I am a civilian (but not a total stranger, my dad is a retired Mud soldier MSgt) and prepping my WOFT application right now. I am curious what the day in the lie of an Army aviator is like! Obviously deployed to a combat zone or in CONUS are two different things but can anyone discuss both aspects? What do you do each day, how much flight time, how much record keeping time etc.
Thanks a lot and thanks for your service

Your typical day depends on what you fly in this man's Army. If you're a Apache pilot, you walk around all day in aviator glasses saying "I am the GREATEST!!!" You pretty much have to chase the groupies away, because they're on you like a moth to a flame. If you're a Black Hawk pilot, you talk about how great of a pilot you are and how you're god's gift to aviation. If you're a Chinook pilot, you look around to find what else you can stuff in the back of that flying trailer. I really don't know what Kiowa pilots do in a typical day, they're weird folk, almost like carnies. But by far the coolest aviation job to have is being a fixed wing pilot, they get to go on cool day trips, get to wear snappy class B uniforms, and I hear that they have flight attendants on their airplanes.

THERE IS NO TYPICAL DAY IN AVIATION!!!!

Carnies, small hands. Smell like cabbage.

I can only answer what a typical day in like within Army Guard Aviation. I'm unsure how this parallels Active Duty.

A few days prior to you wanting to fly, you call Flight Ops and plan a AFTP (Annual Flight Training Period) for a specific day. You tell your civilian employer you have to have that day off and royally piss them off.

Show up to the flight facility around noon, hook up with whoever else your going to fly with and go eat lunch. Come back, check with maintenance and see what aircraft your going to fly. Pick some ATM tasks to work on and discuss some things you can do along your route of flight. Plan your route of flight normally following lakes, rivers, beaches, hunting spots, race tracks, or other areas of high interest -- ultimately arriving at your destination which just happens to have a great restaurant complete with airport shuttle nearby.

Get out to the aircraft, pre-flight, run up, have a BUCS failure , turn the aircraft back in, pre-flight another aircraft, run up, have a TADS/PNVS failure, turn the aircraft back in, pre-flight another aircraft, run up and actually take off reminding yourself you're still thankful that your flying the Apache not the Blackhawk anymore. Arrive at destination and go eat....again.

Get back to the aircraft and wait for it to get dark while mingling with the local airport groupie mouth breathers. After answering, "Yes, that's the gun" nearly twenty times, get in, crack it up and fly a reverse route back to the facility.

After the flight, you can spend about 30 minutes filling out the computer log book and putting up all your gear. That's it... Drive home or check into a local hotel room.

Return to your civilian job the next day and try to convince them that you worked like crazy all day, truly hated missing work, and dread the next time you have to take off to go do "Guard" stuff.

quote:

Originally posted by NunezFlyer:
Your typical day depends on what you fly in this man's Army. If you're a Apache pilot, you walk around all day in aviator glasses saying "I am the GREATEST!!!" You pretty much have to chase the groupies away, because they're on you like a moth to a flame. If you're a Black Hawk pilot, you talk about how great of a pilot you are and how you're god's gift to aviation. If you're a Chinook pilot, you look around to find what else you can stuff in the back of that flying trailer. I really don't know what Kiowa pilots do in a typical day, they're weird folk, almost like carnies. But by far the coolest aviation job to have is being a fixed wing pilot, they get to go on cool day trips, get to wear snappy class B uniforms, and I hear that they have flight attendants on their airplanes.

THERE IS NO TYPICAL DAY IN AVIATION!!!!

I understand that but i am trying to get a picture of how much actual stick time you get on different assginments deployed, gun ship, med evac etc. how much prep time each day, how much paper shuffling etc. Honestly i am trying to decide if I really want to go aviation or look at another CMF. My dad spent 23 years in the mud and actually liked his job. I am not certain that I would like a flying career if I spend only 20-ish hours per month on the stick and the rest of the time doing paperwork, maintenance etc.?? Any thoughts

quote:

I am not certain that I would like a flying career

If your not certain now, I'd strongly urge you to seek that "mud career" you previously mentioned. While the transportability of the mud career to the civilian employment world is dismal, you'll be less restrained by paperwork and maintenance.

Go forth and do great things....

While not deployed 20ish hours will be about right in the helicopter world. Time varies on airframe and unit and this discussion is as old and beat as mil.com.

Your other time will be spent, planning, additional duties, and playing regular Army sillyness. Additional duties being the most.

I am sorry if this has been covered before i did not find anything on point in a search. Maybe I used the wrong search terms. As respects the issue of career transportabiity, there are probably not a lot of civilian rotary wing jobs either.My college degree is in Criminal Justice and my plans would be to go into law enforcement after i retire from the Army. Still, I enjoy flying and am finished with my WOFT package waiting for Board results. I talked briefly to a CW2 Black Hawk pilot at Ft. Carson when i went for my Flt Phys and it really made me unsure if I really want to fly in the Army.

I realize it sounds youthful, but I am a really high speed adrenaline kind of guy. I get bored easily and just may not be suited for aviation. I am no stranger to the ground and do 70 POUND rucks walks in our local mountains most every week. I have 24 civlian skydives and fly a 1956 Piper Tri-Pacer. My dad really wants me to go aviation and become a Warrant Officer. I was a four year ROTC cadet but just realy could not see myself being an officer and being stuck in staff jobs for half a career. My mentors growing up were SNCO' or Mustangs who retired as either 0-2 or 0-3 so never had to do much time onstaff. They were able to be troop leaders for most of their career.

So i am not trying to be a pain, just attempting to get some third party (not my dad or his retired friends) input on what life is like on a day to day basis for an aviator so i can make a decision.

