I realize there is no way to find out unless you're actually in aviation and doing your job, but what would your (scoutpilot) estimate be on how many hours a week you're in the office doing paper work? Also, what kind of paper work would you be doing? Thanks.
I'm not sure where this idea about "paperwork" comes from among the young folks here. What do you consider to be paperwork? If you consider anything besides actively flying an aircraft to be "paperwork" then you ought not consider a military flying career. Period. For every hour you fly, you'll spend at least one hour with your nose in a book, or reviewing Emergency Procedures & Limitations, or studying aviation publications.
Every aviator, be he commissioned or warranted, will spend the vast majority of his time outside the cockpit. I assume your unspoken question is really "How much more time will I spend flying if I'm a warrant officer versus a commissioned officer?" The answer remains "it depends."
As a commissioned officer, you'll spend time doing those nasty "leadership" things that take you out of the cockpit. You will deal with maintenance issues. You will deal with Soldier issues. You will spend hours planning training with your platoon sergeant, commander, and instructor pilots. You will do much more than wiggle the sticks and rack up flight hours.
Don't allow yourself to fall into the idea that warrant officers live in the cockpit and occasionally get out to eat and buy more cigarettes. It's not the case. Warrant officers are highly skilled technical and tactical experts, but they do more than fly.
Every warrant officer will eventually "track" into a specialty. Some become Instructor Pilots. Some become Maintenance Test Pilots. Some track Aviation Safety. Others track Tactical Operations. Each of these duties requires time in the "office" or at a desk, or in the books, etc.
As a junior warrant officer, you'll also have additional duties. You may be the company night vision goggle officer, responsible for the care, maintenance, and security of all the goggles in the unit. You might be stuck in the supply room, since aviation lacks supply NCOs at the company level. You may be the unit movement officer. Rest assured, you will have an additional duty.
What's the point? Aviation is not a warrant officer free-for-all-flying-circus. There's work to be done outside the cockpit for everyone. If, as an aviator, you get more than one flight a week, you should be very happy. Army training, additional duties, meetings, weather, and maintenance all conspire to limit your flight time. That's just reality.
Flying is not an every day occurrence.
