If you go in naval aviation looking to work from the beach you're either really in to the VP mission or you're misguided in your goals. If you really want to fly from land and get per diem go USAF.
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Trying for AD pilot through OCS/OTS. USAF/USN AD pilot pros and cons?
- Thread starter UmYahYah
- Start date
"Helimaflopter" is a trigger word for me, worse than "Work, pigs!!"
What about @IKE? He calls himself a “nerd whirler” (which is actually really funny). What must that do to his self-esteem...
Ballsy move painting a Phrog white . . . or is the red trim supposed to hide the hydraulic leaks?
Says the guy with the electric drumstick in his avatar... sounds like the voice of experience.
Nah, we just had the spontaneously detonating engines and self-overpressurizing fuel cells. Oh, and the fleet-wide red-stripe where a flaperon actuator decided to commit seppuku.Says the guy with the electric drumstick in his avatar... sounds like the voice of experience.
And now you know the rest of the story of T.C.'s helicopter...
(Try to ignore the commentator between 0:40-0:45)
As a former boss of mine (a former Battle Phrog driver) once told me, "If she's leakin' then she's still got oil. It's when she stops leaking that you better start looking for a place to land."
Appreciate all the feedback so far from everyone! To clear a few things up: a) I did look around the site a bit for threads comparing the branches, but I didn't seem to find any that were recent and wanted to get people's opinions on the thoughts I had in my head. It's been tough to discern what's real and what's hearsay so I thought I'd just lay out what I'd heard. b) I'm trying really hard to not judge the services based on my recruiting experiences, but it's been a night and day difference between the Navy and AF and fits into the narrative I have in my head about them from talking to other people and reading online. c) Apologies if I offended anyone in the helo community. For whatever reason I'm just more interested in FW flying. If I end up flying helos I'm sure I'll have a blast.
Out of curiosity, have you asked these same questions to the lads over at BaseOps?
Baseops | Your One Stop Military Aviation Website
@UmYahYah , if you want pure quality of life your goal should be to go fly in the ANG or USAF Reserves. Absolutely nothing will beat that. However, if you're looking for the adventure of doing AD, there is nothing wrong with that either and it will come with sacrifices. AD USAF will still have a better quality of life and depending on the platform you go it will vary greatly (from deployment cycles to home base stations, flight hours, etc). Same can be said about Naval Aviation when comparing VP/VQ vs being in a CVW or ESG deploying community. But over all, Navy will be a harder life with longer deployments and boat time (depending on community). They both have pros/cons and everything is a matter of perspective as to what's important to you. Additionally, the career path of a typical Naval Aviator is different from the typical USAF pilot in how you progress through the career. They both have choice "paths" that they want you to go and each has their shitty assignments.
As for the helicopter comment I will give a quick story. When I was being interviewed by a former Admiral for a letter of recommendation, he asked me what I wanted to fly. My response was "anything but helos". He then told me his full career history which I was ignorant to. He started as an Army Warrant Officer in Vietnam flying Huey Gunships. After doing all the hair on fire stuff he went and got his degree, joined the Navy and decided he wanted the relaxed life of flying P-3's off the beach. Eventually he went to test pilot school and had flown over 90 aircraft during his military career. He told me if he could only fly one aircraft the rest of his life it would be a helicopter and that it was the most fun flying there was. It was at this point I started to open my eyes to the RW world and realized how awesome it could be. I picked up a bunch of books and started reading on RW aviation in the military and realized that it actually sounded more fun to me than I ever realized.
Parting shot is that if you are selected for either branch and as you start the journey through flight school, think of what mission you want to perform more than what platform you want to fly... even then it's all a crap shoot.
As for the helicopter comment I will give a quick story. When I was being interviewed by a former Admiral for a letter of recommendation, he asked me what I wanted to fly. My response was "anything but helos". He then told me his full career history which I was ignorant to. He started as an Army Warrant Officer in Vietnam flying Huey Gunships. After doing all the hair on fire stuff he went and got his degree, joined the Navy and decided he wanted the relaxed life of flying P-3's off the beach. Eventually he went to test pilot school and had flown over 90 aircraft during his military career. He told me if he could only fly one aircraft the rest of his life it would be a helicopter and that it was the most fun flying there was. It was at this point I started to open my eyes to the RW world and realized how awesome it could be. I picked up a bunch of books and started reading on RW aviation in the military and realized that it actually sounded more fun to me than I ever realized.
Parting shot is that if you are selected for either branch and as you start the journey through flight school, think of what mission you want to perform more than what platform you want to fly... even then it's all a crap shoot.