FWIW, there have been a few guys who go through Vance, and then have trouble adapting to the Navy's way of teaching things in Advanced. Vance guys seem to have a tougher time in the BI & RI sims down here in Kingsville than do guys who did Primary at Corpus or Whiting.
Plus Ive heard AF guys who went through Whiting say that they liked the Navy way of doing things better. Ive never heard a guy who went to Vance say that he would rather be back in AF training.
I'm kind of tired of hearing how my training was sub par and lackluster because I went somewhere outside of a red and white plane (or is it orange and white? i still can't figure out what to call that color).
"Vance Guys (insert comment about how we can't walk and chew gum, can't think on our feet, don't adapt to the navy style of training etc ad nauseum)"
It'd be interesting to see what percent from each training field fail to wing in advanced/how the NSS's stack up at the end.
Bottom line on the T-6:
It's a brand new airplane, with 3 times the torque and almost 3 times the horsepower of the T-34.
It can be a bitch to fly in the beginning because of how much power it has. It will be fun to fly when you get to do tailchase at 6.99999 g's and over the top maneuvers in formation. From hearing about formation flights down here, and watching them from the beach while sipping on a margarita or landshark, they don't compare with how we flew the texan in the 'Nid.
You will be responsible for planning your mission profiles on your own, no handholding there. You are responsible for making sure your training is finished and up to MIF when it needs to be, or you will get screwed over. Every week, you'll take a test on different chapters of the -1 (NATOPs). For instance, one week all of the stuff in chapters 1,2,4,9,10 of the Dash 1, chapters 2-8 of the 11-201, and chapters 2-6 of the 11-217 are fair game. 20 Questions, miss more than 3 and your toast. You learn a lot, and you learn it fast, or you get smoked.
Your area solo will be a blast. You will learn how to fly a full GPS procedure, vice RV to final, something a t-34 cannot do, but you won't know how to fly a TACAN approach, because it doesn't have one. You will be able to fly an ILS, and you'll fly a lot of them, another thing the t-34 cannot do. There isn't a squirrel running furiously on a wheel behind the dash. Very rarely will you cancel for maintenance. You will learn how to sarcastically brush off the sweeping generalizations of your fellow navy brethren when you come back to the true blue service for having gone through the "kindergarten flight school program". You will have to burn your flight suit to fix the AF goofiness in patches and pockets and velcro. Letting the zipper down all the way without a FAIP bitching at you will be a relief.
The AF way of training is meant to be a pain in the ass. It shakes out a lot of can't-hack-its really fast. Bottom line, enjoy training no matter where you go. T-6 or T-34, you're still getting paid to learn how to fly in a plane that makes civilians flying a 500K cirrus cream their pants.
