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?


My friends who where O2 Officers and above rarely flew in Army and I remember them saying many had wished they were Warrant Officers.

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.

rickair7777

So they can apply to the airlines with military FW turbine time?

Maybe better QOL with some FW gigs. I don't recall seeing any kingairs operating out of FOBs in the middle of swamps, but plenty of RW doing that.

BeatNavy

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.

trip

If your goal is legacy airlines then go any service but Army. If you want Army for other reasons then by all means do it but plan on a stint in the regionals before a legacy airline.

Airbum

Thanks for the valid reasons. If ones goals from the start are airlines then I wouldn’t suggest the army but I see that later on like rickair suggests it opens up more job opportunity.

Oh and yes the army’s fob always made me glad I was in the Air Force

Hobbit64

You're Spot On here.

Gundriver64

King Air flying is BORING compared to Apache flying. But that shouldn't come as a surprise to anybody. In my last Apache unit we had a Air Force guy leave the AF and join the Army to specifically fly the AH-64. Later we had a Navy guy (P3s) show up doing the same thing. The aircraft is a beast and is very challenging to fly at night (PNVS flying). However, the King Air is the obvious ticket for those aspiring to do the airline thing later on.

Cheers,
G

DC2Airmail

I have friends that flew ARES C-17's, and other heavies, and then went to Majors from there. May be a better route.

ArmyFW

It’s not that far off to get a fixed wing slot in the army now. The last couple of selections at rucker had more fixed wing slots than everything but Blackhawks. The very last one I heard about had more fixed wing than anything. This may just be a push for now but it is a very large one. I like my job so far, and love being a WO instead of an RLO. That may fade soon but it’s better than the infantry where I came from. We don’t sleep in tents, go TDY and sleep in decent hotels, get rental cars and whatnot. We have the opportunity to fly UC-35’s (Cessna Citations) and Gulfstreams as well. I don’t think it’s a bad way to get your ratings, serve your country, meet good people, and get a decent paycheck while really learning the instrument flying because that’s our bread and butter because the tactical side isn’t very strenuous on the flying side. We also don’t typically deploy for 9-12 months either, the norm is 2-6 months right now but changes based on what the army needs. Some of us have been out of flight school for maybe 5 months and already have 150 hours. Army fixed wing is not the retirement home it used to be. The army saw the problem with this and is actually changing it. There are a lot of WO1’s and 2LT’s coming through which helps the motivation and unit pride. Hope this helps to let other services know what’s going on over here in army fixed wing now.

Zach7177

Thank you everyone for the informative post. An ArmyFW that is great to hear the Army is doing something about it.