Originally Posted by
beardy
Perhaps you missed the TV programme showing the F35 crews undertaking AAR training and qualification before bringing the aircraft to the UK.
So the first time they did it in the aircraft, I take you are saying they didn’t do a minute of synthetic training in preparation? Practice breakout manoeuvres and emergency procedures, requiring specific aircraft handling? Train visual references for pre contact and contact position?
Or did they sign themselves off after reading the book and just cracking on in the airplane? The difference of course is that fast pointy mates will have done earlier formation training at BFT and AFT. Is this an issue for multi pilot types? I argue absolutely not. Synthetics are of ample quality to develop the required muscle memory required particularly for large aircraft. There is a big difference anyhow in flying a bit of line astern in a king air and plugging in for 20-30 mins in something much larger.