Getting your name painted on squadron aircraft

[AllAmerican75]

As far as names on the sides of aircraft, do all pilots/NFOs in the squadron have their names on an aircraft or is it reserved for the top dogs or guys who have proved themselves to be good to go, much like having your tie cut after your first solo or something? I guess what I'm asking is, do you have to earn the privilege to have your name on an aircraft?

 

[NozeMan]

As far as names on the sides of aircraft, do all pilots/NFOs in the squadron have their names on an aircraft or is it reserved for the top dogs or guys who have proved themselves to be good to go, much like having your tie cut after your first solo or something? I guess what I'm asking is, do you have to earn the privilege to have your name on an aircraft?

You'll have more pilots/aircrew than spots for names....so you have to move up in the world to get your name on a bird. At least plan on this for a multi-crewed community. Took me 18 months to get my name on an aircraft.

 

[m26]

What are the odds that pilot and NFO(s) all correlate to the names on the aircraft? Are the odds of a 4/4 Prowler flight pretty slim?

 

[TheBubba]

Best I've done is 3 of 4. And in the correct seats too.

One flight a few weeks ago, we were supposed to "fight" (and I use the term loosely) a Rhino. The Rhino's crew matched the names on the jet 2 for 2.

 

[MasterBates]

I've NEVER flown "my" plane, be it a 60B, E2 or TRACOM bird.

(only plane that had my name, was a 60B, and it was the 2 year no fly hangar queen. AFCM had a sense of humor)

 

[HeyJoe]

As far as names on the sides of aircraft, do all pilots/NFOs in the squadron have their names on an aircraft or is it reserved for the top dogs or guys who have proved themselves to be good to go, much like having your tie cut after your first solo or something? I guess what I'm asking is, do you have to earn the privilege to have your name on an aircraft?

In the "Upstairs, Downstairs" world of Operations "vs" Maintenance, Maintenance repaints aircraft in conjunction with Corrosion inspection intervals so there is no rite of passage or earning your name on the aircraft unless you are the CAG, CO or XO (CAG gets all the "00" MODEX in Air Wing, CO gets "01" and XO gets "02"). Convention used in every squadron I have been associated with is everyone else is by seniority EXCEPT when CO and XO mandate who they are crewed with and all others go by lineal number. In case of having more aircrew than aircraft, typically the junior most aircrew "share" aircraft (ie one name on portside and another on starboard). Since Corrosion events aren't tied to folks coming and going, unless you are CAG, CO or XO, you can go months before you see your name on an aircraft. Squadrons also have aircraft arriving and departing especially immediately after or prior to deployment so MODEXs can be swapped (not tied to BUNO at all) so names can get out of whack during Turnover. Actually, most accurate names tied to aircraft are the Plane Captains, but doesn't mean they'll always be "assigned" to shepherd "their" aircraft.

 

[BACONATOR]

For expeditionary helo squadron's it's a lot easier. Per OPNAV, no one is "supposed" to have "their own" jet, so names are just happenstance and simply representing the squadron pilots/NFOs/AWs/PCs. But for squadrons that send dets out, with a smaller pool of people on det, it's much easier to get to fly "your" bird.

I had the wonderful experience of flying my own helicopter... as a 2p! ... only my name was directly under "FNG"... fml.

 

[KBayDog]

You want your name on an aircraft?

You don't want it to be jacked up?

You actually want to fly "your" aircraft?

It's really simple: DON'T PISS OFF THE MAINTENANCE DEPARTMENT.

 

[Gatordev]

You want your name on an aircraft?

You don't want it to be jacked up?

You actually want to fly "your" aircraft?

It's really simple: DON'T PISS OFF THE MAINTENANCE DEPARTMENT.

Bingo.

I had been the Navy for 12 (and a little) years when I (just recently) had a plane w/ my name on it. I think the only reason I have it is because at the time, I was the 3rd senior O-4. It was completely unsolicited and I walked out to the bird one day and found my name there and said, "oh, cool..." And then I'm sure we proceeded to break.

I'm sure it doesn't hurt that I "own" all the aircraft now, too.

 

[Pags]

Bingo.

I had been the Navy for 12 (and a little) years when I (just recently) had a plane w/ my name on it. I think the only reason I have it is because at the time, I was the 3rd senior O-4. It was completely unsolicited and I walked out to the bird one day and found my name there and said, "oh, cool..." And then I'm sure we proceeded to break.

I'm sure it doesn't hurt that I "own" all the aircraft now, too.

My old squadron didn't put names on the homeguard aircraft. Det aircraft it depended if people cared enough to ask maintenance to do it. When I was on my HAC det our guys were working 12 on / 12 off for months doing three phases in a row plus all the usual downers so they didn't have the time to mess around painting names on a/c. Plus, we had people come and go so often on our det it wasn't worth the effort.

 

[phrogpilot73]

My current squadron puts only crewchiefs and plane captains on the aircraft. My active duty squadron put pilots names on the aircraft as they checked in (28 pilots, 12 aircraft - 4 most junior pilots got the shaft), and it was the aircraft you were assigned to do your pilot monthly on. Getting to fly it is all about not pissing off maintenance.

You can break all the planes in the world, and have a shitty day testing (aka going backwards) - you clearly appreciate the hard work those guys do - you'll always fly when they can help it...

As I had my third day in a row of breaking planes, the MMCO said "God damn Stinky, we need you off the flight schedule for at least a day. Hey Gunny, we got another set of keys for him?"

 

[SWACQ]

My last 4-6 months in the squadron there were two jets with my name on it. As mentioned, its based on the seniority list and when the jet gets to the paint hangar. I had my name on A/C 12 for awhile, they redid the list and i had A/C 8 or 9. Lets call it 8 for this story. 8 went into the paint hangar pretty quick, came back with my name on it. 12 was still on the line with my name on it. We went on deployment and repainting names wasn't much of a priority. This was entirely a fluke in regard to when the seniority list was updated, when the jets got some paint work done, and when we deployed. I got to fly "my" jet quite a bit.

 

[insanebikerboy]

Has it been battles to get names on aircraft? All I do is write a MAF and maintenance paints it no problem. All of our helos are painted up with pilots/aw's/pc's/and even sailors of the year on the show bird.

 

[Gatordev]

Has it been battles to get names on aircraft? All I do is write a MAF and maintenance paints it no problem. All of our helos are painted up with pilots/aw's/pc's/and even sailors of the year on the show bird.

A big part of it is community. That stuff is normal for HS guys. It's much rarer for LAMPS. Then there's manpower issues, even if it is "normal." Some of us don't have 200+ maintainers to do a phase, let alone paint some names.

 

[Uncle Fester]

For my squadron, you got your name on a plane 1) once you made CAPC/CICO and 2) were high enough on the seniority list. CAG was always under the left cockpit window of 600, DCAG on the right, CO on the left of 601 (even if he was a FO) and XO on the left of 602 (ditto). Most squadrons put the FO names under the CIC windows, but I kinda liked our way, which was NFOs' names behind the cockpit with "Mission Commander" above it.

What constituted 'seniority' got murky once we started getting S-3 transitions who were senior (including the XO), but who weren't yet CAPC/CICO's. Guys who had their letters and been in the squadron for a while were getting bumped by brand-new guys...yet the new guys weren't exactly nuggets, either. So it resulted in some grouchy JOPA meetings for a while.