My bad, thanks for keeping me honest!
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The XO when I was in primary told us "NSS is not a perfect system, but if you've got something better, wed love to hear about it"
Grades, checkrides, unsats; even attrition have undeniable elements of luck/timing associated with them.
I wrote it in my own primary write up but for every success story, there’s someone who worked just as hard, but it didn’t line up.
However, if you don't try, you will fail out. Attitude and prep are the only two factors you have/ will continue to have in your control.
But for now, celebrate. You finished primary and congrats on selecting jets!
Grades, checkrides, unsats; even attrition have undeniable elements of luck/timing associated with them.
I wrote it in my own primary write up but for every success story, there’s someone who worked just as hard, but it didn’t line up.
However, if you don't try, you will fail out. Attitude and prep are the only two factors you have/ will continue to have in your control.
But for now, celebrate. You finished primary and congrats on selecting jets!
Here's some more platitudes, brought to you by rum punch next to the pool...
I thought a lot about the system I was a small part of during flight school, I wanted to make sense of it for my own reasons. Here are my thoughts.
NSS is not a number that says how good you CAN be. It's a trajectory. "How fast can you get high". But, there's undoubtedly a correlation to how fast someone learns and how much their capable of.
The "luck" of instructors and the whole conduct of a flight is like sandpaper. One pass and it would be very much luck on whether you got the hard ass, a real gnarly piece of grit who leaves a groove, or the Santa claus who barely takes anything, but let's a knot protrude. Enough passes and repetitions and it evens out.
To labor the analogy, there isn't just a mindless belt sander running things, there are skilled craftsmen watching the process. My NSS was nothing special, but I worked my ass off, made a few good catches and calls, and did my best. What I was good at, bad at, and able to learn better was recognized. I still believe my primary squadron Skipper tipped the scales to push me in the direction that would be good for me and the navy.
The process of flight school is dispassionate and can often feel like "the best you can hope for is apathy". IMO the reward won't be praise very often, but rather self actualization.
And on the flip side, would you rather be the guy who got "lucky" and everyone went easy on? Im no navy seal writing a book, but the hard days you have will make you better sooner and in the long run. I'd take that over being the guy who had it easy and got his world rocked later in the pipeline.
The part about taking notes in the debrief are solid, but i challenge any student to come up with notes for the brief. Tattle on yourself for what you aren't great at (2-3 items) come up with what you think will help and ask your IP what they think.
Don't leave it to them and the grade sheets to make you better.
I thought a lot about the system I was a small part of during flight school, I wanted to make sense of it for my own reasons. Here are my thoughts.
NSS is not a number that says how good you CAN be. It's a trajectory. "How fast can you get high". But, there's undoubtedly a correlation to how fast someone learns and how much their capable of.
The "luck" of instructors and the whole conduct of a flight is like sandpaper. One pass and it would be very much luck on whether you got the hard ass, a real gnarly piece of grit who leaves a groove, or the Santa claus who barely takes anything, but let's a knot protrude. Enough passes and repetitions and it evens out.
To labor the analogy, there isn't just a mindless belt sander running things, there are skilled craftsmen watching the process. My NSS was nothing special, but I worked my ass off, made a few good catches and calls, and did my best. What I was good at, bad at, and able to learn better was recognized. I still believe my primary squadron Skipper tipped the scales to push me in the direction that would be good for me and the navy.
The process of flight school is dispassionate and can often feel like "the best you can hope for is apathy". IMO the reward won't be praise very often, but rather self actualization.
And on the flip side, would you rather be the guy who got "lucky" and everyone went easy on? Im no navy seal writing a book, but the hard days you have will make you better sooner and in the long run. I'd take that over being the guy who had it easy and got his world rocked later in the pipeline.
The part about taking notes in the debrief are solid, but i challenge any student to come up with notes for the brief. Tattle on yourself for what you aren't great at (2-3 items) come up with what you think will help and ask your IP what they think.
Don't leave it to them and the grade sheets to make you better.
I saw it happen to a few Marine SNAs way back when. The OV-10 community got a sudden infusion of talent.
The grass is greener where you fertilize.
You can never go wrong by pointing out an area you know needs improvement. Especially with an off wing. The instructor already knows, or will see it anyway. The instructor might have a technique or approach that will work for you.
As far as primary goes, I think you overestimate the universe of things SMAs do that’s novel. We put you in fairly canned scenarios in fairly contained areas to see if you can talk/fly/think at the same time, plus hit the FTI/FWOP points of performance while keeping everyone safe. There’s a reason your FDO debrief from solo is “Congrats. Everything go okay? Anything you should tell me before we see it on the local news? Okay good, wait a few months before posting the cockpit selfies”
Introspection at an SMA level? I’d largely smile, laugh internally, make a note, and thank them.
The reality is orange and white is teaching you how to fly safely in canned regimes and some tactical fundamentals. What the military actually wants you to do is useful shit with the multi million dollar aircraft they gave you. That doesn’t happen until Level 300 type events and *really* doesn’t happen until you have to teach someone.
Very well said. And along those lines, I’d argue that the FRS is also essentially an indoc course, so like you say, the tactics really arent there until SFWT (or whatever your particular TMS calls their tactics syllabus). But you do get to do cool stuff like shoot the gun, drop live bombs, and the leash is longer with which to hang yourself.