Aircrew proficiency

[RiverAux]

Like everybody else who flies in CAP I've been known to complain every now and again about lack of time in in the air in order to maintain proficiency at my ES tasks. 

The question that occurs to me is:  How many sorties do Mission Pilots, Mission Observers, and Mission Scanners need each year to stay basically proficient? 

What am I calling proficient?  I'll go with "able to accomplish the mission in a reasonable period of time without having to get any remedial training from someone else on the aircrew to accomplish the job."

What missions?  Lets stick saying that a proficient member should be able to pull off an ELT search, grid search for visual target, and a damage assessment photo mission without any trouble.

For pilots, lets assume that they get plenty of flying time in the aircraft at other times and that we're just talking about how many sorties they need for mission proficiency, not flying proficiency.

My answers:
Scanners:  -- I'd say that 2 sorties a year are probably enough for your run-of-the-mill scanner.  Obviously folks that have access to SDIS/Archer would be different, so lets leave them out of this discussion. 

Observers -- I'd say that you need at least 3 ELT missions a year to maintain proficiency in that particular skill, and lets throw in 4 more misc. missions for a total of 7.  I'm assuming that these are non-pilot Observers who do need time on the nav equipment.

Mission Pilots  Even though pilots have to do ELT sorties on their form 91, the tricky stuff is usually left to the Observer during missions, so lets only ask them to do 2 ELT missions, but since doing the photo missions does require some extra skill, lets have them do 2 of them a year and a grid search for a total of 5 sorties a year.  Since they're getting other flying time throughout the year I don't think they need the extra sortie that Observers do to keep current just on the basics of the panel. 

While these sortie numbers are higher than what is officially needed to renew your quals, I think they're fairly reasonable and could probably be obtained without driving our training budget into the stratosphere.  I could probably go to an across-the board 5 sorties a year for Observer and Pilot as a reasonable compromise.

Whether these numbers are feasible depends quite a bit on whether you're in a hot mission area (lots of ELT missions) or in an area where missions are rare and most flying is done on SAREXs.  Also, it depends on how large your unit is and how much "competition" there is for slots on the plane. 

What do you think?

[cnitas]

I think you are about right.  I flew 5 times last year as a non-pilot observer.  I feel personally, that that was about the minimum I needed to stay up to speed on everything.

It is the simple use it, or lose it principal. 

It is hard to remember how the GPS works, and how to setup the radios, etc. when I only use them a few hours every third month. 
It is particularly difficult for me since our squadron has a glass cockpit and I do not always get to fly in that a/c at SAREXs.

[scooter]

I agree with RiverAux. His analysis sounds about right. However, its up to the MP to stay proficient which means flying some of those B12 profiles on a regular basis if you haven't participated in a SAREX or mission. Drag along an observer and scanner and make it a practice search.

[Eclipse]

I agree with RiverAux. His analysis sounds about right. However, its up to the MP to stay proficient which means flying some of those B12 profiles on a regular basis if you haven't participated in a SAREX or mission. Drag along an observer and scanner and make it a practice search.

Yes, that's what the scenarios in the back of 60-1 are for.  Your wing should be issuing a blanket mission number for those each month, and aircrews shoudl be flying those to get proficiency and credit.

Instead of $100 burger, use our pretty planes and keep current.

[Trung Si Ma]

Instead of $100 burger, use our pretty planes and keep current.

To get to a CAP plane from my home IS a $100 hamburger run. 

[RogueLeader]

Instead of $100 burger, use our pretty planes and keep current.

To get to a CAP plane from my home IS a $100 hamburger run. 

Just get more pilots like you keep talking about. . .
[/drift]

[jayleswo]

Like everybody else who flies in CAP I've been known to complain every now and again about lack of time in in the air in order to maintain proficiency at my ES tasks. 

The question that occurs to me is:  How many sorties do Mission Pilots, Mission Observers, and Mission Scanners need each year to stay basically proficient? 

What am I calling proficient?  I'll go with "able to accomplish the mission in a reasonable period of time without having to get any remedial training from someone else on the aircrew to accomplish the job."

I think it depends a lot on what types of aircrew positions you wish to remain qualified to perform and the types of missions you normally fly. Including exercises, I participated in 10 missions in 2007, which is about average for me. I'm qualified as both a Mission Pilot as well as Observer and fly left or right seat depending on the aircrew need. Of those, I flew 3 sorties (MP/MO) on one CD mission, 3 ELT missions/sorties (2 as MP), 4 sorties as MP and MO over two missing aircraft searches (including Fossett) and a few sorties on exercises. Given the mix of missions, this is about the minimum I think. I started out as a Scanner and Observer before I became a Mission Pilot and it helps to stay proficient by flying in the right seat periodically mucking around with all that stuff on the right side of the panel like the becker DF, CAP VHF TDFM radio, SatPhone, etc. I really haven't worked with the SDIS gear since last year, but know I can make it work if needed. I'm not sure you can boil it down to x sorties/year in each Ops Qual like we used to do before the 60-3 was written and published. Hope this helps.

-- John

[flynd94]

The recurrent training is also about quality not quantity.  You can go out a fly a couple of SAREX's and, DF an ELT.  My question is how tough is that.  We need to look at real world experiences we have had on mission and incorporate those into training scenarios. 

Go throw an practice beacon out into field and, I will find in 2 seconds.  Change it up a little, maybe make it a carrier only signal, weak signal, beam it out a hangar door, put it in a marina and, I might have a little tougher time.

I really don't know if you can put a number on how many missions you need to fly to stay proficient, each of us is different.  I just want to see folks use realistic/tough training scenarios.

[Dragoon]

Another approach would be to institute a Form 91 for observers.   MPs go out and practice, or they won't pass their checkrides.  If observers had a similar hurdle every 2 years, they'd fly enough to get ready for the test.

I love CAP checkrides - they keep me on my toes.

[SeattleSarge]

Of course, the other part of maintaining proficiency is an on-going series of ground school sessions covering all the material in the MART...

Our squadron is using a combination of ground school classes and B-12 missions flying specific profiles to fill-out our training requirements.

-SeattleSarge