Would any of you Coastie pilot types be willing to share what it's like in that branch of the service, as a pilot? I'm very interested in transfering to the CG when my contract is up (not for a while yet), specifically to fly helos, though I wouldn't mind C-130's either. Thanks in advance!
(Keep in mind, the USCG DCA program is only accepting prior service folks who already have rotary experience. Rumor has it they may be opening fixed wing up a little in the near future. Anything is possible though)
Are you talking about things like duty assignments, deployments, average number of flight hours logged, collateral duties, etc.?
Good evening. I'll try to shed some light on the subject as I love to see new pilots come into the fray. You say you know where the stations are so I will skip that. Everything else I write is in general terms there are always exceptions. You will usually be assigned to an air station for four years. Unless you are USCGaviator, then you just stay in one spot almost your entire career. See already an exception. While there you will be a duty standing pilot. You will stand about 5-8 duties a month and each duty period is 24 hours straight. You don't have to stay up the whole 24 hours but you must launch within 30 minutes from notification of a case. You will fly about 25-35 hours a month conducting different types of missions including SAR, LE, and training missions. Deployments vary from location to location but most pilots do one or two, two month deployments over the four year period. At some stations pilots will do at least double that. Normal weeks are your typical M-F working 8-4 type hours with the occasional duty thrown in. Which gives you ample time to conduct your collateral duties when you are not flying. That is pretty much it in a nutshell. Coast Guard aviation is the best kept secret in the military. I have seen and done more in the Coast Guard than I ever imaged was even an option in this service. I started six years ago and haven't wiped the smile off my face yet. Good luck if you choose to go down this path.
Wow 8-4 sounds nice. If you do 3 yrs on a cutter then go to flight school does your commitment start after you get your wings? Or does the 11 yrs change since you didn't go right away?
The CG recently released a Flight Training Solicitation Message that stated: ALL APPLICANTS COMPLETING FLIGHT SCHOOL AS A RESULT OF THIS PANEL WILL INCUR EIGHT YEARS OF OBLIGATED SERVICE IN ADDITION TO PREVIOUSLY OBLIGATED SERVICE Here's the link to the message if you're interested. It also lists age requirements, visual acuity standards, etc.: ALCGOFF 186/05 : FLIGHT TRAINING SOLICITATION Hope this helps.
It sounds great. I really would like to fly more often, but for shorter periods of time (P-3 missions tend to be LOOOOONG) and doing more interesting things. Now if I can just convince them to take fixed wing aviators... Thanks a lot Sardaddy!
I think SARDaddy speaks of a helo perspective. I was prior enlisted.. was an E-6 and went over 10 in OCS. Did 4 year staff tour then picked up for flight school after eye surgery. Only winged last March, qual'ed as Co in August, and coming up on 17 years of service. As a C-130 co-pilot, I've been standing an average of 1 in 4ish duty. As with helos, we stand a 24 hour watch, ready to launch within 30 mins. There's also the ever enjoyable ODO - desk duty.. 12 hours during the week, 24 on the weekends. During Hurricane Katrina and Rita, I flew several times into New Orleans deliverying supplies and personnel ... from St Louis, MO even out to Sacramento, CA. I've RO1N'ed in Puerto Rico, Antigua, St Louis and Sacto. Longest crew day I've had was 19 hours - that day I think I had 9.2 flight time. This past Sunday, we called in our back up crew so the ready crew (the ac, crew and myself) could fly them out to Antigua. After 4.5ish hours to get out there, the back up crew took the plane another 1000 miles east to locate two women that were stranded atop their capsized row boat. We remained in Antigua overnight to rest. The backup crew located the women and vectored in a good sam to recover them. The backup crew flew another 1000 miles back and landed. Refueled and we flew everyone home. The backup crew was in that plane 20 hours - flew over half of it. More info: http://www.jconline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060117/NEWS0501/601170321 Interview with CAPT of ship who rescued: http://archive.wgnradio.com:8080/ramgen/wgnam/Spike/audio/atlanticrace060116so.rm I'm not really sure what SARDaddy meant by "You will usually be assigned to an air station for four years. Unless you are USCGaviator, then you just stay in one spot almost your entire career. See already an exception." People move around. Enlisted, not so much, O's.. yeah. If you're flying P-3s I would imagine it would be hard to come in and go helo's.. not impossible, but I would think hard. I personally would like to see about 6 more 130 pilots at my unit. I've flown everyday I have been at work this month.. Sounds great, but when you have to prepare for to give training, OER, do the unenjoyable CMCO job and other projects tossed at you, it can make things difficult. Don't get me wrong, I love missions.. but the training flights? More fun than flight school, but get old after awhile. Granted, the unit I'm at is the largest Air Station in the Coast Guard.. normally with 6-7 C-130's and 9 HH-60's. 500+ people.. busy.. ugh. Oh, and 130 deployments? Usually a crew will do a 2 week L/E deployment in Central/South America.. and sometimes GITMO. When were not doing trainers or saving people, my unit is patrolling the Florida Straights - looking for migrants and vectoring in surface assets to intercept.. about 2 weeks ago, we chased a boat with 5 people up onto the beach.. they hit the sand at about 30 kts.. I absolutely love it..
