Army Commissioned Pilot Flight Hours

[helo47]

Hi, I'm considering becoming a pilot in the U.S. Army. Currently I'm leaning toward being a commissioned pilot. I know that commissioned fly less than warrant, and I'm fine with that. My question is: how many total flight hours could an active duty commissioned officer expect at the end of a 10 year contract? Thank you!

[Thedude]

1200ish maybe. The years of 800 hour deployments are gone so you likely have making minimums only to look forward too. 

[AriX17]

On 3/30/2022 at 3:53 PM, Thedude said:

1200ish maybe.

I had  thought  150h per year is the minimum.

[Thedude]

2 hours ago, AriX17 said:

I had  thought  150h per year is the minimum.

Nope. For FAC 1 pilots it's 140 hours for AH, 96 hours for UH/HH, 90 hours for CH, and 100 hours for C12. It's also fairly common, at least in AHs, for RLOs to not make minimums and pro-rate their hour requirements using time off on leave and simulator hours to meet requirements. 

[01CelicaGTS]

It probably depends a bit on airframe.  In the UH community I see probably around 800-1200 on average.  Of course I've seen more and I've seen less.  I remember giving a PFE to a senior MAJ who had around 650 hours. 

I've met many, many LTs who were very blindsided by the reality that their job is not primarily flying.  Almost every MAJ I've met has spent years out of the cockpit.  Those that I have seen get a lot of flight hours typically get a flight company platoon leader spot early, and use it to their advantage to fly as much as they can afford to and still be a decent PL.  That will set you up well for a flight company command slot, where you should be able to continue to fly a decent amount.  You have to use that PL time to your advantage, because you're probably going to go to staff after that.  I will say that as an SP that has managed ATPs with a lot of staff aviators, you end up on the back burner a bit.  Also, after the first 3 years, any non-flight company spot will be FAC 2, 3, or 4.  After your company command time, it's rare that you will be in a FAC 1 position again. 

The minimum annual flight time for a UH FAC 1 aviator is 96 hours, but you can use up to 24 hours of sim time to count toward that, so that brings you down to 72 hours.  FAC 2 is only 60 hours per year and you can still apply that same 24 hours of sim time, so now you're down to only 48 hours per year to meet your minimums.  Additionally, like Thedude said, it can also be prorated for time lost due to TDY, leave, reset, etc. 

[Drew8803]

13 hours ago, 01CelicaGTS said:

It probably depends a bit on airframe.  In the UH community I see probably around 800-1200 on average.  Of course I've seen more and I've seen less.  I remember giving a PFE to a senior MAJ who had around 650 hours. 

I've met many, many LTs who were very blindsided by the reality that their job is not primarily flying.  Almost every MAJ I've met has spent years out of the cockpit.  Those that I have seen get a lot of flight hours typically get a flight company platoon leader spot early, and use it to their advantage to fly as much as they can afford to and still be a decent PL.  That will set you up well for a flight company command slot, where you should be able to continue to fly a decent amount.  You have to use that PL time to your advantage, because you're probably going to go to staff after that.  I will say that as an SP that has managed ATPs with a lot of staff aviators, you end up on the back burner a bit.  Also, after the first 3 years, any non-flight company spot will be FAC 2, 3, or 4.  After your company command time, it's rare that you will be in a FAC 1 position again. 

The minimum annual flight time for a UH FAC 1 aviator is 96 hours, but you can use up to 24 hours of sim time to count toward that, so that brings you down to 72 hours.  FAC 2 is only 60 hours per year and you can still apply that same 24 hours of sim time, so now you're down to only 48 hours per year to meet your minimums.  Additionally, like Thedude said, it can also be prorated for time lost due to TDY, leave, reset, etc. 

hello,

how much of a difference in hours is there as a Warrant?

[Thedude]

5 hours ago, Drew8803 said:

hello,

how much of a difference in hours is there as a Warrant?

Warrants will typically make minimums without much difficulty. IPs and MTPs with real tracks will generally exceed minimums pretty often.