Another story from UPT (87-04) My IP was a real hard ass who proudly displayed 12 "Dollar Ride" dollar bills under the glass of his desk...He told me on the first day of UPT that only one of those studs graduated, he washed the others out!! As we started flying the mighy Tweet, he'd get angry over something I did and curse at me a little....nothing too vulgar (I'm from NYC) afterwards in the debrief, He'd always apologize about the cursing part. After a few rides like this I told him.."Lt Morton, you don't have to apologize for cursing at me, matter of fact you can call me anything you want, just teach me to fly" He leaned back in his chair with a gleen in his eye and smiles and tells me " Vito, you got it all wrong, I'm not here to teach you to fly, I'm here to wash your sorry ass out! If you can get through me, then you deserve your wings!" I kid you not!!! But it turned out he took a liking to me, probably because I looked like Chuck Yeager compared to my other 2 tablemates (each IP had 3 studs) and I managed to do well. Not all IP's were like him, some were real laid back and really helped their students along, but most had been ****ted-on by their IP's and dished it out to us like they were treated when they went through. I thought it was part of the program to see how much pressure students could handle....either way not one of the students in my class (around 60+) ever came back from a busted 89 ride, so it was 3 strikes your out, and in reality if you busted an 88 ride, guys were under a huge magnifying glass and only a few manged to pass an 89....