If the Air Force (which presumably knows something about flight training) or
Navy saw any benefit to accelerated training they would do it that way and
save a ton of money.
The Academy guys we get generally already have some experience in gliders.
USAF gives them 90 days and 50 hours to get their private pilot
certificate -- hardly an accelerated course for people willing to fly full
time and who already have valuable flying experience. USAF insists that
these pilots use the full 50 hours, too. If they have time left over, USAF
wants them using it to fly cross country.
These are pilots who are going directly into advanced training when they
finish with us. Now, if the United States Air Force wants private pilots to
have 50 hours before beginning advanced training and they want completely
trained private pilots, what does that have to say about taking some
'accelerated' course and trying to become a private pilot in 10 days? If the
military doesn't want you, who would?
I have never seen a pilot who got his license in 10 days or flown with one.
I am willing to bet that the Air Force has and they did not like what they
saw. I have no doubt that the military still has bad memories of April,
1917, when pilots were sent to the front with three hours training and the
average life expectancy of a pilot was only a few days.
The military does not do accelerated courses for advanced training or
instrument ratings, either. If anything, they spend more time and care on
these than conventional civilian courses. It would be nice, I suppose, to be
able to plug into the Matrix and download a type rating for the 747 and the
experience that goes along with it, but the real world does not work that
way.
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