Growing a VFW in 2017
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This post isn’t directed at the veterans who’ve been at the stick for 20 years, who are maybe a little jaded, a little tired or a little stuck in your ways. Those guys have “been there and done that.”
This is for the impressionable, gotten through the basics, I’ve read the manual and I think I have an idea what I’m doing but I want more or to be a better BMS pilot. Maybe you can refuel, maybe you can’t. Point is you’re ready for a more complete picture of what this amazing electronic jet you’re flying is supposed to be doing. Maybe you’ve always struggled with SA.
Our wing is never going to post tons of videos with cool cut scenes with bumping house music, comms examples that are cut to force an image and hide mistakes, with all the hard hitting action shots because when that stuff is going down our pilots are doing their jobs: flying the aircraft and meeting their contracts to maximize mutual support.
We don’t have time to record and cut fluffy videos. We’re too busy kicking ass…. taking names, making sure we’re hitting the TOT on time +/- 30 seconds or coordinating the killbox to ensure orderly interdiction or working the FAC for a critical CAS that will change the fate of the battle.
With that said, we are searching for those souls who can dedicate themselves to something greater than simply going through the motions and showing up. We’re talking about mastery of BMS and the tactics that ensure you will win – every single time and being the jet back to home plate.
How we train our pilots is unique – we don’t take shortcuts. You’re going to go through a pretty full up IQT > MQT progression that will literally change the way you look at the sim and tactical aviation. We first master fighter fundamentals which includes learning the flight envelope, aerobatics and formation handling contracts. How can you train BFM and learn the setups if you can’t maintain your position? Our course will prepare you for that.
Once the fundamentals are down including domestic and tactical formation we then learn how to BFM in the offensive, defensive and high aspect which leads to ACBT and ACM where we learn the roles, responsibilities and contracts to kill as a team in the BVR and WVR arenas while maximizing mutual support. I promise that you haven’t experienced what it really means to kill a bandit until you master flying an intercept timeline in either a Banzai or Skate flow doctrine – we show the way to master these subjects without having to search the four corners of the internet for this info.
A great fighter pilot said, “how can you drop a bomb if you can’t even BFM” and it couldn’t be more true. Once mastering fighter fundamentals and the basics of air to air we move into the ground phase where pilots learn how to accomplish basic surface attacks including unguided and guided munitions which will lead to surface attack tactics where we put the entire air to air and air to ground picture into play within the same sortie.
All this culminates into the IQT checkride where the skills learned during training are confirmed and the pilot verified to be Basic Mission Capable (BMC) and prepared for squadron specific training/MQT where they go on to train to become Combat Mission Ready (CMR).
… then there’s more training such as FLUG and SEAD to allow our pilots to specialize into more advanced roles.
Now after reading all this you’re probably thinking who has time for all this? The answer is we all do and we’ve made it to where this can be accomplished by breaking it up into manageable pieces that make it easy to absorb. We meet once a week for training and once a week for combat. That gives you two flights to be a part of in the MP environment each week. It’s so easy to keep up with.
So please if you’ve been thinking about joining a VFW or squadron to learn more, we strongly encourage you to consider the 8th Virtual Fighter Wing. Don’t let our seemingly “elite” looking course hold you back, I promise anyone can do this an become a master (all things relative) virtual fighter pilot!
Check us out today: 8 VFW
…… please discuss this is both a thread for thoughts and marketing for our wing. Any questions?
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“Learning to fly the Falcon is just your ticket to the dance” … who said that?
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Wish I could. Looks like fun. My lousy (.4mbps) DSL would just frustrate everyone else I’m afraid…
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“Learning to fly the Falcon is just your ticket to the dance” … who said that?
…… I feel like that’s totally a Red Dog statement but I could be wrong lol.
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Wish I could. Looks like fun. My lousy (.4mbps) DSL would just frustrate everyone else I’m afraid…
Hmmm, that’s 4000 KB per second, i believe we play at 1024, so you should be good to go as a client. Hosting you’d only be able to do 2 pilots lol. However all good for flying! [emoji6]
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Sounds great. I am an old stick who has been flying Falcon for 20 odd years, but would in no way so I am an expert! What timezone do you usually fly?
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Sounds great. I am an old stick who has been flying Falcon for 20 odd years, but would in no way so I am an expert! What timezone do you usually fly?
