SNA Advanced - Jets

Overview
Welcome, and congrats on selecting Strike.

Intermediate and Advanced are both done in the T-45C Goshawk and the training takes about a year to complete. The training is broken into two phases: Phase 1, or "intermediate jet" is learning how to fly the airplane, while Phase 2, or "advanced jet" is learning how to FIGHT a jet aircraft. During the syllabus you will fly well over 100 flights, more than 35 of which will be solos. You will drop blue bombs of death filled with chalk in WEPS, you will go 360 Knots at 500' in ONAV, and you will pretend to shoot down other T-45's in ACM. The culmination of training will be a solo flight to an aircraft carrier stationed somewhere off the coast where you will make 10 arrested landings.

At the end of Phase 1 all of the Navy guys' names are submitted to a board for selection and they have to dodge the "E2/C2 bullet", but if they do then they get to stay and do Phase 2.

There are two places to do Intermediate/Advanced: Meridian and Kingsville. MERIDIAN Squadrons:
 * TW-1 at NAS Meridian
 * VT-7
 * VT-9

KINGSVILLE Squadrons:
 * TW-2 at NAS Kingsville
 * VT-21
 * VT-22

Getting Here
If you're reading this and you haven't even started API yet, or worse, you haven't even gone to OCS yet... take a step back. To answer the important questions: 1) yes, all jet pilots are extraordinarily good looking, 2) yes, our job is nothing but total flying awesomeness, beach volleyball, and suntan oil, and 3) of course we LOVE to watch Top Gun every day. Now that you've got the basics, go focus on the task at hand.  Worry about this shit when you get to the late stages of Primary.

Sorry, there's no magic formula for selecting jets. Yes, you need to set yourself up for success by kicking ass in Primary and have an NSS above 52 (50 for Navy), but after that it's kind of out of your hands (as far as what time of year you select and who selects with you). Jet spots out of primary seem to come in waves, with very few being left at the end of the fiscal year (August & September). There can be as many as 3 a week and as few as 0. In some cases the only way to get a slot is not only to have an NSS above 52, but to be #1 (have the highest normalized NSS) for all Marines selecting that week from all of the Primary training locations (Whiting, Corpus, and Vance AFB), and have Jets listed as your #1 choice. To be realistic, you want an NSS over 65 to keep yourself competitive, but I've seen as low as 54 and as high as 79.8. The bottom line is that you have to be prepared to fly anything that the Marine Corps needs you to fly.

If all else fails during Primary, remember the golden rule of Naval Aviation: "Don't be a douchebag."

What To Do When You Get Here
If you just selected and you want to start doing something productive, go to ebrief and download the NATOPS for the T-45 and start reading Chapter 4.

Advanced is where big-boy rules really come into play. No one is going to keep your ATJ updated for you, no one is going to babysit your crew-day/rest standards, you'll probably be up for a promotion board and need to get your picture submitted, and no one is going to hold your hand through ground school, but yet you will be held fully accountable for all of the above and more. Grab the bull by the horns and don't act like an Ensign (sorry, Ensigns). Flying a jet is like being Wile E. Coyote strapped to an ACME rocket. For basically all of phase 1 you'll be operating at about 10% of what the jet is capable of, so make sure YOU fly the JET and not the other way around. Fortunately or unfortunately, you're ability to handle simple shit (for example keeping your Read & Initial up to date, or getting your hair cut) can be a direct reflection of your competency to instructors. If you're a wet noodle out of the airplane, you'll probably be one in the airplane. So keep that in mind, but remember to have balance... especially with your peers. Remember to relax a little and never forget the Golden Rule (see above if you missed it).

