Naval Aviator Quality of Life

2

2024dude

Member
Joined
Feb 25, 2020
Messages
31
Hi!

I made a post earlier this year asking about NFO’s and their experiences and responsibilities, and wanted to make one about Pilots!

What is a typical day for a pilot, and do you juggle more than you were initially asked to do? Besides flying, what are you tasked with completing?

How do you feel as a pilot? How do the people that work around you feel about you as a pilot? (I imagine there is great trust shared with your group but I would love to learn more about the responsibilities you have with others.)

Favorite experience? Greatest hardship?

Anything you would like to add, feel free to lay it out.

I am a thick glasses wearing kid with high hopes of trying this path in the academy, so please give me insight that may help me out in the future!

Enjoy your day and please remain healthy.
 
2024dude said:
What is a typical day for a pilot, and do you juggle more than you were initially asked to do? Besides flying, what are you tasked with completing?
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> I'll take a shot, as squadron life for pilots is pretty much the same as NFO. (The major difference is that the Pilots flew a lot more than NFO's in VP, as they had Pilot Trainers, Maintenance Check Flights, and other miscellaneous flights that didn't bring the full tactical crew-- I suspect that's less common in a TacAir squadron).

First, there is not "typical day." The day is defined by the Squadron Flight Schedule, and you typically don't see that until 1600-1700 the preceding day.You won't fly every day , but there are a lot of other flying related events, including simulators, ground training, etc. that all show up on the Flight Schedule. On top of that, every officer is assigned a "ground job" or role in the Squadron, which includes Maintenance Branch/DivO's, Operations, Admin, etc. Most officers will have a few different ground jobs during their initial fleet tour , with levels of increasing responsibility.

I had to laugh at the question of juggling more than you anticipated..the answer, in almost every type of Navy unit, is HE!! YES! The evil truth is that the better you are, the more responsibility and work you will get. That is a good thing --the guy who just does enough to get buy isn't going to advance.

2024dude said:
How do the people that work around you feel about you as a pilot?
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> Another chuckle, having just followed a thread of pilot jokes on my Class Facebook page. There are a lot of young pilots who think their poop does't stink, and carry that attitude to aircraft and through the hangar. The truth is, some level of cockiness, confidence, etc. is important and helps them survive in very stressful and dangerous environment (particular TACAIR carrier aviation). That said, in a good squadron, the Pilots and NFO's work as a team. I've often thought that the VP community had the right formula when they matched an NFO Mission Comander and Pilot -- particular with JO crews -the NFO Mission Commander was responsible for Mission Performance, and the Pilot responsible for getting us home alive. That division of responsibility worked out well.
 
2024dude said:
Hi!

I made a post earlier this year asking about NFO’s and their experiences and responsibilities, and wanted to make one about Pilots!

What is a typical day for a pilot, and do you juggle more than you were initially asked to do? Besides flying, what are you tasked with completing?

How do you feel as a pilot? How do the people that work around you feel about you as a pilot? (I imagine there is great trust shared with your group but I would love to learn more about the responsibilities you have with others.)

Favorite experience? Greatest hardship?

Anything you would like to add, feel free to lay it out.

I am a thick glasses wearing kid with high hopes of trying this path in the academy, so please give me insight that may help me out in the future!

Enjoy your day and please remain healthy.
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In the Navy, the only way to address a question like this is make it clear that there are basically two types of pilots - carrier pilots and non-carrier pilots. Their lifestyles are completely different.

Which is better is a personal thing. If going on lengthy deployments is not your thing, then carrier aviation isn't for you. But, if you think you would find it satisfying to be at the "tip of the spear", carrier aviation is for you!

One thing I remind young people of when they're trying to decide which branch of the service they are best suited for is this, "Just remember, the Navy is our nation's away team. They don't have very many home games on their schedule."

Carrier pilots are very much respected. In fact, the entire carrier and everybody onboard is there basically to support the Air Wing. Everybody respects what they do and understands the dangerous nature of their job. Besides Navy SEALs, there are no other officers who do the fighting. Launching cruise missiles from a destroyer isn't "fighting", in my books. It's button pushing with zero risk. If you're a submarine officer on a SSBN, if actually end up doing your primary mission, it's probably the last thing you'll ever do.
 
DH (USNA) and DBIL (NROTC) were both sure they were going to go multi-engine, do minimal time, head to the airlines. One aerobatic hop apiece, a few years apart, and the chase after Tomcats and Hornets began. Fifty-two years of service between them, six commands. DH had several 8-11 month deployments. Unless I flew to Hong Kong or other portcalls, I didn’t see him. No email or internet social media then, just snail mail and occasional terrible sound quality phone calls from all over the world. Deployments are shorter now, but national security drives all. Personal comms are better now. Every family handles this differently.

The operational Navy lives and breathes on cycles. Prepare to deploy (exercises, short periods at sea, training), deploy, return from deployment, prepare to deploy. Then roll ashore for a few years of shore duty, then back to sea/operational tour.

