Dkdarnoc,
Those were drops for Laughlin(XL), Vance and Columbus.
I agree with flieger the airframe is the bonus winging is the goal....unless you get FAIP at Laughlin
~ If you have been to Del Rio you'll understand.
The thing is after a grueling year of your life your perspective changes. You enter on Day 1 with dreams of a certain airframe. By winging those dreams have been replaced with just give me thos damn wings, and any airframe will be fine with me.
What I meant by pretty is not just the airframe, but also the % that were getting fighters (Fs) I know for our DS he told us the night before drop he didn't care at all what he got as long as it didn't start with an E. His fiance had said she didn't care if it had an E, she didn't want it to start with a T. his drop was just a few months ago were 22s and 16s. The 10s were not dropping a lot because of the fact that they were looking like becoming boneyard.
~ That plane has more lives than a cat.
UPT does not get any easier after phase 1 In our DSs class @25% were FEBd during the T1/38 phase, the same amount as the T6 phase.
Every class is unique when it comes to how many want heavies and how many want fighters. I also think that as they get closer to track night they become more realistic of which track they will go, almost as if they start weeding theirself into tracks. They basically, or at least our DSs class had a ballpark regarding the number going heavy vs fighter a month or so out.
~ In our DSs class there was 1 of the students that could have tracked fighters, but wanted the C130 (he was prior E, maintainer on the 130) The rest that went heavy would have gone heavy just from a pure rack and stack system.
~ There are years that many of the top grads want heavies. One reason is the fallacy that they will get hired faster by the airlines later on, key word is fallacy. Airlines like heavy pilots, but they also know that the fighter guys graduated at the top of their class, so they are desired by the airlines too.
Every drop will also be different. It is luck and timing regarding what is dropped and how many, which is out of the control of the student.
~The one thing I learned at DSs winging is the wings play a game of switch sometimes like the NFL draft. I.E. they know that nobody in their group asked for a 15, but they got one, and at another base they didn't get that so they will swap their 16 for the 15.
Good luck to your DS. If you have not read raimius's blog on the AFA forum. I would read it. It somewhere in the bowels over there (look around March). It is a very good read.