Since 2014, the U.S. Naval Academy has offered a challenging summer training opportunity for midshipmen who intend to pursue their Wings of Gold as naval aviators. Reserved for midshipmen entering their final year, the Powered Flight Program (PFP) evolved from the former Introductory Flight Screening (IFS) program, which many participants—this author among them—remember fondly. Midshipmen who participate in PFP receive a more robust training syllabus than IFS participants received. PFP is designed to serve as a kind of two-way job interview. Offering students a candid and unapologetic experience of the rigors, tempo, and expectations of naval aviation and its training pipelines, PFP is a cost-effective tool to help both prospective aviators and the Navy make informed decisions about career paths. And it affords a more realistic impression of what naval aviation is really like—complementing to some degree its portrayal in movies such as Top Gun: Maverick.
At the end of three weeks of training, the culminating experience is flying an airplane solo for the first time. The net result—retroactive to the Naval Academy Class of 2021—is that students who are selected for aviation can validate a portion of the naval flight training pipeline when they arrive in Pensacola, Florida.
About a hundred ensigns from the Class of 2023 completed PFP during the summer of 2022 (out of the 286 Naval Academy midshipmen selected for naval aviation).1 Because it allows the Naval Academy to evaluate a midshipman’s aptitude for aviation before service assignment, PFP provides a critical data point that classroom grades and other traditional performance metrics simply cannot offer. While not guaranteeing success in flight school, successful completion of PFP gives students and staff more confidence that those selected for naval aviation have “the right stuff.”
Just as important, by front-loading some of the required initial flight training, PFP helps alleviate the current backlog. Anything that can safely shorten the time from reporting to Pensacola to starting advanced training should be welcomed. Although it is too soon to draw firm conclusions, it can be hypothesized that this will help accelerate the training pipeline, getting combat-ready aviators to the fleet and fight more quickly.
Fly Navy (Style)
Where IFS relied exclusively on civilian certificated flight instructors (CFIs) and resembled the kind of flight instruction one would find pursuing a private pilot’s license, PFP is modeled on the Navy’s primary flight training curriculum. Each event follows a standard, sequential progression, with students graded on a 1 to 5 scale for individual flight maneuvers and demonstrated knowledge. Maneuver item files (MIFs) define minimum performance standards for each graded item, and students are expected to brief each flight event as they would at any Chief of Naval Air Training (CNATRA) squadron.
Substandard performance during a preflight brief can result in a “ready room down,” meaning the student has not met the requisite level of knowledge and preparation to conduct the flight safely—and communicating clearly that he or she is not yet mission ready. Further, students who do not meet minimum standards are required to go before a training review board, just as they would in flight school, sitting across the table from senior instructors who review in-depth a student’s performance and deficiencies. Finally, and perhaps most critically, at least 30 percent of flight instructors teaching PFP students are active-duty military aviators who maintain a civilian CFI rating. As a whole, PFP looks a lot like the first squadrons the participants will encounter as student naval aviators.
During PFP’s three weeks, midshipmen complete a robust ground school curriculum, culminating in the FAA Private Pilot Knowledge written exam. Simultaneously, through preparing for and receiving 10.5 hours of flight time in a Piper PA-28 “Warrior” aircraft, midshipmen learn fundamentals of preflight planning, aviation weather, checklist management, and use of the National Airspace System.2 In the air, they perform flight at slow airspeeds, practice stall training and recovery, employ the fundamentals of visual attitude flying, learn to manage in-flight emergencies, and become proficient in the landing pattern. At any point during training, students are expected to recite—on demand and verbatim—any of 13 emergency procedures from memory, not only on the ground, but also while dealing with a simulated emergency while flying. Confident and precise execution of these “boldface” procedures is another feature of PFP that prepares students for success as future naval aviators.
Most midshipmen who participate in the Powered Flight Program quickly find the training more challenging than they expected. The old “drinking from a firehose” adage very much applies. Even the sharpest midshipmen are sometimes caught off guard when the floodgates open on day one. Recent graduates of the program have noted the significant challenges of finding study methods, prepping for nightly quizzes, and memorizing procedures. The study habits that serve them well in the classroom are often insufficient for the cockpit. As one 2023 PFP graduate noted: “There is no faking your way through this. Be prepared to fail.”
