Making Pilot in Command

After getting through progression, it might seem like a huge relief.  You no longer have to fly with only IPs, and you get you get out and do missions.  You might not feel like you have to stay on your game as much when it comes to academic knowledge, but don't let it slip!  After progressing, you should start looking into the PC program that is set up in your unit.  Every unit will be a little bit different as to what they require to become a PC.  Some have an hours requirement and a task list, some just have a task list.  When I progressed to PC in my unit, there was both.  There was a 500 hour requirement a 100 hour NVG requirement, and a task list to complete.

A PC checklist usually consists of a task list that needs to be signed off by PCs in the company before you can be looked at by a PC board to determine if you're ready for a PC checkride.  So really, the process is threefold: completing your PC checklist, getting looked at in a PC board, and completing a PC checkride (or sets of checkrides).  It will take awhile to complete your PC checklist, but you should begin knocking it out piece by piece as soon as you can.

Remember that everyone will progress to PC at different times depending on a number of factors.  Maturity and judgement are going to be looked at by all the PCs that you fly with and will be big factors in determining if you are ready to be a PC.  I have seen many people think that they should be a PC because they have a certain number of hours.  That is NOT how it works (or at least not how I think it should work).  There are 800-1000 hour pilots that shouldn't be PCs, and there are 500 hour pilots that should be PCs.  The attitude that PC status should be given to you and not earned is (in my opinion) in and of itself a sign that you aren't ready to be a PC.

Anyway, once you complete the checklist and have the hours, you will be looked at in a PC board.  This consists of all the company PCs, the Commander, and the SP/IPs sitting together in a room talking about whether or not you are ready for a PC checkride.  You may not get picked up on the your first look and that's OK. I didn't get picked up on my first look.  If you don't, you should get debriefed telling you what you need to do to get put up for a checkride after the next PC board.  Do those things satisfactorily and you should get put up for a PC checkride.

The PC checkride will be much different than any other checkride that you've had so far.  You will be functioning as the PC (so make sure you've taken the time and asked other PCs if you can act as PC while you're out doing missions and training.)  The IP/SP that is giving you the checkride will be acting as a fresh PI.  You will be given a mission and constraints and you need to complete the mission and make PC level decisions throughout the flight.  You will probably have an in depth academic evaluation as well.  Expect that you will have some changes come up throughout the flight that you weren't briefed on.  This is part of the process.  Don't let the "PI" do anything stupid.  Remember, you are the PC for this flight.  Take charge and make decisions.  It will probably be a very stressful flight.

The PC checkride will probably be catered to your unit's mission set.  For mine, I had to plan a VIP flight from my airport to one that was just barely inside fuel range.  Seems simple enough.  However, I was given many changes throughout the planning process and the flight, and when I was on my way back I got a hasty mission that I had to perform under NVGs with limited planning.  All in all, it went well, but it was a LONG day and it was pretty stressful.  I made PC approximately 1 year after becoming RL1 which I felt pretty good about. 

If you pass your PC checkride, you will be made a PC for the company.  At this point, you might feel like "I've made it", but again, don't get complacent.  Many PCs get that invincible attitude that leads to accidents.  However, enjoy your time as a line pilot PC.  It is very enjoyable.  You'll get to build your skill set and you'll probably actually learn a ton as a PC.  I know I did.  Remember though, that you have more to look forward to in your a career....like choosing a track.  I'll talk about that in my next post. 

Advance Airframe - UH60M

After instruments in the A/L course came the M model course.  The flow is like the A/L course only shortened.  We started in academics for a week or two.  Most of the academics focuses on using the avionics since most of the other systems are the same as the A/L.  Basically we learned all of the differences between the A/L and the M for a few days and then worked with the FD/DCP (Flight Director/Display Control Panel) which is essentially the autopilot controller, and the FMS (Flight Management System) which is a very robust flight computer that integrates into almost everything.

After academics we went back to the flight line for contact which was about 2 1/2 weeks long.  Again, there was a 5&9 test on day one.  Everything else was about the same (table talk, daily questions, etc).  Since we already knew the standards for all of the maneuvers we were supposed to perform, all we were really learning was how to use the systems (FD/DCP and FMS) to do it for us.  It was about learning how to use the "autopilot" system in the helicopter and the quirks that go along with it.  In the M model you become more of a systems manager than a pilot.  At the end of contact, of course there is a checkride.

