Growing a VFW in 2017
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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. -
Sounds great! Sadly not for me, free time & time zone are negatives, and i’m not sure i’m that serious about bms anyway Good luck for 2017
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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.I hear you, it depends on the leadership at the individual VFWs. Just as the experience among individual simmers varies wildly, so does the training, leadership, and airmanship style of each wing as well. If you have a wing full of people who fly for a living or work in the industry (I can think of many people and wings that have these kinds of folks) then you’ll see more “realism” whereas other groups you would see more that folks are there for fun and that’s what matters to them.
There are folks who will want to fly the way we do, that’s who we are looking for and trying to connect with. There are even more folks that don’t want to fly like we do too, that’s okay too. We hope the guys that do want to learn all they can about tactical aviation will find us and give it a try.
We haven’t met too many pilots who didn’t have fun doing it “full up”, you get a huge sense of pride and folks look forward to the next lesson eagerly. We cover so many details many report that we fill in details that they had never realized before and even more rewarding as you watch them transform, mastering the subjects you taught them just a few short weeks ago and possibly even able to share the knowledge themselves to other pilots within the wing and greater BMS community too. That’s what it’s all about.
For free time that’s another side of finding the right pilots that makes it difficult, the time zone differences and individual schedules. Believe it or not I’ve found the most common day people want to fly to be Tuesday. Anytime someone wants training it’s always a Tuesday lol, that’s why we picked that day for our main training time and Saturday night for combat flying. I think if we find folks that works for, plus any extra pickup flights guys want to throw up, then it’ll be very rewarding. Free time is all we need, not too much to ask for right?
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What’s that with the beginning of the week having a flight… I just can’t understand it :lol:
In my squad we had-have it on Monday… Every time I was like a headless chicken for the rest of the week…
The flight and debrief and some chit chat and hard knowledge lessons afterwords was going very late… and the rest of the week was just trying to balance your sleepless behavior, meaning a nightmare.
One of the major reasons I left XO and MP and devoted more to theater moding deving. -
Makes me wish I had the free time at present. Good luck with the recruiting!
To anyone thinking about it, the 8th is the closest wing Ive ever seen to what I want out of BMS.
Any chance I might not have read those links? Im always on the lookout for that stuff.
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A solid uninterrupted block of time remains my challenge, hence why I usually fly these days at FO.
Homeowner, Career that involves alot of travel, prone-to-violence-cop-wife, 2 kids, 2 dogs, 3 cats. No time.
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Redshift20,
good luck with your plan. I would love to join, but prior to that I need to learn and master AAR and enhance my skills with various application of weapons/systems. I am pretty good and some stuff, but the material to learn and master is enormous. Being UTC+1 (CET) could be doable, if you guys refer to EST.
And I agree with others here, the true asset that most of us value the most is time.
Cheers,
Andrej -
Makes me wish I had the free time at present. Good luck with the recruiting!
To anyone thinking about it, the 8th is the closest wing Ive ever seen to what I want out of BMS.
Any chance I might not have read those links? Im always on the lookout for that stuff.
Thank you Blu3 for the vote of confidence and kind words about our process, it truly means a lot! I think it should be noted that you played a huge role in the initial foundations of the wing and the vision of what it would be, there aren’t too many in the community who rival your knowledge of the AFIs, procedures and tactics.
I think you’d be very pleased with where it has gotten to and would enjoy it, should you find some time for flying again.
As for the materials, trust me definitely is nothing you don’t already have your hands on……
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A solid uninterrupted block of time remains my challenge, hence why I usually fly these days at FO.
Homeowner, Career that involves alot of travel, prone-to-violence-cop-wife, 2 kids, 2 dogs, 3 cats. No time.
Yeah that’s the challenge for sure. Our course sort of front loads the work, it takes a reasonable commitment (once per week) until the course is complete. Once finished two flights a month will keep a guy fairly proficient if all he’s doing is combat ops.
We have about 17 classes in IQT so while it takes a while, it isn’t impossible either. Folks just have to enjoy that “time” in the wing like anything else. All part of the process. I think sometimes guys look at the whole picture and go, “wow that’s a lot I don’t think I could do that.” But once you’re in it, doing it I think that perspective changes and even more so once through it like anything else all that time sort of collapses into itself and you never noticed, maybe even find the time spent was enjoyable or well worth it.
