Hi guys, I've taken an interest to becoming a pilot (not sure if fixed or rotor yet) and was wondering what the most sought after airframes are out of flight school in each branch. Sorry for being vague, but a short list would be awesome.
It only matters that you choose the airframe that you want to fly.
You right, your question is a little vague, which service are you asking about.
How about Navy fixed wing? I'd be interested in something like the Super Hornet, although I'm sure by the time I come in the F35C will be an option.
Hurricane12 said:No one wants Ospreys though. That will probably change over time, but I haven't met anyone down here who has it as their number one.
Yeah, that's what all my classmates thought too.
In all honesty, the spread of what people on the Navy/USMC side is pretty diverse. Obviously a lot of guys want jets, but many want helos or P-3s instead (Navy side at least). Maybe over plebe summer everybody talks big about wanting tailhook, but over time people realize they don't like the jet community, want to fly with an aircrew, prefer helo/P-3 missions, want more steady deployment schedules, or a whole bunch of other reasons.
For Marines the two biggest "desires" initially are either jets or skids (huey/cobra) because those communities have the sexiest missions. But, again, over the course of flight school guys realize that they prefer different missions or maybe wouldn't fit in to those communities...skids, for example, have a big reputation for eating their young and that turns some people off. C-130s in particular are actually pretty competitive to get. You also can't go wrong with any platform on the Marine side. They're all cool, for lack of a better word.
No one wants Ospreys though. That will probably change over time, but I haven't met anyone down here who has it as their number one.
Why not?
Thanks for all the great responses guys, I'll go ahead and read that thread Bullet.
If you want to fly like a man, the helicopter world is always looking for a few good lunatics. Or you can fly up at 30,000 feet where your biggest hazard is your bladder
The following was written by Harry Reasoner in 1971 during the Vietnam war.
"You can't help but have the feeling that there will come a future generation of men, if there are any future generations of men, who will look at old pictures of helicopters and say, "You've got to be kidding."
Helicopters have that look that certain machines have in historical drawings. Machines or devices that came just before a major breakthrough. Record -changers just before the lightweight vinyl LP for instance.
Mark Twain once noted that he lost belief in conventional pictures of angels of his boyhood when a scientist calculated for a 150-pound men to fly like a bird, he would have to have a breast bone 15 feet wide supporting wings in proportion.
Well, that's sort of the way a helicopter looks.
The thing is helicopters are different from airplanes An airplane by it's nature wants to fly, and if not interfered with too strongly by unusual events or incompetent piloting, it will fly.
A helicopter does not want to fly. It is maintained in the air by a variety of forces and controls working in opposition to each other.
And if there is any disturbance in this delicate balance the helicopter stops flying immediately and disastrously.
There is no such thing as a gliding helicopter.
That's why being a helicopter pilot is so different from being an airplane pilot, and why in generality airplane pilots are open, clear-eyed, buoyant, extroverts. And helicopter pilots are brooders, introspective anticipators of trouble.
They know if something bad has not happened it is about to.
All of this, of course, is greatly complicated by being shot at. American helicopter pilots are being shot at more often and more accurately these days from Khe Sahn to Tchepone than at almost any other time in this whole War.
It's been a helicopter war all along. And the strange, ungainly, unlovable craft have reached the peak of being needed and the peak of being vulnerable at the same moment.
Everyone who has flown over combat zones in VN in a helicopter knows the heart-stopping feeling you get when you have to go below 2.000 feet.
Well the men going in and out of Laos rarely get a chance to fly. They must be very brave men indeed.
This is a War we could not have considered without helicopters.
The pilots are beginning to feel like Mark Twain's man who was tarred and feathered.
If it weren't for the honor of the thing they would just as soon have missed it."
Then again, their seats can depart the flight...
It's funny he says "no such thing as a gliding helicopter" in the era of the Huey. The Huey auto rotated like a dream. Our newer stuff, with the low inertia rotor systems, doesn't do it quite so well. Nonetheless I'll take an autorotational landing over gliding an airplane in any day. I've done plenty of autos. I may be wrong, but I doubt many jet pilots have done many power-off landings. Then again, their seats can depart the flight...
As a cadet in Port Angeles, Wa., I remember being downtown one day, and seeing a Coast Guard HH-65 (this was pre-MH-65) climb quickly, fall back over its shoulder and went flying towards the ground. I thought I was about to see a crash (which you generally don't want to see), and my stomach lept up into my throat.
And then someone told me they were autorotating... and I hoped they would stop.
Fighter jet folks think everyone wants to fly fighter jets.... but that's not always the case. You have the fixed-wing folks and the helo folks. Within those communities you have smaller communities. In the Coast Guard, do you want to land on the smallest flight deck in the military? Then you can only fly the MH-65. Want to to fly longer distances? Fly the MH-60. If you want to do fixed wing you will have two major choices, the HC-130 or the 144. There are a few odd-balls in DC for the Commandant, but that's it. SAR pilots like what they do. I would venture to guess they get as much of a high pulling 47 people from freezing water of the coast of Alaska as fighter pilots get taking out a target. Maybe some of them even get a beer out of it (or at least a hug).
You just have to figure out if you want to go fast or if you want to hover.
As far as the Osprey is concerned. I've been able experience one, and it was a blast. BUT know not all Osprey are created equal. I was with a Marine Brig. Gen. who was scared to death to fly in one. BUT it was an Air Force Osprey, which, I've been told are tens of millions of dollars more advanced than the Marine Corps version. In the end, it was cool, transitioning from hover to "plane mode?" Took off like a Jayhawk and then started going MUCH faster.
Oh, and these were Osprey associated with USSOC, outside of Destin, Fla. GREAT time!
To be honest, I'm surprised that no one has implemented a downward ejection seat like in the F-104 for helicopters. I suppose though, that it wouldn't be very practical from the standpoint that you guys always fly so low it wouldn't do you much good. I'm sure weight is at a premium as well.