Re: What is on this F111 Ardvark?
What is up with the Saudi's and Indian students being bad students? Is it a cultural or language barrier, lack of practice, lack of studying, entitlement, etc
Don't forget there are white lies, big lies, and statistics...
Let me be more clear, with the Indians, they normally do really well in primary flight training. In India, they go through their primary program and only the top of the class come to the US. The reason is, all of them will eventually fly the Mig-29 (these are Indian Navy student pilots). They use are services as they don't have the capability to train students at the boat yet. Of course, being they are going strike, they have to meet the same 50 NSS (Navy Standard Score) that US students do. The grading system in the Navy is based on a bell curve, 20-80, with 50 being the middle of the bell curve. Any student that wants to go tailhook must be at a 50 NSS or above. I flew with a few Indian students in primary and normally, their flying was slightly above average for that stage due to already having gone through a similar program. Their briefs were always fantastic, as their professionalism and motivation. Top notch and that is consistent through advanced jet training as well but being have not gone through advanced jet training, the language barrier and fast paced syllabus/flying catches up to them and they generally perform in the 30 NSS range in advanced (or so I'm told). That would be below average no doubt. There is an Indian student right now in advanced who went through primary with an 80 NSS and it's my udnerstanding, he is in the 60+ NSS range in advanced. Some guys are Chuck Yeager. BTW, I was able to fly a few times with the Indian liason at Whiting and he was an outstanding pilot, a former high time Sea Harrier pilot and CO of the Sea Harrier FRS. The liason at Whiting right now has been selected to be the CO of their Navy's aerial demonstration team. The Indians represent well.
Now for the Saudi's....well, all Saudi student aviators are chosen from their Naval Academy. The students who make it to flight school are generally in the middle to top of their class. It made no difference as their schooling is about memorizing information, not about learning. It hurts them when they arrive in the US for flight training. Their Academy is 3 years long, with about 400 total students. The Saudi Navy requires about 25-30 students per year right now. So of those 100, about 50 qualify physically. Of those 50, about half pass the English exam. Of those 25 about 15 meet the requirements academically for aviation and that's how many actually show up a year. The program was shut down a while from 04-06 and I took over as OIC when it opened back up in late 06 with 3 new students.
Generally, the Saudi's lack military professionalism, discipline, study habits and the natural ability to fly. Their attitude is really what hurts them more than anything. I had to become the hammer while OIC; I pushed them pretty hard...most passed, even with poor grades but that had to do with being foreign nationals more than anything else. They pay good money and thus they are usually pushed through the program regardless. We did have one attrite for Officer Like Qualities (OLQ) and 2 for poor performance while I was there. When I left, I heard another 2 were attrited for poor performance. Another factor that hurts them is they lack leadership at with the Saudi liason officer. He seemingly lacked the will or ability to do what is required to motivate and help them along in the program. Many of the students demonstrated a total lack of respect for him. He told me they are all equals, like brothers. He was a Navy CMDR, an O-5, while they were O-1/2 types and that is just the wrong attitude to take with the students. As OIC, I made them demonstrate military bearing and respect. I could give a $hiit if they liked me, I wanted to them to work hard and understand that flying was a dangerous profession if not taken seriously. It was difficult to do with them. Just a different culture and approach to things. They often seemed willing to give at most 75% effort while the instructors should give the other 25%. More often that not, when they did poor, they blamed everyone but themselves. It was always somebody else's fault. I had one solid student, he finished primary with a 49 NSS, almost tailhook grades. He was the only student of those 22 I saw who use our classroom to chair fly, ask questions, always well prepared, etc. He wanted to fly, had a natural ability and showed.
He also had an advantage though, he spent his high school years in the US and a few years in England. He spoke the Kings English as we called it. Certainly, if English was your second language, that was a huge obstacle. All Saudi's went through an English program in San Antonio for many months prior to staring API and flight school. They are the only foriegners to use the prep program though it is available to all foreign students. They are simply the worst, even worse than the Mexican Naval Aviators when they came through a few years back. Mexico bought 4 E-2C Hawkeys from Israel and they sent their pilots through our program. They used to use the C-2A simulator in San Diego and I hear they were just horrible from the contractors. The old E-2C has the same cockpit and engines as the C-2A. The E-2C+ had the more power motors and different instrumentation.
With the Indians, they feared but respected their liason. To watch them in front of him was a lesson in military bearing and leadership. The Indian studs wanted to be there, were the best and worked hard. Not all made it, I saw to get attrited but they were not bad students, they simply didn't meet the 50 NSS score. One hit a 47 and was sent home though he went to fly either helo's or large fixed wing.
