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Order of flight training


Captain Spears

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General flight training for a fighter jet itself actually has very few time spent doing navigation and formation training, usually first 6-8 flights plus 5-6 sims before that. The students all come in with around 150-200 hours of flight training in other aircraft to train basic flight, nav, and formation, so when you get to a fighter unit you're expected to already be proficient at that so you're just getting those flights and sims to learn the new systems and basic handling characteristics. Also before that you get a whole ton of academics of course. Air to air and air to ground training generally goes from low situational awareness to high situational awareness. A2A being 1v1 close range in offensive, defensive, then high aspect, then 2v1 from close range in a defensive position to medium range in neutral position but needing to close to WVR (for ROE) to fight, then 2v2 BVR, and finally 4v4 BVR. A2G will do something similar, just basic premade bombing patterns at the range, then moving to more dynamic things such as dynamic tasking and close air support. Near the end for platforms that can do it, you start combining A2A and A2G by fighting your way to the target area, dropping bombs, then fighting out.

 

Those are the basics, of course it gets much more difficult when you get to an operational squadron and do their training, plus participating in large force exercises. After awhile as a wingman, you go through 2 ship flight lead upgrade training, then 4 ship, then instructor.

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In ten years I fired a total of 5 missiles 3 skyflash and 2 Sidewinders. A2A gunnery I got to do once but that was unusual normally it was once a tour at least. Unfortunately the Balkans and then Iraq NFZ kinda hampered things.

A2G gunnery lots prior to the Balkans and a couple of times a year after that.

 

 

 

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How often will a typical pilot/crew participate in live fire exercises?

 

From what I've read it's very infrequent. Pilots could go their entire career and only fire a single missile if they're lucky.

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How often will a typical pilot/crew participate in live fire exercises?

Back in the day as a RAF mud mover, we rarely got to drop much heavy ordnance in training. In 10 years, my live exercises and ops included approx 20 x 1000lb live bombs of which 4 were Laser guided in training exercises, 8 were sticks of 4 on low level laydown passes, 2 were 45 deg high angle dive using the "hornet pop" manoeuvre we adapted from F18's after GW1, 2 were 20 degree dive toss slicks and the rest were Laser guided 1000lbs on ops.

 

Countless 27mm (tornado) and 30mm(Hawk) rounds strafing on the range,

One occasion where we emptied a load of lifex 27mm HE/AP mix on a range in kuwait.... and a load of 30mm HE strafe from the hawk for a firepower demo on salisbury plain.

 

approx 8 concrete bombs of which 4 were as a salvo from a loft profile

 

thousands of 3kg and 14lb practice bombs on ranges around the world but mostly in East Anglia

 

1 x aim9L on Aberporth range

 

....plus a few 9mm and 7.65mm pistol rounds when getting recurrent on the browning and Walther personal weapons :smilewink:


Edited by Dangerman
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In ten years I fired a total of 5 missiles 3 skyflash and 2 Sidewinders. A2A gunnery I got to do once but that was unusual normally it was once a tour at least. Unfortunately the Balkans and then Iraq NFZ kinda hampered things.

A2G gunnery lots prior to the Balkans and a couple of times a year after that.

 

 

 

Sent from my ONEPLUS A6013 using Tapatalk

 

From what I've read it's very infrequent. Pilots could go their entire career and only fire a single missile if they're lucky.

 

Back in the day as a RAF mud mover, we rarely got to drop much heavy ordnance in training. In 10 years, my live exercises and ops included approx 20 x 1000lb live bombs of which 4 were Laser guided in training exercises, 8 were sticks of 4 on low level laydown passes, 2 were 45 deg high angle dive using the "hornet pop" manoeuvre we adapted from F18's after GW1, 2 were 20 degree dive toss slicks and the rest were Laser guided 1000lbs on ops.

 

Countless 27mm (tornado) and 30mm(Hawk) rounds strafing on the range,

One occasion where we emptied a load of lifex 27mm HE/AP mix on a range in kuwait.... and a load of 30mm HE strafe from the hawk for a firepower demo on salisbury plain.

 

approx 8 concrete bombs of which 4 were as a salvo from a loft profile

 

thousands of 3kg and 14lb practice bombs on ranges around the world but mostly in East Anglia

 

1 x aim9L on Aberporth range

 

....plus a few 9mm and 7.65mm pistol rounds when getting recurrent on the browning and Walther personal weapons :smilewink:

 

Thanks guys. I expecting it to happen perhaps once a year or every other year, but thinking about it, the weaponry cost would be astronomical for peacetime work.

 

Dangerman, Bond would approve of your latter choice.

 

Nice to have some Tornado/Phantom crew here. :)

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Just jump straight into the hard stuff and nail air to air refuelling and case 1 recovery. Do that and the rest will be easy. That's all I have been doing with early access and now I can do them both fairly easily. I even enjoy it.

 

All these folks banging on about all the other stuff. Forget about it. Get stuck in at the deep end mate.

 

:)

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Bogeys and Bandits: The Making of a Fighter Pilot by Robert Gandt is a very good read and will answer your question as it follows a course of USN pilots learning to fly the Hornet. Synopsis below

 

"

Veteran Navy fighter pilot Bob Gandt takes the reader along in the cockpit when he revisits his own elite training program after almost thirty years. A class of eight men and women is learning to fly the incredible FA-18 Hornet- deadlier, sleeker, and far more advanced than even the Tomcat immortalized in the movie Top Gun. As Gandt follows these students through school, indelible characters emerge: swaggering cowboy fighter jocks, crusty old Navy salts, a pair of wholesome twins from Middle America, a computer nerd, and two women pilots dealing with the post-Tailhook world of the military."

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General flight training for a fighter jet itself actually has very few time spent doing navigation and formation training, usually first 6-8 flights plus 5-6 sims before that. The students all come in with around 150-200 hours of flight training in other aircraft to train basic flight, nav, and formation, so when you get to a fighter unit you're expected to already be proficient at that so you're just getting those flights and sims to learn the new systems and basic handling characteristics. Also before that you get a whole ton of academics of course. Air to air and air to ground training generally goes from low situational awareness to high situational awareness. A2A being 1v1 close range in offensive, defensive, then high aspect, then 2v1 from close range in a defensive position to medium range in neutral position but needing to close to WVR (for ROE) to fight, then 2v2 BVR, and finally 4v4 BVR. A2G will do something similar, just basic premade bombing patterns at the range, then moving to more dynamic things such as dynamic tasking and close air support. Near the end for platforms that can do it, you start combining A2A and A2G by fighting your way to the target area, dropping bombs, then fighting out.

 

Those are the basics, of course it gets much more difficult when you get to an operational squadron and do their training, plus participating in large force exercises. After awhile as a wingman, you go through 2 ship flight lead upgrade training, then 4 ship, then instructor.

 

Thank you very much for this response!!!

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There is also the Jetstream series which follows Canadian Hornet Pilots through training.

 

 

....and if you want to do it properly, don't forget the original "Fighter Pilot" series in the early 1980's following hopeful pilots through the RAF system. Original inspiration from when I was a boy to send me off to do that job.

 

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