I was a Phase III IP in T-38's and a flight commander so I'll bite at this question. In short, no, for the 10 or so classes I assigned aircraft to, I only saw 1 horse trade between bases because of a "good" class. The planes are pretty evenly distributed among the bases, we will make phone calls to get our #1 guy what he wants most of the time. Then, everything YoungandDumb said happens, the the FLT/CC puts his ranking into the Mass 7-12 times and gets the results, matched to airplane, to the Squadron CC. I had classes that all deserved fighters, I had classes where 2 of 8 deserved fighter, and that wasn't what was delivered.
We didn't consider the T-6 performance into the Mass in T-38's, different phase, different results.
Do students get a preference at T38 / T1 after T6 or is it all picked by performance and IPs?
Is the likelihood of picking up a C17 or other heavy probable if that is a students preference? I'm aware of needs of the AF and such but wondering how many people who come in looking for heavies get heavies. Assuming many students come in wanting to fly fighters or bombers.
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Do students get a preference at T38 / T1 after T6 or is it all picked by performance and IPs?
Is the likelihood of picking up a C17 or other heavy probable if that is a students preference? I'm aware of needs of the AF and such but wondering how many people who come in looking for heavies get heavies. Assuming many students come in wanting to fly fighters or bombers.