Forum: General F-35 Forum

USAF hopes to complete flying portion of F-35 OUE next week

http://www.flightglobal.com/news/articl ... ek-378799/

Dave Majumdar Washington DC

The US Air Force's first Lockheed Martin F-35A training unit, the 33rd Fighter Wing (FW) at Eglin AFB, Florida, expects to complete the flying portion of the jet's operational utility evaluation (OUE) early next week.

"As of this morning [9 November], we have flown 20 of 24 planned OUE sorties and completed the checkout for our first non-Eglin based pilot," ..the commander of the 33rd FW.

Major Joe Scholtz.. is assigned to the elite 59th Test and Evaluation Squadron at Nellis AFB, Nevada. If all goes as planned, the Nevada-based unit will be receiving their first F-35As in the very near future.

...If there are no problems with the weather or aircraft, the 33rd FW expects to complete the OUE by either Tuesday or Wednesday. ...The resulting report will eventually be forwarded to Gen Edward Rice, commander of the USAF's Air Education and Training Command.

If Rice is satisfied that the F-35 and the 33rd FW is ready to start training operations, he will give his formal assent.

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F-35 training behind schedule 09 Nov 2012

http://www.weartv.com/newsroom/top_stor ... wap=0&

"...F-35s have been taking off and landing at EAFB since March, but the only people flying them have been instructor pilots. You could say they've been training the trainers.

Technically, they don't even use the word training at this point; they're doing "checkouts."

The team that will one day train aviators from all over the world has come up with a program that qualifies an F-35 pilot in just six flights.

"It's over a hundred hours of academics, fourteen simulators, and the simulator is very realistic and representational of what the airplane does and how it performs," said Lt. Col. Eric Smith.

Air Force inspectors have been evaluating the program since September, looking at everything from the training regimen, to the performance of the jets themselves.

"Feels great because you're doing something that nobody's ever done before. You're making history in a sense, every day that you're at work," said Burch.

Some of the evaluators are test pilots who actually go through the training program themselves. Their feedback will go into the report that's a crucial factor in whether official pilot training can begin.

"Well, I just hit 100 hours a couple of weeks ago, and I'm confident in the jet, and confident in our maintainers who have done an absolutely fantastic job maintaining this airplane," Smith said...."

The team that will one day train aviators from all over the world has come up with a program that qualifies an F-35 pilot in just six flights.

To give some perspective, how many flights are needed to qualify for a -teen series jet?

popcorn wrote:

The team that will one day train aviators from all over the world has come up with a program that qualifies an F-35 pilot in just six flights.

To give some perspective, how many flights are needed to qualify for a -teen series jet?

Depending on how you describe "qualified". I could believe the basic checkout could be done in 6 flights. That would qualify them to take-off, fly, and land the jet safely (we hope!). For comparison, the F/A-18 Familiarization Flight 4 is a solo flight, the previous 3 flights done with an instructor in the back seat. Obviously, the F-35 does not have an instructor in the back seat.

For a pilot who hasn't flown a tactical jet before, they'd have to complete more training before they'd be mission ready. It's usually about 50 flights to complete BFM and tactical (Air-to-Air & Air-to-Ground) phases. For Naval Aviators, Initial tactical Field Carrier Landing Practice is typically 4 flights, then a day carrier qualification flight, followed by a night carrier qualification flight.

Could an experienced F/A-18 pilot be ready to go a F-35 active squadron in 6 flights, probably. An F-16 or F-22 pilot might have an easier time due to the commonality in the side-stick control.