FPP025 - Flight School (US Navy)

Doctors attend medical school. Attorneys go to law school. …Plumbers acquire the skills of their craft at a plumbing trade school. So where do fighter pilots get their start? Duh. At flight school, of course.

The U.S. Air Force and Navy maintain discrete flight schools. While they share some aircraft (i.e. the Beechcraft / Raytheon T-6 Texan II) and occasionally exchange students and instructors, the two flight schools otherwise differ in their focus and execution.

On this episode, Major Mike “BS” Walsh—the podcast’s first US Marine Corps guest explains the U.S. Navy flight school from beginning (immediately following commissioning) to end (FRS completion). We discuss the syllabus, aircraft flown, training locations, what it takes to succeed, and what preparation, if any (arguably), students should undertake before attending.

Bumper music by Jaime Lopez / announcements by Jim Hendershot.