Bingo fuel, PWAK emergency divert.

MikeD said:
It's funny you mention that, because I was just in Florida doing a joint training op with some of our P-3 bretheren in my organization, and there was one guy who is an Air Officer on the planes who had been a former NFO on E-2s. Was on E-2Bs and went through AOCS in 1978 or 79, or thereabouts. In casual conversation, I also asked him about the training pipeline he went through, and he was saying that most of the basic academic training was in AOCS, then after graduation it was right to the E-2 RAG, with a very short amount of months from graduation of AOCS, to getting winged as an NFO at that time back then.
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Yeah, E-2 NFO's still get winged part way through the RAG at VAW-120. It is a pain fest for everyone there from what I understand from my E-2 friends, and it sounds like that comes mostly from the fact that there are a whole lot of unwinged dudes/dudettes running around. IIRC they wing about halfway through the syllabus. All in all, they have a little bit more experience than the P-3 folk......at least when my YG friends went through, it was about 4-5 months of primary in the T-6, then a couple more months in T-1's for intermediate, all at pcola, then off to -120 for the RAG and getting wings. Compared to the Rhino/Prowler WSO studs (no Growler yet at that point), who had the same primary in T-6, then intermediate in T-39's, then advanced in the T-2 or T-45, then wings, then onto the RAG (which isn't appreciably shorter for WSO's than pilots), they all get a bit less experience. The tacair WSO route is only about 8-12 months shorter than the comparative VFA pilot route. Then again, there are like 88 people in a P-3, about 45 in an E-2, and just 2 or 4 in tacair, so I suppose that extra experience is for a reason. A new E-2 controller is, as a generality, effectively comm jamming in a fight, so I have to believe that there is a pretty steep learning curve once they get to the fleet.
 
scoobs said:
So closer to 8 months to become an NFO in the P-3. For a Rhino Pilot from API to Fleet 3 yrs?
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Yeah it seems like most p-3 NFOs hit the fleet before or around the 1 year mark. Any VFA pilot (super hornet or legacy) takes about 3 years minimum. Took me a few months longer than that due to the slow pace at Miramar (compared to the RAGs at Oceana or Lemoore).
 
ian said:
8000 lbs for us is about 20 min of flight.....
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I must have missed something, what are you flying these days? Thought it was Army Helos......unless my perceptions about helo fuel burn rates are wildy inaccurate, I'm guessing you have moved into something very large?
 
///AMG said:
I must have missed something, what are you flying these days? Thought it was Army Helos......unless my perceptions about helo fuel burn rates are wildy inaccurate, I'm guessing you have moved into something very large?
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You're thinking IanJ. This ian, I believe, flies C-5s for the AFRES?
 
///AMG said:
I must have missed something, what are you flying these days? Thought it was Army Helos......unless my perceptions about helo fuel burn rates are wildy inaccurate, I'm guessing you have moved into something very large?
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what MikeD said....
MikeD said:
You're thinking IanJ. This ian, I believe, flies C-5s for the AFRES?
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one could only hope :D....AD for me...moving to the MC-12 next year for 3 years or so
 
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