What's the future look like for an RPA career?

Hurricane, that may be true for the Navy regarding the FAA, but it is not true for the AF, at least not when it came to Bullet and our DS.

AF pilots must pass the FAA FC1 physical before they even step foot on a UPT base.
~ HQ AF sends ALL AFROTC rated cadets to Wright Pat for a 3 day physical prior to their commissioning.
~~ Visit baseops.net Their aviation medical forum is filled with FAA FCI/II questions because they all know that NO FAA pass equates to NO flight school.
~~~ This is not the DoDMERB exam. This also does not end once you commission. AF fliers do a rotation of flight physicals. 1 yr it is short...think DoDMERB (45 minutes). Next year it is long ...2 hours where everything is looked at from blood to cough if you are over 40.

That is what my last post was about. What the Army or Navy does/doesn't is what they feel is best for their mission. It is their family. Just like what the AF does or doesn't do is their family.

I agree with you overall. I think the AF created the problem because of the weapons release authority and do not know how to get out of it now from a manpower/retention issue.

I believe the simplest way to fix it is to stop being jerks, and start a WO program for the RPAs.
~ They will soothe the egos of the officers
~ They will not have to worry about what will happen in 3-4 years regarding the pilots they forced into this AFSC out of UPT with the promise of xtraining into manned.

I think that the biggest flaw of the AF is they do not have WOs.
 
NavyHoops said:
I think the Army has a unique option, not currently available the Air Force... Warrant Officers. Bull, thoughts on going that direction for the Army UAS stuff?
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Thoughts on as far as if Army UAS pilots will become warrants? Or if the AF should bring it back for the RPA folks? No clue on the first one, I don't work often with pilots, I just coordinate the receiving end of their munitions. Army UASs are getting bigger though so I wouldn't be surprised if they do, but Senior NCOs can do just fine as they are in the UAS field without Os interjecting good ideas in my opinion. They've got the CDE and JAG guys sitting next to them while flying so it's not like they're flying around with no restrictions from higher. I do think it will be interesting to see where the AF goes with this. From an outsiders perspective (my only interaction with the AF is with ALOs/JTACs in an ASOS) the O's dominate that field so it'll be tough, but I agree with second tour NCOs being good candidates for it. They're definitely capable, I thinks it's more of how much will the service give you.

I also think the AF may have a greater need for warrants than the Army because of how technical the AF is. You could cut the officer corps by a third if they filled some of those technical jobs with WOs.

Edit: Sorry, I've been a little busy today so my replies are a little behind.
 
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I apologize in advance if I'm talking out my rear end here.

But how about they make the RPA guys "real" pilots (send them to flight training school where they wanted to be all along) which solves the officers working next to enlisted issue. Require the enlisted RPA guys to have a bachelors, E6 or higher on at least their third enlistment. Automatic WO (or 2d Lt) once they graduate tech school. Enlisted guys see it as a commissioning opportunity and a chance to be part of the pilot community (which a lot of enlisted guys want anyway).

Of course there's the transition period, but it's a start.

Flame on :)
 
xray328 said:
I apologize in advance if I'm talking out my rear end here.

But how about they make the RPA guys "real" pilots (send them to flight training school where they wanted to be all along) which solves the officers working next to enlisted issue. Require the enlisted RPA guys to have a bachelors, E6 or higher on at least their third enlistment. Automatic WO (or 2d Lt) once they graduate tech school. Enlisted guys see it as a commissioning opportunity and a chance to be part of the pilot community (which a lot of enlisted guys want anyway).

Of course there's the transition period, but it's a start.

Flame on :)
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Send them to flight school for what?? Have the AF spend all that money just to stroke their ego? What's the point of sending to flight training for 2 years to fly aircraft they'll never pilot? With a pipeline like that for RPA's, there'd be no way they'd let anyone crosstrain out of it since they'd be super backed up putting all those officers through UPT. Once they get them they won't want to let go of them, which would make their flight training pretty useless to the Air Force. It's much cheaper to just keep throwing those insane bonuses at them. And an E6 on their 3rd enlistment is likely to have a bachelors and many will have a masters by then, so that's not much of an issue.
 
I'm thinking that option would require them to reenlist. From what I recall, anytime you retrain it requires a reenlistment of some sort. Maybe make training the new guy a part of the process?

Using myself as an example, I was in for almost 8 years separating as an E5 and still didn't have my bachelors. I'd of been looking at my third enlistment with E6 around the corner. Not saying I'm the guy that should of been an RAP either though. You want the highly motivated well educated NCO type for this job. There's plenty of them out there, and I'd trust a lot of them more than I would a 22 year old 2d Lt fresh out of school (no offense intended). I just think there's enough guys that would jump at the chance to do this job in the enlisted ranks instead of forcing officers to do a job the "real pilots" feel is beneath them.
 
I am with non-ducor regarding sending them to UPT not only from a cost perspective, but from a time aspect. Currently the backlog to start UPT for most students is now averaging at the very least 6-9 month casual status.

OBTW, because they can't pump RPA pilots out fast enough to replace those leaving, it is now why for the next year 2 out of every class from the 3 bases will go RPA for a total of @100 more pilots. RPA school will still pump out @200 per year. For many years the AF always dropped RPA out of UPT. It was only a couple of years ago that they stopped.
~ The difference will be for these pilots compared to those that go to San Antonio is they will do 1 tour and than be allowed to xtrain into manned airframes.

I kind of chuckled at the 22 year old comment. So let me get this right you don't trust them as much, but you are fine with them flying a T38?

From a realistic aspect, the age difference using your example would only be 2 years. They would not become operational until they are @24.
~ Commission @22. Casual status 6-9 months. @23. Graduate/wing @24.

When I got my Masters I would say @50% of the class were enlisted. Now, granted, I would say 50% of them were doing it for their post military career. Basically they already had 1 foot out the door.
 
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It's not that I don't trust them, just saying I'd trust a 30 year old SNCO type just as much to make those kinds of decisions (dropping ordinance). Of course the guys coming out of the academy are top notch guys, no doubt. I didn't mean to infer otherwise. Just that the enlisted guys can be trusted at the same level.
 
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Hurricane12 said:
That's actually pretty interesting...does the November have the "one pilot qualified in model/one qualified observer" min crew requirements?
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Per the flight manual, only a pilot is required, but AF regs dictate a Pilot and FE as a minimum for most things (dual pilot for a few types of events).
 
I do not understand. Officers don't want this job, but on the other hand, they also don't want enlisted personnel as pilots. lol
 
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