Smart phones are too smart sometimes; it's spooky!

[MAC]

I called a friend to see how State went and when I hung up, my phone decided that I needed to call Bekah. Well, it turns out her big NATOPS test is in an hour and she really appreciated the call. She has this 3 hour oral exam, then a simulator exam and then tomorrow a flight exam. If she can't fly tomorrow, she'll have to take a flight check first as she won't have flown for 2 weeks. Sometimes smart phones are TOO smart!

[MAC]

Bekah reports that her oral went really well. The examiner commented that she did better than anyone else in ages, but he failed her on one section as she didn't know the number of her radio. Makes me wonder what he did to the aviators that DIDN'T do so well! She's trying to fly today, but they're socked in with fog. Turns out she's done her written exams--I thought she had another one to go...

[TamieJP]

What happens to those that fail?

[MAC]

Well, I suppose if they really fail, they may not be alive! Because of budget cuts, they may be kicked out of aviation and the Navy. There were a number of '09 and '10 grads that washed out of flight school and instead of being rerouted to SWO (surface ships) they were let go. REALLY short-sighted as the Navy already has many $$$$$ in them. The current administration just doesn't seem to get that you can't just dial up a carrier crew on two weeks notice--it takes years of training and practice to keep them at the top of their game. Figure 10,000 souls on a carrier (two crews), ten carriers, not to mention cruisers, destroyers, riverine, bases, medical, etc. You can't put personnel in mothballs!

Bekah passed with flying colors!

[TamieJP]

Bekah passed with flying colors!