Ochs. ‘Towards the end of the syllabus
they work in ight as well. For the guys in
the back on the P-8 it’s a bit more about
introducing tactics, whereas for the P-3
it’s more about navigation-based training.
There’s a lot more computer and simulator
work involved with the P-8.’
During the eight-month course, a typical
P-8 student pilot will go through 24
simulator ‘rides’ and just nine live ights
on average. Typically this equates to 25-30
hours of live ight time, for both the P-3
and the P-8. A Poseidon simulator event
can last up to four hours and the live ying
is generally a four- to ve-hour mission,
but with one instructor and two students,
who hop in and out of the front seat.
On the P-3 side of the house there are a
few platform-driven speci cs. ‘Just about
every pilot training event in our syllabus
requires a loiter shut-down and restart’,
explains Lumsden. ‘The rst time you see
that propeller stop spinning out on the
wing it’s an unsettling feeling. You never
experience that anywhere else, but we do
it regularly [on the Orion]. It always takes
the student by surprise the rst time we
do it, but you start building that habit and
comfort level.’
Each class is building towards a
rudimentary tactics phase — it includes
simulator training involving weapons
employment and a ight or two dropping
sonobuoys.Patrol instructors
The path to becoming an instructor with
VP-30 is a fairly long one. As a general
rule of thumb, potential candidates
will already have at least around
1,200 to 1,500 hours of ight time
upon arrival at VP-30, and will have
been unit-level instructors in their
previous eet squadrons. There
are fewer than 20 instructors
left for the P-3 at VP-30, and
the migration to the P-8 is
continuing, which has aSTANDARDIZING
THE FLEET
‘As the FRS we’re supposed to hold the
standard for our warfare platforms’, LT
Lumsden points out. ‘In order to do that,
we have to take periodic trips to all the
squadrons throughout the country and
evaluate them. We call it eet NATOPS
[Naval Air Training and Operating
Procedures Standardization] evaluations.
We’ll go out and administer a eet
NATOPS written test, which takes about
three hours. After that we’ll administer
random check-rides, just to kind of
spot-check the squadron. We also dotrips for the test squadrons like VX-30
and VXS-1. We don’t do NASA or NOAA
[the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration and the National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration, both of
which are P-3 operators] but sometimes
NOAA asks us to come out and give them
a test to make sure they are holding
themselves to standard’. In addition to US
Navy aircrew, VP-30 does some training
for foreign P-3 operators from allied
nations, most commonly from Canada
and Australia.This image:
The P-8 is
gradually
assuming the full
remit of the MPA
mission in US
Navy service.
Below right
top to bottom:
A P-3C AIP+ taxies
back to the VP-30
fl ight line with the
tell-tale roar of the
T56 turboprops.
P-3 instructor LT
Jake Lumsden.60 May 2018 //^ http://www.combataircraft.net
UNIT REPORT // VP-30 ‘PRO’S NEST’
58-61 NAS Jax C.indd 60 20/03/2018 11:03