block30

Looks like you have received plenty of good advice. All I was posting, though, was that I came across a website that was unabashedly full of crap. I was expecting it was actually run by someone with no military background, let alone military flying background. But I was wrong.

By the way I am planning on writing in USMCFLYR and HSLD in the presidential elections this fall. You will have to decide amongst yourselves who is president and who is vice.

USMCFLYR

Since politicians hold a solid place in my most hated three - - I'll have to respectfully decline the nomination of my.........Block30
Plus - I seem to always be a bridesmaid and never the bride, so vice seems to be my usual title

USMCFLYR

Fishfreighter

You're right about the PPL thing, USMC. Now that I think about it, there was one character in Primary when I was there who had a LOT of prior flight time...1500 hours, I think.

He ended up washing out because he couldn't get the hang of a turning base to final...kept squaring off his patterns. They boarded him out with 3 downs before he even hit BI.

Too much prior flight time can hurt you if you won't adjust to the "Navy" way of flying an approach. Wasn't a problem for me since I had ZERO prior flying experience.

XHooker

Fishfreighter, honestly, I haven't even looked at the website in question but I agree with both you and USMC. Even a little flight time is huge in primary for the reasons you mentioned regarding the USN/USMC selection process. I was a T-34 (missed the T-28 by a year)/T-2/TA-4 type. My observation was exactly what USMC saw. Flight time was a huge advantage in Primary. By Intermediate Jet, not so much. By Advanced Jet, it didn't matter. In my timeframe, I saw guys with hundreds of hours wash out of jets, yet the top student for CNATRA for the year (I'm told... in any event, he was eyewatering good) had over a thousand hours, so read that as you will. In general, flight time will help, but it'll only carry you so far.

A couple of other things: The needs of the service trump all. You might be number one in your class and want jets, but if it's all helos, that's what you're flying. As of about 30 years ago, the AF scoring matrix for recruiters gave you credit for a private pilots license, while the Sea Services couldn't care less.

USMCFLYR

This is the NUMBER ONE thing that every person with prior flight experience ought to zero in on when in training. You can't hide it, so the early gouge about trying not to let your instructors know is just rubbish in my opinion. Just the way you run a checklist shows experience. I had a student in the Hornet once who got the thing started and out of the chocks 10 minutes faster or so than most first timers. I asked him in the debrief if he had flight time outside of the military and it came out that he had a few thousand - some corporate and commuter time. He was a very solid pilot and is no doubt handling himself well in the fleet at this very moment. Interestingly enough though - he did NOT finish first in his class in any particular phase of training (and for you USN types - he wasn't even a 'must pump')

The benefit comes from quite confidence and basic abilities.

XHooker - Marines are famous for the helo draft! I think they would still give the number one guy his choice but the other 4 out of 5 for example might be destined depending on the week. The number one USN guy in my selection week chose helos (hoping for Seahawks) and a Marine a little further down the line chose helos first because he was hoping (and did) follow his dad into Cobras.

USMCFLYR

XHooker

Top Marine in my primary selection class chose one of the handful of annual KC-130 slots (his grades were almost unbelievable), the top Navy stud chose P-3s, and a Navy guy with better grades than me chose helos (hoping to become one of the first Seahawk pilots... he did). Four years later, while I was doing a mini det off the boat in Sigonella, I ran into the P-3 guy at the old "Fly Trap" bar in the BOQ. I contrasted his life, living ashore, collecting per diem, access to the things we had little if any of on the boat (booze, decent food, live American sports on TV, women, etc.) to mine. Kind of reminds me of that letter from a C-130 pilot to a HS student who wants to go to the AF Academy and become a fighter pilot.

USMCFLYR

True - KC-130s were the hardest slot to get because there were so few in the USMC - especially if you wanted one - the timing had to be right right. Maybe they could *make* a slot available if a top student wanted the slot - I don't know.

My next door neighbor in Jacksonville my first time was a P-3 guy. What a different lifestyle from the rest of the USN/USMC. They sure knew their circuit breakers Yeah - det life seemed to be the envy of all. I don't know of another aviation sea service who had everyday life so good, except maybe the Coast Guard. I still think I missed my calling sometimes with them.

