Research for Proficiency

The Navy trains pilots to fly a variety of aircraft. At present, all student pilots attend primary training in the fixed-wing T-34 training aircraft and are then assigned to specialized advanced training 'pipelines.' In this paper, we document the Navy's use of observed flight performance in primary to assign student pilots for advanced training. We examine the ability of the Navy to predict student pilot performance before primary begins and early in primary. First, we predict primary flight performance before flight training begins, using the data employed to screen candidates into flight training. Next, we predict primary performance using flight stage grades earned early in primary. We address two major policy issues: (1) how would pipeline selection be affected if the Navy had two separate primaries, one for helicopter training and another for fixed-wing training? and (2) how would pipeline selection be affected if helicopter pilots were selected early in primary training?

This report describes a proposed system that could be used by senior management personnel to monitor the performance of Naval Air Rework Facilities (NARF's). Quantitative indicators are introduced for gauging performance in eight key subject areas: quantity, quality, timeliness, backlog, cost, productivity, efficiency, and overhead. These indicators are displayed for each major product line by means of control charts that depict historical performance, performance goals, and lower limits of acceptable performance. Actual performance data for the second quarter of FY 1984 are used to illustrate the proposed system.