Viper Pilot_ A Memoi..

loathed most FAIPs. So, Daddy Rabbit, if you’re reading this, thanks for
everything.
Within a week, guys began washing out for air sickness, failure to master
emergency procedures, or just a basic inability to think and fly at the same time. If
a student busted a ride, he got a repeat, called an “X” ride. If he busted that, then
he flew a “Double X” flight with a more experienced, non-FAIP, squadron officer.
If he failed again, he went next to a Proficiency Check with a Flight Examiner, and
if he didn’t pass it, then he was out. There were students who were fully enrolled
and engaged on Monday and gone by Friday.
The Tweet phase progressed through formation flying and basic instrument
procedures, and guys continued to drop like proverbial flies. As always, through all
of this, there were endless academics. Aerodynamics, aircraft systems, weather,
instrument flying procedures—anything that could affect you as a pilot. Emergency
training was nonstop. More classroom instruction, simulator flights, and a little
ritual each morning called “Stand Up.”
This occurred in the big flight-briefing room. Each instructor pilot had a table
and usually four to five students (at the beginning). Every morning, before flying
and academics, there was a Mass Brief. This covered weather, the schedule, and
general announcements. One instructor would then give a thirty-second scenario
involving a flight situation and turn it over to a random student. The Stud would
then “Stand Up” and take over, in real time, whatever near-death situation had
been presented. With an audience of instructor pilots and his peers, he’d have to
take this to a logical conclusion and, hopefully, get the plane back on the ground. It
was very effective in teaching a young pilot the basics of thinking on his feet and
ignoring outside pressures during a crisis.
AFTER SIX MONTHS AND TWO CHECK-RIDES, THOSE OF US WHO were left got to move
across the street to T-38s and the advanced flight phase of UPT. About 40 percent
of the initial class was gone by this point, and those remaining were seasoned by
now. Not cocky, certainly, because we still didn’t have wings and also had seen too
many buddies wash out. But we’d recovered a bit of the misplaced confidence
we’d all walked in with.
The attitude was different on the 38 side. Instructors still washed people out, but
they figured we’d proven ourselves over the past six months by simply surviving to
this phase. The Air Force also had a chunk of money invested in us by this point
and would work a bit harder to keep a potential pilot around.