Another Air Force Question

[CFIIer]

I was wondering how much flight time an Active Duty Pilot actually gets in the Air Force? I've heard that you may only fly once a month. In this case, would it be better to go reserves or ANG?

Thanks for the replies

 

[Rush Limbaugh]

Just to give an idea, I average just under 250 hours per year. I would guess that heavy pilots average about 700-800 hours per year.

 

[Purple Haze]

Heavies

Expect 30-80 hours a month. If you are supporting a contingency (which the C-17 does routinely), you may fly even more (90+).

My career average was 350/yr, which I think is a little low. Remember, in the air force, flying is only one of your jobs (the good one). Plus, the longer you are in, the more time those other non-flying jobs consume.

 

[smoker]

Per 2003 Defense budget

I have pulled this from the Air Force Magazine April 2002 issue. There is a section there dedicated to the 2003 defense budget - very informative if you like studying that kind of stuff...

In the "Operational Training Rates" table, they trend training hours across different services - here is the scoop:

AF(2003)
Flying hrs per crew per month, fighter/attack: 17.1

Army
Flying hrs per tactical crew per month: 14.5

Navy
Flying hrs per tactical crew per month: 22.6

All rates are down compared to previous years. It appears that Navy is in the lead as far as operational training flights. I do not see anything on the heavies other than the fact that the AF is dumping major $$$ for heavy transport aircraft while holding back or cutting on fighters.

Hope it helps - if you want to check out the numbers for yourself, let me know and I will scan the pages for you...

 

[Toro]

It's going to depend not only on what type of aircraft you fly (heavies will get more than fighters), but your specfic airframe, the Ops Tempo of your squadron, and your availability to fly. We've got some new guys in our squadron who are double turning four days a week logging at least 2 hours on each sortie (that's a $hitload for fighters). Other guys aren't available to fly as much and might only fly twice a week total. Other squadrons may not need as many flying hours as us, and therefore won't have as many sorties total.

The estimate below of 17.1 hours per month for fighter aircrew seems about right for an average.