How Often do Naval Aviators Fly?

[CharlieMike]

You'd think this would be something that Google would have a million results on, but I actually couldn't find too many on this one. I'm not one of those gung-ho kids that thinks being a pilot means up in the sky 24/7, I realize there's a lot that goes on behind the scenes and all the planning that goes on, but for both fixed wing and rotary pilots:

-How often do you fly? (once a week, twice a week, once a month, etc.)
-How many hours do you normally log per month/year?

I understand that the rank of the pilot will also be a determining factor (LTJG/1LT's will get more time in than a CAPT/COL would).

Thanks.

 

[CommodoreMid]

Depends on many factors- community, where you are in the IDRC/deployment, your ACTC level and upgrading needs, T&R requirements, budget, HONA/redstripe issues. In short, no good answer.

 

[jtmedli]

The answer is highly subjective (like you said). I'm a LTJG in the RAG and flew 6 hours (2 flights) last week, but have flown 4-5 flights a week. IN the mythical fleet, you can expect to fly more/less depending on whether or not you're on deployment, sequestration, God hates you, etc... From primary to now, I have logged 280 hours in fixed wing and helos. Not counting civilian time of course.

I think the running number for JOs coming out of their fleet tour (the first tour in a fleet squadron) is somewhere in the 900 hour range (give or take 150hrs). Some do manage to get 1100 hours out of their JO tour, but I think those days are over for the time being with the wars winding down and sequestration grounding a few CVWs.

Hopefully that's somewhat helpful.

 

[scoolbubba]

You'd think this would be something that Google would have a million results on, but I actually couldn't find too many on this one. I'm not one of those gung-ho kids that thinks being a pilot means up in the sky 24/7, I realize there's a lot that goes on behind the scenes and all the planning that goes on, but for both fixed wing and rotary pilots:

-How often do you fly? (once a week, twice a week, once a month, etc.)
-How many hours do you normally log per month/year?

I understand that the rank of the pilot will also be a determining factor (LTJG/1LT's will get more time in than a CAPT/COL would).

Thanks.

Never enough.

I think the running number for JOs coming out of their fleet tour (the first tour in a fleet squadron) is somewhere in the 900 hour range (give or take 150hrs). Some do manage to get 1100 hours out of their JO tour, but I think those days are over for the time being with the wars winding down and sequestration grounding a few CVWs.

I came out with just shy of 1300TT off my fleet tour. Gotta be willing to say yes when they ask you to hit the road if you want flight time, at least in P-3s.

 

[ea6bflyr]

Add to that, some people while on deployment in a combat zone were on hour waivers because they were flying their butts off. Sometimes it's feast and sometimes it's famine all depending on where you are in the training/deployment cycle.

 

[kmac]

I'm the OPSO of my squadron and I get only 1 or 2 flights a week. You'd think I could scam my way into more, but alas, junior pilots win on the hours.

At least I scheduled myself for a trap tomorrow. Woo hoo.

 

[Jim123]

1,000 hours in a three-year first sea tour (the one right after you earn your wings and get qualified in your fleet aircraft at the FRS) used to be a good rule of thumb.

As the others have responded and alluded to, nowadays it is sometimes less than that (sometimes barely half that) although sometimes perhaps more than that.

The annual minimums are 100 hours/year (or waiver paperwork involved if you fly less than that), although those minimums don't generally apply to folks who aren't assigned to flying units. (That's the simple explanation.) For the really old folks, that number is 48 instead of 100 (those who have more than 20 years of military flying) and those ones have usually risen to high rank by then. But again, these are the minimums.

The duration of each individual flight depends on a lot of things... aircraft type, scheduling, other factors... it might be less than an hour long or it might even be several hours long (or more in extreme cases).

Hope that all makes sense.

 

[jtmedli]

Never enough.


I came out with just shy of 1300TT off my fleet tour. Gotta be willing to say yes when they ask you to hit the road if you want flight time, at least in P-3s.

That may be one of the differences in communities. I'd be interested to see the comparisons between the 'average' helo/p3/jet guy's hours.

 

[RadicalDude]

Most (>70%) of the JOs checking out of my squadron in the last year had ~1000 hrs F/A-18E/F time. This is not considered unusual for our airwing in this time frame.

There are other airwings where something like 800 hrs Rhino time would be the norm.

Our average flight is something like a 1.5, and our weekly average number of flights varies wildly.

 

[Gatordev]

That may be one of the differences in communities. I'd be interested to see the comparisons between the 'average' helo/p3/jet guy's hours.

Jet guys' numbers are a little harder to predict, as RadicalDude is alluding to, but historically, assuming you have two squadrons that deploy about the same, the helo guys will have about the same time as the P-3 guys. Sometimes that means 800 in model, somtimes that means 1000, but the math usually works out about the same. Lately, I've seen helo guys coming out of a FRS tour with ~14-1600 hours total. Guys coming out of a TRACOM tour will usually be ~2000. Just the nature of the beast(s).

Obviously this is all pre-sequestration.

 

[ChunksJR]

The tactical safety "hard deck" of flight hours being pushed by the NSC is 10 hrs/aviator/month. Less than that show a marked increase in decision making errors....

 

[C420sailor]

I've been averaging about 20-25hrs per month ashore.

 

[BusyBee604]

Went through my flying career ('57 - '74) averaging ~300 hrs/year. Includes TraCom; 5 Sqdns-3 fleet, 2 FRS IP (A-4); ShipsCo tour (C-1A); Staff tour (unlimited FRS A-4 time).
*Factor: During my era, JP-4/5 fuel costs = $0.09 - $0.12/gal!
BzB

 

[fc2spyguy]

I would have easily had 1k TT after first fleet tour, only need 130 to get there. However, my neck has decided not to cooperate. I averaged anywhere from 20-40hrs back at home depending on the month, then about 30 hours on a gator det, and my whole two month supply det netted me about 20 hours . . .

 

[scoolbubba]

That may be one of the differences in communities. I'd be interested to see the comparisons between the 'average' helo/p3/jet guy's hours.

I was a bit of an exception, but not much. The P-3 IP types walk away with higher hours, just because they're flying more often with upgraders, and get the whole 5.0 of a flight with no special crew time, vice having to split it, when they do pilot trainers.

I was also the det whipping boy, which I didn't mind. Until I got sent to the fucking desert for 2 months before we went for 7. That one I minded.