Stormbird

Can't remember the derogatory name given to the flag officers that came up with the current program, but it's obvious that when they opened up the conversation for ideas, their bandwidth was extremely narrow and recognition of valuable inputs from outside their staff was extremely short-sighted. With contracts awarded it's probably just too damn late to do anything about it. It'll be like the airlines, courses won't be changed and problems solved until it starts costing more money.

Ya gotta remember these flight academy instructors are civilian kids working towards their ATP rating and, none have ever been exposed to anything military. Right now, it's a 30 min brief, maybe a 15 to 30 min de-brief. It's an assembly line. What you're suggesting above might help, but I don't have the data. It would be a huge ask. If I were one of these young CFI's, I'd say GFY and go where there is a nice relaxed atmosphere to instruct.

These rates and discussions were based on other bases that were first to gain students from the new IPT pipeline. I believe the AETC Commander is out at Aeroguard Flight Academy in Phoenix today. My ears are to the ground as to what he passed on to the school and its newest 2nd LT arrivals. My mistake from previous post, the Chinese students at this school are either PLAAF or Air China, not Cathay Pacific. I know the politics that led to this becoming an issue but prefer not to relay.

Sorry don't know what a huckleberry is. But I just got back from a UPT base, and I would be glad to share what I heard from the flight line. First most distressing in my mind but maybe not if you're a part 141 dude is there were three engine failures in the last month at ipt, one was with a solo student on takeoff, the same plane / engine had failed the day before on Final. There is a huge gap in uniformity of instruction at the contracted IPT locations, some are nose to the grindstone 7 days a week finishing 30 days early , some as one Lieutenant put it are Club Med FAA rating writtens spoon fed to them. There was a 30 to 40% failure rate in the T6 instrument Sims with the new ipt student flow, they are working to figure out the solution. I witnessed a drop night, only 6 T38s, and when three of those are slotted to Guard /Reserve babies then it's slim pickings for those that did really well and are in the top five or six of their class. One class at a different base got just one T38, still scratching my head on that one but he is the only one in his T-38 class. Lastly, at one of the IPT bases in Phoenix, two Chinese students who were flying at the same school and living in the same dorm complex were caught in one of the lieutenant's rooms photographing the Air Force students" curriculum. No one I talked to could find out if they were PLAAF students or Cathay Pacific. That whole thing is under investigation and the two Chinese students were tossed.