Originally Posted by
Airbum
I can not envision wanting to a flying a King Air over an Apache and yet it seems many try to get fixed wing time in the Army. Can someone tell me why that is?
I always wanted to fly attack helicopters, I ended up in fighters in the Air Force but would have loved a exchange tour with Army.
Attack helos are fun. Killing stuff is fun. But at some point it becomes a job, and the army BS is much worse than the other services (going to the field, longer deployments, formation/unit PT every morning, etc.). There is less of that in the army FW world, and towards the end of one’s career it traditionally has been competitive to go to the fixed wing world where there’s less BS, more career opportunity on the backside, and it’s a chance to do something different and have more options upon retirement. FW guys tend to fly more as well and have a more flying focused life than the helo units, with less Army BS involved when not flying. I was never Army FW, so all that is word of mouth from my buddies who did it.