAD time at USNA, but new Marines go to learn the rifleman stuff for 6 months in Quantico.
Step 2: Naval Introductory Flight Evaluation (NIFE)/Naval Aviation Schools Command/NAS Pensacola:
NIFE is a four-phase program. The course is identical for all branches and designators (Pilot and NFO). There also could be other designators like flight surgeons or AVOs (UAV pilots) in your class. The Navy also provides flight training to allied countries, so you will most likely see international students too. Phase One is known as A-Pool and you complete water survival training, get your initial NAMI flight physical completed, do an inventory PRT (called the APIT), knock out a couple classes on ethics and Naval Aviation history, and muster. I also heard they just started a JO course to keep all the new students busy. Otherwise, your time is yours. Some people pick up a hobby, others day drink, most people go to the beach, but needless to say you have a fair amount of time on your hands. After a short to long wait, you head to Phase Two.
Phase Two is academics. You will take seven tests: Aerodynamics, Engines, Flight Rules and Regulations, Navigation, Weather, and Flight Prep. Classes typically are three to four days long. You will take ~2 tests a week. The minimum passing score is an 80. Class averages usually hover in the low to mid 90s. This is your first exposure to flight school learning: learning stuff you knew nothing about in a short amount of time and then being evaluated on your comprehension soon after your introduction. In less words, the fire hose. If you fail a test, you get a pink sheet (UNSAT grade sheets are printed in pink) a PRB and a roll to the next class. Two fails might mean you're done. The difficulty is not the material itself, but rather the volume of it. Not all of it is need to know and determining which information is fluff can be hard. After you pass your last test (Flight Prep), you have your first big milestone of your Naval Aviation career: Flight Suit Friday. You take all your tests in khakis/chucks/trops. You have proved you can hang knowledge wise and now can wear the bag! You also get to drink at the O Club with your classmates! Next, you head to the airplane.
Phase Three is flying. You get seven flights in a Cessna 172. You complete takeoffs, landings, aerial maneuver, and emergency procedures training. Every flight begins with a brief on items you are assigned to learn about for that day's flight. They can vary from airspace, to airport markings, to a specific maneuver. After the brief, you then head to plane to go fly. Some people get airsick, but airsickness is treatable and the airsickness remediation program in flight school has something like a 98% success rate. Your last flight is a checkride and then it is off to Phase Four.
Phase Four consists of two days of training and the lag time between finishing the course and graduation. The two days of training are land survival and water survival. Land survival focuses on ejection, survival radios, and parachuting. Water survival is mainly focused on swimming with flight gear on, helicopter rescue, ejecting over water, and underwater egress. This is where you'll do the infamous helo dunker. You have to do three rides (two day and one night/blindfolded). Pretty much everyone makes it through. The instructors are really good about easing you into it. After that, pilots will do PCS admin and NFOs will do admin to head to their Primary squadron, VT-10. Pilots will head to NAS Whiting Field in Milton, FL (just outside Pensacola) or NAS Corpus Christi for Primary.
Step 3: Primary Flight Training/Training Air Wing Four/Five/NAS Corpus Christi/NAS Whiting Field-North:
You will fly the T-6B Texan II, which is a high-performance, aerobatic, single-engine turboprop. You will fly with Navy, Marine, Coast Guard, and sometimes Air Force and international instructors. You will get around 70 hours and will cover basic airmanship (turns, landings, straight and level, stalls, emergencies, etc.), aerobatics, formation flying, instrument navigation, and visual navigation. It varies, but I'd say the average time to train is 6-9 months. You will learn a lot of information quickly and you will be expected to apply that information while flying the plane. Every flight is graded which is how they rank students when it comes to selection. After you complete Primary, you will select (in reality, you will be assigned) an aircraft track to fly. The choices are Jets, E-2s, Maritime (P-8s), Helos, CMV-22s and E-6s for Navy. Marines can select Jets, Helos, C-130s, or MV-22s. Coast Guard SNAs will either select Helos or Fixed-Wing. They are assigned with the following priorities: 1. Needs of the service 2. Your performance 3. Your preferences. You will only put your top three preferences down if you are Navy. Both Navy and Marine Jets and E-2s require you to be in the top half of your class to be considered. After your selection, you'll head to one of many different places for Intermediate and Advanced training.
Step 3.5: Intermediate Flight Training/Training Air Wing Four/Five/NAS Corpus Christi/NAS Whiting Field-South:
Both (C)MV-22s and E-2s have Intermediate syllabi. In other words, they will do an abridged syllabus at an Advanced location. -22s will do an abridged helicopter syllabus before heading to Multi-Engine Advanced and E-2s will do an abridged multi-engine syllabus before heading to Jet Advanced.
Step 4: Advanced Flight Training/Training Air Wing One/Two/Four/Five/NAS Meridian/NAS Kingsville/NAS Corpus Christi/NAS Whiting Field-South:
Advanced builds on the foundation set in Primary and applies it to aircraft resembling your ultimate platform. You also gain a basic exposure to skills required to operate in the Fleet (I.e. Helo students will learn logistics while Jet students will learn BFM). NAS Meridian and NAS Kingsville host Jet Advanced (T-45C) (E-2s do the first part of Jet Advanced for their Advanced), NAS Corpus Christi hosts Multi-Engine Advanced (T-44C), and NAS Whiting Field hosts Helo Advanced (TH-57/TH-73). I selected E-6s, so I am in Multi-Engine Advanced. For my syllabus, we learn crew coordination, single-engine handling (what happens when an engine fails), advanced instrument navigation, and concepts relating to handling large and complex aircraft (autopilot operation, usage of flight management computers, etc.). Crew coordination sounds easy, but it takes getting used to. In the T-6, you fly as if you are single-piloted. You run the checklists, fly the plane, talk on the radio, and set up the navigation systems. In the T-44 we have standard duties, phraseology, and procedures to ensure we back each other up. An easy example is the pilot not flying will say the checklist while the pilot flying will do the action item. Another example is that the pilot not flying will handle the radio communication so the pilot flying can focus on flying and the aircraft systems. Like Primary, every flight is graded. Multi-Engine Advanced is unique in the sense that most people know where they are headed. Marine C-130s will choose which squadron location they'll go to and Coast Guard will pick their location, and by virture, aircraft. For Navy, we know showing up where we are headed. Other Advanced locations will again have students select a coast and final platform (Ex. F/A-18s East, F-35s, F/A-18 West, EA-18Gs for Jet Advanced). After you finish, you get your wings of gold and you are a Naval Aviator!
There is my brief write-up. I could go into a lot of detail, but I can only write so much! Ask away!
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