Hello rmax! We typically fly North American/South American time zones which tends to be compatible with folks on the far side of the world such as the land of Oz and Asia. European pilots sometimes fly with us, but it often can be difficult unless they get online in the very early AM.
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Hello rmax! We typically fly North American/South American time zones which tends to be compatible with folks on the far side of the world such as the land of Oz and Asia. European pilots sometimes fly with us, but it often can be difficult unless they get online in the very early AM.
Damn!
Falcon 4 has taken most of my life. i’ll tell Mrs Rmax tonight that we need to move stateside so I can join you guys
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Lol, I don’t think that’d be an unreasonable thing to ask
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I like your post, but allow me to give my input.
What you described above is pretty much the vision i had when i wanted to create my own wing, unfortunately i had to review my priorities and give BMS a rest, for now, I will be back
The thing that saddens me the most in the BMS community, is the lack of “Airmanship”. You can teach Airmanship and you can not teach it, you can give hints and examples but you can’t really force someone to have airmanship. This is to me, what is really lacking and what actually makes a wing stand out from another. I guess this is what you mean by looking for the guy with the right attitude.
In the SIM world, people come from many backgrounds and not all have the chance to actually fly an airplane or to be involved with aviation in real life and this is why they choose to come to BMS. It is “slightly” less expensive than a flight hour in a C-152 and you can sip a beer or two while flying some high tech piece of hardware. I figured that out on my own …even tough it should have been pretty obvious to me. We can not blame people to not have the right attitude when they actually never got exposed to the right attitude.
I think that what would make a wing stand out from another is the experience you provide in terms of Airmanship and aviation culture. There is a way of doing things in aviation, no matter if civil or military. If the student gets those basic concepts …then the rest will be even more awesome as an experience. I think that in a virtual wing, the stick to the real life curriculum is a good step … but it is just a tiny part of what being a pilot is. Being a Pilot, is an attitude, and it should change you … the whole training, the challenges etc, it should make you a more dedicated person, a more organized person etc etc … i know it is maybe going too much in deep …but actually this is what people look for and actually enjoy. Some may find it too hardcore.
BMS by its nature demands you to actually develop some of the traits of a real life fighter pilot, and the wing can complement that by creating the atmosphere, the spirit, the community and the passion being shared. Of course some concepts like life and death can not be recreated, in the end it is supposed to be fun.
Just my five cents.
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Hmmm, that’s 4000 KB per second, i believe we play at 1024, so you should be good to go as a client. Hosting you’d only be able to do 2 pilots lol. However all good for flying! [emoji6]
Nope, 0.4Mbps is only 400Kbps so he may struggle.
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I like your post, but allow me to give my input.
What you described above is pretty much the vision i had when i wanted to create my own wing, unfortunately i had to review my priorities and give BMS a rest, for now, I will be back
The thing that saddens me the most in the BMS community, is the lack of “Airmanship”. You can teach Airmanship and you can not teach it, you can give hints and examples but you can’t really force someone to have airmanship. This is to me, what is really lacking and what actually makes a wing stand out from another. I guess this is what you mean by looking for the guy with the right attitude.
In the SIM world, people come from many backgrounds and not all have the chance to actually fly an airplane or to be involved with aviation in real life and this is why they choose to come to BMS. It is “slightly” less expensive than a flight hour in a C-152 and you can sip a beer or two while flying some high tech piece of hardware. I figured that out on my own …even tough it should have been pretty obvious to me. We can not blame people to not have the right attitude when they actually never got exposed to the right attitude.
I think that what would make a wing stand out from another is the experience you provide in terms of Airmanship and aviation culture. There is a way of doing things in aviation, no matter if civil or military. If the student gets those basic concepts …then the rest will be even more awesome as an experience. I think that in a virtual wing, the stick to the real life curriculum is a good step … but it is just a tiny part of what being a pilot is. Being a Pilot, is an attitude, and it should change you … the whole training, the challenges etc, it should make you a more dedicated person, a more organized person etc etc … i know it is maybe going too much in deep …but actually this is what people look for and actually enjoy. Some may find it too hardcore.
BMS by its nature demands you to actually develop some of the traits of a real life fighter pilot, and the wing can complement that by creating the atmosphere, the spirit, the community and the passion being shared. Of course some concepts like life and death can not be recreated, in the end it is supposed to be fun.
Just my five cents.
