Gundriver64

This^^^^^^^^^^

rabbo

It has been said that you are a soldier first, an officer second, an aviator third. As an army aviator you still have to do ground stuff and you'll have a staff role, whether warrant or commissioned, that will eventually limit your time spent flying. If you make a lot of time to go fly and do some missions like hurricane response, expect 200 hours a year tops as a part timer. Despite what people might tell you, you will not get an active guard reserve job until you have proven yourself to your unit and been accepted into the good old boy system. You will not get an ARNG fixed wing slot. You will spend months working on a flight school packet while a recruiter jerks you around, then you'll go to school for 12-18 months, get back with something like 150 hours, spend two weeks on orders, then go to flying 100-200 hours a year. You might go to a unit with a non-deployable aircraft or you might go to a unit that deploys every 3-4 years. You won't have the time or mental capacity to learn airplanes while you're in flight school. So you can expect your airline goal to still be several years away.

That was deliberately negative as is the tone of this post in general. Try to talk yourself out of it like I am here. I like the army and I like flying. We do some cool stuff. I love the people I fly with. I read the international news, bad people do bad things, and I still feel the same desire to help stop it.

If you want to be an airline pilot, do that. If you want to serve your country by flying america's sons and daughters into combat, do that. You can do both, but they're separate questions.

Hobbit64

Very Good advice here... Please take note.
To further the discussion, the current senior Warrant Officer Aviator was quoted as saying: “The Army will still be the Army without Aviators.”
For a flying career, go elsewhere. At a LCC I sit next to CAPT’s that are my age.
Like the others, I enjoy the people & flying but ....
Don’t delay your career for it

StandardBrief

At this particular time in modern history, I would not recommend Army aviation to anybody. By joining now you are willing to accept the following:

1) Stupid low amount of flight time
2) Stupid high amount of extra duties to include:
a) Stocking the fridge
b) ALSE Officer,
c) Supply Officer
d) HAZMAT Officer
e) Unit Movement Officer
f) Fire warden
g) Stocking the fridge
h) Sexual harassment rep
i) Resilience representative
j) Container inspector
k) Infantry ruckmarcher
l) OPSEC Officer
m) enlisted PT participator
n) seat warmer
o) staring at wall until 1930 waiting to go home but you can't
because the commander hates his wife and wants you to stay at
work with him/her
p) fellow officer stabber-in-backer just to get a good evaluation in
order to get promoted
q) -10 test taker
r) -10 test RETAKER because you failed the first one because you
haven't flown a helicopter in 6 months and forgot how it works
s) Mission planner for flights you won't fly
t) Stock fridge, listen to fat W4 complain about lack of fat snacks
u) Stock fridge, listen to crew chiefs talk about lack of mountain
dew
v) Wash aircraft that other people fly
w) Redo your proficiency flight eval because dumb ass instructor
****ed up your records
x) Get talked down to by everybody, including enlisted
y) Watch clearly incapable people get promoted
z) Arms room supervisor

If you want to be an airline pilot, do literally anything besides join the Army. If you want to defend the country one JRTC rotation at a time, join the Army. Do not be fooled, the airlines aren't hiring helicopter pilots because they suddenly realize we're amazing (we ARE amazing though...seriously). They are hiring them because the desired pool of fixed wing pilots is not as full. The current market requires butts in seats. I am not shaming military rotary wing pilots, I was one for many years, I am just speaking the facts about supply and demand. By the time you get enough flight time through the Army to go to the airlines, the RTP programs will probably no longer exist. It is an amazing time for current Army pilots who have done there time fighting the wars and are ready for a change, but i would not recommend you go just to get qualified for the R-ATP. You can get 1500 hours of total time faster in the civilian world than you can get 750 total time with Army rotary wing.

bh539

Wow sounds like we had identical careers

67c10

I have to respectfully disagree with this post, as this is just one mans experience. I know many may have a similar experience, but many also have an amazing time serving their country and flying some of the most thrilling missions in combat you could ever dream of.

As a new guy, you will stock the fridge, learn how to plan missions for the experienced pilots to fly. Its paying your dues in becoming an Army Aviator. You will have a couple additional duties, that don't take too much time at all.

But if you are out here failing -10 tests, making up APART check rides, stabbing others in the back for a good OER, having fat W4's complain about how ******y your fridge is, don't fly for 6 months, get every single additional duty thrown at you, warm seats for other pilots AND whine about doing some PT in the morning. You would become the typical ****** bag just like the many others who enter this career, whom no one can rely on in combat. Who no one trusts to ever make PC, or get sent to a track school like IP or MTP.

If you want to be an Army Helicopter pilot, do it for the pride of serving your country. Be selfless. Study hard and get first in your class so you get an opportunity to fly the aircraft you want. Show up to PT when you don't have to. Make PC before your peers. Put out for your 6 year obligation after flight school and you will be rewarded for the rest of your life, then stay in for 20 or get out and fly for the airlines. This life is not easy. I went to combat 6 months out of flight school. I deployed twice in my first 3 years as a pilot. I *****ed about sleeping in a tent multiple times. But I loved every minute of it.

If all you want to do is become an airline pilot, do not join the Army as a stepping stone and getting paid for some ratings. Join the Army if you truly want to serve the country.

hydrostream

^You know what you're talking about. You hit the nail on the head 67c10.