How to Navigate the Navy Flight School Pipeline

Welcome to Pensacola, Florida–the birthplace of naval aviation and the universal experience of all winged aviators. If you or your servicemember has selected pilot from their commissioning source, you are headed south to the Sunshine State for the Navy Flight School Pipeline! Located in Northwest Florida (closer to Alabama than any major Florida city), Pensacola is a military beach town including both Air Force and Navy training squadrons as well as aircrew schools. 

The progression towards wings typically takes two to three years from reporting to winging depending on one’s aircraft selection. The naval flight school pipeline is for Navy, Coast Guard, and Marine pilot selects. It can take many turns and there are about 100 official publications out there describing the process, but here are the basics.

Naval Introductory Flight Evaluation (NIFE)

Naval Introductory Flight Evaluation at NAS Pensacola–recently replaced Introductory Flight Screening (IFS) and Aviation Preflight Indoctrination (API). This will be a period of classroom instruction, PT, studying, water survival, and some flying for your servicemember as they learn the basics of flight. In total, it will be about 8.5 weeks of instruction. However, there are long wait times for training so enjoy Pensacola during that time. Home to white sandy beaches, crystal clear Gulf of Mexico water, boating, breweries, and a growing downtown, Pensacola has something for everyone. Plenty of student naval aviators (SNAs) live in downtown Pensacola, East Hill, Gulf Breeze, or Perdido Key during this phase.

Primary

Primary Training–at NAS Whiting Field,  just 30 mins from Pensacola, or NAS Corpus Christi in Texas. For those who have Primary at Whiting, some suggest making the move closer to Milton, but that depends on your lifestyle preferences. All completers of NIFE move onto flying the T-6B, the Navy turboprop trainer. It is painted orange and white and seats two pilots with the instructor in the backseat. This will be tons of instruction, studying and chairflying (flight visualization practice with diagrams), sims, and flying. The well-favored part of Primary is the cross-country flights where the SNA and their instructor take the plane to a different city for the afternoon or the weekend to develop their abilities to flight plan and make radio contacts. During this time, the SNA is being graded in both flights and sims to comprise one’s NSS (Naval Standard Score) which will determine the next phase. Upon completion of Primary, SNAs have an informal ceremony at the squadron with their instructors present and they learn whether they will be progressing to the Rotary aircraft pipeline or the Fixed Wing pipeline.

Advanced

Here is where training really starts to vary. If the SNA, selects Rotary, they will stay at NAS Whiting Field where they will learn how to fly the trainer helicopter, the TH-57. If the SNA selects Fixed Wing, they are moving. For the E-2/C-2 and P-8 selectees, follow on multi-engine training is in NAS Corpus Christi, Texas to fly the T-44 (think small private jet size). For the strike (jet) SNAs, follow on training is at NAS Kingsville, Texas or NAS Meridian, Mississippi where they will fly the T-45 (trainer jet).

Graduation

Winging day is an exciting day for all SNAs. That day, SNAs will become designated naval aviators and will be pinned with their Wings of Gold. It’s a celebratory weekend as the class graduates typically on a Friday morning, pinned by their instructors or spouses. Winging day is the start of the pilot’s eight-year commitment to serve.

Community Selection

Days before or after winging day, the servicemember will receive their orders to their fleet community. They will submit preferences, but it is ultimately up to the needs of the Navy. Upon entering their fleet community, the winged aviator will spend a few months up to a year or more in the Replacement Air Group (RAG) squadron or Fleet Replacement Squadron (FRS) where they will learn how to fly their fleet aircraft. All pilots will move from a training installation (Kingsville, Meridian, Corpus, or Whiting) to another NAS for the RAG. 

The FRS is another year of studying, night flights, and intense learning as the pilot is learning to fly operationally.  Upon completion of the RAG, there is an informal graduation/recognition ceremony, the pilot learns of their fleet squadron and may PCS again to one’s first fleet squadron in a sea tour. From there, sea tour will begin and your servicemember is now deployable.

It may seem like a rather complex three years filled with PCS’s just to get to the fleet. Take it day by day. Each phase has its pros and cons. One day you’ll look back and appreciate each of those phases! Flight school will bring your servicemember and yourself some of your lifelong friends, just like any duty station can. Together is the only way through.