A common misunderstanding among pilots who don't have the opportunity to fly with FOs. Trust me, with some of the flying I've done, I'm doing more of it than the nugget pilot. I know some may quibble with semantics and terminology, but I don't ride in my jet, I fly it.
Brett
The single seat types may not understand what Brett is saying...I have heard many make comments in the past and even here...I did several cross countries with legacy A-4 and A-7 pilots in both aircraft and had them say similar things along the lines of "Well, I'm not sure what NFOs do" or "When we fly a two cockpit aircraft, one guy does everything" or "I'd rather have the gas".
For those who asked for a sea story.....
So there I was in PCola getting ready for my first low level in the T-2C at VT-10 and my former boss in the Pentagon shows up as CO of VA-122 and a RAG class of A-7 pilots for a CQ det. He offers me a ride in the TA-7C so I check with the squadron and they say sure as long as I make my commitments there. So he asks “what would I like to do” so I tell him I'm up next for a low level. He brightens up and says "Let's go flying then". We file for the stereo low level route and use my charts that I prepared. The A-7 had so much gas that we flew it twice, but he wanted to give me the controls and didn't understand the concept of being "talked" through the route. I wanted to practice what I was expected to do. It was an interesting flight and I did get to practice and get some stick time as well.
I flew the low level in the T-2 that afternoon with a Marine instructor who had reputation for never giving aboves and being very harsh and demanding. I didn't volunteer that I had just flown it twice a few hours prior as I had told the squadron ops folks anyway. In the debrief, he told me he had never seen someone so relaxed in that environment like I had been there before (that wasn't my first low level as same gent had set me up with several weeks at Lemoore with VA-127 before flight school and I was flying 2-3 times a day with them during a Fallon det, which included baptism by fire in ACM and low levels). I had to choke a smile...I also got the aboves that he was reputed to be so reluctant to give. The CO returned every six weeks for CQ dets (I also got to bag traps in the A-7. on the Lex on the next visit) and we always discussed "what NFOs did".
So back to Brett's point, it is indeed the supreme challenge to win your wings of gold, but there is a difference for sure between the single and double anchors. Here is my take on the NFO perspective....a NFO is always going to be flying with a Naval Aviator (big news, huh?) and has to develop an air sense and expertise to "fly" the aircraft, especially to obtain the additional qualifications of mission commander, etc. Certainly in the two or more place aircraft, as hours accumulate in the logbook, the NFO will eventually be flying with less and less experienced pilots. I break that phenomena into 3 phases:
1) Nugget phase - you are being mentored and on steep learning curve; pilot is feeding you through a fire hose. You are the grasshopper and need to be in constant receive mode.
2) JOPA Phase - Skipper decides you can fly with another JO and not get killed or have phone ringing off the hook because you were flathatting or doing some other foolishness that would likely not play well in front of the long green table. This is the most fun phase and you should wring every moment you can out of it.
3) Mentor phase - Skipper decides you are now senior and/mature and experienced enough to fly with newly arrived Nugget pilots. This phase is rewarding, but can send a cold chill down your spine depending on who you are flying with (quality spread) or when you reflect on fact that the better you are, the correspondingly worse pilots you will be crewed with until they reach the JOPA phase at which time you get your next "project".
3a) Skipper phase - you get to fly with whoever you want - likely best stick you can find or recruit