As a blue and white T-6 pilot here in Pensacola, I've spoken to many and most agree that the blue and white paint scheme is easier to see than the orange and white...including some of the guys standing up the T-6 FITU at Whiting. But that decision was made way above all of our heads. What they didn't realize when they made that decision, was that you had to change the entire supply line for the new colored airplanes since replacement parts (such as a flap or an aileron) come pre-painted from the factory.
The other part of the puzzle that many of you may not know, is that Whiting is having to configure the north MOA for T-6B use, since you cannot spin the T-6 below 10K. So just like the South MOA, the North MOA (which has up to now been used for little more than BI/RI work), will be sectioned off for FAM work as well.

To answer the original question, yes...the Air Force is standing up their own squadron for training all of the Air Force Navs. They will fly T-6s, T-1s, and the 737s that they are bringing here from Randolph. They will not have students or airplanes for a few months, so their T-6 IPs (most of which are already here flying T-6s for the Navy) will be flying with the Navy squadrons to maintain currency until the AF gets their T-6s and their students. The T-1 jobs are currently contract pilots, but there is talk of making GS jobs...I doubt it will be active duty guys doing the T-1 flying.

 

That's the tail wagging the dog as far as the paint scheme goes - if the Navy is going to buy x-hundred of those airplanes, they can designate the paint scheme. I don't see why, after tens of thousands of aircraft have been bought by the military, we need to change the supply chain process now.

Also, we are flying military aircraft, it does a student good to have to work to maintain visual/tally.

 

Back in the day, the T-1s were flown by active duty pilots. It was perhaps the best flying job ever created by the USAF.

 

The T-39D/G/N SabreLiners and T-47A Citations had been flown by contract pilots out of NAS Pensacola for as long as I can remember. As you said - it is known to be one of the best jobs out there and an extremely hard group to break into for those outside of the 'club'. I assume that those same civilian contract pilots have been flying the T-1As since 2004?

USMCFLYR

 

A friend of mine about to retire was an active duty T-39 pilot with VT-86. He's with TW-6 in P-cola. A former Hornet driver.

 

I might know him - PM me his name. I've known a few of the civilian contractors to fly with them. One former squadronmate and a former CO. Seems most were AT LEAST former squadron COs if not MAG COs or higher even! If they have active duty flying with them now then I wonder if that is something rather new (last 5 years or so). I'll have to do some searching and asking around once I get back to work.

USMCFLYR

 

I'm sure it was contract pilots well before 2004 -- but my memory is hazy. I went to the great escape up in Milton back in '98 while at the same time I had some frieds down at the nav school. I recall that the T-1 NAV trainers lost their active duty pilots sometime around the same time I was in VT-3. I could be wrong but that's what I seem to remember.

Are the T-34s completely phased out of Whiting Field? I was in Northwest FL for all of August and I didn't see one flying. Just curious..

 

Funny story, does anyone remember Cujo, the legendary T-34C IP at Whiting .. circa late 1998?

He was my instructor for the form phase. While doing the stupid inverted flight demo, my harness unbuckled and I fell onto the canopy. I was unable to reach the mic on the power lever so I was unable to tell him to knock it off. Unfortunately, it didn't matter because he was watching the entire thing, sitting there laughing hysterically. I swear, I checked that harness good before we started manuevering. Good tmes.

 

It is my understanding that the T-34s have been phased out of Pensacola for quite some time now but none of the T-34s have been phased out of the Whiting. It sounds like VT-3 is planned on being to the first pilot training squadron to transition.

USMCFLYR

 

Do they still have the reserve T-34C unit there? Is that just for Navy/USMC or is it USAF as well?

I think the reason why Whiting took so long was that the OLFs had to be extended to meet the minimum field length for the T-6. I remember that being a big stink when it was selected.