I really appreciate your reply and it provides a lot of food for thought about what it takes to get to these levels of proficiency (as opposed to mere currency). I will say that running a wing like this is a difficult endeavor. It’s threatened my marriage and eeked itself into other areas of my life, I too reached a point where I had to objectively say it was too much. Now I fly in a much more balanced fashion. There are two prime nights: Tuesday and Saturday. Keeping it to that, keeps my marriage strong and life balanced.
I very much agree on the general lack of “airmanship” you’ll find in BMS. That means having your aircraft performance handy, normal, abnormal and emergency checklists, your navigation charts (all of them, not just a plate to field you’re flying at), sound decision making, and more. We really try and drive airmanship home. We attempt as best we can to force the use of checklists, we always ramp start, we always use comms on the radio, and have a very defined set of AFIs and TTPs to follow. This sort of forces airmanship and through setting a good example by the senior pilots and command you’ll see your junior pilots soon following what you do. The key is consistency in enforcement and we’ve developed a “steel toe” culture where pilots do not fear negative feedback in relation to our flying (everything else is about mutual respect and friendship), but when it comes our flying you better do it right or expect an earful. Some pilots are unable to handle this and they move on. The emotionally strong learn something from it apply it to the next flight and you never see the issue again for the most part.
I also agree with the sim world you’re going to see all types. The key is setting expectations early, people will either rise to the occasion or go down in flames, their choice. Most choose to go upward and push themselves. You have to give people a chance to show the greatness within, we all have it. Finally you can blame people for not having the right attitude absolutely. It simply holding yourself and others accountable to their commitments. If you say you’ll do something, then do it without reservation and you will see the results of hard work.
I feel we do a great job in building an environment of airmanship and aviation culture. Most of our pilots are real world commercial pilots, we have a current USAF F-16 pilot who consults for our wing and has given us his stamp of approval that we are doing it “right” and a retired USAF F-16 pilot who is going to be flying with us very soon with class 17-ABK. I myself am a pilot, we even have a retired F-16 crew chief. So our wing is steeped in aviation culture and we all have some involvement in the real world, I think that’s what makes us different.
I believe folks who complete our course definitely develop the traits of a real fighter pilot and we complement that by providing an atmosphere and environment that cultivates that kind of group. The passion is there always; even when we are busy. I really am grateful for your response and truth be told you are exactly what we’re looking for so when you get back into BMS one day, come on board we would love to have you!
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Very much appreciated, i will for sure make myself known to your wing when the time comes for me to fly again in BMS. I don’t expect it to be soon, but along next year. Keep it up guys
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flying an intercept timeline in either a Banzai or Skate flow doctrine
Sounds interesting. Can I read up on that anywhere? Google doesn’t seem to reveal anything.
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Sounds interesting. Can I read up on that anywhere? Google doesn’t seem to reveal anything.
Exactly the four corners, lol. It’s out there just you need to know what to look for, I’ll PM some links for you.
And obviously we teach this during training……
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Best of luck to y’all
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Awesome goal.
Good luck to you all.
Nice to see… -
Exactly the four corners, lol. It’s out there just you need to know what to look for, I’ll PM some links for you.
And obviously we teach this during training……
Would like to read that too. Could you send me the links?
Sent from my XT1225 using Tapatalk
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Speaking for myself, I have to say that the airmanship concept is wholeheartedly grasped by every member of our wing. Airmanship, what is it? The mental model of operating a flying machine from cold and dark to shut down. It is situational awareness, decision making, task prioritization, and of course “flying the airplane”. For us, its been so impressive to watch new candidates come to the wing and embrace this notion. Repettion, following SOP’s and thorough debriefings have resulted in our wing members coming to every training, or combat sortie ready to keep it going, applying their previous experiences to the current task. Sharpened form skills, comms and tactical execution are what we see as IP’s. Its very rewarding. I dare say, we do teach airmanship. I love what you say about the community of it too, that is another notion which for us at the 8th has held true. We support each other in real life and call each other friends. Spirit, community and virtual combat, thats what its all about.
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Hmmm airmanship. If not an utopia among simmers very hard to master it specially on wing level. Personal airmanship doesn’t warranty wing airmanship.
We r talking about hobbiests here with limited free time in average.
The most needed factor to teach and be taught of it is free time and divotion .
The tactics and lessons can be found but free time ?
Good luck wish u all the best.