"BUFDRVR" wrote in message
...
Exactly. Hell, just the takeoff, approach and landing were a major
challenge and I had several hundred flying hours by the time I got to
B-52
FTU.

JB

What has been a concern since 2001 is that the FTU is doing mission
qualification training. When you graduate from the FTU, you are a "full up
round" and ready to go to war.......except our young EWs, Navs and
Co-pilots
are stuggling with the basics and have no buisness being deployed. I flew
with
a brand new FTU graduated co-pilot soon after the FTU-mission qual
training
began, the guy had great knowledge about threats, great knowledge about
B-52
capabilities against those threats, had a pretty good idea of what he
wanted to
do with the jet on a bomb run.....but couldn't fly the jet to save his
rear. He
had good ideas about what to do on the bomb run, but couldn't pull any of
them
off. His pattern work was horrible and I left that night to go home
wondering
how in God's name he passed his checkride. A few sorties later I flew with
another "newbie"...same story. Finally, one Friday afternoon, all the
instructors from my squadron (IPs, IRs & IEs) got togather, cracked open a
few
beers and compared notes. Bottom line; due to the expansion of the FTU
syllabus
to include mission qual training, with a non-linear expansion in number of
syllabus sorties (only added 2 sorties), crews were not getting a solid
enough
foundation in the basics. 9/11 happened shortly after, and I was quite
busy
until my PCS, but I still heard complaints, on nearly a daily basis.


BUFDRVR

Well, I can understand that in a Buff. It is a very difficult plane to
learn to fly well, especially in the pattern. I assume the same training is
going on in the Bone FTU. The idea was kicked around when I was the
28BS/DO, but we let it die. It takes time to train a guy to be fully
mission qual, even with several sorties in the squadron. To try to do it in
the FTU with 2 sorties is ludicrous. It's probably easier in the Bone
because it isn't hard to learn how to fly, but it still is not a good
utilization of those two sorties. You can't do it properly with two
sorties. That was always a problem for me with the AF. To make a mark, get
something unique on your OER, something has to change on your watch. Often
the change is for change sake with no appreciable gain. It's just BS. I
enjoyed my time in the USAF, it was personally and professionally rewarding,
but I was glad to leave some of the really stupid things we did behind. I
turned down a slot to NWC before I left...the YGBSMs were deafening, (from
the Wing, to 8th, and up to NDU) but I'd had a good career, and enough of a
career. I haven't regretted the career or the final decision.

Cheers,

JB