Doctors in the Navy?

[mumiitroll]

I would like to know about Navy Flight Surgeons and Diving Medical Officers. I don't know if you know about the latter, so i'll just ask the questions about the former:
The third phase of instruction is a ten-week flight indoctrination syllabus with Training Air Wing FIVE at Naval Air Station Whiting Field, Milton, Florida. Training is conducted in the fixed-wing Beechcraft T-34C (Turbo Mentor) and the Bell TH-57 (Jet Ranger) helicopter. The primary goal of flight training is to expose the student flight surgeon to the hazards and stressors of flight from the perspective of the aircrewman. Each phase of the flight surgeon's training satisfies a need for knowledge and experience which assures his or her credibility in the line aviation community. It provides the background necessary to provide essential aeromedical insight into aviation safety and to establish good rapport with squadron personnel, thereby, increasing the effectiveness of the flight surgeon in his or her assignment. "
1) is there any way for the student to get to fly a helicopter or a Beechcraft? Or he can only fly in the role of a passenger? Would it help if he had a private pilot license(obviously he wouldn't know how to fly a helicopter, but he'd still want to try).
2) once you become FS and are assigned to a fighter squadron, do pilots let FS fly a plane? That is let him take the wheel in a 2seated plane?
3) can FS get a lot of flight time as passengers if they so wish? would they get more time in the air in cargo planes?
4) what about deployments?
5) what is your relationship with your unit's FS and please state what kind of unit it is?
Thanks!

 

[feddoc]

I would like to know about Navy Flight Surgeons and Diving Medical Officers. I don't know if you know about the latter, so i'll just ask the questions about the former:
The third phase of instruction is a ten-week flight indoctrination syllabus with Training Air Wing FIVE at Naval Air Station Whiting Field, Milton, Florida. Training is conducted in the fixed-wing Beechcraft T-34C (Turbo Mentor) and the Bell TH-57 (Jet Ranger) helicopter. The primary goal of flight training is to expose the student flight surgeon to the hazards and stressors of flight from the perspective of the aircrewman. Each phase of the flight surgeon's training satisfies a need for knowledge and experience which assures his or her credibility in the line aviation community. It provides the background necessary to provide essential aeromedical insight into aviation safety and to establish good rapport with squadron personnel, thereby, increasing the effectiveness of the flight surgeon in his or her assignment. "
1) is there any way for the student to get to fly a helicopter or a Beechcraft? Or he can only fly in the role of a passenger? Would it help if he had a private pilot license(obviously he wouldn't know how to fly a helicopter, but he'd still want to try).
2) once you become FS and are assigned to a fighter squadron, do pilots let FS fly a plane? That is let him take the wheel in a 2seated plane?
3) can FS get a lot of flight time as passengers if they so wish? would they get more time in the air in cargo planes?
4) what about deployments?
5) what is your relationship with your unit's FS and please state what kind of unit it is?
Thanks!

1. Yes, Yes and Yes. You will fly during basic flight school. You may even solo.
2. Most pilots will let the FS take the stick; at the pilot's discretion.
3. Yes. Maybe, but probably only as selected passenger.
4. Yes
5. We get along fine.

Why not ask a question about DMOs?

 

[mumiitroll]

Cool! About DMO:
1) do dmo in eod units get to learn how to disarm a bomb? If not, do they get to do anything cool at all, something that a civilian couldnt do?
thanks!

 

[feddoc]

I have a couple of reserve EOD guys who dive for me; they told me that they have never seen a DMO disarm anything. However, there are a couple of guys on here with EOD experience; I have none. Perhaps they have seen something different.

 

[chrispaul]

My experience is in a P-3 squadron (a land-based, not carrier based aircraft). Our Flight Surgeon deployed with us and got as much flight time (passenger/observer) as they wanted. Occasionally, they might get some "stick time" at the pilot's discretion.