Performing well under pressure in an airplane demands significant mental and physical preparation—a commitment to devote every fiber of mind and body to the task. Seasoned military aviators understand that the concept of mentally rehearsing—“chair flying”—a flight from start to finish is part and parcel of the profession. Its practice occupies countless hours from the beginning of flight school to the very end of any aviator’s career. For students new to naval aviation, however, the value of this practice can only be learned in the pressure cooker brought by actual experience. If nothing else, PFP teaches high-performing and successful midshipmen that “what got you here won’t get you there.”3
No Experience Needed
By design, midshipmen selected for PFP have little or no prior aviation experience. Some midshipmen come to the Naval Academy with a pilot’s license or considerable prior flight time. Although their expertise can be a critical supplement and resource for their classmates—many teach the ground school portion of PFP—this program is not intended for them. Considering that most students could not have described the difference between a flap and an aileron on day one, completing the Powered Flight Program three weeks later is no small achievement.
After completion of ground school, four ground events in the aircraft, seven instructional flights, and three separate checkrides, the student solos for the first time. Given the breakneck pace of training, it is an accomplishment replicated in few other places, and it represents a well-earned reward for the grit and resilience learned and demonstrated during training. The solo is the part of PFP midshipmen often find most meaningful. As PFP 2023 graduate Abigail Bahlau recalls, “I had never experienced the feeling of hard work taking so long to pay off, and it was frustrating. But . . . once I [soloed], I had never felt more accomplished.” For students preparing to begin a career as naval aviators, it is unlikely that anything could confer more confidence than being able to operate an aircraft alone after just three weeks of training.
In Pensacola, the “Cradle of Naval Aviation,” all students are required to complete ground school and a brief introductory flight screening program before beginning flight training. Today, Naval Introductory Flight Evaluation (NIFE) is the entry point prior to moving on to the T-6B “Texan II” during the Primary phase of flight training. During NIFE 2, students complete seven flights and a little more than nine hours of dual-flight training in a Cessna 172.4 As with PFP, both civilian and military CFIs provide flight instruction during NIFE, with designated naval aviators or naval flight officers overseeing evaluation during check flights. Unlike PFP, however, there is no solo flight during NIFE 2. Further distinguishing it from NIFE, students in PFP are expected to complete a blindfold cockpit check and successfully recover from approach turn stalls, a maneuver that not only provides realistic training, but further enhances a student’s ability to safely control the aircraft during the most critical phases of flight.
Accelerated Learning
Given its robustness and similarity to NIFE 2, CNATRA recently approved PFP as validation for the NIFE 2 portion of naval flight training, allowing PFP graduates to move directly to primary flight training following completion of NIFE 1. As the data about its effects become available over time, it would not be surprising if findings reveal that PFP has measurably supported the CNATRA mission to “train, mentor, and deliver the highest quality Naval Aviators who prevail in competition, crises, and conflict.”5 The growth and development midshipmen experience during PFP each summer is a testament to that mission
Echoing what many of his classmates found, Ensign Thomas Magiera says, “Ultimately, no one can describe the feeling of accomplishment that you [have] at the end of the program when you are able to look back on all your work and take pride in what you were able to do. . . . To go from zero to solo in three weeks was an incredible feeling.”
It will require time and further study to definitively assess whether the Naval Academy’s Powered Flight Program produces more capable and better-performing student naval aviators in flight school. As the 130 midshipmen who completed PFP during the summer of 2023—half the 260 in the Class of 2024 selected for naval aviator or naval flight officer—begin to report to Naval Air Station Pensacola, CNATRA will have ready-made study groups to begin that assessment.6 In any case, they; their predecessors in the classes of 2021, 2022, and 2023; and members of the class of 2025 now participating will help ensure that the future of naval aviation is as bright as ever.
1. U.S. Naval Academy, “Naval Academy Class of 2023 Obtain Career Assignments,” 18 November 2022.
2. The FAA counts hours differently than the Navy. The FAA’s count begins when the engine turns over. The Navy only starts counting once the takeoff roll begins. Using the Navy’s accounting, PFP aviators would accrue something closer to 9 hours for the same activities.
3. Marshall Goldsmith, What Got You Here Won’t Get You There: How Successful People Become Even More Successful! (New York: MJF Books, 2007).
4. Chief of Naval Air Training, CNATRAINST 1542.178A: Naval Introductory Flight Evaluation (NIFE) 2020, x.
5. Chief of Naval Air Training, “Mission,” (Retrieved 21 August 2023).
6. U.S. Naval Academy, “Naval Academy Class of 2024 Obtain Career Assignments,” 17 November 2023.
