Posted: 11/23/2025 9:55:43 PM EDT
| Flying with another pilot opens you up to new experiences. And keeps you learning every flight. Did some stuff today that I wouldn't have done solo and it made me better. If you are new or seasoned, the co pilot seat should never be empty. |
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You could generalize your statement to "getting a variety of experience is more educational than narrowly scoped experience". When you work in a two-pilot environment (most military aircraft are two pilot aircraft) flying a single pilot aircraft is similarly educational. When you've only flown slow aircraft flying fast aircraft is educational. When you've only operated on improved runways then off-airport landings are educational. When you've only landed your helicopter on solid ground then landing on roofs, dollies, or moving vehicles is educational. |
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Originally Posted By Morgan321: You could generalize your statement to "getting a variety of experience is more educational than narrowly scoped experience". When you work in a two-pilot environment (most military aircraft are two pilot aircraft) flying a single pilot aircraft is similarly educational. When you've only flown slow aircraft flying fast aircraft is educational. When you've only operated on improved runways then off-airport landings are educational. When you've only landed your helicopter on solid ground then landing on roofs, dollies, or moving vehicles is educational. Likewise, if you've never flown in controlled airspace or have limited experience, doing so is highly educational. |
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Originally Posted By hihobrian: Flying with another pilot opens you up to new experiences. And keeps you learning every flight. Did some stuff today that I wouldn't have done solo and it made me better. If you are new or seasoned, the co pilot seat should never be empty. |
ARFCOM GD hates everything so don't freak out if you catch grief for what you like. Unless you like AKs, then GFY.
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Originally Posted By RattleCanAR: Army aviation doesn’t marry crews together for this reason. You’ll go on an exercise or deployment and commanders will simply color code people based on hours. under 500 is red, 500-1000 is yellow, and 1k and up is green or something like that. Then they make arbitrary rules like a red must fly with a green, two yellows can fly if they are both PCs, there has to be more than 1500 hours between both pilots, or other silly and arbitrary rules. Note that “commander decides crews based on their skill and the mission” is not mentioned because that’s not what happens in the big army. |
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Originally Posted By Morgan321: Lol. The army is notorious for marrying crews since we invaded iraq. You’ll go on an exercise or deployment and commanders will simply color code people based on hours. under 500 is red, 500-1000 is yellow, and 1k and up is green or something like that. Then they make arbitrary rules like a red must fly with a green, two yellows can fly if they are both PCs, there has to be more than 1500 hours between both pilots, or other silly and arbitrary rules. Note that “commander decides crews based on their skill and the mission” is not mentioned because that’s not what happens in the big army. My son is an Army aviator. He specifically told me, he is not married as a crew and flies with different pilots just about every sortie. In some missions they may develop a crew but not as a daily basis in DUSTOFF. Based on your numbers he is a red and he is an O not a WO. |
ARFCOM GD hates everything so don't freak out if you catch grief for what you like. Unless you like AKs, then GFY.
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Originally Posted By hihobrian: Flying with another pilot opens you up to new experiences. And keeps you learning every flight. Did some stuff today that I wouldn't have done solo and it made me better. If you are new or seasoned, the co pilot seat should never be empty. Pick one new airport a month and fly to it. That will have a massive impact on both your skill and comfort levels. |
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Originally Posted By esa17: Pick one new airport a month and fly to it. That will have a massive impact on both your skill and comfort levels. I did this with the goal of flying to every public use airport in Florida. Took a couple of years, but I did it and even added a few private fields as well. |
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Originally Posted By RattleCanAR: My son is an Army aviator. He specifically told me, he is not married as a crew and flies with different pilots just about every sortie. In some missions they may develop a crew but not as a daily basis in DUSTOFF. Based on your numbers he is a red and he is an O not a WO. It kinda depends on the situation. In Afghanistan, we paired our DUSTOFF crews due to the nature of the schedule and the fact that we only had one extra pilot. In Iraq in a fixed wing unit, I was the Ops officer, and I made the schedule. I had to balance my crews based on experience. My boss expected this of me. The Army risk assessment matrix that is part of every flight has always taken experience/flight hours into account. |
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Originally Posted By TimeOnTarget: It kinda depends on the situation. In Afghanistan, we paired our DUSTOFF crews due to the nature of the schedule and the fact that we only had one extra pilot. In Iraq in a fixed wing unit, I was the Ops officer, and I made the schedule. I had to balance my crews based on experience. My boss expected this of me. The Army risk assessment matrix that is part of every flight has always taken experience/flight hours into account. He starts sitting alert at Graf next week. I believe he said they married crews for that. For daily training sorties he said they vary the teams. I think before he left he flew a few times where they even swapped them around during stops. They had to get in a lot of hoist time for everyone including the medics and crew chiefs. He said his ass was sore after those few days from all the hovering they did. |
ARFCOM GD hates everything so don't freak out if you catch grief for what you like. Unless you like AKs, then GFY.
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Originally Posted By RattleCanAR: I believe he said they married crews for that. Medevac company manning is two pilots per aircraft plus the commander and xo. When you deploy and every chopper has to be working there are no extra pilots. Every team goes somewhere on their own and often send out single aircraft from there. If your kid is a MS aviator he is presumably a team leader and should know this despite being a LT. I left flight school and went to a medevac in Germany…. We went one aircraft/crew to Africa for many weeks at a time. Then promptly deployed for a year and I lived in a Blackhawk with my BFF stick buddy, a medic, and a crew chief for the first 3 months because we were homeless and always moving. |
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Originally Posted By Morgan321: like I said, when you deploy for real or for exercises there are no extra pilots to send so you can swap people around all the time. Garrison with 120 helicopters in a single location with all the support and extra people is not how the army actually works when it’s time to do actual work. Medevac company manning is two pilots per aircraft plus the commander and xo. When you deploy and every chopper has to be working there are no extra pilots. Every team goes somewhere on their own and often send out single aircraft from there. If your kid is a MS aviator he is presumably a team leader and should know this despite being a LT. I left flight school and went to a medevac in Germany…. We went one aircraft/crew to Africa for many weeks at a time. Then promptly deployed for a year and I lived in a Blackhawk with my BFF stick buddy, a medic, and a crew chief for the first 3 months because we were homeless and always moving. This is his first deployment. At his home station things were different as you mentioned. He's moving forward to sit alert for the first time. I will learn more when I talk to him later in the week. |
ARFCOM GD hates everything so don't freak out if you catch grief for what you like. Unless you like AKs, then GFY.
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Originally Posted By RattleCanAR: He's moving forward to sit alert for the first time. I will learn more when I talk to him later in the week. 20 years ago we did one crew each to grafenwohr and hohoenfels medevac for 2-4 weeks at a time 365 days per year. 24x7 duty so you can’t drink or go anywhere, just lots of movies to watch and weights to lift. The junior guy will beg the PC to do training flights to get some hours. As to the no extra pilots…. One time when I was a budding young wo1 the PC I was with at grafenwohr fell off the roof and broke his leg late at night(long story!). All shooting at grafenwohr stops when medevac is down so it was a quiet night until a chopper showed up the next morning with another pilot. |
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Originally Posted By Morgan321: You could generalize your statement to "getting a variety of experience is more educational than narrowly scoped experience". I always think in terms of Bob Hoover's "airmanship bucket". The depth of the bucket is how deep your experience is in a certain aircraft or certain type of flying. The width of the bucket is how many different aircraft or types of flying you've experienced. The object of every pilot is to make that bucket as deep and as wide as possible, so as you have a lot to reach into when new situations/experiences appear. |