UAV "Pilots"

[Tom]

Where do the unfortunate UAV "Pilots" come from? Are they enlisted? Washed out pilots? Personally, I would hate such a job.

 

[zippy]

The Air Force...

 

[Fly Navy]

Where do the unfortunate UAV "Pilots" come from? Are they enlisted? Washed out pilots? Personally, I would hate such a job.

I believe they're all active pilots, at least on the AF side. F-16, F-15 guys, etc.

 

[KnightNArmor]

Probably the guys who they found out were really good at video games...

 

[HighDimension]

Standby to be motivated...

 

[RHPF]

A lot of them are contractors with a PPL (AF side), the rest are collections of pilots and navs (mostly Navs). I talked to one (a Predator pilot) who said he liked it better than his previous job which was being a Nav in a heavy.

 

[lucian_boy]

I was thinking to get into model air plane flying so i could get some stick time in flying NON triditional air plane if the chance ever pops up. I believe it is the same concept just that you have a monitor to look through.

 

[East]

Where do the unfortunate UAV "Pilots" come from? Are they enlisted? Washed out pilots? Personally, I would hate such a job.

Quote from a previous post from Stubby:
Once MMA is completely operational and P-3's have been phased out.... well, there is no definative cut and dry answer yet. Some FE's are even now being recruited for UAV programs. The combination of Maintenance and flight duties may make them a commodity in that community. Some will transition to other platforms, some will transition straight to maintenance. I've heard rumor that there will be "some kind of job" for them on MMA, but it won't be FE, and with contractor maintenance, I'm not sure what that would be. Others will probably transition to be a differnt kind of AW (oh they hate hearing that ).

 

[Flash]

Where do the unfortunate UAV "Pilots" come from? Are they enlisted? Washed out pilots? Personally, I would hate such a job.

In the Navy and Marines (and Army too) they are generally enlisted types who are trained to fly them. In the Air Force they are generally pilots or Nav's with PPL's. The Air Force generally flies bigger and more complex UAV's which is part of the reason they have pilots flying them, that and it is the AF.

Air Force pilots have to fly an aircraft outside their normal one sometime in their career and a UAV can fufill that requirement. Some of the AF Prowler pilots were given a choice to fly Predators or Prowlers, some of their buddies chose Predators.

 

[Fly Navy]

Air Force pilots have to fly an aircraft outside their normal one sometime in their career

That'd be kind of neat if the Navy did that.

 

[goplay234]

They do..It's called CAG staff billets. You can qual in a different aircraft. It's a pretty good deal. You don't get to do everything, but flying a different bird is always fun.

 

[Fly Navy]

They do..It's called CAG staff billets. You can qual in a different aircraft. It's a pretty good deal. You don't get to do everything, but flying a different bird is always fun.

Yeah, I know, and it'd be SWEET, but that's hardly the norm.

 

[FMRAM]

Yeah, I know, and it'd be SWEET, but that's hardly the norm.

Are you bored of the Rhino already?! Your still in the RAG!

 

[Fly Navy]

Are you bored of the Rhino already?! Your still in the RAG!

Absolutely not!

 

[zippy]

Yeah, I know, and it'd be SWEET, but that's hardly the norm.

You could always do a community transition to VP... and bring me my lunch.