Welcome to the Fighters discussion blog. The purpose of this blog is to foster discussion between future Air Force officers interested in becoming pilots and flying fighters and active duty officers currently flying such planes. The views expressed in this blog are solely the opinions of the individual authors and not of the United States Air Force nor the Department of Defense.
Flying Fighters. The tip of the spear. You can be the center of the mission, or just support. Sometimes, you can be both. Bottom line, you are the warrior. The flying is the best there is. When you strap on the multi-million dollar technological marvel and hurdle yourself through footless halls of air, you are at the top of the game. The queep (paperwork and side duties) is not as much fun, but all in the part of learning, and part of the game. The days are long, but if you like work hard/play hard, have a competitive spirit, and are good at what you do, fighters are for you!
Concur with Bolter and will add some more thoughts.
Best: The flying itself is intrinsically motivating. It's always challenging...you never "master" it so you'll never get bored. The culture of a fighter squadron is something you will always want to be part of, and something you will always miss--it's amazing.
Worst: Hmmm. I can't think of anything that I really disliked doing. Bolter mentioned the queep and long days...let me expand. Queep (non-tactical admin stuff) is the least "fun" part of the job...but you're going to have the administrivia in any AF job. At least when you're doing queep in a fighter squadron you can usually see how it relates to something cool: building a schedule so that 80% of the mission flown the next week are against Dissimilar aircraft...fighting Hornets, Tomkittens or Vipers, giving ejection seat and life support training to the rest of the squadron and visitors who are going to get rides in the back seat, preparing a briefing on the gun to share with the squadron at the friday tactics talk over beer...none of these are as fun as flying, but they contribute to the mission and so you still take pride in it.
12-hour days--clarification and myth busting. If you're clock watching, you'll notice that you definitely do your share of these. But again, I have with almost every job I've had in the AF. The difference is this: the 12 hour day in a fighter squadron seems to fly by and you realize you have to get out of the squadron to have your 12 hours of crew rest for tomorrow's flight. The 12 hours usually includes your workout (you gotta stay fit to pull those g's...it's your job:-), and the 12 hours sometimes includes drinking beer in the bar with your best friends talking about how to do your job better. If you have a family issue, school play, medical appointment for a child, ect...you get the time off you need. You're not tied to the squadron holding down mandatory duty hours...you're a professional...get your work done and take care of your personal business as needed.
Deployments: The beautiful thing about fighters is that you typically have very predictable deployments, although they do vary by airframe. If we've already gained Air Superiority, then the F-15Cs/F-22s won't deploy much. You'll get to go tdy to Tyndall, shoot some live missiles, fight the Navy, go out to Nellis for a Red or Green flag for a couple weeks of outstanding flying...sometimes it's more laid back supporting the weapons school by flying red air. This is a good time to take your spouse with you and catch some shows on the strip. You may go tdy to Canada for a Maple Flag or to Alaska for an exercise--it's all good! The only "deployments" you don't look forward to are to the desert, but because you know exactly when you're going, that's the perfect time for your spouse and kids to visit grandparents and friends. A buddy of mine who flew the KC-10 before he got to convert to the F-15C (this is when everyone flew the T-38 at UPT and this was possible) definitely preferred the predictable deployment schedule of the F-15C. In the KC-10 he'd get no-noticed tagged to support some humanitarian effort and be gone for 90 days (this happened to him while he was airborne on a training mission and his wife had to pack a bag and have it sent to him)...very disruptive for his family.
Hope this sheds a little more light on some of the myths you hear about how bad it is to be a fighter pilot.
2 comments:
Flying Fighters. The tip of the spear. You can be the center of the mission, or just support. Sometimes, you can be both. Bottom line, you are the warrior.
The flying is the best there is. When you strap on the multi-million dollar technological marvel and hurdle yourself through footless halls of air, you are at the top of the game.
The queep (paperwork and side duties) is not as much fun, but all in the part of learning, and part of the game. The days are long, but if you like work hard/play hard, have a competitive spirit, and are good at what you do, fighters are for you!
Concur with Bolter and will add some more thoughts.
Best: The flying itself is intrinsically motivating. It's always challenging...you never "master" it so you'll never get bored. The culture of a fighter squadron is something you will always want to be part of, and something you will always miss--it's amazing.
Worst: Hmmm. I can't think of anything that I really disliked doing. Bolter mentioned the queep and long days...let me expand. Queep (non-tactical admin stuff) is the least "fun" part of the job...but you're going to have the administrivia in any AF job. At least when you're doing queep in a fighter squadron you can usually see how it relates to something cool: building a schedule so that 80% of the mission flown the next week are against Dissimilar aircraft...fighting Hornets, Tomkittens or Vipers, giving ejection seat and life support training to the rest of the squadron and visitors who are going to get rides in the back seat, preparing a briefing on the gun to share with the squadron at the friday tactics talk over beer...none of these are as fun as flying, but they contribute to the mission and so you still take pride in it.
12-hour days--clarification and myth busting. If you're clock watching, you'll notice that you definitely do your share of these. But again, I have with almost every job I've had in the AF. The difference is this: the 12 hour day in a fighter squadron seems to fly by and you realize you have to get out of the squadron to have your 12 hours of crew rest for tomorrow's flight. The 12 hours usually includes your workout (you gotta stay fit to pull those g's...it's your job:-), and the 12 hours sometimes includes drinking beer in the bar with your best friends talking about how to do your job better. If you have a family issue, school play, medical appointment for a child, ect...you get the time off you need. You're not tied to the squadron holding down mandatory duty hours...you're a professional...get your work done and take care of your personal business as needed.
Deployments: The beautiful thing about fighters is that you typically have very predictable deployments, although they do vary by airframe. If we've already gained Air Superiority, then the F-15Cs/F-22s won't deploy much. You'll get to go tdy to Tyndall, shoot some live missiles, fight the Navy, go out to Nellis for a Red or Green flag for a couple weeks of outstanding flying...sometimes it's more laid back supporting the weapons school by flying red air. This is a good time to take your spouse with you and catch some shows on the strip. You may go tdy to Canada for a Maple Flag or to Alaska for an exercise--it's all good! The only "deployments" you don't look forward to are to the desert, but because you know exactly when you're going, that's the perfect time for your spouse and kids to visit grandparents and friends. A buddy of mine who flew the KC-10 before he got to convert to the F-15C (this is when everyone flew the T-38 at UPT and this was possible) definitely preferred the predictable deployment schedule of the F-15C. In the KC-10 he'd get no-noticed tagged to support some humanitarian effort and be gone for 90 days (this happened to him while he was airborne on a training mission and his wife had to pack a bag and have it sent to him)...very disruptive for his family.
Hope this sheds a little more light on some of the myths you hear about how bad it is to be a fighter pilot.
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