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Pros/Cons of being a UT


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Opportunities for me to track in the next year or two are pretty much gone so I've been looking at other ways I can show some progression as an aviator. Does anyone have experience as a UT and can you tell me a little bit about it? What did you like? What didn't you like?

 

Our AMSO is a UT and recommended that I shoot for it since I can't go to IPC. What do you guys think? I'd like to get some info from other people before I bring it up with the unit since I'm pretty much committed at that point :lol:

Edited by SBuzzkill
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I would do it. Being a UT is a positive no matter how you look at it. First off, your CoC and SP obviously hold faith in your skills, proficiency level, and think you have the proper demeanor necessary to teach. Second, it should put you 1st in line for IP, if that's what you want to track.

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UT is a great position to hold, you fly with more junior aviators and really become more knowledgable and proficient because your teaching guys instead of evaluating them like the IPs.

 

It is also an extra bullet on your OER, which never hurts.

 

Unless you don't like flying and teaching I can't think of any cons for being a UT...

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I think the UT can be a valuable tool at the SP's disposal, it just comes down to how busy your stands shop is. In my last unit I noticed that we didn't have any UTs, so while we were downrange I asked our SP if I should interview a few PCs for a UT job. His response was "we don't need any."

 

So, if your stands shop is full up IPs and they're motivated about racking up hours, they might not have a use for you. A lot of the things that you can do (LAOs, range border stuff) is part of RL3 progression and only an IP/SP is going to be doing that. A lot of training flights require EPs as well. Obviously you wouldn't be able to do that so you'd have to have a select, specialized flight that requires no EPs.

 

Where your IPs could make money with you is RL2 stuff. That is if they are backed up with other progressions, APARTs etc. I have a friend who's a UT and that's what they were using him for prior to deploying. A lot of times I had guys up for PC and I wanted to get a feel on where they were in instrument proficiency. I'd send them out with a senior PC almost acting like a UT to give me a feedback on where they stand. That's something they could use you for on continuation flights. That is if your unit has money to do that sort of thing.

 

I'd recommend the UT route, I just hope they utilize you. I don't want you to get stuck as the "simulator / PPT class bitch" while they're all out doing flight training.

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Every aviator should want to be a Pilot in Command. Every Pilot in Command should want to progress to something bigger; whether that be a flight lead, MP, ASMO, ASO, UT or IP. I was a UT for a year or so before going to IPC and if you want to become an IP, taking on the responsibility and risk of being a UT is the right thing to do. I say risk because, guaranteed, you will get a check ride from DES when they visit; not always a bad thing.

 

Now, as a guy who spent many years as an SP, I rarely needed a UT. Back when we had mandatory 10 hours of NVG mission training, a UT was a valuable tool in the SP's bag of tricks. We handed off proficient pilots to the UTs to complete their mission training. In certain assignments, where there is specialty training, such as No-Fly line or P73 training which can be accomplished by a UT they are invaluable. But, in a normal assault battalion, I never saw a huge advantage to the amount of time I spent training said UT to the benefit I would gain as the SP.

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When I made UT, I was relieved of my duties of Movements Officer and Arms Room Officer by two new WOJGs. So, yeah I taught a lot of classes... BTW, the NVG exportable training packages were in slide projector trays with dinosaur crap dust on them back then.

 

Spent a bunch of time in the SFTS also... good news; we were at Bliss and went to Colorado Springs for the SFTS. I'd go for a week at a time with our SP and we'd alternate periods while I did training and he did evals. Golf and beer on the menu every afternoon. Never cleaned another weapon or spent hours tracking down a part for the kneeling pump.

 

Which would you rather do?

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