How much flying?

[L'il J.Seinfeld]

How come fighter pilots in the Guard fly so much less then AD? And do Tankers deploy differently depending on where there based?

Maybe because they have civilian jobs!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Deuce130]

Deuce, when were you at Kadena?

1997-2000 - Jakals - No Mission Too Demanding!

 

[stonewall]

Funny how all those "demanding" missions took you to Australia, Pattya Beach, Guam....

 

[AdlerDriver]

How come fighter pilots in the Guard fly so much less then AD? And do Tankers deploy differently depending on where there based?

They fly part time and by definition will get less time per month (unless they want to work everyday). In an F-15 unit, the absolute minimum sortie count per month is 6. Most times, that means 1 per day. So the pilot is usually adding 6 days at the guard (at least) to his airline work schedule. At an average of 1.3 hours, that isn't going to build the hours real fast. Most guys fly a little more than that, but everyone has their months where the airline or the family stuff forces them to go just to the min. Full time guard guys without an airline job probably fly more than active duty (at least in my unit).

An active duty guy is available to fly 5 days per week all month. Unless there are maintenance issues or some kind of operational deployment/exercise, whatever, they will fly more than the guys in the guard.

 

[TankerDriver]

And do Tankers deploy differently depending on where there based?

There are 3 "Super Tanker" bases in the US: Fairchild AFB, WA, McConnell AFB, KS and Grand Forks AFB, ND. For the most part, these are the tanker units which have been doing the bulk of the Middle East deployments since 911 in direct support of Operations Iraqi and Enduring Freedom. There are a few other bases in the US with smaller tanker operations: MacDill and Warner-Robins. Then there are about a dozen or more ANG and Reserve units around the country. We also have tanker units at RAF Mildenhall, England and Kadena AB, Japan, but these are also smaller operations, neither of which have deployed to the Middle East since the war started, but will be in the near future.

There are 3 deployed locations for tankers supporting these operations at the moment. Each expiditionary squadron will usually be staffed by personel from a different base from the US. For example, Base X may be staffed by Grand Forks, Base Y from McConnell and Z from Fairchild. However, Base X may have pilots being deployed there from Grand Forks, Fairchild, Robins and MacDill. The staffing duties may rotate every year or so from base to base. Tankers deploy differently than fighters or Hercs, which deploy for 4-6 months at a time. We deploy for 60 days at a minimum (used to be 45, but 60 is now a CENTAF requirement). Some get extended 75-90 days. We have deployers/redeployers going out every week. We'll usually take one tanker with 3 or 4 crews and some troops in the back over on each deployer to replace the 3 or 4 crews coming home. We pretty much pass each other in the air as a direct aircraft/aircrew swap out. The average time at home between deployments has been about a month and a half to two months, but it looks like we will be getting a bit more time at home in the near future since things are slowing down for us a bit. While at home you may get a trip or two and a few local training sorties, but for the most part, you're given a squadron or group level job to keep you busy and pretty much make you want to deploy again. This varies from base to base because I've talked to other tanker guys from other bases who aren't given jobs and chill at home when they're not flying.

 

[psysicx]

He said full time fighter pilots. I thought that meant there only job. If thats true 150 hrs a year seems low.But I see that he put the same for part time so its confusting. Is there a reason why the tankers based in Japan and England haven't deployed to the middle east? I guess thats why there so popular.

 

[VVJM265]

250 / year averaged over 19 years without any conversion factor. Includes a tour at grad school and some staff time thrown in. All the rest has been flying. My prediction is that the days of USN guys doing 20 years and retiring with anything close to 4K are rapidly coming to a close.

My 2 cents,
VVJM265

 

[BengalsFan]

I read all these and saw no FAIP numbers, so here is some info on that...

I averaged 500 hours per year... was a FAIP for a little over 2 years, so I have just over 1000 hours... good hours too cuz they are all PIC and mostly Instructor. I have about 750 sorties too (a lot of 1.3s) so when we get a conversion factor of .2 or .3 it really helps... you do the math. Oh and as one other person said on here about the military... this flying was secondary to my bullsh*t paperwork duties... which was my main duty, I don't care what anyone says.

 

[prozac]

300 hrs/year in tankers overseas give or take. Spend about 5 times that flying a desk. No kidding. Bengals Fan is right when he says that BS office work comes first. AMEN BROTHA! Looking forward to actually flying for a living someday.

 

[TankerDriver]

300 hrs/year in tankers overseas give or take. Spend about 5 times that flying a desk. No kidding. Bengals Fan is right when he says that BS office work comes first. AMEN BROTHA! Looking forward to actually flying for a living someday.

300 hours a year flying tankers??? Wow. Where ya at? Mildenhall or Kadena? You guys gotta start deploying alittle more. I'm at about 500 hours over the past 6 months. 400 of which is "combat".