I recommend pushing flight hours *earlier* in training, not later, by contracting a commercial-instrument rating for pilot selectees in a single-engine airplane *prior* to UPT. The vision:
- Air Force generates a syllabus for civilian flight schools.
- Instead of casual status, students fan out across the country to go get flight time prior to UPT.
- Students earn 250+ hours in a single engine airplane a <$200/hr.
- Students build air sense, learn to communicate on the radios, learn how to learn to fly, etc...
- All students start UPT having completed a commercial-instrument and complete a short baseline academic syllabus to account for variance in civilian flight schools.
- Air Force spends less time (money) teaching the basics and more time (money) on teaching "military" flying (formation, energy mgmt, etc).
- Air Force avoids having to teach "air sense" at $600/hr in the T-6, much less $1,500/hr in the T-1, $3,200/hr in the T-38, or say... $8,200/hr in the F-16.
- Hell... I had students come to me in the schoolhouse that couldn't enter a VFR traffic pattern, make a CTAF call, or recite their cloud clearances. I shouldn't be teaching this stuff in an aircraft that costs more than $200/hr to fly. IMO, this knowledge is the price of entry, not even worth reviewing in the FTU. Yet... here we are.