Originally Posted by
aviatorhi
Just a quick chime in here:
Originally Posted by
aviatorhi
From what I understand your typical F-15 pilot will fly about 150-250 hours/year, not a whole lot (I do about that in a month sometimes), and the rest of the time you're not doing PT or other military things you'll be in a simulator, simming the s*it out of procedures, maneuvers etc. etc. until you want to blow your mind out.
So some things for you to consider (if you really really want to be a lawyer) are... joining the Army as an NCO and flying heli-choppers, from what my friend tells me more flying and more actual combat flying (face it, the average modern F15 pilot has downed 0 bogies and has never targeted an enemy aircraft in flight, you did mention you liked the idea of being shot at), the other route you might want to look into is the National Guard (possibly FT Guard Duty), which would allow you to (almost) come and go as you please and would allow you to pursue your law career from the get go instead of spending time in the military first.
FlyBoyd beat me to the punch but I’ll add my two cents. Arrogant and misinformed is putting it mildly.
Not the most accurate picture of a typical F-15 pilot’s life:
· 150 hours/year is a bit low. You’re probably closer w/ the 200-250 hours/year. Sometimes higher if you deploy a lot.
· You might spend 150-250 hours with air under your ass in some kind of aerospace vehicle, but you’re stretching it trying to compare that time to the yearly flight experience of a fighter pilot.
· “PT or other military things”?? What the heck is that??? No fighter pilot does “PT” You just go to the gym like everyone else. I don’t know what “other military things” are – you mean like salute or march or play volleyball with no shirts?? Good grief. You don’t need to be on here giving a guy advice when you come up with that.
· Fighter simulators have limited use and most of that centers around emergency procedures, instrument training or maybe some radar/weapons training. For the first 10 years I flew the F-15, the simulator didn’t even have a visual display. Some fighters have better sims (F-16 and F-18 come to mind). However, I doubt even they spend enough time in them to make the guys “want to blow their mind out”.
· Join the Air National Guard, go to flight training so you can be a lawyer, “come and go as you please-almost” instead of “spending time in the military”. 
You have got to be kidding. ANG pilots join the military, go to the same training and fly the same aircraft as USAF active duty pilots. They might be able to attend law school after spending a pretty significant amount of time gaining flight experience. My guess is that they wouldn’t be a very good lawyer and probably a worse fighter pilot trying to do all that.
Originally Posted by
aviatorhi
While this is very true I didn't say every, I said average, I think it's pretty accurate to say that most every current F-15, F-18, F-whatever pilot has not "smoked a MIG" during their career.
Originally Posted by
aviatorhi
Also I suspect that a war with China or Korea would have a lot less aerial battles than one might suspect, if I were to venture a guess I'd say a DDG-1000 and a pair of Arsenal Ships parked next to it off the coast of China would be enough to take down most of the Chinese Air Force (should they decide to all be in the air at the same time).
“Smoking MIGs” isn’t the only type of combat our current crop of USAF/Navy/Marine Corps pilots train for. While we don’t currently face an adversary with an air force, many potential adversaries have very capable air forces. I’m sure many of our deployed combat pilots are dropping bombs, strafing and supporting ground troops as I type this. This is probably viewed by all involved as “combat” and far more valuable than killing the enemy one at a time in their fighter 20,000 feet above the fray. Few, if any are going to measure their career and the value of the time they spent in combat by whether they shot down an MIG.
I think you might want to re-think your evaluation of both the China and Korean peninsula scenarios regarding potential air battles. Both countries have large numbers of fighters and won’t hesitate to use them in a major conflict. Since we don’t actually have any DDG-1000 class destroyers yet
, it’s kind of silly to use them to refute the possibility of air-to-air combat over Korea or China. Actually most knowledgeable fighter pilots (you know – ones who actually ARE in the military and know what they’re talking about) look at either theater as having a HUGE potential for air battles. Both countries possess large air forces with highly capable 4th generation fighters and reasonably skilled pilots who will be more than willing to fight. You give a few guided missile destroyers (even ones we actually operate) off the coast of either country wayyyy more ability to influence the air battle than they actually have. If the Chinese Air Force (known as the People’s Liberation Army Air Force) decided to all “be in the air at the same time”, their biggest threat would be from a mid-air, not some imaginary DDG-1000 off their coast. This is due to the fact that they’d have launched over 1800 fighter and bomber aircraft. We’d need more than a couple of DDGs to handle all that.
But, how was the stay at the Holiday Inn anyway??