Instruments in the M model course was extremely short and extremely easy.  I think it was 2 days in the sim and 2 days in the helicopter followed by a checkride.  Again in instruments, it's about learning to use the system to fly instruments for you, since you already know how to fly instruments.  The M model instrument checkride was the easiest checkride of my life.  All I had to do was an ITO (instrument take off) on the controls, and then I didn't touch the controls again until I was ready to land.  The M model will do everything else for you.  It is an amazing helicopter with amazing capabilities.  Unless you really screw up a procedure, they're really testing you on using the systems.

After instruments is the night/tactics phase.  It's about 3-4 weeks.  Again, we started with academics.  this time it was NVG (Night Vision Goggle) academics to learn about and how to use the NVGs.  After that we went to the flight line and started flying "nights".  Depending on the time of year, nights can be pretty late.  I went in the winter so I don't think we ever left after about 11pm or midnight.  However, in the summer when the days are longer, you can expect to be there until 2-3am.  There is a bit of a learning curve when it comes to flying with the NVGs.  Distance estimation and depth perception are much harder under NVGs. Nights is a mix between going to the stagefield and planning routes and going to RTs (like in BWS).  However, unlike BWS, flying a route is much easier since you have autopilot and a moving map in the cockpit.  At the end of nights there is the final checkride.  This checkride is very comprehensive.  The oral evaluation can cover anything you've learned throughout flight school, but will have a large focus on night/NVG stuff.  The flight consists of manuevers at the stagefield, and a tactical route to a couple of RTs.

Overall, the Blackhawk course was a lot of fun.  I obviously built a base foundation for what I will need to continue to learn throughout my entire career.  I spent a lot of time at the tech library studying and it really helped me out.  I didn't score lower than a 91% on any of my checkrides.  As I was writing this I was trying to think of a few things I could pinpoint to tell you to really focus on for the course, but honestly, I can't.  I don't really think anything is skimped on.  You have to study and try to understand everything at least at a base level.  I guess if there was one thing it would be EPs because those could save your life.  But as far as the course goes, everything will be evaluated. 

So, I was done flying at Fort Rucker for flight school, but I couldn't graduate yet.  There were a few more things that needed to happen, and I'll get into those in my next post.

Advanced Airframe - UH60A/L Part 2 - Flying

Me and My Stick Buddy in the A/L Course

We went through prep phase and learned how to start the helicopter, emergency procedures, limitations, how the systems work, and performance planning.  Now it was time to start flying.  Before I get into that I'll mention a couple of the differences between Primary/Instruments and the UH60 course.

First off, you do not have academics and flightline on the same day.  That means your days are a little bit shorter.  However, there is so much more to learn that I actually spent more time in the library in the first few weeks of the 60 course than I did at any point up until then.  Also, you will get put on either a morning or afternoon flightline schedule and it will stay that way the entire course.  You don't have to flip flop every other week like in primary.  Another big change is that you can drive yourself and you don't have to wait for that stupid white bus anymore!  Oh, and remember all those daily questions you had to do in primary and instruments and answer from memory in front of the whole class?  Yeah, you still have to do those.  Every. day.  They are actually pretty in depth and really make you get into the books and study.

The first part of the 60 course is called Contact.  It's like Primary for the 60.  It's 5 weeks long and
you'll spend a lot of time at stagefields.  You'll learn how to do all the maneuvers that you already learned in the TH-67 or LUH-72 in the UH-60.  You'll also learn new maneuvers and of course EPs (Emergency Procedures).  You'll continue to do table talk with your IP every day.  The first day on the flight line also includes a 5&9 test.  Unlike the 5&9 test you had in prep phase, this one requires a higher score to pass and you are actually making your first impression on your IP.  The standard for passing a 5&9 test is 90%.  We also had a surprise 5&9 test on a weather day where we couldn't fly.  

After about week 3, you start leave the stagefield a little bit and work in RTs and do multi-ship flights.  At the end of contact, your class will plan a multi-ship air assault.  Every other class gets an actual mission while the other class just has a notional mission.  If you get the actual mission, you will be moving Ranger Students for the swamp phase of Ranger training in Eglin, Florida.  I didn't get that mission, unfortunately, so we just planned as if we were going to be picking up passengers, and then did the air assault picking up notional passengers.  At the end of contact, there is a checkride which consists of maneuvers at a stagefield.

