Thank you for your answer. I have a few more questions if you wouldn't mind:
1. Is there a height minimum/maximum to become a helicopter pilot?
2. What does your vision have to be?
3. How much more flying time/action does a warrant officer get over a regular officer?
4. When a regular officer flies, does he/she go on combat missions or more of a scouting/test flight?
Thank you for your time.
1. Essentially, yes. But it's a case-by-case thing. I've never seen the policy set forth by the Commander of USAAMC, but AR 611-110 states that "Besides meeting prescribed height and weight standards (AR 600–9), all applicants must have anthropometric measurements performed according to policy established by CDR, USAAMC." Realistically speaking, I've never seen anyone denied for height. If there is a question, they usually stick you in a cockpit to see if you can perform duties adequately. The real concern is not so much height, but wingspan and leg dexterity, i.e. can you reach all the switches and fully articulate the pedals. I know a female aviator who is 5'1" and a male aviator who is 6'7" tall...so if you fall within those boundaries, I wouldn't worry. If you're huge, though, you may not be able to fly a 58D and if you're tiny you may not be able to fly a 47D/F.
2. 20/50 distant visual or better, fully correctable to 20/20
AND 20/20 uncorrected near visual acuity. Those vision standards must be maintained until you begin flight training, per AR 611-110. I won't get into the deeper stuff about astigmatism and such, but it's all in AR 40-501 under that Class 1A Vision section.
3. See my earlier post. It all depends. As a platoon leader and company commander, you will fly more than some warrants. As an assistant S-3, you'll likely fly less.
Here's the thing to remember, though...everyone gets so wrapped up about flight time as though it's all that matters in aviation. It's not. But beyond that, your time at a desk comes in every branch. Infantry captains are not all leading men over the hill, nor is every Armor officer on a tank every day. Being out of the cockpit isn't fun, but stepping into a staff role and away from the minute-to-minute action is something that happens in every branch.
4. When an officer flies he usually serves as the air mission commander. He's commanding the flight and the fight the same way an infantry PL would command the actions of his platoon on the ground.
Aviation is a maneuver element...the most mobile and lethal maneuver element the Army possesses. One team or platoon of aircraft can provide timely and accurate reconnaissance and gun/rocket/missile fires over an entire battlespace...literally thousands of sq km. No ground element can match that kind of speed and freedom to see and influence the fight. As such, aviation elements require smart and capable leadership. As the platoon leader, that's exactly what you'll do. If you're in a 58D or 64D, you'll be in the copilot seat of the trail aircraft, talking to everybody and their brother about what's going on, commanding the flight, and acting as the gunner for your aircraft. There's a lot going on in your ears and in your seat, and you'll be working hard to keep up.
Many of you are interested in aviation, and I love to see that. But I should take the opportunity to remind you that it's not a sunday drive. It's not all flightsuits and aviator sunglasses and hollywood callsigns and motorcycle rides to a Kenny Loggins soundtrack (Top Gun reference...anyone? Bueller?)
Folks both in the Army and outside the Army get the idea that being a helicopter pilot is all glamour. It isn't. It's a demanding job whether you're in garrison or in the sky over Iraq/Afghanistan. I don't know many infantrymen who show up for work on a Friday morning to have a CW4 hand them a 3-page test with 100%-or-fail standard which requires verbatim answers. If they do, I'll eat crow.
Aviation is not a job for the weak or spastic. About the time that rounds are punching holes in the skin of the aircraft, and your infantry brethren on the ground who are taking accurate and sustained belt-fed fire from an unseen location are really asking you to do them a solid and find/finish the bastard, and your copilot has lost sight of the other aircraft, and there's a young man on the ground badly in need of a MEDEVAC, and the TOC is trying to drop mortars through your flightpath in support, and you're low on fuel...and every last bit of that information is being piped into your ears over 4 radio nets when you hear the voice of one of your best warrant officers in the lead ship break through the din and ask, in a calm but obviously concerned way, "What are we doing, one-six?"....that's when you have rub that little black bar on your chest and be not just another aviator, but an
aviation officer.
Leadership is what being an Army officer is about. It happens on the ground. It happens in the air. What matters is that it happens.