Flight Hours Per Year USAF/USN/USMC?

[Jafar]

I was wondering how total flight hours per year generally break down amongst the various services, particularly in the fighter communities. In other words, how much flying does an AF F-16 guy get in relation to a Marine Corps F/A-18 guy? (And so on and so forth...)

Thanks

 

[Toro]

Don't take anybody's answer as gospel - more than likely, the answer would change if you asked the question six months from now. For F-15Es at Lakenheath, I get about 20 hours a month. During surge months I get more, and during down periods I get less.

 

[navhnt]

Jafar,
Toro has it right... it depends. As a Navy Hornet guy, I've seen highs and lows ranging from as low as 10 hrs a month to as high as almost 70. It really dpends on a lot of factors like where you are in the training cycle and the budget. A lot of people are surprised to learn we operate on a pretty tight budget. When money is tight, one of the first things they trim is flight hours. For us Navy guys the best flying is usually on deployment.

NAVHNT

 

[Jafar]

I figured it was rather variable. I am an aviation Officer Candidate in the Marine Corps and someone told me that Air Force pilots generally saw more flight time per year than Marines. I'm not real concerned about this either way, I was just curious. I am a Marine first and foremost. If all I was interested in was flying pointy nosed jets I'd go to the Wild Blue.

As an enlisted Marine I know all about tight budgets limiting the amount of training one recieves. As an infantryman I recall times we "simulated" helo raids with a 5 ton truck. Later, as a tanker I've heard master gunners pissing and moaning about a single miss on the gunnery range because 120mm training ammunition costs about $950 a shot and we have a very finite number of rounds alloted for a given year.

But believe it or not, the Air Wing recieves the majority of the Marine Corps annual budget. I've never talked to any Marine Aviators regarding flying time versus how much the other services fly, so I'm not sure how much, if any, they notice our rather megar budget (about 5% of the total DOD budget.)

 

[atpcliff]

Hi!

If you want to fly, you'll get a lot more hours, with less paperwork bullsh*t in the AF Guard/Reserve than on AD. I assume it's the same for Navy/Marine/Army.

Cliff
GRB

 

[Troll]

Just like the other guys said, it depends for USMC. During deployment workups IPs will get 45-60, midlevel guys 25-30, and RACs 15-20. Post deployment, everyone is scrounging for FCP work to break 20 hours. Annual is more what you want to look at. I normally average +/- 300.

 

[ck130]

Most CG Herc drivers get around 500 hrs a year. Just like everyone else it goes up and down a little and depends on what political winds are blowing at the time. Good Luck in OCS & flight school. When you get to Whitting, ask for VT-2, its run by Coasties, you'll luv it.

Fly Safe

ck130

 

[Jafar]

VT-2? That's the one with the crow on the patch? "Doerbirds" they're called or something? So I guess all training squadrons are designated with a VT? I have this sticker someone gave me when I was a kid from VT-23 Professionals. T-45 squadron I think. It says "We Train Hookers." I assume in todays climate their moto probably changed.

From what I understand with this new joint training syllabus its possible to end up doing primary on some Air Force base. So who knows where I'll end up. If I can get right into The Basic School after commissioning I should be going through primary (after indoc of course) in late Summer '04.

 

[Gretzky]

Concur that it depends, but here's the rough sketch...

Don't be discouraged, the Marines actually do very well, comparetively, for flight time...

general rule: anything that can stay airborne on one tank of gas for over 1+30 is going to build up flight time fast, i.e.

Heavies: (KC-10, C-5, C-141, KC-135, etc.) are a whole other ballgame. They loads, but they come in bunches (esp tanker guys...they're in high demand)

Helos: can't really speak for these guys. They live a whole other world, eating dirt with the ground pounders, but they generally get a lot of time (that doesn't count for anything except flying tourist around the Hawaiian islands).

If it has a pointy nose...
Air Force: we've got an F-15 exchange guy with us and he'll concede that, esp. now-a-days, they see 150-250 hour years. I'm rushing a viper unit now and they concur.
USMC: as a boat Hornet guy I averaged 250-300 over a 4.5 year tour in the FMF. Non-boat guys see about 200-260 per year. There was a time when harrier guys were lucky to see 100 per year, but they're back up to speed and seeing 150-200 (but I'd run as fast as you can to avoid the Scarrier, and Scarrier guys will tell you that too...if they don't, they've been smokin' good Yuma peyote)
Navy: The squids do real well when they're at sea, but as soon as they come back from cruise they suck high tit because they wind up dumping a lot of their parts off to the next squadron going out on cruise. They'll likely see 200-260 per year.

Bottom line is ask how long the different guys have taken to get to 1000 hours in type and the typical fighter guy will take 4.5-5 years in type, USMC has taken most guys 3.5-4.

Good luck and don't let anyone try to kid you...no one's first choice is helos and no one's first choice is harriers.

GRETZKY
:booty: :jammin:

 

[furloboy]

All this talk got me curious. I did twenty years in the Corps as a fighter guy (retired last year) and ended up with more than 4700 hours. That was likely fairly high for my peer group. At an average of 1.0-1.5 hours per sortie it doesn't add up quick. That included three years out of the cockpit and a couple of lean years as a staff puke (where I quickly memorized the phone numbers of all the various squadron schedulers--and which flavor of blonde they prefered). Obviously things have changed over the past couple of decades, but Marine fighter guys always seemed to rack up more flight time than their USAF counterparts.