After contact, you move on to instruments.  Instruments is only 2 weeks long and it's mostly about learning to use the GPS and the Command Instrument System (CIS) to fly instruments efficiently in the Blackhawk.  At the end of those 2 weeks there's another checkride and then it's on to the M model.

UPDATE: As of 2016, there is no longer a combined A/L and M combined course like there was when I went through.  Selection includes either the A/L model or the M model, and you do all of the advanced airframe course in that model of aircraft. 

Advanced Airframe - UH60A/L Part 1 - Prep Phase

Selection was finally over and I knew what I was going to fly for the rest of my Army career.  I felt a sense of relief since I no longer had to stress about possibly flying an aircraft that I didn't prefer (although flying anything at all is amazing!)  As I said in a previous post, I took some time off to relax for about a week.  After that, I got right back in to studying before my class actually started.

There's a lot to learn when you get to your advanced airframe.  If you have a lot of time between selection and starting class, use it wisely!  I spent my time learning 5's and 9's (limitations and emergency procedures), and learning the startup procedure for the helicopter (since it's about 10x longer than the TH-67!)  Learning 5's and 9's and startup before you even go to class is slightly difficult, because just like when you did it in Primary, you don't know what a lot of the acronyms mean or even where most of the switches are in the helicopter.  I spent a lot of time at the technical library and got help from a few of my friends that started the class a couple weeks ahead of me.

The first couple of weeks of the UH-60 course are spent in academics.  You learn mostly about systems of the helicopter and malfunction analysis (this is where emergency procedures come in to play).  This part of the the course is called prep phase.  On the first day, after an introduction brief, you will receive your first 5 and 9 test.  It will have most of the limitations (at least all of the quantifiable ones), and ALL of the underlined emergency procedures on it.  You have to get at least 50% to pass the first one.  As I said before, study and learn your 5's and 9's before you even start class, it will make your life a whole lot easier.  We had 2 guys that were held back a class because they didn't bother to look at 5's and 9's before we started.  They tried to play catch-up but trying to study for academics and the start up at the same time was too much and they got set back.

There are a few tests during academics as well.  After the first couple of weeks of academics, you'll spend a week at the CPT (Cockpit Procedural Trainer) learning the start up procedure and the learning about performance planning.  In hindsight, I'm glad that I took the time to try and learn the startup procedure before starting class, because it made that part of class a little bit easier.  There were a few guys that never looked at it, and they were definitely feeling the pressure of trying to catch up.

In addition to just learning the start up procedure, you also must memorize every single Warning, Caution, and Note associated with the startup procedure.....there are 43 of them.  You can write W,C, or N in your checklist to help you remember where they go, and how many are associated with a step, but you cannot write any other notes in your checklist to help you remember.

So....only a couple of weeks in to the 60 course and we had already jammed our brains full of new information.  Even though we had learned all this new information, the hard part is continuing to remember it as you receive even more new information, and especially remembering all the stuff that you learned at the beginning of flight school, like Aeromedical, Airspace, Aerodynamics, etc.  A lot of times they'll refer to your brain as an iceberg and the information as penguins.  The iceberg can only contain so many penguins.  Once you start putting more penguins on the iceberg, others will start to fall off!

Even though we had so much to learn and continue to learn in a short period of time, I was much more committed to learning it for the 60 course than I was during primary (at least in regards to the aircraft specific things).  In primary, we were required to learn the 5s and 9s for the TH-67, and although I learned them, I didn't spend a ton of time really committing them to long term memory, because I knew I'd only need to know it for a few short weeks.  When I started learning Blackhawk stuff I wanted to make sure I committed it to memory since I needed to know it for the rest of my career.

That was prep phase for the 60 course.    A ton of information in a short period of time, all to prepare us to fly the best helicopters that the US Army has to offer. 

