Story and Photos by JOCS Kirby Harrison

S ummers are hot in Pensacola, Fla.When the sun comes up in a haze andthe temperature climbs to 95 in theshade, the humidity makes an hour in asauna seem like a welcome relief.

But not all the sweat at the sprawlingPensacola naval air station comes fromthe sun. Most of it originates in thepressure cookers called Aviation OfficerCandidate School (AOCS) and AviationPreflight Indoctrination (API). These 14and six-weeks-long, respect ively,courses are designed to educateapproximately 1,400 men and womenannually who can and will — and weedout those who can’t and won’t — meetNavy standards for becoming NavalAviators.

Aviation Officer Candidates arrivingfrom civilian life are introduced tomilitary life and discipline by a Marinedr i l l instructor . In addi t ion to theaerodynamics, navigation and powerplants academics they have in commonwith the API students, AOCs receivel i b e r a l h e l p i n g s o f s e a m a n s h i p ,o rgan iza t ion and admin is t ra t i on ,military law, naval leadership and theprinciples of sea power. It is a sort ofbasic training amplified. Those preflightstudents arriving from the U. S. NavalAcademy, Nava l Reserve Of f i ce rTraining Corps (NROTC), or otherp r e v i o u s s e r v i c e r e s u l t i n g i ncommissioning as an officer, alreadyhave received training in these latterareas. Both groups go through flightphysiology and water and land survivaltraining.

“Attention to detail” is a commonphrase among AOCs. Instructors in both

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AOCS and API feel this attention todetail and the self-discipline necessaryto achieve it are the most importantfactors for becoming Naval Aviators.

They are taught attention to detailnow, so that when the cockpit becomestheir environment they will be aware ofeverything around them and not miss asingle thing.

Many students come in with no realconcept of what to expect, and discoverthat the most important thing is learningtime and resource management. Theydiscover it is the only way to get thingsdone.

Students frequently voice the samereaction, that there is little demand theycan’t handle. It is the time elementa l l o w e d t o c o m p l e t e t h e t a s ksatisfactorily that is the challenge.

The 1983 fi lm An Off icer and aGentleman familiarized viewers with thephysical demands made on the AOCs. Itdid not, however, depict the overallprogram accurately. Emphasis onclassroom academics and standards ofconduct expected from candidates wasoverlooked.

Before pressure chamber training,classroom preparation for the effects ofrapid altitude ascent and descent on thehuman body are necessary. There arehours of instruction before each phaseof practical application. The Navy’s ideais not only that the candidate knowswhat to do, but why to do it.

Other subjects are taught at length.Aerodynamics provide a foundation inbasic theory, upon which actual flightprocedures are based. A course inaircraf t power plants includes theprinciples and concepts essential to theo p e r a t i o n a n d m a i n t e n a n c e o feverything from reciprocating to jetengines. Basic navigation provides thep r e r e q u i s i t e s f o r t h e a d v a n c e dnavigation course given during the in-flight portion of training.

For some individuals, more self-discipline is needed than for others.And, for some, just getting into theaviation officer program is an exercise indetermination.

For Ensign Charlie Gay, getting hiswings c a m e a f t e r s i x y e a r s o fperseverance. It began in 1978 when hejoined the old Aviation Reserve OfficerCandidate (AVROC) program as a juniorat the University of Colorado. The nextsummer he traveled to Pensacola tocomplete the f i rs t e ight weeks oftraining. He returned to college, in

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Alaska, but being a single parent took somuch of his time that it was two yearsbefore he could graduate. In the summerof 1979, aviation candidate Charlie Gaywas only a few days from receiving hiscommission as an officer when the Navydiscovered that no confirmation of hiscollege degree had been received. Infact, he was less than two credits away.“Everyone understood, but it still wasn’teasy,” he recalled. “I remember the drillinstructor, GySgt. Daggs, telling methat I’d better get that degree and get mya— back to Pensacola, because I stillowed him 20 push-ups.”

Gay returned to school in Alaska. Inthe fall of 1981, with two degrees inhand, he was back in Pensacola tofinally complete AVROC training andreceive his commission. “It was onebattle after another,” said Gay, “but Iwasn’t about to quit.”

