Prior Marine METOC guy, currently in Navy Helo Advanced trying to figure out which community I want to go into (60S/60R/53's). Currently 9 years TIS.
While I was at Cherry Point I had a great mentor who was a prior CH-46 Pedro driver and eventually got what he referred to as a "B-Billet" flying UC-12's. I think he was active duty but now he's a reservist flying for Delta.
Can someone please explain to me if the Navy has the equivalent of B-billets and at what point during your career you're able to apply for them? I understand that normally something like this isnt available to you until after your first fleet tour.
I've been able to figure out a little bit about the Navy side but I wanted to pose the question here as well. From my understanding, B-Billets are are these weird non-standard assignments that not many people have. Usually attached to public affairs or logistics? It seems like most of those assignements in the Navy are Reservist only? I don't know if Station SAR are considered this or if helo guys are even allowed to switch to fly fixed wing assignments after fleet tours. Like I said, my mentor flew 46's and went to UC-12's but I dont know if that's just a USMC thing or not.
I've heard about the "golden path" from some of my instructors and how if you want to make it to 20 you need to make sure you hit certain wickets, but I already have 9 years in and by the time I wing I'll be close to 10. So by my MSR, I'll have about 18yrs TIS.
Really far in the future for me stuff and obviously my focus is to finish advanced, get winged, and learn my community, but from experience there are definitely things I wish I would have asked earlier in my career that I didn't so I'm trying to get the most info that I can.
Thanks in advance!
-EDIT-
Also kind of deep in the weeds but does anyone know anything about the 1802 flying billet? The Manual for billet and Officer designator codes says "Special Duty Officer billet Code 2 - Operational Flying, requiring Meteorology specialty of a Geophysicist who is a designated Pilot or Naval Flight Officer"
Sounds like a good fit for me but also super niche and nerdy so I understand if not many have heard of it. My best guess is that it's a billet code specificaly for pilots assigned to VXS-1 Scientific Squadron, but I could be wrong.
While I was at Cherry Point I had a great mentor who was a prior CH-46 Pedro driver and eventually got what he referred to as a "B-Billet" flying UC-12's. I think he was active duty but now he's a reservist flying for Delta.
Can someone please explain to me if the Navy has the equivalent of B-billets and at what point during your career you're able to apply for them? I understand that normally something like this isnt available to you until after your first fleet tour.
I've been able to figure out a little bit about the Navy side but I wanted to pose the question here as well. From my understanding, B-Billets are are these weird non-standard assignments that not many people have. Usually attached to public affairs or logistics? It seems like most of those assignements in the Navy are Reservist only? I don't know if Station SAR are considered this or if helo guys are even allowed to switch to fly fixed wing assignments after fleet tours. Like I said, my mentor flew 46's and went to UC-12's but I dont know if that's just a USMC thing or not.
I've heard about the "golden path" from some of my instructors and how if you want to make it to 20 you need to make sure you hit certain wickets, but I already have 9 years in and by the time I wing I'll be close to 10. So by my MSR, I'll have about 18yrs TIS.
Really far in the future for me stuff and obviously my focus is to finish advanced, get winged, and learn my community, but from experience there are definitely things I wish I would have asked earlier in my career that I didn't so I'm trying to get the most info that I can.
Thanks in advance!
-EDIT-
Also kind of deep in the weeds but does anyone know anything about the 1802 flying billet? The Manual for billet and Officer designator codes says "Special Duty Officer billet Code 2 - Operational Flying, requiring Meteorology specialty of a Geophysicist who is a designated Pilot or Naval Flight Officer"
Sounds like a good fit for me but also super niche and nerdy so I understand if not many have heard of it. My best guess is that it's a billet code specificaly for pilots assigned to VXS-1 Scientific Squadron, but I could be wrong.