Aircraft Selection

After BWS, there is only one thing standing in your way of determining the aircraft that you will fly for the rest of your military career....a PT test!  When I went through, the PT test was worth 100 points (1/6th) of your overall OML (I'll talk more about that in a second).  As of July 2015 it is now only worth 16 points, so it has a much smaller impact on your overall OML.  Also, keep in mind that if you fail the PT test for any reason, you will automatically be placed at the bottom of the OML, and you probably won't even be at the same selection as your regular class.  You will probably retake the PT test with the next class and be in their selection at the bottom of their OML. 

If you've read my previous posts, you've probably realized that flight school is very, very time consuming.  

Finding time or energy to go work out is very hard.  For me, the little free time that I had was spent with my family or just relaxing.  Needless to say, I didn't do too well on my PT test.  It ended up dropping me from #2 on the OML to #5 or #6.  In the end though, it didn't really matter because I still selected what I wanted.  However, I was worried from the time I took the PT test until we actually selected, because you don't know what aircraft (or how many) will be available at your selection until you actually get there.  And you don't actually know your standing in the OML until selection day either.

The OML is really important when it comes to aircraft selection.  For selection, the OML is split up between Warrants and Lieutenants.  So, even though you are flying with the LTs and in class with them, you are actually only "competing" with the warrants.  And on top of that, it's only the active duty warrants, since the National Guard guys already know what they are flying.  Keep in mind, however, that the OML does continue into advanced airframe to determine the Distinguished Honor Graduate and other Honor Graduates, and that OML includes everybody.

Everybody's selection is different.  You can't even look at the last couple of selections before yours to get an idea of what yours will be like.  The aircraft that are needed change all the time.  When I selected, every class ahead of me for a month and a half was pretty much the same.  Almost all LTs got Blackhawks, and almost all Warrants got Apaches.  That kind of scared me a little bit since I really wanted to fly Blackhawks.

This is how my selection went.  We all went into the classroom and they gave us brief on what was going to happen, and told us that we would have a break between aircraft selection and filling out our "dream sheet" for duty stations so that we could call our spouses and talk it over with them.  At this point, nobody knew where they stood on the OML, or what aircraft were available.  So, the OIC (Officer In Charge) went up to the whiteboard and wrote out all the different aircraft that were available under two columns (LT and Warrant).  For Warrants, there were 4 Chinooks, 8 Blackhawks, and 8 Apaches.  That was a huge surprise to everybody because of how past selections went.

After that, they called off the top Warrant and top LT to select their aircraft and erase aircraft off the board when they were selected.  For Warrants, the Chinook went first.  After that, they read off the next person's name in OML order for the remaining selection.  So, that's how you find out where you stand....as they call off your name to select!  Anyway, all of the Chinooks went first, then an Apache, and then it was my turn.  Of course I selected Blackhawk.  The rest of the slots pretty much went back and forth between Apache and Blackhawk.

Fortunately for my class, almost everybody got what they wanted except the bottom person who was "forced" into Apaches.  Depending on what's available and what happens, selection can be pretty tense.  Many times there are people that are upset with what they get stuck with.  Generally though, people tend to like whatever they end up flying regardless of whether they chose it or it was chosen for them.

After aircraft selection, they put up a slide that shows what duty stations are supposed to be available at graduation.  Everybody turns in a "dream sheet" with their top 3 selections on it, and apparently they use it to try and match it up for your first duty station.  However, it seems that this is rarely the case.  I don't think they even use it at all.  I think it's just there to make you feel good if you get a duty station assignment and it happens to be on your list.  Most of the duty stations that they gave us to select from weren't even where most of us ended up going anyway.

So after we all selected, there was a 15 minute break and I called my wife to let her know that I was able to select Blackhawks.  She was excited that I got my first choice.  Then we went over duty station assignments, and decided on Fort Lewis (Washington State), Fort Carson (Colorado), and Hawaii.  I went inside and filled out my dream sheet, and that was it.  Selection was over.  I was relieved to have been able to select my top choice for aircraft, and excited to get started....until I was issued my 1000 page, 2 inch thick -10 (Operator's Manual)!

If you have a chance to take a break before starting advanced airframe, I would suggest doing it.  You won't have another chance until you PCS.  I took a week of leave.  I didn't do anything special except not have to go to work for a week!  It was a much needed break.  However, make sure you give yourself time to study before going to your advanced airframe.  You will have a 5 and 9 test on day one, and you do NOT want to fail!  I'll talk more about that in the next post.