Raul Duke

xaarman is exactly right on the relationship between checkrides and assignments. The MASS score for the class is relative to that class only, so you're being graded against only the other students in your class, not across bases. The only time I've observed that score being mentioned between bases is during the trades when we had a tie between, say, the #3 students at two bases. One flight commander tried to leverage an assignment away from another by saying his #3 was better than the other guys #3 based on overall MASS scores. And that was just a negotiating tactic, there is no requirement to consider MASS scores during trades. (Top 10% [rounded up] of each class should get their first choice, however.) But that's the point. Even if Vance for whatever reason started handing out E's to every single student or got really strict and hooked everyone, it wouldn't change anything on assignment night. It helps even out any inequities between the bases grading practices. AFPC would still drop the jets relatively equally to all the bases, since they don't have access to any scores. (One rouge Stana Claus or Hookie-Monster down in Check Flight, however, could skew results within a base.) Regarding upgrades vs. downgrades on checkrides, yeah every maneuver attempted starts at MIF and moves up or down from there. I know this is true at Vance and I think its true at the other two bases as well. And HercDude you are correct that things are weighted differently, but its not really true that TIMS only records the downgrades, however it is true that all things being equal an Unsat on an item will do more damage than anything else. The actual overall score for checkrides (and every ride for that matter) is overall points received vs points available. So if you look at the breakdown for like, Vertical-S, a U=0, F=3, G=8, E=10...something like that. I just made those numbers up, but in the examples I saw they all followed that sort of logic where the difference between a F and a G was large, and the jump to an E only added a few points. So it is entirely possible that someone could Unsat for one item, say, 30 Flap Landing, but get E's on every other item and would end up with a better Checkride MASS score than another student who got all G's. HOWEVER, one of the guys at the TIMS helpdesk told me once that on checkrides, overall grades are somehow factored into the Checkride MASS so someone who gets a +10G and another person who gets a +10E won't have the same score. I can't 100% vouch for that, but that's what he said. And where my understanding of all this came from, we had a rash of students doing some extra maneuvers on checkrides attempting to pad their scores. Beyond that being a terrible idea based on the fact that they were exposing themselves to more opportunity to screw something up, the system is designed to even that out, because think about it, some student goes to fly, and due to WX or MX or whatever, just gets the minimum requirements done. It wouldn't be fair if a guy who simply does more items to get a better score. So unless the student is getting E's on all those extra items, it doesn't make a difference and in fact might actually dilute any upgrades he or she might have received. (Although I got a C in statistics, so I could be wrong.)

At END on the T-1 side the only approaches the students can fly with the AP engaged are GPS. (Full up GPS, not overlay stuff.) Every other instrument approach (ILS, LOC, VOR, etc.) is hand flown from the base leg or prior to intercepting final. We also don't let them use all of the FMS functions. For example, we make them calculate descent gradients as opposed to letting them simply fix the altitudes in the flight plan to get a Top Of Descent point on the MFD.

If you keep reading to the FDU portion of the reg...on page 111: 8.8. Socks. Socks should be made of cotton or wool. White, Black, desert tan/sand, or sage green socks may be worn with either the FDU or DFDU.

Yup.

Announced at the staff meeting this week is Vance will be keeping blues on Monday, at least for now.

That cartoon is from The Onion. So, purposefully off target.

Only the T-1 squadron at Vance issues the sunglasses, so thats why you dont get them at initial inprocessing. Leadership kindof thought that since most people didnt wear sunglasses under helmets they'd try and save some money and wait till Phase III to offer them.