Flight school update
By lex, on June 16th, 2006
Several months ago, a newly commissioned ensign heading down to Pensacola asked for some flight school advice. Your humble scribe offered up what few scraps and tatters he could dredge up from the deep well of ancient history, but what really added flavor to the stew were the comments from other naval aviators, past and present.
Like a good young officer, attentive to his duty, the ensign writes back now to update us of his progress:
Hello sir, this is Ensign P – I received some flight school advice from you back in October when I first reported to Pensacola for API. I just wanted to give you an update on how things are going and tell you that you’re advice has been right on the money so far.
Yesterday was my contact check-ride and first solo flight in the T-34C. I finished up API in late February and moved to Corpus Christi to start up Primary in the beginning of March. Believe it or not, it’s taken me a few months to get to this point even with no med-downs or any other significant delays in training. I think a combination of scheduling backups and weather has kept things a little slow, but the skies have been clearing up as we move into summer down here. The syllabus so far has included some ground school, a few simulator events (focusing on emergency procedures), basic instruments, and then the 13 contact familiarization flights and solo. It’s been a lot of fun so far, and I feel pretty fortunate to be one of the students that thought they were going to love it, and actually do. That was one of the first schocks of flight school – seeing guys that were so motivated find out that they have airsickness troubles or simply realize “it’s not what they expected” and go elsewhere. I’m just grateful that I wasn’t prone to either of those outcomes.
The first flight was probably the coolest thing I’ve ever done, at least that’s what I told people for like three days afterwards. The bubble-canopy, turbo-prop, and low wing were all new to me, and just a little bit more exciting than the Cessna 172 I had logged time in back at school. Thirteen flights later, and I’m saying the same thing again after my solo. It’s amazing to me how efficiently/effectively the Navy gets students through training. I know they’ve been at it for a long time and everything, but it’s still pretty wild for those of us who can’t believe what we’ve committed to memory in such a short amount of time (even plebe summer doesn’t compare). As far as the flying itself goes, I don’t profess to fall into the “natural” category (there’s always plenty of people in the ready-room who already make those claims), but the basic airwork stuff came pretty easily and flying the plane has been really enjoyable. I think where it gets hard is putting in the time to commit procedures to memory and preparing adequately for each and every flight. This is where you can separate yourself considerably from your peers. Like you said though, you can create your own luck – and having a good brief generally translates to having a good flight. I feel like I’m typing your advice right back to you, but hopefully that shows that what you told me has paid dividends here so far. Next I’ll be heading to radio-instrument ground school, and finishing with aerobatics and formations sometime in August. I definitely understand what you said about taking things one flight at a time. Those golden wings seem so much more impressive now than they did on the company officer’s back at school. There are glimpses of what may lie ahead though.
Every now and then I’ll see a T-45 from Kingsville in the break or a cross-country Hornet exit via vertical departure (you know…for spacing purposes) and it’s more than enough to recage the focus. Then again the simple fact that I get paid to fly such a fun little airplane over the beach every day is sufficient to silence the occasional complaints. Anyways, I’ll cut the cheeseball routine short and say thanks again for the help and advice – both from you and the fellow bloggers. I’ll keep you posted as the process continues.
Very respectfully,
(Name withheld)
Well thanks very much for writing back, and bringing back so many happy memories. You’ll maybe get tired of hearing senior officers say that they wish they could trade places with you, but there it is – suck it up, it goes with the turf, noblesse oblige, etc.
Oh, and for the youngsters in primary flight ready rooms who claim to be “naturals”? That’s what other people call you – no one is a natural who calls himself one. Folks like that are what is known in the insurance industry as an “actuarial risk.”
Gouge.