Requirements to fly Army Helo's

[KingAirGuy]

Army Aviation

Good luck in Flight School. Just retired myself. 20 and a wakeup all done. Wait till you get a bit of experience before you decide what you want to do. I have been fortunate and gotten to do a lot of different missions as an Army Aviator. Other than the C-12 work, Scouts have the best mission (in my opinion). Lots of fun to plan ane execute. As a WO1 you can actually get a chance to be the "Man" leading the squadron. As to flight time, it all depends on how bad you want it. I never averaged less than 300 a year as a rotary wing guy and actually had an 800 hour year in fixed wing. I however am a sky whore and will fly any time any day. .5 for a MFT is fine with me on a 4 day weekend on Saturday morning. Or I have no problems with a 1.2 flight that departs Sunday morning .6 to destination, 8 hours of wait time and .6 home. It all depends on what you can stand. The flight time is there if your willing to work it. Again good luck. Glad someone is stepping up to the plate to take my place! Oh and when Garth Rankin offers you the No pass No pay commertial rating, TAKE IT! Its the cheapest rating you will ever buy!

For the Math wizards out there. I only flew the last 9 years.

 

[Sarguy]

Funny that 121 and 135 pilots are exploring the Military now. I just did a trip with a guy (RJ Captain) who is trying to get in. In my opinion, this shows intelligence. You guys (certainly, you helo bubbas) must admit that this airline stuff is a tad on the boring side.

I would like to suggest that you investigate the Coast Guard before you sign papers elsewhere. I did 22 yrs there and have many USN/USMC buddies who spent a great deal of time trying to lateral to the CG. Also, the list of former Army aviators in the CG is extensive. In my entire career, I never heard of a CG aviator going to another Service.

In response to a previous post, there are NO reserve Aviator slots in the CG.
Did you see "TOPGUN"? Well, Maverick would have died along with Goose, had it not been for a Coast Guard HH3f!

 

[HueyPilot]

Ah...the Army days!

I flew for the Army Guard for right about 4 years. Prior to that I was an enlisted engineer, so I spent about 8 years in the Army. I loved flying helicopters. It was quite a bit of fun....NOE, landing in remote LZs. I was like juris, very motivated...not at all interested in flying anything but Hueys and Hawks. But it did wear off quickly. Within a couple of years, I was recommended for PIC, but shot down by the commander because 'we are PIC-heavy'. I saw friends who were promised the IP course get the shaft (and of course, to keep them in, they kept dangling the IP course carrot in front of them).

Probably the straw that broke the camel's back was all the 15,000 hour pilots (who flew offshore for PHI and co.) got the 'primary' slots in our unit. Primary slots were allocated more flying hours. All the new guys were put in 'overstrength' slots, and were automatically designated FAC 2 aviators, which gave us about 60 hours a year. A few of us new CW2s and WO1s politely proposed to our SIP that more of us newbies get primary slots so we could get more training. Our SIP agreed, but the commander didn't. Finally, those of us in UH-60 units but not MOS qualified (ie still flying Hueys because the state couldn't fund the AQC slots) were going to become FAC 3 aviators with no flight pay. Fortunately, I was able to get tranferred into the UH-1V-equipped medevac unit, but some guys weren't able to do that. Most of them quit altogether.

In late 1998, I looked into flying HH-60s for the AFRC, but I was notified by the AF recruiter that the program had be terminated for warrant officers. He encouraged me to apply for fixed-wing pilot training, but at the time I was still in love with flying helicopters and didn't want to give it up. Finally, the lure of flying full time, getting more hours and not having to deal with the Army's idiotic management of it's aviation assets lead me to apply. After two years in the AF, I'm now flying Learjets. Sometimes I watch the Hueys from Ft Rucker fly into our field here at Maxwell and wish I could get a ride, but overall, I'm happier because even though I'm not flying NOE, I'm flying.

This month is a slow month due to the holidays, but I'm still going to log about 35 hours. It would have taken me 7 months to log that with the Army Guard. As a side note, once I got accepted to the AF, there were a few changes that took place in my unit. Most, if not all, of the older veteran pilots were retiring. They dangled the IP course/PIC thing in front of me to get me to stay, and I turned 'em down. They did the same for another friend trying to fly C-130s for the Reserves, and he stayed. I called back a few months ago to see how everyone was doing, and to this day (2 years later), my friend has yet to see the IP school at Rucker. He reapplied to get out of his committment and the Army turned him down, so he's stuck. He should have bolted while he had the chance.

Look, if you like flying helicopters, the Army CAN be a great place, however over the past decade, the Army hasn't done so great. Back 'in the day', my dad flew AH-1s and logged 200-300 hours a year. Now you're lucky to get 100. Hopefully the Army will get better, I can only hope that it's at the bottom of the hole right now and things can only get better, but who knows. As a 4th Generation Army aviator, I'm ashamed at what the Army brass has done to Army aviation...they've gutted it.

 

[Anaconda]

Good post, HueyPilot! Congratulations on the opportunity to fly Lears.

I can assure you things aren't much different in the Active Army...