DH has never regretted his choice, and it never bothered me. It takes lots of clear communication about assumptions and expectations. There is nothing in the world like that first hug on the pier after a loooong deployment. Nothing.

If you love what you do (yay, formation hops on daily schedule, or XC RO2N to a favorite place), that is a huge driver of your perception of quality of life. [Cross Country Hop, remain overnight 2 nights, like an air show where you have a static display of your bird and party with everyone else who has flown in.]. There can also be long, hot, frustrating days at sea where nothing goes right.
 
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Capt MJ said:
If you love what you do (yay, formation hops on daily schedule, or XC RO2N to a favorite place), that is a huge driver of your perception of quality of life. [Cross Country Hop, remain overnight 2 nights, like an air show where you have a static display of your bird and party with everyone else who has flown in.].
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Friends and family all over the country love XC training hops, too! This post gave me wonderful flashbacks to calls from my brothers. "Hey sis, what 'r you doing this weekend?" was always a fabulous call!
 
Over the years, our USNA sponsor family alumni going through flight training, have planned and executed XC hops in the baby jets. We have gotten plenty of “guess what” calls from JB Andrews. Magically, DH volunteers to run down and get them if they are not renting a car or Ubering. I think he likes to just sit in the cockpit and close his eyes a minute.
 
Capt MJ said:
Over the years, our USNA sponsor family alumni going through flight training, have planned and executed XC hops in the baby jets. We have gotten plenty of “guess what” calls from JB Andrews. Magically, DH volunteers to run down and get them if they are not renting a car or Ubering. I think he likes to just sit in the cockpit and close his eyes a minute.
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When one of my sisters got married in San Antonio, BIL flew his A7 from Jacksonville the day of and back the next. I thought that was pretty cool. Kelly AFB was wondering what he was doing there.
 
Then there were those Lobster Training Runs to the now-defunct NAS Brunswick ME.
 
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Capt MJ said:
Then there were those Lobster Training Runs to the new-defunct NAS Brunswick ME.
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In the AF we did those training runs to Pease AFB, NH...a short drive over to Kittery...lobster heaven

Steve
USAFA ALO
USAFA '83
 
flieger83 said:
In the AF we did those training runs to Pease AFB, NH...a short drive over to Kittery...lobster heaven

Steve
USAFA ALO
USAFA '83
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Wasn’t that to train on flying near major metropolitan air traffic areas such as Boston, NYC, Newark, DC? I am sure that was the reason.
 
Weren’t there/aren’t there flight plans that just have to take you over the Grand Canyon? Gotta train over those updrafts.
 
Capt MJ said:
Weren’t there/aren’t there flight plans that just have to take you over the Grand Canyon? Gotta train over those updrafts.
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I have been in AZ for many years and yet the only time I've been "to" the Grand Canyon...I was a young lieutenant (now folks, CaptMJ knows that is the beginning of a bad story...) and flying a very fast, super high-performance jet. I asked the guy in the back if he'd like to get a closer look? Sure he says so I get approval to fly low-level, 2000' AGL. I rolled inverted, pulled down, and swooped to the canyon.

As we zipped along at 540 knots...we were roughly level with the rim...but there was that river down there...so we had to be good. Years later my wife asked: "How many helo's did you see, touring planes, wires, and cables?"

Huh?

No controlling radar, VFR, and a hot-shot lieutenant...a total recipe for disaster. My guardian angel deserved overtime pay!

Steve
USAFA ALO
USAFA '83
 
🤣😂😂. Classic air stories that start, with appropriate arm gestures, “there I was, upside down, going x knots at y altitude...”

Funny, my DH told me a long time ago of a similar tour he took of that particular site.

I know this seems like pointless thread unraveling, but it’s not. It’s all part of the big secret that Top Gun let out of the bag, military aviators have a whole lot of fun sometimes, and that is part of the quality of life equation. You get to drive a Ferrari around the sky, and that balances with the drudgery part of military life, the family separations, the tours spent away from the cockpit. I have no doubt if all the aviators on this forum, past or present, fixed or rotary, any service, were to gather in a room (with a beverage station), within minutes the arms would be demonstrating some hairy carrier night landing, sharing some other story, with kidding about each others’ airframes (helos = angry palm trees, S-3 “War Hoovers” because they sound like vacuums, there are endless inside jokes) . Feeling a part of that - well - I watch my DH and DBIL as they talk with USNA sponsor mids about Navy Air, or delight in the stories of our Navy and Marine pilot sponsor family alumni - priceless. I know they would do every bit of it again in a heartbeat. Even the bad stuff. For free. That is quality of life.
 
Capt MJ said:
I have no doubt if all the aviators on this forum, past or present, fixed or rotary, any service, were to gather in a room (with a beverage station), within minutes the arms would be demonstrating some hairy carrier night landing, sharing some other story, with kidding about each others’ airframes (helos = angry palm trees, S-3 “War Hoovers” because they sound like vacuums, there are endless inside jokes) .
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And some of those stories will even be true.......
(Do you know the difference between a sea story and a fairy tale?)
 
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