Fighters or Heavy's?

[DaveGriffin]

Re: Re: "Going ugly early"

I believe it was a Marine pilot who left with a girl one night affectionately known as "the Zepplin". Need I say more?

Come on Otto; you know as well as I that Marines do things like that just to prove to their buddies how tough they are.

You guys "go ugly early" because it is often the only way to find a date.

Fly Navy.

 

[Seeniner]

Alright ladies, that's enough.

Another consideration is the TDY frequency--specifically deployments. Fighters, tankers, -130's tend to deploy, 30-60 days at a time, a few times a year. Transports: C-17, C-5, C-141 tend to go on more frequent, yet shorter trips.

I've heard my share of heavy guys wishing they flew a fighter, my guess is you don't hear many fighter guys wishing they flew a heavy. You need to decide how important getting up out of your seat, using the toilet, getting some coffee, grabbing a few freshly baked cookies, then sitting back in your seat is to you.

See

 

[DaveGriffin]

Alright ladies, that's enough.
See

Thanks for calming things down Seeniner. It was getting pretty rowdy in here.
Helo pilots are always more fun to party with than cargo haulers.

 

[SpeedRacer]

Lawn Darts vs. Big Jets!

This was getting pretty funny a little bit ago!!

You guys have said it all, pretty much covered all the bases (even with the ocassional "I am the greatest fighter pilot" dork - probably even shoots down his watch everyday at the O'Club!!!).

All I will offer is that is sure is nice to have four engines under my wing (C-141 if you havn't guessed) cruising over the cold North Atlantic vs. going single engine and wearing a "poopy suit" - if that's what you guys and girls still call it nowadays!!!

 

[Eagleflip]

Good Point

SpeedRacer, though unimpressed with inane fighter bravado, has a point.

When doing an ocean crossing in an F-15C from Spangdahlem, AB Germany to Langley AFB, VA, the weather guy briefed that the surface winds were about 30 kts or less for the route except for a low pressure area 500 miles south of Iceland. There we would find winds up to 50 kts. OK, we all thought, this is the North Atlantic. We'll never see it anyway...Wrong.

After the second refueling (in the weather, of course), we broke into the clear at that very point. The winds down there were nothing short of biblical. I kid you not, from our lofty perch at 25K or so, a full 40% of the ocean's surface was white with sea foam from the wave action. Our survival time in a raft down there was probably about 10 minutes, just a tad shorter than the 6 to 10 hours it would have taken to get a rescue 130 out there.

I just turned up the lights and adjusted the seat down, hoping that the engine troop that rebuilt my trusty F-100s was a happy camper.

 

[HueyPilot]

Best deal in the AF...

This is purely my own opinion, but having flown helos for the Army for a few years, I guess I've had a little experience outside my current world. If you want to pull some Gs, then go fighters, but if you could care less, then fly C-21s. Yes, the little Learjet. We fly operational sorties AND we get our fair share of good deals. Tomorrow, if my jet isn't assigned a mission, we'll get to take it anywhere we want for a 'training' sortie. How about lunch in Durango, Colorado? Or how about Key West? Maybe a few overhead tactical patterns for some fun before we land for food? Or lets bet how fast the jet will climb to 10,000 feet today while doing a max-performance climb...

Anyways, that's my little recruiting input from the Lear crews...

Good luck with anything you decide on.

 

[DLFLYR]

It's been beaten to death, but here's my .02. Being a heavy dude myself, I had a chance to see the world, stay in some nice hotels (few bad ones too) and fly with some of the coolest dudes/dudettes to hang out with. Everytime I flew the FRED, it never seized to amaze me that such a humungous beast can actually get airborne. I have to admit that sitting on my butt for 8+ hours at a time got old, but on the lighter side, napping in the bunks was very relaxing-not to mention food at every stop (dont' forget to work out when you're out on the road).
From speaking with my buddies flying fighters, the general consensus is that they are very happy "when they are flying" (key phrase here). However, these guys/gals work too hard, in my opinion. From what I'm told from my fighter buddies, typical fighter pilot works 12 hours in the office when they are not flying, which includes studying in the vaults.
I was never a fighter wannabe (just an airline pilot wannabe), but I have to admit that flying a fighter would be awesome, but just that........"flying". It's too bad that not everybody gets to fly the T-38 like the old days; not that it's a fighter, but it did help in deciding what you wanted to fly. My advise to you would be to follow your dreams and never look back and regret. If your dream is to fly fighters, go for it! There are definitely pros and cons to EVERYTHING. For me, it was an easy decision; I wanted to spend time with my family, fly, and enjoy life. I never thought I would say this, but if you decide to go heavies and later in your flying career you miss going inverted and flying close to another aircraft, you can always fly the T-6 (T-37 replacement or soon to be). Good luck and God bless!

 

[XNav]

Ask yourself this question:
When you finally talk the Babe o' Justice into having dinner at your snake ranch bachelor pad, do you want the picture on the fridge to be of you ascending the ladder to your F-22 or of you slurping coffee and scarfing a TV dinner in the cockpit of your C-17?
On the other hand, if you don't hang out with women who are so shallow as to judge you by your flying equipment, then fly whatever YOU want.

 

[AArider]

Here is my 2 cents from someone who has done BOTH. Fly fighters first (while your young). Then find a Heavy unit to finish out your career. You get the best of both worlds !! I'll tell you, the flying is quite different in both platforms, with one not being any harder than the other (flying wise). I believe there is more to learn as a fighter guy though with all the friendly and enemy weapon systems/threats. Either way, the ground gets smaller as you pull back on the stick/yoke. Good luck either way.

 

[av8raaron]

The Jet Sorts You Out

I haven't gone through UPT yet (hoping the AFROTC UPT board will be kind to me this March), but I'll tell you what a bunch of people from my Det. have said. The jet (the Tweet) sorts you out. I suppose you can update that to the turboprop sorts you out for the Navy and T-6 types. What I mean is that during phase II of UPT, especially the aerobatics phase, you'll figure out if you enjoy the yank and bank stuff or you'd like the bigger jets. I know one guy at Altus in the RTU for KC-135Rs that g-loc'd unexpectedly once in 37s and from that day on swore he had no business in a single place aircraft. Just an example. I know plenty of my peers that don't just want to be pilots, but want to be Eagle drivers or 130 drivers. My advice would be this - don't try to get a specific cockpit, try to do well enough in UPT, especially 37s, that when you have to choose a track you'll be in a good position to pick what you want and you'll have enough first hand experience to know.

Just my $.02