Thu, Jul 03, 2003
Navy’s Newest Trainer aircraft Starts Duty
Class began June 30 at Naval Air
Station Pensacola, Fla. for the first group of naval flight officer
students to train with the T-6A Texan II, the Navy’s newest
trainer aircraft.
NAVAIR’s Undergraduate Flight Training System Program
Office (PMA-273) accepted the first two T-6 Texans in November 2002
and has been accepting one or two every month since for a current
inventory total of 15. The T-6 will replace the T-34 trainers and
provide increased capabilities allowing pilots to fly higher and
faster.
The first few weeks of the syllabus will be ground training
only, which combines academic and computer-based training with the
use of simulator exercises. There are currently three T-6
simulators in place at Pensacola with two more scheduled to arrive
in November 2004. Actual flights for the NFOs in the T-6 will begin
in August. By then, the Navy should have a total of 19 Texans in
its inventory. Ultimately, the goal is to buy 328 T-6s.
The T-6 is a joint aircraft, used both by the Air Force and the
Navy as part of a training system in coordination with simulator
technology, known as the Joint Primary Aircraft Training System.
One of the greatest advantages of the Texan is that it comes
equipped with a digital cockpit. Prior to the Texan, student
aviators conducted their initial flight training in aircraft
equipped with an analog cockpit and then made the transition to a
digital cockpit in their fleet aircraft. Now with the T-6A,
students will begin their training with the technology they will
actually fly in their fleet combat aircraft. [ANN Thanks Renee
Hatcher, PEO(A) Public Affairs]
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