He does. He meant to take a shot at me (a glancing blow, nevertheless, a shot was taken). 16 of my 24 years have been spent in the CG. Of those 16, I've spent the past 12 years assigned to the CG's Aviation Training Center as an Instructor Pilot (3 consecutive tours). This is obviously an extreme example of "geographic stability" and in no way reflects the normal assignment process of CG Officers. In fact, I know of no other Officer that has stayed in one place for this length of time (geographic diversity for CG pilots is viewed in a positive light when it comes to your career). As a CG pilot (O-1 to O-4) expect to move every 4 years (or 3 if OCONUS). Additionally, PCS moves occur during the summer. The CG does this so that you don't have to yank your rugrats out of skewl in the middle of the year and listen to them boohoo for 3 straight days as you travel cross-country to your new duty station. Anyway, this is what SARKiddy meant....
Is there any age limit for transfers from other services? I.E. can a Navy helo pilot do his 8 years then switch over?
Does the CG still knock prior service pilots down to 0-2? That would be a huge pay cut going from 0-3E >14 back down to 0-2E. USCG is awesome. Those guys see action daily! Many times I've considered doing 'the switch'.
Here are the current age and TIS requirements: Be between the ages of 21 and 34 (as of September 30, 2006) Have not more than 10 years active duty Check out the following site for all the specifics: ** Coast Guard Direct Commission Aviator Program
The following information is taken from the link I listed above. "The DCA program can only accept applicants with rotary wing experience at this time. Those applicants who are selected to the DCA program, all Warrants and O-1's and O-2's will be commissioned in the Coast Guard as Ensigns (O-1). All O-3's and above will be commissioned in the Coast Guard as Lieutenants Junior Grade (O-2)." I work with several guys that were O-4s or O-4 selects when they transitioned to the Coast Guard and entered as O-2s. None of them express any regrets.
That 10 years active duty is a killer. I really wonder if that's set in stone, or if they're as desperate for Jayhawk pilots as they say, and can waiver that.
There's got to be waivers. Otherwise, their talent pool would be quite small. According to the guidelines, you are SOL if you've been flying a desk - or humping a pack - for the two years prior to the application deadline. Is it just me, or does it seem that this program is targeting WOs? In addition to requiring active flight time within the previous two years, they are asking basically all USN/USMC aviators to take a substantial pay cut (which might be worth it if you really want to go CG). Also, after college/TBS/flight school (especially with all the wait time), it seems that most Marine/Navy aviators would be nearing the upper limits for both age and TIS by the time the obligated service is completed. Now - are there normally reserve openings, and if so, are the requirements generally looser?
