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Summary of Panel Nav in San Antonio

Sabre170

Sabre170

Active Member
None
Its been a while since I posted last, but we have finished FN academics and have a few flights & sims left before we start Intermediate. In FN you learn the RADAR and INS, both are great tools, just takes a while to figure out how to best tune the RADAR. Today we were made aware of the changes instore for us starting next week.... Now there will be a Student Mission Commander (SMC) who will be meeting the Trainning Mission Commander (TMC) at Base Ops 1 hour prior to show time. The SMC will "help" select the route of flight and prepare the brief. There will be three other students who will "help" brief as well. Another new item, is we are no longer required to carry the JSUNT (the old) routes with us. Now we are only responsible for the the three soon to be four primary routes. Last but not least the EP test questions are now starting to have fill in the blank type questions... so make sure you read your dash two and really know the answers... I've already come across two "API" type questions. Good Luck.

Can someone still in Pensacola tell me if people are being selected for San Antonio again, or are y'all still going straight to Jax?
 
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fred_flintstone

SEVAL Extraordinaire
From what I've seen, they usually send about one person every 2 or 3 classes to do the Jax program. Everyone else still goes to Randolph. The trend lately has been only one slot for panel nav per squadron per class. I had P-grad at the end of April and am heading to Randolph in a few weeks (yay!). My roommate had his P-grad this past Thursday and said there was only one slot available, and that guy is headed to San Antonio. The student control guy in my squadron said until the Randolph training is fully transitioned to P-cola, the majority of people selected will still go to Randolph.
 
Sabre170

Sabre170

Active Member
None
Tweeks - Yes Panel was my first choice.
DNWEIN - What has been said down here is that if you select EP-3 you will get it. If you don't you won't... they don't want you there if you don't want it. That being said the CAUTION is that when EP-3s need people a slot will be there for "Drop-Night" (the night when you select) and then someone will get it whether he or she wanted it or not.

We had our Check flight for the Primary phase... the easiest check ride thus far. The sims down here are harder because you are the lead the entire time... in the plane you get to pass lead onto another student... Lead is the person responsible for Comms and tell the pilots when/where to turn and keeping the plane on center line. In the Sims weather is programed around your flight path so you have to request clearance from ATC to divert around Wx etc... They can also mess with you and tell you to decend and if you are not carefull they will decend you into a mountain to see if you are paying attention of where you are.

The next phase (Intermediate or Global) is when we learn about air refueling and timeing becomes a big issue. The Navy guys get frustrated because we do not air refuelable, but the important thing to learn is the timing and fuel calculations. I have been told that we have more responsibility as to when we take off (early or late) and can speed up, slow down, take shortcuts, do what we need to to get to a point on time... here that point is a tanker route but in real world I guess we can view it as op area etc... Good luck to those coming down here. My best advice is enjoy San Antonio and "drink the coolaid" and press the "I believe button" a lot.
 
Sabre170

Sabre170

Active Member
None
You're right... but the word is "There are no more E-6 slots soming out of Randolph". They are full for the fiscal year and starting in October E-6 will come staight from Primary in P'Cola. So now Randolph is for VP and VQ.
 
Sabre170

Sabre170

Active Member
None
We just started Intermediate (IM) this week... this is the part about air refueling and how "it does not affect the Navy because the P3 and EP3 are not air refuelable..." Let me give me two cents... I think this had been the best phase so far... and we haven't even started SIMin or flying yet. This phase teaches stuff I finally have to remember... no more pump and dump. I know we don't air refuel but the point about getting somewhere on time is what matters. The process of running the program yourself... being responsible for the timeing of when you brief, TO, "meet the tanker" to the Op area to landing... being able to replan in flight calculate fuels to make sure we have enough for the diverts etc... is what matters. So if you are on your way down here don't go into IM with the attitude that this sucks because we don't refuel take the good parts and mentally substitute the tanker with a bomb run, photo recon, bouy drop something other than refuel. A lot of this info is good stuff.

That being said... my finger printing experience yesterday sent the Air Force up another gay notch. I filled out the wrong block on my finger print card and was told I had to go back to my unit to get another. I asked if I could just use of the cards there on the finger printing desk and was told no, since I was Navy I had to get one from the Navy. I thought maybe our cards were sent to Norfolk or some Navy place for processing and the Air Force sends their card somewhere else. When I got back with a properly filled out card I looked at the ones on the desk and they were identical. The lady told me that since the cards are so hard to come by that us Navy guys had to get our own and could not use theirs. All the Navy guys here can't wait to get back to the Navy.
 
HalfBreed

HalfBreed

Member
None
Sabre170 said:
You're right... but the word is "There are no more E-6 slots soming out of Randolph". They are full for the fiscal year and starting in October E-6 will come staight from Primary in P'Cola. So now Randolph is for VP and VQ.
Click to expand...

That's kind of what I'm hearing too. When my class graduated primary about one month ago, the number one guy picked panel nav. They were all set up to send him to Jax, but his NSS was too high. Apparently for the test program they want an average NSS of 50 and his would have thrown that average off. So now he is hanging around for a long time until they set up a test program in Oklahoma for guys going E-6 directly out of P-cola.
 
D

dnweinreb

Super DUPER Hornets!
None
One of our guys just got E-6s right out of primary and he says he's gotta sit in Pensacola until september. mmmmmmmmm, watch.
 
Sabre170

Sabre170

Active Member
None
That bites for those of us down here that wanted E-6s. We got here under the impression we had three planes to choose from now we only have two. In my class, all four of us got P-3s. Apparently EP-3s are full for the FY also.
 
Sabre170

Sabre170

Active Member
None
We took our IM test today. It is an open book test... not too difficult just have to know which book you need and where to look (GP, AP-1, AP-1A, AP-1B, AP-2, AP-2A, AP-3, FCG, Air Field Suitablitiy..., and enroute Sups for other countries). We only have four flights and five SIMS left.

The SIM schedule has changed a little, what used to be the 4th SIM is now the second so you are exposed to the AR track along with a more complex route with an OP Area sooner than you used to be. Rumor has it that the 4th SIM used to be the hardest and was nick named Forty FAIR oh One.

We have heard that the flights during IM are easy and more laid back... we will be finished with our flights in one week...
 
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FidelisKing

Registered User
i've heard nothing mentioned so far of marine corps SNFOs, we also train with navy and af SNFO's im assuming. is it any different for us or is all this gouge applicable for me as well?
 
Brett327

Brett327

Well-Known Member
None
Super Moderator
Contributor
FidelisKing said:
i've heard nothing mentioned so far of marine corps SNFOs, we also train with navy and af SNFO's im assuming. is it any different for us or is all this gouge applicable for me as well?
Click to expand...

Well, Marine SNFOs don't do Panel Nav because they only go to TACAIR platforms. Training through the TRACOMs (and Prowler RAG - won't speak for WSOs) is identical.

Brett
 
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