Army Flight School

[mkloby]

Can anyone tell me what the syllabus is like for Army flight school? I tried finding it online w/o luck. It's very common rumor on the Navy side of the house to think that Army guys aren't trained much in IFR flight - but nobody knows what the actual syllabus consists of. Just wanted to clear this up because I can't imagine that the Army trains aviators w/o teaching a good instrument package.

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

In Army flight school they do some IFR flight training but most of the training is recieved from your unit IPs when you graduate and move on to your unit.

[lesofprimus]

And it is a fact that Naval Aviators have a higher degree of IFR raining due to thier operation over the ocean/water...

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

I would hope so.

[pbfoot]

Actually shocked would have thought that any military aviator would be fully instrument qualified

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

They are fully instrument qualified when they leave Army Flight School. They just recieve more training on it when they are finished and in there units.

When they graduate flight school they are made level RL3 which means they can only fly with a Unit Instructer Pilot. After flying with them for a bit they become RL2 and then finally RL1 which means they can fly on there own. It does not take long to become RL1 because they are allready fully trained and qualified.

Then every year they have to take check rides and every couple of months they get no notices with instructers to make sure they are not unsafe.

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

Consider the training they recieve after flight school as proficiency training to hone there skills even more.

[mkloby]

THanks for the feedback. There are rumors floating around these parts that army pilots barely receive any instrument training - and that didn't seem right. I just figured that it was naval aviators thumping their own chests.

[FLYBOYJ]

Navy guys have a habit of doing that ya know!

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

Navy pilots do recieve better training and there is a reason for that. Navy pilots fly more IFR because they dont have references flying over the water. Army helo pilots do most of there flying low to the ground and recieve most of there training for NOE.

For instance when I was deployed we never flew above 50 feet over the ground (normally it was lower than 50ft) unless it was to climb over wires or houses or what not. We had maps that showed towns and villages and what not, we also relied a lot on the GPS because of the vast areas with no references.

When not deployed for instance back in Germany we flew a lot of IFR because of the restrictions in German airspace, plus it is good training for the pilots.

[armypilot]

To answer your question. Two weeks "BI" Basic instruments in a 2B24 UH-1 instrument simulator and then 8 weeks "AI" Advanced instruments in a Bell TH-67, same aircraft you would have flown for ten weeks in primary. Enough instrument training to qualify for an FAA Commercial Rotorcraft Instrument rating if you decide to pursue through the FAA Military Competency program.

CW-3 J.D. Brown
Master Army Aviator
Aviation Safety Officer
B Co. 1/140 Aviation (Assault)

[mkloby]

To answer your question. Two weeks "BI" Basic instruments in a 2B24 UH-1 instrument simulator and then 8 weeks "AI" Advanced instruments in a Bell TH-67, same aircraft you would have flown for ten weeks in primary. Enough instrument training to qualify for an FAA Commercial Rotorcraft Instrument rating if you decide to pursue through the FAA Military Competency program.

Thanks ap... I tried to find the syllabus online but to no avail. What aircraft do you fly in army flight school? We start off w/ T-34C (soon to be T-6), then if you go helos you fly the TH-57 navy equivalent of your 67 I believe.

I went the Osprey route so I'm doing multi-engine in corpus then I go back to whiting field to do the rotary syllabus. We would bump into guys from fort rutger, but I never remembered to ask one of them specifics about their training.

[armypilot]

Primary which I believe is still 10 weeks and AI which I believe is still 8 weeks is flown in the TH-67, basically a Bell 206 Jet Ranger same as your TH-57.
With the Flight School XXI program you then transition to the A/C you will be flying at your unit UH-60, AH-64, OH-58, or CH-47 and complete Basic Combat Skills, NVG, Gunnery for 64 and 58 guys, and then advanced combat skills. I was told recently that the names for the phases have changed but the phase is still basically the same. I attended flight school 17 years ago so quite a few things have changed since then.

[mkloby]

Ok - they keep changing the names of our schools too. Primary for us is 26 weeks in the T-34C, advanced in helos is another 26 weeks in the TH-57B and C models I believe, then the fleet replacement squadron where you fly what you will in the fleet is another 20-26 weeks. Then, finally, you join your squadron.

[armypilot]

WOW! Thats crazy long flight school! Your pretty much ready to graduate in about a year in the Army school.