Leave it to the “go fast” pilots to extoll the virtues of their community and service. I give them their props; they can talk with their hands. Indeed, they are smooth. Navy and Air Force jet pilots, when at the bar, transfer the conversation to the hottest girl by saying “I’m tired of taking about me. Now
you, can talk about me”. Jet pilot paradigms tend leave out the rotor heads that exist within their services. There are more helicopter pilots in the Navy than there are jet pilots. Helicopters can land on a variety of Navy ships
in addition to aircraft carriers. SWOs love us. Sunrises and sunsets are wonderful from the cockpit in either service. It’s a shared thing. Helicopter pilots are an appreciative lot. Perhaps it’s because they don’t have ejection handles in their machines. Here was Harry Reasoner’s take on helicopters back in the ‘70s:
"The thing is, helicopters are different from planes. An airplane by its very nature wants to fly and, if not interfered with too strongly by unusual events or by a deliberately incompetent pilot, 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."
"This is 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 brooding introspective anticipators of trouble. They know if something bad has not happened it is about to."
View attachment 8519
Good natured banter aside, I have nothing but respect for those that served, are serving and will serve.
Extra:
How big a tip does a jet pilot leave at the bar during happy hour? 20 cents, a pair of dimes (paradigms)
.