True but unless you reach the rank of O-9 or so, you will have to retire early enough in life to need another job.

Probably doesn't hurt to consider these things as a youngster...I wish I had, I would have pursued that C-141 AFR gig.

Also while others have mentioned that heavies accumulated more time, the airline hiring process is rigged to give fighter pilots at least a fair shot. So as long as you do the "normal" tours and flying for your airframe you should be airline-competitive after your commitment is up.

But if you fly heavies in the guard/reserve, you will probably met airline mins before an AD guy can even finish his commitment...and a reservist can take an airline job while still serving his time..

 

Thanks guys for the information. Perhaps I should have avoided the uproar by simply asking "who flys more". That really is the bottom line. It's not about building hours. I just want to fly!

;-)

 

Great info in here folks, answered some of my questions without having to ask!

 

No... that would have just started another round of answers based on other opinions

Military flying is awesome......period.
Some seem to initially complain about their assignments, but after some time in the community usually come to love it and the challenges faced by each. Some of the time you even have the opportunity to switch from one community to another and experience a whole other facet of aviation.

I'll end with saying that your satisfaction won't necessarily lie with which community "...flys more [meaning simply which will put more hours in your logbook]" but rather which missions each community performs and what personalities you find in each - all the way to which service you fit in best with.

USMCFLYR

 

Which is why I said that the skills we acquire while performing our jobs relate well to the outside job market.

I haven't applied to any airlines, but I'll agree that my peers who have had not had trouble meetings airline minimums. The only mins that seem to have given a few trouble were the Fractionals requiring 2,500 TT. You can go a career and not meet that TT if you are **unlucky** enough to hit some untimely jobs or slow flying periods during the course of your journey. I definitely know some trying to get out after their initial commitment that didn't have those TTs. One of the upsides of the Strike Fighter communities is the amount of PIC in relation to your TT.

USMCFLYR

 

Unlike the airlines (which have a strong military character) the fractionals evolved from the purely civilian arena of general aviation...their culture is one which is not falling all over itself to recognize the value of military experience and may even have some inbred resentment in a few dark corners.

 

My best advice - check out the forums at BaseOps.net - lots of guys currently in upt to talk to about their experiences.

But here's my input. "Typical" Active Duty pilot tracks these days isn't quite typical... it's a fast-changing ballgame. But here's my best shot at what you might expect. YMMV...

SUPT/JSUPT - about 180 hrs, a bit over 200 if you go to ENJJPT (google for more info) over the course of a year. You might sit up to 6 months to a year waiting to start.

6 months in the T-6 (85 hrs at UPT, 120 at ENJJPT).

After T-6s, ENJJPT studs go to T-38s. Other UPT studs track select to T-38s, T-1s, T-44s, or UH-1s. I'm not the best guy to fill in the details of the latter 3 options.

T-38s - ~100 at ENJJPT, less at UPT.

A few weeks before graduation, you get your assignment - merit-based assignment based on your preferences (and more importantly, AF needs).

T-38s used to be reserved for fighter/bomber. Current Active Duty drops at T-38s (including ENJJPT, which used to be 100% fighter) - top couple get fighters, a bomber, a FAIP (First-Assignment Instructor Pilot) or two, a handful of tanker/transports, maybe a SOF (U-28 or NSA) platform, and a couple RPAs (UAV, UAS, whatever you call them today).

Your 10-yr clock starts the day you graduate from UPT. At this point, you're say a 1.5yr 2d Lt.

OK, since you earned a fighter, you might wait 6 months for training to start - more casual duty at your UPT base. Once the training starts, it'll be a month at survival and centrifuge training, then 2 months at Intro to Fighter Fundamentals flying the T-38. Off to FTU to learn how to fly your fighter - 6-12 months there, then finally to your first ops base.

You arrive at your ops base as a 3yr 1Lt, or maybe even a brand-new 4yr Capt. 3-4 months getting mission ready, and you finally get to fly your first USAF sortie without a gradesheet as Blue 4.

