OK so, I'm curious about the lifestyle from Day 1 through Flight School Graduation. I want to know if there is time during training that you can get away to do fixed wing flying to stay current, etc.

Now I'm 100% sure Basic is a lost cause... but I have no idea how structured/regimented WOCS is, and the same for Flight School.

And how about the other specialties? Anything from Infantry to Special Forces (or SEALS for you Navy guys)....

 

Civilian flying is prohibited during flight school in the Army (along with scuba, skydiving, and all sorts of random activities). That is waiverable on a case by case basis, like if you need to stay current or get checked out. That said, there are a lot of people who do it anyway. The CFIs in the area for FW also teach at Fort Rucker and if they wanted to boot you they technically could. I haven't known anyone who got booted for violating the list of prohibited activities, but that's that. Do what your career can handle. In WOCS you'll have no time for flying. Right after WOCS while you are waiting to start flight school (4-5 months these days) you will be doing a whole lot of nothing. You could fly in the evenings then. Weekends are usually free, but from what I hear once flight school got real backed up they started flying on Saturdays as well.

Out in the real Army, the WOs usually go home by 3 or 4, RLOs stay till 7 or so. I have not had time to go do my civilian FW stuff in my spare time but am getting to a point now where I can free up some time to do so. Out here there is a lot of stuff to do and paying $150/hour to fly when I get paid to fly anyway hasn't been a priority. Infantry dudes have time to fly if they want, but I don't know too many who do, or who want to pay that much money to do it.

 

My .02 cents worth........

I'm a National Guard WO1 and I've been here at Ft. Rucker since April 17th. Since then I've completed WOCS (6 weeks scheduled/7 1/2 weeks actual due to holidays), DUNKER/HOST (3 days), JOPD (1 week), SERE (21 days of FUN!-although now I believe it is 28 days), BOLC IIIA (3 weeks).

The ABSOLUTE fastest way through flight school right now is to be in a National Guard Unit that is deploying, as in my case. I have had one 2-week break between JOPD & SERE, otherwise I have had no "bubbles". The longest wait is for Active Duty guys, particularly those waiting for Apaches.
I moved quick through the system and it still took me 5 months from in-processing to Day 1 at the flightline. I still have about 10 months left.

You will receive MANY briefings on what you CAN and CANNOT do while in flight school, civilian flying being one of them. However, I "heard" but cannot confirm, that if your in the National Guard and have a full-time flying job as a civilian pilot, i.e., an airline pilot, then you would be allowed to keep current such as in a simulator. In my case, I had planned on flying up to CLT to keep "current" in the sim, but now that I'm furloughed...no need.

As far as the schedule goes......once AeroMed starts you get busy and be sure to stay in shape. As of about 3 weeks ago, no matter what phase or hold of training that your in, PT is required five days a week. This is unless your PT exempt which is 290 or above.

Once you start flying, your busy. I came here with well over 2,000 hours, 1,000 of them being in turbine helicopters. So from my perspective, is it hard? no Are you busy? yes!!! Also, I have my family here with me (wife & 3 kids)

Study 5 & 9's........as always.....it WILL free up your time when your in primary for other things....like sleep!

Also, one other disclaimer.....what is said on this forum about IERW could change tomorrow. I'm serious, things are always changing around Bravo Company, for the better mostly. The Bravo Company Commander is a down to earth guy who uses common sense and doesn't put up with BS!

One other note....the reason for mandatory PT is because 9 (NINE)...yes NINE guys failed their PT test just prior to aircraft selection about a month ago. So now they are being held back until they can pass a simple Army APFT.

I'm finishing up Primary next week, so I can't tell you about much more because I haven't gotten there yet.

If you have any more questions, send them my way. I'll give it to you straight and up to date.....if there is such a thing.

Also, I'm tracking 58D's.

 

Not in any Squadron/Troop I've been in.

 

Sweet! I’d prefer the hooker but still… sweet!

 

Everybody wants to be a hooker. Cheers!

I am in the same position as FlyArmy. But like the name implies, a hooker to the core.

 

"Out in the real Army, the WOs usually go home by 3 or 4, RLOs stay till 7 or so."

The Warrant Officer corps is more professional than that, and I take exception to your remark.

I never worked harder, nor was more satisfied with my work, than when I was a Warrant in the Army.

Stetson20
Former Army WO and proud of it

 

Don't get me wrong, they are very professional and work very hard. I couldn't ask for a better group of WOs in my troop. They just leave a lot earlier than I do. If they have work to do, they will stay until it is done, they just usually do not have anything that wasn't done that day or couldn't be done the next day. MTPs stay until MX is done, IPs are flying their ass off, all the new junior warrants have very small additional duties that are not very time consuming; they do their junior warrant duties at 3-4 and take off. And don't think I am disrespecting the WO corps because there is a good chance I will be joining it in a couple years and certainly wouldn't want to join it if I didn't respect it. But the fact is I see LTs/CPTs staying late every day. I see the warrants leave at 3-4 unless they are flying nights or rarely working on something that requires them to stay until 5 and occasionally later. When the commissioned officers fly day/nights, we generally come in at 9 or 10 to get work done in the day and have to use all 12 hours in our duty day to get work on the commissioned side of the house done and get the flying work done. The warrants usually arrive at 1300 or 1400 to fly at 1700. There is nothing wrong with that, but if you ask any warrant officer in my troop, they just aren't there as much. Just calling it how it is, not saying it is bad.

 

If it's changing at B-1-145, it probably isn't for the better. They could screw up a cup of coffee!