My father-in-law CQ'd in T-28s in the 60s. Still loves plane to this day.

You're not supposed to ask that question. We're still at the sky-is-the-limit stage here. :)

Touché. Lemme in a jet NOW! I wanna go fassssttt!

It was always quite enteratining watching kids learn to fly the Turbo-wheenie. Needless to say most were way behind the curve in the beginning, especially during Approach turn stalls and spins. The old planes had plenty of power, just enough to get you in and out of trouble. The T-6's have even more and I imagine can get you into a little more trouble easier than the T-34's.

Jet engine or props they are all fun to fly. Think, even with the T-6 you get a G-suit and oxygen mask. All the benfits of a jet and none of the glory.

Hell, some of those fast mover pilots were doing strafing missions with less than 200 hours.

:confused:
Can you elaborate a little more please?
Unless you mean in training.

Some of the Naval Aviators were fast tracked into the war zones the first couple years of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

I want to say I got the information from the Speed and Angels Documentary in 2008. I believe the one main character, Jay Consalvi, only had something like 200 hours when he was called upon to give some air support to a convoy that was ambushed by a well planned roadside bomb placement team.

As for helicopters. My buddies in the Army were deployed flying in the war zones with roughly 200-300 hours. Fresh out of Ft. Rucker to fire hellfires on targets. They were basically training in the Apache front seat as a Weapon's Officer. Learning on the fly.

Might happen in the Army help world but not in Naval Aviation tactical aircraft. Add in about another 100 or so at least and IF they were fast tracked (called Pri-A, which means graduating their fleet aircraft's training program and meeting the boat on deployment) MIGHT you be in action right out of the cage.

BDGRJMN - can you give us an idea of what newly winged pilots coming to the Strike/Fighter pipeline might be showing up with and what the average numbers of hours are now in the syllabus?

FlyBoyd - any input on total hours at winging now with the parred down (?) T-45 TST :)
As a point of comparison, I graduated with about 260 hrs.
Cutting out the T-2C phase was suppose to cutting the hours and time to train.

Don't be hatin' on the tweet...that was a fun jet!

I would venture to say they meant 200 hours in that particular airframe.

Times for a Viper guy.
T-37 = 120
T-38 = 150 (counting IFF)
F-16 = 100 (B-course + MQT)

So around 370ish hours before I was combat ready (relative term!)

That's what I was thinking too. That would be about right for a winged, first deployment nugget with a Fallon and boat det. They would have about 200 hours in type or about 425-450 total.