Banzai Flight

[Jetpower]

Greetings all, 

Does anyone have any info regarding Banzai Flight at Vance? I was recently informed that I'll be in Banzai Flight. Any info will be greatly appreciated. 

 

[di1630]

Rumor has it that Banzai flight has the highest washout rate among all 4 UPT bases. Those few that make it thru on average receive their 13th assignment choice.

Just kidding man. With IP turnover at UPT, how a flight is for one class can be 180 out a month later with a new flight commander or IP makeup.






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[FLEA]

7 hours ago, Jetpower said:

Greetings all, 

Does anyone have any info regarding Banzai Flight at Vance? I was recently informed that I'll be in Banzai Flight. Any info will be greatly appreciated. 

 

Lol, bro, wouldn't worry too hard on your flight. UPT (at least at the 3 main bases) is pretty standardized. Everyone had a fairly similar experience going through regardless of flight. Just study hard, be a good bro, help your classmates out if they struggle and ask for help if you are struggling. 

[Inertia17]

7 hours ago, Jetpower said:

Greetings all, 

Does anyone have any info regarding Banzai Flight at Vance? I was recently informed that I'll be in Banzai Flight. Any info will be greatly appreciated. 

 

UPT advice should be pretty universally applicable. Never miss an opportunity to STFU, fly good, don't suck, help the bros out, learn to make good corn and coffee (and keep it topped up).

[Boomer6]

Jetpower, recommend you ask the person who told you that you’re in that flight who your SRO is... They will have the info you need (Liverpool). Otherwise call the 71 stus and ask your question to ppl that can actually answer it. If you can’t figure out how to contact the stus then I recommend finding a good truck driving school.

[Student]

to clarify. At Vance Banzai is a different syllabus and not a flight. It's the hybrid of UPT next and classic UPT and is developmental but being implemented in waves in order to change how UPT is being conducted. Pros and Cons, but continuously getting better. 

As mentioned previously contact the 71stus to direct you to either spark cell, a banzai cadre, or developer in order to learn more.

[CharlieHotel47]

Im at vance now and have a bunch of bros Banzai. It’s a bit different from the regular syllabus flow. You’ll still hit all major milestone but in different order. Also the banzai bros are heavy into the VR. Theres talk of making one of the upcoming banzai flights execute 2.5 syllabus as a test run for before its put out to the rest of the school houses. Either way be a good bro and show up with a good attitude and you’ll be fine. Get your mind right to fly lots and lots of VR. Cheers


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[dream big]

Looking back UPT was the simplest and some of the most fun times I have had in my Air Force career.  No paperwork, OPRs, EPRs, dealing with Airman snuffy and his financial or marital problems, building PowerPoints or briefings.

All I had to do was study, fly, grill and drink beer with the bros and not be a douche.  It was awesome! 
 

To the OP, take it one sortie at a time and enjoy it. 

[HuggyU2]

5 hours ago, dream big said:

Looking back UPT was the simplest and some of the most fun times I have had in my Air Force career.  

 It was awesome! 

Word.  F'in word.  

[Homestar]

19 hours ago, Jetpower said:

Greetings all, 

Does anyone have any info regarding Banzai Flight at Vance? I was recently informed that I'll be in Banzai Flight. Any info will be greatly appreciated. 

 

It’s the innovation flight. Your course flow and training devices will be slightly different. Good luck. Don’t suck. 

[DEVIL]

1 hour ago, HuggyU2 said:

Word.  F'in word.  

@HuggyU2 what was it like learning to fly in the T-6 Texan 1?

[RogAir]

14 hours ago, dream big said:

Looking back UPT was the simplest and some of the most fun times I have had in my Air Force career.  No paperwork, OPRs, EPRs, dealing with Airman snuffy and his financial or marital problems, building PowerPoints or briefings.

All I had to do was study, fly, grill and drink beer with the bros and not be a douche.  It was awesome! 
 

To the OP, take it one sortie at a time and enjoy it. 

If I look back on it 30 years past, I’d like to say UPT was awesome, but I can’t, because I made a promise to myself during UPT. You see, a Colonel came to visit our class (some presentation or sumtin’) and he told us how lucky we were to be having so much fun and that UPT was the best year of our lives, etc.  I promised myself that if I ever became a crusty old Colonel and got the chance to tell it like it was, I’d remember this moment as a 2Lt.  UPT sucks. I wanted to finish #1 and that meant studying my ass off and treating every day like it could be my last (because one bad week could show you the door).  I was one of he worst T-37 studs, and probably the best T-38 stud, so I saw the entire spectrum of good and bad days. Every day was a grind of fear, sarcasm, and ridicule!  
Don’t get me wrong, there were some awesome times, and I remember them well. In fact they are the only real memories I have of UPT.  If it weren’t for that Colonel coming in and telling me how much fun I was having, I’d be writing a different post right now. But I can still hear 2Lt Rogair in my head, “This ing sucks”.

