Riddller's IFS & UPT Blog

That sucks. Everyone makes a mistake. One of the other bloggers left part of the ops limit test blank. LOL. At least you were close.

Best,

Oh, and thanks for the great write up on chair flying. I am going to send it to my pilot select buddies in ROTC. It was a great post. I think it should be copy and pasted into one of the posts so people don't have to click on the comments link to see it. I don't know if you can edit you earlier posts from when you were in IFS or early UPT so people can read it there.

What is a ground 88 ride. If you mentioned it before, I'll just go back and read it, other wise a one liner will suffice.

Best,

(This goes for IFS and UPT)

I won't go into where the number 88 and 89 comes from, you'll see it when you get here.

If you hook a bunch of rides in a row OR hook a checkride, they give you what they call a "Progress Check", otherwise known as an 88 ride. If you hook that, you go to an 89 ride with the squadron commander, and he determines whether or not you'll stay in the program. On a checkride, though, you only have to do the 88 ride for whatever you hooked for. So if you busted an altitude on departure, you just go back up and fly a departure. If you hook for something on the ground, then you only have to repeat that ground item, hence the term "Ground 88", which is what I had.

The caveat: you're only allowed a limited number of 88 rides, normally only one. So you don't want to use it up!

Caveat - my information may be dated (XL 97-08).

You basically have three strikes (or what many call three "triggers").

You burn one of your Triggers when:

1. You hook three daily sorties in a row

2. You hook a checkride

After your 1st Trigger, you go to an 88 ride (progress check with your FLT/CC etc.) Pass it and continue.

After your 2nd Trigger, you go to an 89 ride (with Sq leadership). Pass it and continue.

After your 2nd Trigger, every checkride thereafter you fly is considered a 90 sortie (translation - elimination sortie). Fail any checkride here on out and you are off to visit with the Wing Commander.