If all goes well, he will be able to lookback on his naval career and say that heis a survivor. It runs in the family. Hissecond cousin is the Ensign George Gaywho was one of only two survivors fromTorpedo Squadron 8 at the Battle ofMidway in 1942.

Not everyone who starts AOCS andpref l ight indoctr inat ion wi l l f in ish.Twenty-four percent of those arriving atAOCS will drop in the first week, most ofthem a result of not being physicallyqualified, or for personal reasons.Another 11 percent will be lost byattrition in the remainder of the program.

Approximately six percent of thosearriving, already commissioned, tobegin Aviation Preflight Indoctrinationwill not finish. A very few will discoverthat Naval Aviation isn’t for them,because of academic reasons, and dropout voluntarily. Others will encounterphysical problems that will prohibit theirflying a naval aircraft. It may be that theirarms are too short to reach certaincontrols when strapped into the cockpit,or there is an inability to clear the sinusblocks that often come with rapidaltitude ascent or descent. Most likely, itwill be the eyes. The requirement for apilot aviation officer candidate is 20/20vis ion in both eyes and adequateperipheral vision.

Some aspiring students arrive only todiscover that their eyes fail to meet the20/20 requirement. Some switch to theNaval Flight Officer program.

Becoming a naval officer is the bottomline for these candidates, and flying isthe “icing on the cake.”

For the pilot trainees, the first taste offlying begins shortly after graduationfrom preflight indoctrination. Assignedto a training squadron at nearby NASWhiting Field, Milton, Fla., or at NASCorpus Christi, Texas, they learn to flythe T-34C Turbo-Mentor in primaryflight training.

Primary flight, a 20-week course thatbegins with two weeks of ground schooland maintains a continuing academicrequirement throughout, teaches thebasics. It is also a course in the processof change.

It doesn’t take long for the studentpilots to discover that flying is not simplya matter of kicking the tires and takingoff. There is the continuing demand forattention to detail. There are eightd i s t i nc t s teps in p re f l i gh t ing therelatively simple T-34C. However, inthose eight steps there are no less than81 specific points the student mustcheck from memory, to the instructor’ssatisfaction.

Like preflight indoctrination andAOCS, there is an attrition rate in theprimary flight phase. It generally runs alittle less than 18 percent.

If the students honestly want to makeit, the Navy will support them.

By the time student pilots completetheir 20 weeks, they have accumulatedapproximately 65 hours of actual flighttime, ideally three flights a week. Theyhave satisfactorily demonstrated amastery of takeoffs, close-formationf l y ing , ae roba t i cs and p rec is ionlandings. And they have a thoroughk n o w l e d g e o f i n s t r u m e n t a t i o n ,navigation and communications andhave shown an ability to cope withsimulated, and occassional ly real,emergencies.

But completion of primary is not anend. It is a beginning. The final week iswhat some describe as the “real” highpoint, even when compared to the firstsolo flight. It is at this point they learnwhat direction their flying career in theNavy will take: jet, maritime patrol(multiengine/prop) or rotary-wing.

Despite rumors over recent years thatincreasing numbers of student pilotsareo p t i n g f o r m a r i t i m e p a t r o l o rhelicopters, jets are still the first choiceby far.

Whether it’s the mystique of theadvertising publicity, studies show thatabout 85 percent of the students want tofly jets.

Three factors govern the pipeline

taken by the students. They are theneeds of the Navy, overall grade averageand student preference, in that order.

With the primary flight training over,the heat is not off. Whether the studentgoes on to jets at NAS Chase Field,Texas, or NAS Meridian, Miss., maritimepatro l at NAS Corpus Chr is t i , orhelicopters at NAS Whiting Field, thechallenge remains. To be the best. To flyNavy. n

An Aviation Preflight lndocrinationc l ass s t ud i es t he p r i nc i p l es o faerodynamics.

T-34C Turbo-Mentors line the parkingarea at NAS Whiting Field, a scene ofconstant activity as student pilotslearn to fly.