Aviation instructor career path

[Fallonflyr]

I was checking Wikipedia and stumbled on this naval officer designator:

Limited Duty Officer: 630X Aviator (Aviation) (NOTE: Phased out as of July 2018, per NAVPERS 15839I, Manual of Navy Officer Manpower and Personnel Classifications, Vol. 1, Part A)

Did the Navy ever make use of pilot LDOs? Looks like NAVPERS 15839I phased out this LDO career field part of revamping the naval aviation officer corps in 2018.

My T-34 on wing instructor was “Flying Chief “ LDO Ens. He was an old school Chief and did every brief and debriefing with a mug of black coffee in one hand and a cigarette in the other, everyone called him “Cubi”. One of the other Chiefs I flew with was a SEAL. This was back in 1983.

 

[Griz882]

...This was back in 1983.

When it was hard.

 

[insanebikerboy]

Fallonflyr said:
...This was back in 1983

When it was hard.

Let's leave your personal physical problems out of this

 

[Griz882]

Let's leave your personal physical problems out of this

It was, and remains, mostly emotional...not physical.

 

[RedFive]

Been through this. Use the search function if you’d like to review those discussions.

Soooo...you would rather encourage discussion about this...

When it was hard.

...than hear an old, yet legitimately interesting topic about this...

We've also tried flying Warrants several times (3?) and each time has failed, most recently, pretty spectacularly from what I saw.

????

Hmmm....yeah, on second thought...okay, sounds about right. hahaha

 

[SynixMan]

Naval Aviation has a long institutional memory. The decision makers today were ENS back in the late 80s/early 90s, when those flying LDOs were around. For whatever reason, they want nothing to do with programs like those anymore. It’s literally in the briefing slides I saw for this program.

Any gray eagles know why they were so disliked?

 

[Fallonflyr]

Naval Aviation has a long institutional memory. The decision makers today were ENS back in the late 80s/early 90s, when those flying LDOs were around. For whatever reason, they want nothing to do with programs like those anymore. It’s literally in the briefing slides I saw for this program.

Any gray eagles know why they were so disliked?

Maybe some of the Boat School types had their “feelings” hurt because one of the Chiefs treated them like the insignificant little twerp they were at that time.?

 

[picklesuit]

So the MPA road show just ended here, I had a good chance to ask the detailer some questions regarding the Career Instructor path, as did others in the crowd.
To paraphrase:
Can I drop a package after my high water Fitrep?
Yes.
What is the intended result?
More VTJ instructors.
Will VP be competitive?
Unsure.
Is VT Milton/Pensacola/Corpus likely?
Not now, Meridian/Kingsville are hurting.

Matches what I’ve seen in the instruction and in talking to others.

With that calculus, after discussing with @MrsPickle , I think I will stay on my (not quite golden) path and try to at least retire as an O-5.

Lots of really good guys will have to quit for me to make command, so looking at DH tour into 2021, two years Joint/Staff tour, which will take me to 19+, then at least one more tour to get that three years of O-5 pay for the retirement.

Upside is I get the kids into college by then, downside is the possibility of having to move back to Virginia.

Pickle

 

[RedFive]

More VTJ instructors.

Guy I work with is prior enlisted, picked up P-3 pilot, did C-12 shore tour followed by some sort of boat tour (SafetyO maybe?), and then 2xFOS. He came to our staff to hit 20 and transition out. Through some sort of absolute fucking miracle, he picks up O-4 and then screens VTJ DH.

I'm just...shocked. Good for him, but...

 

[Jim123]

then at least one more tour to get that three years of O-5 pay for the retirement.

You'll get most of O-5 retirement pay if you do less than three years, the only downside is you won't get O-5 on your blue ID card.

(But you knew that, and I knew what you meant.)

 

[Treetop Flyer]

Non jet guys instructing in T-45’s is bad news all around.

 

[picklesuit]

Non jet guys instructing in T-45’s is bad news all around.

Didn’t they use to have SERGRADS teaching VTJ’s? Don’t see why a winged aviator can’t learn to do the same and take the RI/Contacts off the plates of you pointy-nose F/AGs so you can teach the ACM/Form/Boat stuff...

 

[Treetop Flyer]

Didn’t they use to have SERGRADS teaching VTJ’s? Don’t see why a winged aviator can’t learn to do the same and take the RI/Contacts off the plates of you pointy-nose F/AGs so you can teach the ACM/Form/Boat stuff...

They still use sergrads as far as I know. A few non jet instructors is ok. When I was there, maybe two P-3 guys were there plus a decent number of E-2/C-2 guys. It’s bad for the culture, and it’s bad for the training considering that a handful of those guys wind up instructing phase two stuff

Sorry if that rustles your jimmies

 

[picklesuit]

They still use sergrads as far as I know. A few non jet instructors is ok. When I was there, maybe two P-3 guys were there plus a decent number of E-2/C-2 guys. It’s bad for the culture, and it’s bad for the training considering that a handful of those guys wind up instructing phase two stuff

I can’t argue that.

 

[picklesuit]

Now, if they wanted to offer a post-DH Lat-Transfer to Jets, I’d totally take one for the team and go through VTJ/RAG and knock out a tour in a squadron to help the Navy out...