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450 hours over 5 years for a Army helicopter pilot stateside doesn't seem to be abnormally low.
by rhcom2 1y ago
450 hours over 5 years for a Army helicopter pilot stateside doesn't seem to be abnormally low.
- alistairSH 1y agoThat's only 90 hours/year. Not even 2 hours/week. That may be common for an Army pilot, but for somebody expected to fly during wartime, transport VIPs under stressful conditions, etc that's pretty goddam minimal.
- sjs382 1y agoIs that based on something other than vibes? From what I can tell, that's the low end of average, but that's based on 5ish mins of fact-checking.
- alistairSH 1y agoVibes, I guess... 2 hours/week feels inadequate to maintain proficiency in a highly technical, high-stress role.
- sjs382 1y agoSeems that for a FAC 1, UH-60, 48 hours is required semiannually (every 6 months) and 12hr of sim can be applied to meet those flight time minimums. For FAC 2, it's 30 over 6 months, also allowing 12 hrs of that as sim time. One source among many: https://helicopterforum.verticalreference.com/topic/24169-army-commissioned-pilot-flight-hours/ https://helicopterforum.verticalreference.com/topic/24169-ar... This is one of those situations where common intuition doesn't match reality. I've similarly been wrong in the past where my intuition was off wrt/ to hours on industrial equipment compared to their expected life.
- alistairSH 1y agoYeah, I’m not claiming the hours were unusual, only that the 2 hours/weeks feels inadequate to maintain superior operational readiness. That’s not even a round of golf.
- nativeit 1y agoPart of the problem with that logic is your arbitrary per-week calculation. Spending 4 full days training per month, half of which is spent in the pilot’s seat flying, seems like a good level for maintenance training, with more intensive periodical training to level up.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- snowwrestler 1y agoOne part of an emergency plan is making sure people can back each other up and fill in if necessary. Which in practice means some people in backup / if-needed roles will be near the low end of whatever time minimums they need to maintain, yet still need to fly sometimes.