Edited May 3, 2020 by RogAir

[Hopefulflyer389]

7 hours ago, RogAir said:

If I look back on it 30 years past, I’d like to say UPT was awesome, but I can’t, because I made a promise to myself during UPT. You see, a Colonel came to visit our class (some presentation or sumtin’) and he told us how lucky we were to be having so much fun and that UPT was the best year of our lives, etc.  I promised myself that if I ever became a crusty old Colonel and got the chance to tell it like it was, I’d remember this moment as a 2Lt.  UPT sucks. I wanted to finish #1 and that meant studying my ass off and treating every day like it could be my last (because one bad week could show you the door).  I was one of he worst T-37 studs, and probably the best T-38 stud, so I saw the entire spectrum of good and bad days. Every day was a grind of fear, sarcasm, and ridicule!  
Don’t get me wrong, there were some awesome times, and I remember them well. In fact they are the only real memories I have of UPT.  If it weren’t for that Colonel coming in and telling me how much fun I was having, I’d be writing a different post right now. But I can still hear 2Lt Rogair in my head, “This ing sucks”.

As a recent graduate, I can validate that this statement still holds true in 2020. 

[FDNYOldGuy]

1 hour ago, Hopefulflyer389 said:

As a recent graduate, I can validate that this statement still holds true in 2020. 

Agreed with my esteemed colleague. Even as Reservists and not having the level of pressure to be top performers to have a better chance at a track or airframe, it’s still stressful. For me, I still had more stress in UPT (mainly T6s) than I’ve had in the few hundred burning buildings and hairy situations I’ve been in over more than a decade of playing fireman.

Trying to balance family with UPT was another layer of stress. For me, family always wins, but I also have the lower impetus to be at the top since I’m set in my airframe and just not a type of personality that needs to be #1. 

My hat’s off to the bros and broettes that are I’m the AD fight for tracks and airframes; especially those with families and/or home issues. Sacrifices and compromises have to be made to balance it all and those are tough decisions. The uncertainty of how your hard work will play out is also killer. 

That all said, there are certainly fun moments and great times with great people in UPT. It’ll be among one of the only times in life where most of us were just tasked with learning how to fly airplanes and not having to deal with the queepy stuff that’ll be part of the world outside UPT. It’s one of those things that is easier to look back fondly on when it’s over than revel in while in the thick of it. I wish I enjoyed T6s more in the moment because it’s an amazing and fun airplane; especially with hindsight.

Fire academy was the same; 6 months of suck/getting yelled at/repetition/etc. that I wouldn’t wanna do again, but was well worth the job the struggle earned that (mostly) gets better every day. But, by now, I am stoked to be a few rides from getting those wings and ready to move on to getting proficient at flying my MWS and hacking the mission. Not that 6-9 patterns/approaches/or turning rejoins aren’t fun, but feeling like more of a grownup and doing things for real in the plane I’m going to be flying for more than 6 months is going to be a nice change. 

[Hawg15]

13 hours ago, RogAir said:

UPT sucks.

I couldn’t agree more. UPT isn't a good time. If you find yourself thinking “wow this ing sucks and its supposed to be the best time of my career” like I did, just keep pushing on. Because, I don’t believe its anywhere close to the prime of the job. The people who I usually see saying that are a bunch of OFA who cant even remember if they turned in their 781 from yesterday, and definitely don’t remember 20 years ago. Sure, I made some friends that I still talk to, and had my weekends getting hammered by the pool, but I still do stuff like that. I feel like the people who say its “the best time of your career” just don’t remember the actual experience. Its basic stuff that I find incredibly easy, from the view point of a rated pilot for many years, who isn’t graded every time I fly, or competing for something. It is not easy for someone who is learning the basics, and you are always a few flights, and some FAIP who has no idea what ops is actually like, away from a commanders review. The best time of your career is going to be the LPA at your ops squadron while you’re flying around CT, no grade sheet, just your bros and some jets, actually employing an aircraft. My first month in ops I dropped multiple 82s, shot some $150k mavericks, and over 1,000 rounds from the gun, while my heavy bros were traveling around the world. UPT sucks.

[di1630]

UPT sucks.

Experiences vary and are in many cases based on who your leadership/IP’s are and sq environment.

Sadly the USAF struggles with IP’s “teaching” vs “evaluating” in its training at all levels from what I’ve seen.

We’ve probably all had the rides where you are relaxed and flying well with a good IP who has molded a proper instructional environment vs flying with the IP that thinks he’s there to just find your every mistake and hammer you for it.

