Originally Posted by
MAGNUM!!
That's been a problem for years. Lots of high time guys and lots of low time guys. Fighter squadrons are sorely lacking in the 600-1000 hr 4FL/IP demographic. Look at you...you likely hit 500+ hrs and were upgrading on time. Just when you were really hitting your stride in the Viper and were ready to really be an asset to a squadron, did they send you to another F-16 tour?
It's insane the way AFPC mans fighter cockpits. We need to have a "fly only" track and sh*tcan all this career broadening garbage. So you stay a Major for 20 years...you'll be a great fighter pilot. I can guarantee you the Chinese AF, the Indian AF, the Russian AF, and anyone else you can think of doesn't inundate their young fighter guys with the crap we do. Oh well.
At any rate, everything we do well as a military requires Air Dominance and a permissive environment. The F-22 will gaurantee that for decades to come.
I don't want to hijack this thread, but I have been saying this for years. We have the same problems in the KC-10 fleet. From day one, rated officers are trained to be the best pilots possible but at the same time are trained to be generals. That makes no sense to me because it is extremely expensive to do both -- especially when most people aren't going to be good at both and news flash; don't want to be!!!
We should model after the airlines -- line pilots and management pilots. Line pilots can stay as long as they want until retirement thus keeping our experience in the weapon systems. Could you imagine how great our Air Force would be if we did? The management pilots would be selected from the line pilot pool after 2 or 3 operational tours and would go through the proper "grooming" courses. The Air Force could then reduce pilot training and only "hire" pilots when the line pilot pool reaches a certain number (turn off pilot training when it isn't needed).
It is ridiculous that every single day we are training the new guy to fly the airplane just because the personnel system forces people up and out of the cockpit. If we had a cadre of pilots who were experienced, we wouldn't need to fly as much basic/intial training sorties and we'd end up having the money necessary for new weapon systems.
-Fatty