Page 66 - Combat Aircraft (January 2020)

UNIT REPORT // TRAINING WING ONE

HE SPRAWLING FORESTS of simulator ‘rides’ and lectures. Roughly throughout 2019, which is testament to
central Mississippi are unlikely 150 pilots each year earn their wings the hard work of the staff.
surroundings for a naval air here — it’s a crucial node in the training
station, but away from the pipeline that provides junior officers for Getting results
US Navy’s more traditionally fleet squadrons. One of the key enablers to breaking
Tlocated bases is NAS Meridian, Following an ‘operational pause’ in 2017 the backlog and actually increasing
home to Training Wing One (TRAWING while the navy addressed physiological pilot training efficiency was the
ONE). A pair of squadrons sit under this issues in the T-45C, maximizing pilot establishment of the FITU in January
organization — VT-7 ‘Eagles’ and VT-9 throughput is more important then ever 2018. Prior to this, the training syllabus
‘Tigers’, which operate nearly 100 Boeing amid retention issues in a world where for instructors was far more informal
T-45C Goshawks. More than half of all airlines are hiring and greater pay and and located within the individual VT
naval aviators destined to fly carrier- quality of life are luring people out of the squadrons. During a normal 36-month
based aircraft (E-2, EA-18G, C-2A, F/A- military. The increased demand signal on instructor tour, the first four to six
18E/F, F-35C, AV-8B) come to Meridian naval training following the T-45 pause months were spent getting fully
to earn their coveted wings of gold. has been a huge challenge for TRAWING qualified as an instructor. Following the
Students arrive having completed their ONE, according to CDR Brandon ‘Billy’ formation and integration of the formal
first phase of training in the T-6 Texan II Ray, the Flight Instructor Training Unit FITU at TRAWING ONE, the instructor
at either NAS Whiting Field, Florida, or (FITU) officer in charge (OIC) here. With qualifications are taking less than three
Corpus Christi, Texas, and spend some a large quantity of students stacked months, netting a 24 per cent reduction
52 weeks at Meridian flying around 150 up, the wing has worked through in the time required to qualify. The
hours in the Goshawk, interspersed with the backlog and got back on track impact of this has been huge for a training
community that was essentially shut
down for more than three months.
The US Navy approach to instructor
training has differed significantly
from the USAF philosophy of having a
separate and dedicated training wing
for instructors. The wing at Randolph
AFB, Texas, commonly known as pilot
instructor training (PIT), serves as the
only schoolhouse for air force instructors
in the T-38 Talon, T-1 Jayhawk and T-6A Left top top to
Texan II. Ray went through Randolph from bottom:
A dedicated
2003-05 prior to a tour in the T-37 ‘Tweet’, instructor pilot
and says, ‘Even though there is an entirely pipeline has
different instructor training philosophy dramatically
improved
with the different services, one is not productivity.
necessarily better than the other. They
are just different approaches to creating Three Goshawks
lined up on the
a qualified instructor.’ Ray is now on his Meridian runway.
third spell teaching in the T-45 and was The pace of
an ideal candidate to set up the FITU. operations here
means that as
‘There were many obstacles to overcome many as 150
during the establishment of the FITU since sorties a day is
it was a dramatic culture shift from how standard.
[navy] instructor training was completed Right page
previously.’ clockwise from
There are more than 80 full-time top:
A T-45C performs
instructors assigned to the various a carrier break
organizations at Meridian, with around into the pattern at
35 in each squadron and 10 more on the Meridian.
wing staff. Of those 80 instructors, about CDR Brandon
15 per cent are standardization pilots ‘Billy’ Ray is the
who are assigned to the FITU to train new commander of
the new Flight
instructors and serve as NATOPS (Naval Instructor Training
Air Training and Operating Procedures Unit (FITU) at
Standardization) evaluators. In addition, Meridian.
16 US Navy Reserve instructor pilots (IPs) With the safety
fly eight to 10 days per month to each issues behind
offer 100 hours of valuable tuition. Since the T-45C, the
navy has worked
TRAWING ONE flies a whopping 150 hard to clear the
training sorties each day, these reserve trainee backlog.

66 January 2020 // www.Key.Aero

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