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Once you hit the flight line,
things are really going to get busy. Twelve hour days are the norm not to
include the studying that you're going to have to do when you get home.
The program is designed to put you under a lot of stress and your IPs will be
evaluating you on how well you handle this stress. Daily stand-ups, weekly
emergency procedure quizzes (EPQ) combined with flying two or three times a day
will take a toll on you.
There are four categories during Phase II: contact,
instruments, formation, and navigation. There are also four checkrides:
mid-phase, final contact, instrument, and formation. There is no
navigation checkride since the purpose of that category is to expose you to low
level flying. There will be a detailed section on checkrides that will be
built in the coming weeks. Stay tuned.
Here is what a typical day on the flight-line would
look like:
| 0600 |
- formal brief |
| 0630-0700 |
- start briefing
for 1st period flights/sims (briefings are 1 hr prior to take-off) |
| 0700-0730 |
- step times to the
plane |
| 0730-0800 |
- first period
takeoffs |
| 0900-0930
|
- 1st period planes
begin to land |
| 0915-1015 |
- debrief of 1st
period flights |
| 1000-1030 |
- start briefing
for 2nd period flights/sims |
| 1100-1130 |
- second period takeoff |
| 1230-1300 |
- second period
flights begin to recover |
| 1245-1345 |
- debrief second
period flight |
| 1330-1400 |
- begin briefing
third period jets/sims |
| 1430-1500 |
- 3rd period
takeoff |
| 1600-1630 |
- 3rd period
flights begin to recover |
| 1615-1715 |
- debrief |
| about 1800 |
- released by
flight commander (note: while on formal release, students are not
allowed to go home until every one is done with their scheduled events) |
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Again, the
itinerary above is just an example. Some days may start as early as 0530
or as late as 0700. Whatever your show time may be, by regulations you
will have a minimum of 12 hours off for your crew rest. Also by the same
regulations, your days will never be longer than 12 hours. Once you're off
formal release (this usually happens after everyone in your class solos), you
will be able to leave the building if you don't have anything scheduled during a
period. Don't expect the pace to slow down after formal release is lifted.
In fact, it's only going to get busier since now you will be opted to fly
instrument and formation sorties on top of the contact sortie. For
example, if you're scheduled to fly a contact sortie and the weather doesn't
cooperate, then the scheduler may switch it to an instrument sortie at the last
minute. My point is that your responsibilities and what you're expected to
know will increase as time goes on.
 
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