Flying CAN be challenging/stressful AND enjoyable. Leave it to the USAF to screw it up though.

I haven’t enjoyed a single UPT/PIT/FTU/TX course yet but I also use the sub-par USAF experience to make a better environment when I’m instructing.


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[FLEA]

20 minutes ago, di1630 said:

Experiences vary and are in many cases based on who your leadership/IP’s are and sq environment.

Sadly the USAF struggles with IP’s “teaching” vs “evaluating” in its training at all levels from what I’ve seen.

We’ve probably all had the rides where you are relaxed and flying well with a good IP who has molded a proper instructional environment vs flying with the IP that thinks he’s there to just find your every mistake and hammer you for it.

Flying CAN be challenging/stressful AND enjoyable. Leave it to the USAF to screw it up though.

I haven’t enjoyed a single UPT/PIT/FTU/TX course yet but I also use the sub-par USAF experience to make a better environment when I’m instructing.


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Oh man that's so true. I tell people when I look back on it, the Air Force NEVER taught me to fly a plane. They handed me a manual and some CBTs and I taught myself. The Air Force simply provided a safety net of expereinced pilots in the back seat in case I screwed up who ensured I was continuing to make progress before letting me fly myself in a hole. 

[Hawg15]

25 minutes ago, di1630 said:

Sadly the USAF struggles with IP’s “teaching” vs “evaluating” in its training at all levels from what I’ve seen.

I agree. There seems to be the idea that experience = good IP in the military. You can be the best pilot in your community, but that doesn’t mean you can teach worth a damn or train someone to be half the pilot you are. There are some totally awesome teachers in UPT, and many who aren’t. I don’t know what the environment is like now, but when I went through you weren’t a young copilot or wingman in the squadron, you were just some student they had to deal with. IFF was the first experience I had that made you feel like you were a part of the team.

I just hate when people go around telling the LTs that UPT is the best time of their lives, because for many it’s not. When you're sitting in the suck and hating it almost every minute of it, while having people constantly tell you this is the best part of your career, its very demotivating. Why would someone willingly want to keep going, when you're telling them there is no light at the end of the tunnel?

[Homestar]

4 hours ago, FLEA said:

They handed me a manual and some CBTs and I taught myself

That’s funny because I spend a lot of time explaining basics that are covered pretty well in books that nobody is really reading. 
 

Teaching in T5001 is a lot different than teaching in N5107. If you require much instruction in N5107 you’re probably not ready for N5290. That’s as much our fault, I suppose, as it is Stan’s fault.

[Danger41]

To continue the thread hijack, when guys go through PIT, are you given any instruction/academics on the fundamentals of instruction? Or is it still “fear, sarcasm, and ridicule”?
 

[SurelySerious]

1 minute ago, Danger41 said:

To continue the thread hijack, when guys go through PIT, are you given any instruction/academics on the fundamentals of instruction? Or is it still “fear, sarcasm, and ridicule”?
 

The IPUG I went through deleted all academics on fundamentals of instruction from their syllabus. Will be interested to know if PIT has it or not. 

[di1630]

To continue the thread hijack, when guys go through PIT, are you given any instruction/academics on the fundamentals of instruction? Or is it still “fear, sarcasm, and ridicule”?
 

It used to, not sure today. But let’s be real, you can’t teach a lifelong jackass to be a good IP. The good IP’s probably always had their traits that made them good IP’s (minus the actual technical skills)

Just like leadership, IP’s come from experience and there are quite a few predetermined traits (patience, personality, demeanor when under stress/frustration, ability to empathize with a student..etc)

I’ve know some smart dudes who were awesome pilots that just weren’t great IP’s because of their personality.

Let’s add that instructing a WIC student probably requires a different demeanor than a T-6 pre-solo so sometimes we just don’t get the right people in the right places.


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[brabus]

UPT definitely is not the best part of a flying career, but I still generally had fun. Yes there was stress and I had some days I was pissed off, but in general it was not hell. I had awesome IPs and flight ccs for the most part, so I think that made the experience far better than it could have been. So yeah, it does get more awesome after UPT, but that doesn’t automatically make UPT shitty.

Edited May 4, 2020 by brabus

[12xu2a3x3]

On 5/1/2020 at 9:49 PM, Jetpower said:

Greetings all, 

Does anyone have any info regarding Banzai Flight at Vance? I was recently informed that I'll be in Banzai Flight. Any info will be greatly appreciated. 

 

used to be Badger flight...

[BashiChuni]

19 hours ago, Hawg15 said:

 

 When you're sitting in the suck and hating it almost every minute of it, while having people constantly tell you this is the best part of your career, its very demotivating. Why would someone willingly want to keep going, when you're telling them there is no light at the end of the tunnel?

SNAP