Originally Posted by
oasis04
USMCflyr
By your estimation what is the avg. age and hr. total for your students when you punch them out of the frs?
Its been awhile but I seem to remember gettin nuggets into our squadron flyin Phrogs (HMM-162) with <500 hrs. Granted we had two pilots and a min crew of three, yet I would speculate that one of your Hornet drivers hits the fleet squadron with less than 1000 hrs total time. These pilots are often single pilot with dangerous stuff hangin from the wings and belly.
I dont understand why the public seems to be ok with young men and women operating expensive equipment and making life and death decisions everyday throughout the world both in airplanes and on the ground.
Sorry for ranting with out a point, I just hate the media and public opinion about age and flight time equating to Yeager(Sully)esque skills.
As Always Semper Fi everybody and keep'em shiny side up.
This is dead on (pun intended). Our young men and woman (18 years of age young) are part of a team that is entrusted in missions critical to the survival of a lot of other men and woman. The reason that this is OK to the public is that they don't directly see it or directly experience it. Sure, they hear about it but it's not the same.
When they get into an aircraft and see a young man or woman they now have a direct stake in what "goes on" in this specific aircraft because it's their life not the life of another. Hypocritical isn't it?