What percent get winged?

[Fezz CB]

...have no basis to comment about the difficulty of flight school.

Ain't nothing personal, that's just how it is. I was enlisted for 10+ years before I got commissioned and flight training is just different from A school/MOS training and the professional development schools you attend as an enlisted sailor/Marine.



Again, save this kind of statement until you've actually completed the training.

Good call Crow. Flight training is a beast on its own. Its good to be confident about getting through. But Ive seen even the most motivated DOR. Walk the walk before you talk the talk about flight training.

 

[jamnww]

...have no basis to comment about the difficulty of flight school.

Ain't nothing personal, that's just how it is. I was enlisted for 10+ years before I got commissioned and flight training is just different from A school/MOS training and the professional development schools you attend as an enlisted sailor/Marine.



Again, save this kind of statement until you've actually completed the training.

Concur 100%, even the motivated fail, and even the willing sometime can't make it. As far as the helo drivers who couldn't land, I would guess there was more at work there and that it was possibly specific to the airframe they were then flying.

 

[insanebikerboy]

...have no basis to comment about the difficulty of flight school.

Ain't nothing personal, that's just how it is. I was enlisted for 10+ years before I got commissioned and flight training is just different from A school/MOS training and the professional development schools you attend as an enlisted sailor/Marine.



Again, save this kind of statement until you've actually completed the training.

I dunno, personally, I think flight school so far is a lot easier and runs just the same as all the other Navy schools I've been through (do it exactly the Navy way, no way else allowed), and gotta agree with the pump, not filter, comment. If it was a filter, I'd think there should be a lot more people being asked to change careers.

I'm just different though, so I may be the odd ball out on this one.

 

[jamnww]

I dunno, personally, I think flight school so far is a lot easier and runs just the same as all the other Navy schools I've been through (do it exactly the Navy way, no way else allowed), and gotta agree with the pump, not filter, comment. If it was a filter, I'd think there should be a lot more people being asked to change careers.

I'm just different though, so I may be the odd ball out on this one.

Or it could just be that you happen to be a smart guy with a lot of experience with how the navy does things so it may come a little easier to you...being a prior nuker and all...

Besides I completely agree that HTs are a "pump" so to speak rather than a filter, but API was definitely a filter (also indicated as such by every CO I have ever talked to) and Primary though a little less of a filter it is still a filter of a sort.

Here is how I always look at it. API is a filter to see who can't pick up the material at the speed the Navy wants. Primary is a filter to see who can't get the coordination or monkey skills down.

 

[phrogpilot73]

...have no basis to comment about the difficulty of flight school.

Ain't nothing personal, that's just how it is. I was enlisted for 10+ years before I got commissioned and flight training is just different from A school/MOS training and the professional development schools you attend as an enlisted sailor/Marine.

Again, save this kind of statement until you've actually completed the training.

Wholeheartedly agree with this! I was prior enlisted as well, and a Naval Academy graduate. I learned how to study in flight school, and can honestly say that portions of it (API and a good portion of Primary) are like nothing I've ever experienced. Just my $.02

 

[Herc_Dude]

Wholeheartedly agree with this! I was prior enlisted as well, and a Naval Academy graduate. I learned how to study in flight school, and can honestly say that portions of it (API and a good portion of Primary) are like nothing I've ever experienced. Just my $.02

Same experience for me as well. I really had to learn a whole new way of studying in API specifically (carried over to primary). In college you can cut it by going to the class and skimming the book. Most def not that way now. Its a pace that I think would surprise the average college kid who complains about his/her 15 credits in one semester...

 

[mustang_wife]

Let's not get into a pissing match about what happened, arguing about it here is not going to get you anywhere.

And just FYI, you can smell liquor on someone well after they have been drinking, even after just one beer. Just ask the Island County Sheriff who pulled me over on July 4th a few years ago, he had me do a field sobriety test after smelling beer on my breath........five hours after I had one. I pased with flying colors........

Yes and Flash, they caught it all on video. "5, 6, 7, and 8......Yeeehaw!" lol. I couldn't resist, it's my favorite ....

 

[insanebikerboy]

Or it could just be that you happen to be a smart guy with a lot of experience with how the navy does things so it may come a little easier to you...being a prior nuker and all...

That notwithstanding, I still say flight school is more of an issue of time/stress management than anything else. True, some people just don't have the coordination to fly, as well as some just can't memorize stuff, but in a learning sense everything is spelled out exactly, so if you organize yourself properly you should be fine. There isn't a great deal of theoretical stuff to learn, except maybe for some aero concepts, and for those parts pushing the I Believe button and putting down the answer the Navy wants will get you through.

I think the common thread I saw in the previous few posts was that most people didn't truely know how to study efficiently, versus quantity or quality. Efficiency, in my opinion, is the most important part and trait of being successful in flight school.

 

[scoober78]

Or it could just be that you happen to be a smart guy with a lot of experience with how the navy does things so it may come a little easier to you...being a prior nuker and all...

