CWO's flying for the Navy again.

[Ben Stiller]

Cheap labor...sound familiar (airlines)? Now the RLO's are the majors and Warrants are the regionals taking your flying. Why wait to get out to familiarize yourself with the WalMart way of life.

 

[pilotyip]

Again too many negative vibes, this is still a great career and well beyond anything comparable to Wal-Mart. Where else can a high school grad have shot at making close to $100K/yr by his mid-30's

 

[srjorion]

The Navy had already started a program where guys become LDOs and train specifically to fly as NFOs on P-3s. There were a few trained a couple of years ago. I’m not sure if any have gone through training recently though.

 

[HoursHore]

You'll notice the targeted communities, other than the helos, are the Communities with NFO's. (other than prowlers and the new hornet) I think the carrot is the pilot slot, with the stick being the likely assignment as a NFO in a P-3 or E-6.

 

[E-handle]

I think after sitting between 2 P-3 pilots for 3500 hours as a PO1(E-6) flight engineer, and having a private rating myself; I would have made a fine copilot on the P-3 Orion. Besides I was starting to get pretty bored tracking the fuel burn and flipping switches.

Another reason to do this is for the chicks. O’s always had the better looking women.
Now maybe a smart woman could tell the difference between a “winged” LT or CWO3 in khakis ---- but as long as they were hot, who cares if they were smart!



Alas, I am 20 years too late for the program.

 

[NorthShore]

Using the current Navy/Coast Guard system, a high flight time Warrant officer Aircraft Commander would still be a co-pilot to a low time O-2 Aircraft Commander. I see a lot of animosity that could arise from this.

I wish all of those that apply for the program good luck as with anything new there will be growing pains.

You think

I don't think the program has much of a chance in thn Navy w/o a BIG paradigm shift. I had a few pissing contests with young Commissioned officers even as a CW4 (as high as you could go "back in the day")in the Army.

As far as the HS grad comment goes, I don't think you'll see any inthe program. You can count on a big pool to draw from, with more than a few licensed pilots and a bunch of college degrees.

The best of luck to all of them!!!

 

[kblackav8or]

I was a NAVCAD and even I don't think this is a good idea. The old LDO pilot program was a failure, all those guys did was suck up jobs in the training commands. It is all about them trying to save a buck. What my community needs is NFO's not lesser pilots. It isn't the monkey skills but all the other stuff that is unique to what we do.

 

[Spyguy]

Guys,
You may want to read the message. The CWO's will only be serving as copilots. They will never be aircraft commanders. Well, I say that term losely because it won't take much for the big Navy to change that. What it does is make the JO's take up the slack as far as ground jobs are concerned. Let's take a regular P-3 squadron with 30 pilots, which includes skipper, xo (one or more MAY be a NFO), any o-4's (again should be a mix of NFO/pilot), and the rest JO's (as of now). They aren't going to add more billets. That will be the total number. So, if you get a mix of senior guys leaning on the pilot side and in come the warrants, now the JO's have to take up the large hole filled for ground jobs. Very, very bad idea. QOL goes right into the crapper. The navy is going to lose a lot of good people over this. It won't affect me much, but there are a lot of people who are planning on getting out and some on the fence. I promise this will push those on the fence towards getting out. Just a bad idea all around for JO's.

 

[transpac]

I was around a few decades ago before all the Navy and Marine enlisted pilots retired. There was no argument then about their qualifications, in fact they were considered as a group to be the best pilots in the Navy. Since they were usually the most experienced pilot assigned to a flight, they almost always were designated as the Plane Commander.

 

[transpac]

Guys,
You may want to read the message. The CWO's will only be serving as copilots. They will never be aircraft commanders.

Spyguy: Where did you find this info? I don't see such a restriction in the CNO msg or the CWO website FAQ's. In fact, the FAQ's state that they can be Natops check pilots.