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Flying helos for the Army, or....?
- Thread starter helicoptergirl
- Start date
Goose,
Gatordev is right on the spot. I'm not saying RLO's are poor aviators. In fact as an IP I have seen some very good ones. The problem lies with experience.
In the Navy and Marines the skipper is usually a very experinced pilot. Not so in the Army. Just the nature of how we do business. As a nugget ( LT) you will fly for about 18 months after flight school. Then it is staff for 4 to 5 years. That is the norm. So you might get lucky and fly as a staff guy and you might not.
I had to fly with stafff officers in combat who had not flown in 3 or 4 years. Not real fun over downtown Baghdad.
About a year ago we had two majors who had a 1000 hrs b/t them. That is just sad. Neither had ever been HAC's. I like the idea of FEB's ( FNAEB's) after a certain of flight time if the cat can't make HAC.
Another intresting note is who the Army gives bonuses to. Warrants are the only pilot who get ACP. Not to be confused with regular flight pay. The Army says that they get the bonuses because they are the ones flying the airplanes.
So in some units you have Warrants getting paid 25,000 extra to fly and regular officers not getting squat. As you can imagine it cause lots of problems.
Gatordev is right on the spot. I'm not saying RLO's are poor aviators. In fact as an IP I have seen some very good ones. The problem lies with experience.
In the Navy and Marines the skipper is usually a very experinced pilot. Not so in the Army. Just the nature of how we do business. As a nugget ( LT) you will fly for about 18 months after flight school. Then it is staff for 4 to 5 years. That is the norm. So you might get lucky and fly as a staff guy and you might not.
I had to fly with stafff officers in combat who had not flown in 3 or 4 years. Not real fun over downtown Baghdad.
About a year ago we had two majors who had a 1000 hrs b/t them. That is just sad. Neither had ever been HAC's. I like the idea of FEB's ( FNAEB's) after a certain of flight time if the cat can't make HAC.
Another intresting note is who the Army gives bonuses to. Warrants are the only pilot who get ACP. Not to be confused with regular flight pay. The Army says that they get the bonuses because they are the ones flying the airplanes.
So in some units you have Warrants getting paid 25,000 extra to fly and regular officers not getting squat. As you can imagine it cause lots of problems.
,No there is no truth to that. Each airframe has different minimums. For the H-60 it is 98 a year of which 12 can be sim time. You also have to fly 20 in the sim. On average most line pilots fly about 250 a year in peacetime. If you are on staff the time is less. If you are a certain staff type you fly only in the sim. We also have to fly a certain amount of goggles and keep a current instrument ticket.
My unit just got back from the sand box and we averaged about 45 to 50 a month. I flew just about 700. The attack guys flew close to 1000. One attack IP flew 1200 last year.
So to answer your question, just a bad gouge.
My unit just got back from the sand box and we averaged about 45 to 50 a month. I flew just about 700. The attack guys flew close to 1000. One attack IP flew 1200 last year.
So to answer your question, just a bad gouge.
Bobby, was that for 12 months? Looks like the numbers are comparable to the Navy helo side if you double our 6 month numbers.
FLM has started limiting us on airframes (80hrs/mo/airframe), which makes juggling maintainence schedules a bit more challenging. Have you guys had to worry about that yet? (can't remember if I asked you that before).
FLM has started limiting us on airframes (80hrs/mo/airframe), which makes juggling maintainence schedules a bit more challenging. Have you guys had to worry about that yet? (can't remember if I asked you that before).
gatordev,
Our unit has eight airframes. We flew at least 6 a day and two more at night. Needless to say we flew the snot out of them. Our maintainers did a great job of keeping the airplanes up. Being a combat zone some adjustments were made to facilitate mission readiness. Twenty-four hour ops was the key to keeping everything ready. It was most difficult during the summer.
Peace time is a different story. Not all the attention is vocused on the aviation stuff so you have a lot of your maintainers detailed out to do Army shizat.
Our unit has eight airframes. We flew at least 6 a day and two more at night. Needless to say we flew the snot out of them. Our maintainers did a great job of keeping the airplanes up. Being a combat zone some adjustments were made to facilitate mission readiness. Twenty-four hour ops was the key to keeping everything ready. It was most difficult during the summer.
Peace time is a different story. Not all the attention is vocused on the aviation stuff so you have a lot of your maintainers detailed out to do Army shizat.
Yeah, I hear you. Stupid IAs... From what (very) little I know about Army helo airframes, I think you guys have a lot more room to play w/ hours, which may be why you have more "adjustments" available. Our inventory is at 10K-12K+ hours, and since they have to last another 9 years, ops suffer.
goosegagnon2
Member
gator and bobbybrock, thanks for the info. I never understood the different dynamic between being a HAC/PIC and the ranking officer, makes sense though I never got to see the guys communicate in the air, therefore things probably would change. sorry if I got a little defensive, officer blood runs through my veins...lol
goose,
Just curious as to what your background is. Says you are an army brat and a student. Are you ROTC? If so you will get a good chance to see that dynamic during your CTLT summer.
It is a big eye opener for a lot of cadets when they see how things work in an Aviation unit. It is operated a lot different then an infantry or armor unit.
Just curious as to what your background is. Says you are an army brat and a student. Are you ROTC? If so you will get a good chance to see that dynamic during your CTLT summer.
It is a big eye opener for a lot of cadets when they see how things work in an Aviation unit. It is operated a lot different then an infantry or armor unit.