I tend to think this is right on the money. Power school was the toughest thing I ever did academically. It is where I learned to learn. Flight school hasn't compared so far because of the foundation I already had laid down in the nuc pipeline and at Cornell.

That notwithstanding, I still say flight school is more of an issue of time/stress management than anything else.

This is true as well however. Its not the material...for most its about pulling your head out of your ass and getting it done and done right...every time...no excuses or extensions.

 

[Herc_Dude]

Nothings going to change about it anyway, bottom line was he did have a beer at the club during lunch 2 hours before going back to class, then later in the day they did the helo hoist. Little sub-par Jimmy (not a real name) saw a way to make it up one more ring in the ladder so he ran to 'daddy' and turned his brother in. Bad headwork by both, IMO. Enough to end a very young career? Apparently yes... Word is spreading fast about little Jimmy in the VTs...

I was wrong. I need to correct the record here ... my source on this info apparently was not credible. This guy decided to tell me a story that was very much different than what really happened. He had services and ranks all mixed up and was trying to protect the guys getting the boot. I feel like a douche. Apologies all around, especially those that I portrayed in the wrong light. Waldo I have only heard names (none spread) in passing about the incident, and they were wrong as well. Good luck.

 

[SemperGumbi]

...save this kind of statement until you've actually completed the training.

I might even take it further to say until you have completed ALL flight school training...like different pipelines.

I thought Primary and API and all was pretty easy compared to jets. I can't speak for Helos or Props.

I have seen guys I thought were pretty darn smart, and pretty darn hard working fail because they didn't have the stick skills they needed. It happens.

 

[bunk22]

I might even take it further to say until you have completed ALL flight school training...like different pipelines.

I thought Primary and API and all was pretty easy compared to jets. I can't speak for Helos or Props.

I have seen guys I thought were pretty darn smart, and pretty darn hard working fail because they didn't have the stick skills they needed. It happens.

Concur on all the above. I never thought primary or intermediate was that difficult, study or flying wise. I'm was an E/C2 guy so my syllabus in the T-2C was the intermediate version of the strike program without the guns. The studying wasn't tough but the flying, two hops a day, having to think a bit quicker was tougher than what I had gone through. I could see where it would be even worse for the jet guys. As far as academics, VAW-120 took the cake on that one. For me, being a rock, the FRS was tough. Never had to know systems like that before. Night carrier landings was also the toughest part of training for me.

 

[danthaman]

That is not how it happened either. Don't start labeling the guy a d-bag and ruining his rep in the VTs if you don't know the story. Of course the guys it happened to are going to say "I just had a beer at lunch 2 hours before."

1) The break for lunch was from 0900-1100. Going to have a beer, even if it is just one, at 0900 when you have high risk training later that day is bad headwork.
2) Don't brag about going home and playing 3 games of beer pong if you only went to the club for a beer with chow.
3) You don't smell of booze from one beer 2 hours after you drank it.
4) It turns out the guys had been drinking the night before and they put on the questionnaire that they hadn't. That integrity violation alone is enough to end someone's "young career."


Would you let a guy who smelled like booze fly with you? What if he told you he only had one beer two hours ago?
Bottom line is, these guys made some mistakes due to bad judgement and were punished for it. They were nice guys and atleast the Navy kept them around.

Myth Busted

My roomate was in these guy's class, and I was in the class behind. After they got back from lunch, several people in class (including my roomate) overheard them bragging about how they went home and played drinking games over lunch. Nothing happened until it became evident that they reeked of alcohol and they were turned in. Why would someone brag about getting trashed at lunch if they really didn't? Then their story was that they just had a beer at lunch and tied one on the night before.

IMO they lack integrity and good judgement and are irresponisble. Behavior like that at this stage of the game should result in them losing their commissions, It doesn't matter if they were nice guys. And BTW, I was told by people in the class that they acted immaturely and were rude towards instructors througout API. I say the Navy is better off without them. If they would do something like this now, what is going to happen when they are responsible for peoples lives?

 

[Flash]

My roomate was in these guy's class, and I was in the class behind. After they got back from lunch, several people in class (including my roomate) overheard them bragging about how they went home and played drinking games over lunch. Nothing happened until it became evident that they reeked of alcohol and they were turned in. Why would someone brag about getting trashed at lunch if they really didn't? Then their story was that they just had a beer at lunch and tied one on the night before.

IMO they lack integrity and good judgement and are irresponisble. Behavior like that at this stage of the game should result in them losing their commissions, It doesn't matter if they were nice guys. And BTW, I was told by people in the class that they acted immaturely and were rude towards instructors througout API. I say the Navy is better off without them. If they would do something like this now, what is going to happen when they are responsible for peoples lives?

So I have to ask, what happened to them?

 

[danthaman]

Last I heard, they weren't going to be aviators, but were still staying in. But that's just heresay. Can't confirm it.