Originally Posted by
gomissedagain
Non-mil guy here… is that enough time to stay proficient and combat ready? I can’t imagine staying proficient at my current job only flying 10 hours a month.
Depends.
Certain niche missions (special operations) really require full-time attendance.
Mobility IMO is pretty easy to stay current, since reserves actually fly real mobility missions on their part-time days. They also tend to do short (90 day) deployments to combat zones... that's mainly to take the load off the AD, but it also keeps the reserves sharp.
Also most reserve/guard pilots already did 10 years active duty... so the they are, man-for-man, already more experienced that the AD squadrons.
Reserve/guard fighter pilots routinely used to out-score AD in exercises, and also man much of the aggressor/adversary community. Experienced AD pilots get sent off to staff tours, many guard/reserve can stay in the cockpit much longer.
Also most reserve pilots are also civilian pilots, so they get some basic proficiency just doing that, at least more so than a guy who's a lawyer in his civilian life.
The reserve aviation community is the most tactically proficient of all reserve military specialties IMO.