As for checking in, wing STUCON will give you a to-do list, just follow that and make sure to check in to MATSS-1 on the day you arrive (orders stamped). Don't check in in Alpha's... chucks (khakis for Navy) are fine. On the day you start (you'll get this from STUCON) you WILL wear Alpha's to meet the Commodore and your squadron CO, and the Wing Senior Marine. Prior to classing up, get your books/fti's from the academic building (ask someone), and your NATOPS and PCL from your NATOPS office. Dive into Chapter 4 of the NATOPS and start asking guys ahead of you to sit in on their SIM events and practice sims. You're technically not allowed to sign up for practice sims until you class-up (they want them for current students), but if you can get in with someone who's already classed up, you're good. As soon as you start ground school though, game on. Get in the sim as much as possible. No, you won't know what the hell you're doing, but don't worry about it. Just start pushing buttons and snooping around. If you haven't done CFET (centrifuge training in Lemoore) or DJET (survival gear/swim training at Pensacola), they'll send you to do those when you get here.

Be prepared to stand duty. No, you probably don't have to go in and sit an "under instruction" watch, but show up early enough to know what the hell is going on. IWO means "Integrity Watch Officer". Basically you're phone watch in the middle of the night, but when you stand SDO there is a lot more to do. Make sure you check with your squadron on the proper uniform for standing watch.

Finding a place to live can be hard from Pensacola or Corpus. If you're married with kids, I would suggest living on base housing in Meridian (even though the Balfour Beatty clowns are incompetent here). Off base means either in North Meridian somewhere off of North Hills St or Hwy 39, or near one of the lakes (Okatibee or Dalewood). Again, there's ups and downs to wherever you live, but bottom line is you're still stuck in Meridian, so get over it and don't expect a lot.

For the first month or two, things can be pretty frustrating. This is because the FTI's and CAI's are basically useless and the legacy syllabus was left to the wayside when MPTS started being implemented. The key to success is to use the instrument FTI, stan notes, ebrief, teamwork, the gouge, and MOST IMPORTANTLY, students ahead of you in training. Hopefully some of these pains will be corrected when MPTS has been fully implemented in both Meridian and Kingsville, but that doesn't look like it will happen until late in 2012. Also, after you do your EP sims you can "trunk" flights (sit in the back seat on instructor solo's). This is not only really awesome but in most cases required by your class advisor so you don't have the "holy shit" factor on your first syllabus event (BI4101). Trunk as much and as often as you can.

Getting Out of Here
Yes, eventually this is the goal. Hornets: West, East, or Japan, Harriers: West or East, or Prowlers. Sounds like a win-win-win. Talk to instructors about their experiences and choose what's best for you.

Ground School

 * T-45A Engineering Gouge (10 NOV 04)
 * T-45C Engineering Gouge
 * T-45 Aerodynamics
 * T-45 Metro
 * T-45 INAV
 * T-45 Emergency Procedures
 * T-45 Basic Instruments

Basic Outline of Flight Training

 * T-45 CO - (Cockpit Orientation) Firehose of a little bit of everything
 * T-45 EP - Introduction to EP's in this aircraft
 * T-45 BI - SIDS, Area Calls, Basic Air Work, Stalls, LSC's, Timed Turns, S-1's, S-3's, and Approaches
 * T-45 RI - DD-175's, Jetlogs (JMPS), and Approaches, Approaches, Approaches
 * T-45 FAM - Learning to fly VMC and LANDING PATTERN (ie: Flying the Ball)
 * T-45 AN - RI with EP's mixed into the flight...can be very stressful
 * T-45 IR - Showing that you can safely fly in IFR, getting your Instrument Rating
 * T-45 FORM - Basic 2PL, then Cruise Form, finally 4PL Form
 * T-45 NT FAM - Getting comfortable at night, more landing pattern
 * T-45 FCLP - Practice for Landing pattern (do you see a trend?) Relaxing and confidence building
 * T-45 ONAV - Low and FAST! Very ground intensive and difficult to plan, but fun as hell
 * T-45 WEPS - Dropping Blue Death on a circle
 * T-45 TACF - Learning to maneuver the jet dynamically in form
 * T-45 NT FORM - Major pucker factor, should get better after a few flights though
 * T-45 2PL ONAV - Great flying, if you have a good partner
 * T-45 ACM - Fighting the Mighty T-45, very fun but study intensive
 * T-45 CQ - What it is all about, very chill 3 weeks prior (See FCLP's) then the big scary landing on a tennis court