Flight Hours

[Lt_SNA_USMC]

I know this may be a little ahead of the game, but I am curious. How many flight hours can I expect to log from flight school through my first tour? I have not any idea. I thought Frumby could possibly enlighten me. Sir do you know?
2nd Lt. R.E. Williamson

 

[webmaster]

I don't know about jets and what might apply to you, but props (p3s), we usually log between 1200 and 1500 flight ours by the end of our first tour. I had a little over 300 coming out of the FRS.

 

[Frumby]

Good question.
Truthfully, its hard to say exactly. It all depends on who is sitting in the White House. Funding! Funding! Funding! I am going to pull out my Log Book and tell you exactly (Keep in mind that I was a road whore and flew as much as possible):

May 1990- April 1993 (Training Command and RAG) = 414.2
July 1993-Jan 1996 (First Tour in a Fleet Squadron)= 529.7
Grand Total after Flight School and my first tour) = 943.9

We were having a hard time finding parts because monies had not been appropriated to resupply our parts. At one point, we actually had our Marines steal the slats off an A-6 on a display so we could put it on one of ours to have one jet flying. Flying in the military is excellent but if the threat goes away, Congress will sew up the gaping wound in its wallet and bring flying back to a low crawl. I hope that helps. Incidentally, Harriers get the least amount of flight time in the USMC. Semper, Frumby

Attack Pilot
Major USMC

 

[Jester]

Frumby and Jarhead,

With only 20 flight hrs. a month what do you gentlemen do when not flying? What kind of duties are you given, if any? And lastly, has your time in the air increased since recent world events? I was just wondering what kind of affect recent events in the middle east has had on Marine aviation. I have a brother, who is a scout sniper, floatin around over there somewhere with the 11th MEU. He can't say much about what he's up to though, obviously.

Semper Fi,
Jester

 

[thartley]

You are bound to your desk the rest of the time and lead your Marines. 20-25 hours is actually a lotbecause of the preflight and postflight time that goes with it.

 

[webmaster]

You want to talk preflight, how about going through 3 planes and 8 hours worth of preflighting before you even do your 8-10 hour mission?

 

[Gatordev]

Sheesh, John, what are you doing, breaking them all? That's why we just send all our birds to sea. Hell, next week, we'll be the only Det here w/ our one bird...want to play soccer in the hangar anyone?

 

[Jack]

If we're gonna start talking about broken jets and lots of down time, please please please let me in on this conversation. I read an article the other day about how a slat FELL OFF the aircraft on an low level. Fortunately it fell into an apple orchard owned by a former A-6 maintainer who recognized what it was and happily returned it in the back of his pick up.

Naval Aviator, Prowlers.