Hopefully you deploy a couple times during that first 2.5-3yr tour. As a brand-new wingy, if you can manage a remote flying tour (1 yr flying in Korea) followed by a full ops tour, do it. You finish this tour as a 6-7 yr Capt, with maybe 600 hours in your fighter (almost all PIC, of course, 'cause you're always the sole manipulator of the controls in a fighter).

One way or the other, if you stand out, you've got a chance to go to another ops tour or maybe teach at the FTU. More likely, you're off to an "ALFA" tour - which used to stand for something else, but now means ALO (walking with the army), UPT/IFF IP, or RPA (currently a one-way door - you go to a drone, you stay a drone pilot forever). ALO = 0 hrs, but higher priority to get back to a fighter afterwards. UPT IP - maybe grab another 700hrs, 1000 if you try to fly like a FAIP. IFF, significantly less.

You hit your Major's board at the middle of this tour, finishing it with 10yrs in the AF, but still over a year left on your commitment, which means you've got to take the next assignment. You might volunteer for a 365-day deployment during the assignment. If you don't, then you get non-vol'd in the middle of your next assignment.

If your next assignment is flying (not guaranteed), you'll be doing some sort of squadron leadership job, and you'll fly a lot less than you did when you were a Lt Wingman, except when you can get on a deployment. 3 yrs later, you're 13 yrs into your career with maybe 2000+ hrs and your first opportunity to stay or go.

But as I said, it's a fast-changing ballgame. May be completely different next year. Heck, it might be completely different tomorrow.

Hope this helps.

And one last thing in this tome - what my Marine brother said above: Don't join up because you want to build time. Flying for the military gives you a lot of marketable skills (not just flying), but you won't make it happily through the first deployment if you don't have another reason to be here.

Wuzzo

 

I'll expand a bit on Wuzzo...if you want to fly for all 10 years, consider AFSOC. We don't do ALFA tours, ALO tours are unheard of, and we rarely send guys to UPT bases to teach. You can almost guarantee you will fly until you are a major and go to IDE in residence, or a Lt Col if you don't go to IDE in residence. If you're a fighter guy, as Wuzzo said, you better hope you stand out early. Fighter cockpits are dwindling as the F-15 and F-16 stands down. It is quite possible you will hit your ALFA tour after your first assignment and then have no cockpit to go back to as you approach your Major's board. Not impossible, of course, but it's no longer guaranteed. Nearly impossible once you pin on Lt Col unless you're going to be a DO/CC type. I think what Wuzzo is saying is that you could end up a one assignment fighter pilot. Something to think about.

 

Wuzzo, thanks for that awesome post. That really shed a lot of light on the AD AF side of things.

Question:How does that compare with the guard/reserve side, after training is complete?

 

I'd have to let one of the several ANG/AFRES guys fill in on that, as well as heavy/SOF stuff. Deuce is right on - not only will you fly forever as a SOF pilot, you'll fly a lot, be gone a lot (everybody's gone a lot these days though) and do the business a lot. That's the type of thing I signed up for - if I were a young Lt these days, I'd give that path a very good look.

In fact, a lot of fighter guys trying to either get more flying or make themselves more competitive to get back to the cockpit are volunteering for SOF (MC-12), SOF-like (T-6 Iraq, An-26, etc), and non-flying deployments.

On the fighter side, the days of someone flying all the way to 20yrs is not all that likely. It used to be that if you wanted to fly, you could, but these days it's a lot tougher.

But, it's not impossible. I've done 20+ with only a 2yr break for a pretty good deal.

The military is one of a very few places where you have the opportunity to learn the difference between the epic and the merely exotic. Looking back over two decades, I've got some true epic experiences under my belt and no real regrets.

Do some soul-searching and determine your values and priorities, consider your options, and once you chose a fight, pitch into it boldly. You miss 100% of the shots you don't take.