Ospreys

[powder]

Hi all.

This is my first post, but I've been keeping up with the forum for about a year now (MECEP Marine from NC State currently at API).

Quick question. I haven't seen an update on this for a couple of months. For any of you guys at the Primary squadrons, what's the current gouge on Ospreys? I know that they're about half-way through with the final operational eval, and barring that six of those birds go into the drink in the next few weeks, will start full rate production in the fall. Is there any word on when the pipeline might open up further? Have sna's been selecting them lately? I know that they've occasionally taken a few pilots, but has it become a normal thing or just every once in a while? Thanks.

 

[hendogg311]

The word around primary is they are going to start selecting more people for ospreys after the final certification for full production. I think the average up to this point has been about 1-2 every other month. THe other word I heard was thet some of the guys with high NSS in Primary and are now in Helo's might transition to Ospreys as well. Thats the gouge I've heard.

 

[gaijin6423]

They've already selected a few people out of primary, mainly as test cases for the split training pipeline. I know of six people that got it, all of them with an NSS between 50 and 64. They did/are doing a partial TC-12 syllabus here at VT-35 (minus the single engine portion, I believe) before going to Whiting for the full helo syllabus. I want to say that one or two of them did the helo portion first before coming to Corpus. Haven't heard of anyone getting ospreys for at least a month or two, though.

 

[phrogdriver]

I'm amazed that this thread has been alive almost 4 hours without some wiseass saying something negative about the aircraft. I would think that the Corps is waiting until it has a timeline for the second VMM before it tries to put more Lts into the pipe. As it stands, with the few they've selected so far, they should have almost have enough junior personnel for the first squadron. This is just my personal observation, not special info or anything. It's having bodies for the second and third that will probably be harder to plan for. You need enough butts to fill the seats, but not so many that students have to sit for months waiting their turns. Finally--every TBS class since 1985 or so has been told they'll be able to fly the Osprey. The predictions have finally come to pass.

 

[KBayDog]

I eavesdropped on the Ops folks yesterday; supposedly there was an Osprey selection this week.

 

[gyrene]

I eavesdropped on the Ops folks yesterday; supposedly there was an Osprey selection this week.

yes, a student was selected for ospreys this last thursday. the first in a couple months.