Thanks and sorry if I am redundant.

quote:

Originally posted by Hunt3334:
I was a four year ROTC cadet but just realy could not see myself being an officer and being stuck in staff jobs for half a career.

You were in ROTC for 4 years and didn't contract/commission? With few exceptions (myself included), if you were in ROTC for 4 years, you were commissioned and incurred a service obligation. What gives here?

As for Aviation being "boring"... No more than any other career-field, except for maybe Infantry. Aviation: Above The Best!

Matt
SPC, US Army
15U

No, I had a four year scholarship and dropped it in the summer between my Freshman and Sophmore year. I realized at that point in time that I did not want to be an officer. My dad is a retired infantry MSgt. He is an Attorney and had a commission as a SJAG and just did not like officer country. He resigned his commision and reverted to SNCO. He always told me that a Warrant was the best of all worlds. You got an officers prvileges and pay scale, but kept your military specialty for your entire career.

It seems a lot of the same things make us tick. I've got about half of a CJ degree. I've worked as a city cop all the way up to a State Trooper. I own a C-172 and worked for a DZ as a free-fall videographer accumulating over 1,500 jumps, a few BASE jumps, as well as a USPA class D license.

I think we're both "in it" for the same reasons and I cannot fathom a job in the military that has more of what we dig. Granted, I know very little when it comes to the details of the Infantry other than that's not my bag.

Honestly, if you've already gotten a completed WOFT packet, it seems a little out of order to be questioning this career field now. I do believe Aviation does hold that "rush" your looking for. I've seen Rangers, Navy Seals and all other types of unique individuals come from their career fields into Army Aviation. I've personally never seen people take the reverse route into the Infantry.

I hate trying to sell people on Army Aviation when there are so many out there that are sold on it to the bone -- but are unable to realize their dream due to some odd reason. (medical, non select, etc) Take all the information you can get, make the choices that are yours to make, but don't expect many to coax you into this career field.

Best of luck....

Hunt,

I must tell you that being a Warrant does not isolate you from officer duties. You will do plenty of troop leading and, as you make CW3 and up, some staff work. The one thing you will do is fly. That won't go away for most of us. I know it's an old saying that most roll their eyes upon hearing: you are an officer first, an aviator second. It's not really that clear cut, but you take the point.

I am a Blackhawk pilot. You will do lots of routine supply and logistics "ring routes" when deployed. You will move Soldiers and supplies all over the battlespace. Boring? Yeah, sometimes. Right up until the point an SA7 or an RPG round flies up through your formation or the tracers are getting close. Trust me, plenty of excitement. On any night you could fly 5-6 hours of NVG. The mark of the pro is to stay vigilant and not become complacent. No mission is routine, they all have risk and require precision. Also, every Soldier you fly on a log route is a kid who that night will not die or get wounded in a convoy. Those "routine" missions quite literally save lives and futures. Don't forget that, ever.

Hawk pilots also do raids, air assults, insertions, extractions, and these days even limited recon missions. I am currently flying the National Guard border security mission (recon) and am anything but bored, flying 50 plus hours a month and almost all of that NVG. When not deployed, I still manage 20 or so hours a month doing training missions, sometimes more hours than that. You get back what you put into it.

Yes, the Warrant role is specialized, but your Soldiers still need you to be an officer. That is the difference between an Army Aviator and a mere "pilot". Pilots are a dime a dozen, everybody wants to fly. Very few want to master and perform well the dozens of things that should come with it.

Bottom line, if you want to be a true pro and not some stick wiggler, you had better wrap your mind around the fact that we need officers and aviators, wrapped into a package that is the modern Aviation Warrant Officer. If you and others like you don't like the sound of this, then go fly civilian or something else. I have been enlisted, officer and warrant. As such I have some insight into what we need and what we don't. Take care and good luck to you,
V.

How much time do commissioned officers get a month. I've been told that they hardly fly at all to one that said he flew as much as he could handle. So is it sort of based on the individuals desire to fly?

I'd tell you my typical day but you would just cry.

quote:

Originally posted by tankkllr:
I'd tell you my typical day but you would just cry.

Can't be that bad, I mean geez, you're in the Coast Guard.

quote:

Can't be that bad, I mean geez, you're in the Coast Guard.

good turn around of the comment.

I would tell you about the mandatory 1 hour full body massage we must receive by a member of the members of the (female) Swedish bikini team while on duty but it might just make you jealous, so I won't mention it.

It is probably based more on the circumstance the officer lands in out of school. As an example, if the LT gets a flight platoon right away, they are going to fly a lot; and they need to. If the person ends up in a junior staff job, they will not fly nearly as much. All officers out of IERW are supposed to be FAC1 on their first tour. It is their time to get RL1 and make their time. By the time they reach CPT, they need to be a PC. This is the ideal vs the real, but when MAJ comes around, flying very quickly becomes a secondary priority.

quote:

Originally posted by cwubullrider:
How much time do commissioned officers get a month. I've been told that they hardly fly at all to one that said he flew as much as he could handle. So is it sort of based on the individuals desire to fly?

Regarding a typical day, just depends on where you are and what you are doing. I am NG and on the border. I am getting 50+ a month, almost all NVG. I have been on nights since February and working pretty hard. When on days I was getting 30-40 a month. Back home as a traditional NG pilot, I was flying 20 hours or so a month, with brief spurts of more time depending on external mission demands.

It is all very situational.

Thanks hawk that helped out alot. I'm beginning to regret becoming an LT even more. Oh well there's nothing quite like the thrill of doing paper work with the danger of paper cuts. It was on a fear factor episode once.

Oh no, don't regret it. We need good LTs. My LTs fly a lot, it is their time to do so. I started out as a LT and it was a terrific experience. Watch out for the damn paper cuts though, those things suck. All kidding aside, you should get to fly a lot over your career.