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Redshift20,
good luck with your plan. I would love to join, but prior to that I need to learn and master AAR and enhance my skills with various application of weapons/systems. I am pretty good and some stuff, but the material to learn and master is enormous. Being UTC+1 (CET) could be doable, if you guys refer to EST.
And I agree with others here, the true asset that most of us value the most is time.
Cheers,
AndrejAndrej, thanks very much. It sounds to me you’re on the cusp of being ready or already are ready. A lot of guys underestimate their potential and skill, they’ll tell you they are worried they’re not ready, but then you start training and all that melts away. They start learning, like anything else you do it enough and it becomes second nature.
For AAR you’re just flying over glorified formation, once you learn formation handling basics the tanker is a much less daunting prospect. Learn a couple gouges/techniques and the rules around the boom, next thing you know you’re contact and good flow. So I would let that hold you back if I were you and give it a shot, what do you have to lose?
… plenty to be gained
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I wonder what’s the minimum skill level you guys would take? If a new user just got into simming, discovered BMS, and wanted to know more, would you take him even though he does not yet know how to activate NWS?
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I wonder what’s the minimum skill level you guys would take? If a new user just got into simming, discovered BMS, and wanted to know more, would you take him even though he does not yet know how to activate NWS?
That’s too green. Minimum would be a pilot who can ramp start the jet, take off and land safely enough, some systems knowledge that you can get from the BMS manuals, and a basic understanding of TACAN navigation/ILS. Be able to refuel while an official requirement on the website, is probably not going to be a requirement anymore as it is more related to formation handling contracts than actual skill. So that might go the way of the dodo to be quite frank and it maybe one of those things that makes folks not try it.
Point is, we are looking for some basic skills to be established, I’d say those at a minimum of novice/intermediate, not complete beginners. Folks who are already advanced will find the course to be extremely challenging, especially if there are any bad habits (guys who haven’t developed a scan and sector lookout skills/check six, ect) or preconceived notions learned elsewhere. My preferred candidate is a novice/intermediate because they learn the most and you see the dramatic transformation. Advanced guys knock some things out of the park, bomb others, but usually you see a less dramatic improvement because you’re just adding to their mix, so it can be of benefit too as they grasp the concepts a little faster.
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So not “brand-spankin’ new”… ramp start, take off, navigate (hit ToT), land, fire missiles, and drop bombs. Knowledge/appreciation of Rmax/Raero/etc and pop up tactics not required. Fair assessment?
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So not “brand-spankin’ new”… ramp start, take off, navigate (hit ToT), land, fire missiles, and drop bombs. Knowledge/appreciation of Rmax/Raero/etc and pop up tactics not required. Fair assessment?
Bingo!
Yeah we go through that during IQT/MQT, so if they know the DLZ on the HUD or some of the SAT type stuff ahead of time it’s a huge bonus, otherwise it is going to be hit during the course. I’d also say that while we try and hit as many details as we can we are NOT perfect, we mess up a tac turn from time to time, or miss a cue during BFM training or intercepts/timelines, the key is always trying to be better than the last flight.
When you get into this mindset you learn so much, it’s not about being the absolute best out there and any elitism type mindsets just being the best you can be. I always say since we are all going to fly this sim for an average of 5-10 years or sometimes up to 20 years in some people’s case may as well learn all you can and do it to the full.
Edit to add
Another big piece is hardware! While you can’t require people have things because of different lifestyles and situations, but it really is a must to have at least a decent system which I don’t think most here have that problem either, but additionally the goodies like a TrackIR and HOTAS ideally. Hopefully they’ve added more stuff like MFDs and rudder pedals, especially for switchology and setting good habits you need the good extra bits to become super effective in the air. Otherwise your switchology is going to be far slower, you’ll have less reaction time to changing situations or times when you can’t react at all because you’re reaching for a mouse instead of your hands on the throttle, less dead bandits and targets than if you have that equipment on your PC.
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Your description sounds much like an environment I’d really enjoy being part of, too bad about the timezone difference
All the best, Uwe