C130's-url

We currently have very little KC-130 gouge. If you have some to add just click edit at the top and put it in!

Prop training takes place at beautiful NAS Corpus Christi. If you had primary there you'll know all about it. If you were at Whiting things will be weird at first, but you will get used to it. Both V-22 and KC-130 bubbas study multiengine, fixed wing, maritime aircraft here. Herc guys will head to VT-31 and fly the T-44, Osprey guys go to VT-35 and fly the C-12. Start learning all about the T-44. If you flew T-34's in primary it shouldn't be too hard it is basicly the same engine just two of them.

Groundschool Advanced starts of with 3 weeks of groundschool. You will learn meteorology, advanced instrument navigation and flight rules and regulations, systems and aerodynamics. Each subject ends with a 50 question multiple choice test. First week is metro and INAV. Read the books, listen for the footstomps and you should be fine. 2nd week is systems. You will be sitting in the classroom, doing CAIs with instructor guided reviews in between. The test is friday and you will be ready for week 3 with aerodynamics.

Learn all your
 * T-44 Airspeeds and Operation Limits
 * T-44 Annunciator Light Analysis
 * T-44 Cockpit Checklists
 * T-44C Ops Limits/Bold Face EPs

and then you will be ready for T-44 CPTs. There are six of them and then, finally, you get to go the aircraft and start your T-44 Familiarization Flights.

Either toward the end of your Fams or when you are complete, you will be sent into Basic Instruments (BIs). When you start these all depends on how you are scheduled. At the end of the day-Fams you will do a check ride followed by a pattern solo with another student for three bounces. Somewhere in there you will also do a few night FAM flights. After these are complete you will do six Radio Instrument (RI) sims, followed by eight RIs in the plane. After these are complete you will do a Mid-Stage Check (I4390). Throughout these flights you will fly approaches filled with various emergencies, usually ending up flying the approach single engine. To be successful in these know your emergency procedures and instrument procedures cold. You will have a cross-country block of RIs. Most of these can be done on the road. You will then go on to the Review Stage - this is the final block before you will do your NATOPS check ride to become a NATOPS qualified instrument pilot. Throw in a form and low-level flight at the end and you will be a winged aviator. Good luck.

Toward the end of advanced you will find out which fleet squadron you will be going to. Your choices: VMGR-152 Sumos at MCAS Futenma, Okinawa, Japan, VMGR-252 Otis at MCAS Cherry Point, North Carolina, or VMGR-352 Raiders at MCAS Miramar. The squadron you end up at depends on, of course, needs of the Corps, as well as your grades. The better you do in advanced the better the chance of getting your top choice.

Currently students are doing the Herc version of the FRS at the ATU at Cherry Point or Mirimar. Training typically takes 4 months and is much better than previous training at Little Rock.

In the ATU you will not only learn the Marine basics of flying the "KJ" but you will also complete the complete Marine Tactics syllabus as well. This, too, will be in a very expensive visual sim.

At your fleet squadron you can plan on getting about 8 flights in the plane before you get your T3P check ride. You will also be plenty busy doing your ground job (sorry, no more "sweet, I'm not on the schedule today, I'm going to the beach!")

If you have read this far, hopefully you have or will soon find yourself a member of the KC-130J community. Welcome to the best kept secret in the Marine Corps. We work hard, have high expectations, and have a great time - we are Herc bubbas. You will get to work with some of the best Marines the Corps has to offer. Best of all, you will get to fly your a$$ off - and that is what we have all worked so hard to get.