USMCFLYR

ipdanno

-----Original Message-----
Subject:
To LtCol Van Wxxxxxx:
Sir I am DJ Baker and I would appreciate it if you could tell me
what it takes to be an F16 fighter pilot of the USAF. What classes should I take in high school to help the career I want to take later in my life.
What could I do to get in the academy.
Sincerely
DJ Baker

-----Original Message-----
Subject: FW:
Anybody want to help this poor kid from Cyberspace?
"Vee Dub"
AETC Fighter Requirements, AETC/XPRF

------------------------------------------------------------

Subject: RE: Help for an Aspiring Fighter Pilot
Dear DJ,
Obviously, through no fault of your own, your young, impressionable brain
has been poisoned by the superfluous, hyped-up, "Top Gun" media portrayal of fighter pilots. Unfortunately, this portrayal could not be further from the truth. In my experience, I've found most fighter pilots pompous, back-stabbing, momma's boys with inferiority complexes, as well as being extremely over-rated aeronautically. However, rather than dash your budding dreams of becoming an USAF pilot, I offer the following alternative. What you REALLY want to aspire to is the exiting, challenging, and rewarding world of TACTICAL AIRLIFT. And this, young DJ, means one thing-the venerable, workhorse C-130! I can guarantee no fighter pilot can brag that he has led a 12-ship formation down a valley at 300 ft above the ground, while trying to interpret a 9-line to a new DZ, avoiding pop-up threats, and coordinating with AWACS, all while eating a box lunch, with the engineer in the back taking a pi$$ and the navigator puking in his trash can! I tell you, DJ, TAC Airlift is where it's at. Where else is it legal to throw tanks, HMMWVs, and other crap out the back of an airplane, and not even worry about it when the chute doesn't open and it torpedos the General's staff car! No where else can you land on a 3000' dirt strip, kick a bunch of ammo and stuff off the ramp without even stopping, then take off again before range control can call to tell you you've landed on the wrong LZ! And talk about exotic travel--when C-130s go somewhere, they GO somewhere (usually for 3 months, unfortunately). This gives you the opportunity to immerse yourself in the culture enough to give any local population a bad taste in their mouths, not something those strat-lift pilots can do from their airport hotel rooms!

As far as recommendations for your course of study, I offer these. Take a
lot of math courses. You will need all the advanced math skills you can
muster to facilitate the calculation of per diem rates around the world, and when trying to split up the crew's bar tab so that the co-pilot really
believes he owes 85% of the whole thing. Health sciences are important,
too. You will need a thorough knowledge of biology to make those educated guesses of how much longer you can drink beer before the tremendous case of the shidz catches up to you from that meal you ate at that place that had the belly dancers in some God-forsaken foreign country whose name you can't even pronounce! Social studies are also beneficial. It is important for a good TAC Airlifter to have the cultural knowledge to be able to ascertain the exact location of the nearest ti++y bar in any country in the world, then be able to convince the local authorities to release the loadmaster after he offends every sensibility of the local religion and culture. A foreign language is helpful, but not required. You will never be able to pronounce the names of the NAVAIDs in France, and it's much easier to ignore them and go where you want to anyway. A study of geography is also paramount. You will need to know the basic location of all the places you've been when you get back from your TDY and are ready to stick those little pins in that huge world map you've got taped to your living room wall, right next to that gigantic wooden giraffe statue and beer stein collection.

Well, DJ, I hope this little note inspires you. And by the way, forget about that Academy thing. All TAC Airlifters know that there are waaay too few women and too little alcohol there to provide a well-balanced education.
A nice, big state college would be a much better choice. Good luck and see you on the SKE scope!

Maj. Xxxxxxx Xxxxxx
C-130 Program Manager

VSTOLG4

Couldn't help but notice the "Jump-Jet" on the cover of his "how to be a fighter pilot book". If you called yourself a fighter pilot in my Harrier ready rooms the music would stop, the beer chugging would cease, the pole dancers would close their legs...just sayin...

USMCFLYR

I was going to mention the same thing, but you guys were excited about getting AIM-120 back in the day so I didn't want to seem INsensitive

USMCFLYR