If you wanted to, could you transfer to the USAF right now since you are so far along in the flight program? Your idea sounds pretty dangerous to a lay-person like myself. Ramp Strike!*
*That is a reference to a pilot in the book "Feet Wet" who used to visually fly his own carrier approaches. He eventually had a ramp strike with his F-8 and was killed.
Perhaps it needs some clarification. I'm talking about the procedure to get to the "start" of the ball flying.
I was told in the last phase, that ABSOLUTELY EVERY SINGLE TIME you turn crosswind, you HAVE to be at 130kts and 30 degrees angle of bank. "If you'll accept anything else in the cross turn, you'll accept other deviations later, and you'll die". So I did that. Every time, I was at EXACTLY 130/30. But that put me at 1.1-1.2nm abeam. But I was told "You have to be at 1.0 abeam, that's what the turn geometry is designed for." So, now I'm making intermediate corrections between intermediate checkpoints, but by god if I didn't hit 1.0 abeam EVERY single time. And so I was told "Use 27-28 degrees angle of bank in the approach turn, because you might need MORE, and you CAN'T go above 30 degrees", so I used 27-28 every single time. "Look out at the 90 degree point, and start making corrections for lineup then", so I did this. And with hitting all of these intermediate checkpoints along the way, I was still NOT getting a good start consistently. And so I would ask "Well, I'm not getting to a good start, what should I do?" and I was told "Just make sure you're hitting exactly those numbers"...
Going back and working at it on my own, not worrying about hitting the prescribed intermediate checkpoints, I've found that so far, 128kts and 33 degrees AOB for the crosswind turn puts me at .9nm abeam. And from .9nm abeam, I go straight to 30 degrees AOB and DON'T make corrections at the 90, keep heads in until the 45. THEN take about 2 degrees AOB out, if necessary. And through these methods, I get to a textbook start position for the ball.
I'm not saying I'm going to just ignore everything and wing it. I'm developing a variation to more consistently put me in the position I need to get to.
For me, this is an issue I've encountered before. One of the first things we do when we get here, is barrel rolls under the hood. Now, I've done barrel rolls before, quite well. But our manual says "Initiate a 4G pull to x degrees above the horizon. At x1 degrees above the horizon, roll to y degrees angle of bank. At z degrees off initial heading, be at x2 degrees above the horizon, and y1 degrees angle of bank. At z1 degrees off of initial heading, be x3 degrees above the horizon..." etc. And so the first three events I attempted to adhere to these numbers exactly, and it led to a borderline unsafe lack of control. What finally got me back to my perfect barrel rolls was an IP watching me go through this and saying "Don't focus on those exact checkpoints. Don't THINK about how to do a barrel roll, just DO a barrel roll". And what do you know? The next attempt was damned near perfect. And this has repeated throughout flight school. The more I get into the weeds on the method, the worse the results. The more I focus on the big picture, the better the results.