It is my understanding that the exact reverse of this is true. Interest in the program is high resulting in a sufficient number of quality applicants - no waivers required. That's true. It's just you. The results of the last DCA Board (announced 9 Jan 06) show that 16 pilots were selected. Of that number 3 were Warrant Officers (19%). Here's a link to the message if you're interested: * DIRECT COMMISSION OFFICER (DCO) PROGRAM 29 NOV 05 SELECTION PANEL RESULTS If an initial reduction in rank from O-3 to O-2 causes someone serious heartburn, then a transfer to the CG is not the way to go. Life is full of tough choices... We do not have reservists that fly, only AD.
Ahh, not so fast. You do have reservists that fly. I'm flying with one of them now. But as was said earlier, there's always exceptions. While this may be true, and waivers are a no go, the CG is reporting that they don't have enough Jayhawk pilots right now. So the interest may be high, but not high enough. Time will tell...
"Ahh, not so fast. You do have reservists that fly. I'm flying with one of them now. But as was said earlier, there's always exceptions." Can you expand on this, because the CG doesn't let reservists maintain their qualifications as pilots. They may have been a rated aviator on active duty, and they of course get to keep their wings once they go into the reserves, but they can't even log CP time as a reservist. "the CG is reporting that they don't have enough Jayhawk pilots right now." Who are they reporting that to? Neither the H-65 or the H-60 programs are fully manned but neither are at critical strength. Of the two, the H-60 side is probably better off.
Some decisions are tougher than others. I wouldn't be eligible for this program (since I'll nearly be collecting Social Security when my obligated service is up). However, if I were a young O-3 today with ~8 yrs service (and at the end of my obligated service), a cut of over $10,500 in basic pay alone would probably give me a little heartburn. But, obviously, people are taking advantage of the program, so good on them. Different strokes, right?
Elder, I don't even know how to start. I'll do my best though. Yes I was speaking from the Helo perspective. The fixed wing perspective isn't that different, with the exceptions that made your comments so absolutely, so outrageously, hilarious. From the rotary wing perspective, that is. Everybody stands ODO, Everybody stands duty, everybody has collateral duties. Same, same. Deployments vary by location. Some helo units have airfacs and pilots are gone for short stints but everyone deploys in one form or another. Fixed wing pilots get four year orders just like rotary wing pilots. No really big differences there. The only differences between the rotary wing and fixed wing perspectives are that helicopter pilots define their careers by the rescues they have made, not by where they got to spend the night TAD. Speaking of that, after Hurricane Katrina, I too flew several times in to New Orleans, what a coincidence. Overall, the daily operations between pilots is not that different. I was going to go into your post more indepth but the pickin's were just too easy. In one post you were able to stick just about every C-130 pilot stereotype perfectly. I will pass it off as a new CP trying to fit into his new skin and leave it be.
I agree that there are many guys (and gals) out there that feel exactly as you stated. The point I was trying to make was that if the desire to transfer to the CG does not outweigh the costs (e.g. drop in rank from O-3 to O-2 and the resulting decrease in $$) then a move to the CG is not the right decision. If pay is your motivator, you're better off staying where you are. Without a doubt...that's what keeps it interesting!
Sardaddy: There's a guy going through the FITU w/ me who worked some sort of drug deal to finish out his 20. He's a reservist who came back in after the standard post-9/11 fallout w/ the airlines. He admits it's rare, but it worked for him. As for the Jayhawks, that came from this last NHA meet. I wasn't at the presentation, but the gist was they need Jayhawk pilots. How bad, I don't know, just that they need them. I'm only the messenger.
GatorDev, Sorry, don't know what a FITU is. Sounds cool though. It sounds like he came back on active duty which makes sense. Let me expand my comment before to make it fit the situation better. There are a lot of folks who are/were in the reserves that are aviators. If they playing a true reservist role, i.e. one weekend a month, two weeks a year, they will not be acting as pilots in the Coast Guard. However, he could certainly hold a "reserve commission" while on contract in an active duty position (active duty being the key) and be qualified and operating as a pilot. Lots of folks did that after 9/11. I think I understand now. We were talking about two different things. As for the Jayhawk thing, yes we need Jayhawk pilots, we need dolphin pilots too. For about a week three or four months ago there was a panic that we were going to need tons of H-60 pilots but that passed quickly as cooler heads prevailed.
