Effectiveness of Introductory Flight Screening (IFS) for United States Navy and Marine Corps Student Pilots

This study examined the effectiveness of Introductory Flight Screening (IFS) for U.S. Navy and Marine Corps student pilots. It compared a non-IFS group to an IFS-complete group to determine if IFS had any effect on Primary drop-on-request (DOR) and flight-failure (FF) attrition. It then examined the return on investment (ROI) of the IFS program utilizing T-34 flying-hour costs, active-duty costs, and opportunity cost-savings of IFS-screened students who did not enter undergraduate pilot training. Results suggest that IFS did not have an effect on the DOR rate and may have produced the undesired effect of delaying the DOR-student’s decision until later in the syllabus. IFS had a desirable effect on the FF attrition rate with no significant change in T-34 flight hours per FF. The combined Primary DOR and FF rate, although significantly lower, did not achieve expectations. The ROI analysis was completed with both composite-pay costs and Individual Account costs. In both cases, the IFS-investment costs significantly outweighed the IFS savings resulting in a net loss and an undesirable ROI. Several alternatives were discussed as possible improvements to the current IFS program.