P-3 squadrons typically deploy to a region of the world as a main basing point (ie Mediterranean, Japan, Indian Ocean) and from there operate smaller "detachments" in the region. The FS ran his own clinic (facilities, corpsmen, etc) at the main basing point, and usually flew out to the detachments once in a while to see how things were going.

As I said, our FS's got as much flight time as they wanted. We had one FS who loved flying and came along whenever he could. Whenever we went to another Navy base that had other aircraft types (for example, North Island in San Diego), he'd come along and head to the local squadrons, find their flight surgeon to buddy up with and try to weasel a ride in their aircraft! He got time in jets, helos, etc. He said his goal was to get a ride in every aircraft the Navy had.

At the other extreme was his replacement FS in our squardon. He didn't come around the squadron much and mostly stuck to his clinic.

My point is that it's what you make of it.

 

[gregsivers]

The Flight Surgeon in my squadron, HSL-40, was a pilot before he went to med school. He had something like 2000 H-3 hours before he trasitioned to FS, so I'm sure he gets to fly now when he's got the time.

 

[Brett327]

The Flight Surgeon in my squadron, HSL-40, was a pilot before he went to med school. He had something like 2000 H-3 hours before he trasitioned to FS, so I'm sure he gets to fly now when he's got the time.

A flight surgeon in HSL-44 (about a year before my time there in the 90s) was getting "stick time" in a 60B when he decided to see how fast he could move the collective towards the deck resulting in a "hard landing" that was really more like a class B which had to be taken away on a flatbed - nice work, doc. With the S-3 now on it's way out and the end of dual controlled A/C in the TACAIR community, the FS isn't going to be getting any stick time. In my Prowler squadron, our FS flew maybe 2-3 times per quarter and never in an operational mission.

Brett

 

[ChunksJR]

I'm sure he gets to fly now when he's got the time.

More likely when the squadron has the fiscal funds/time for HIM...

 

[A4sForever]

Our Doc's never WANTED to fly ... ... they were too busy administering penicillin shots or recovering from a hangover ....

 

[mumiitroll]

Thanks for the replies! No more questions!

 

[Flash]

The Flight Surgeon in my squadron, HSL-40, was a pilot before he went to med school. He had something like 2000 H-3 hours before he trasitioned to FS, so I'm sure he gets to fly now when he's got the time.

There was a Flight Surgeon in Prowlers who was also a pilot who went through flight school after applying for some long forgotten program that lets FS's go through flight school. I think he flew in Brett's squadron, they didn't seem to know what to do with him though....

He was an okay guy, did a couple bounce flights in the back of the Prowler with him in the RAG. Always wanted to tell me how good or bad the pilot was doing while I was more concerned with finding a radio station.....

 

[S.O.B.]

I think their supposed to get 48 hours a year to keep flight pay.

 

[MasterBates]

Our doc does not even fit in the helo well.

Think the TERMINATOR. Used to be a TW-5 doc.

Yeah, doc gets his 48/year, but barely. He used to be an F-14 RIO, so he is not in that much of a rush to go fly the 60B.

 

[Brett327]

There was a Flight Surgeon in Prowlers who was also a pilot who went through flight school after applying for some long forgotten program that lets FS's go through flight school. I think he flew in Brett's squadron, they didn't seem to know what to do with him though....

He was an okay guy, did a couple bounce flights in the back of the Prowler with him in the RAG. Always wanted to tell me how good or bad the pilot was doing while I was more concerned with finding a radio station.....

This guy was also a T-45 SERGRAD IP and was actually a pretty good stick and good guy to hang with. He was detailed to our squadron as a pilot and we had another FS, but it was nice to have another doc around. He always had a kind of chip on his shoulder though because they never let him take a Prowler to the boat, and I (as you may imagine) was always there to remind him that he wasn't a real pilot, but "only" a flight doc on parole from the hospital. I think he's still at the RAG, so he gets to fly once in a while. There are other dual designator guys out there as well. The guy that did my last physical at NASNI was a dual designator S-3 pilot/FS.

Brett

 

[mumiitroll]

oh god, i just read this here:
http://www.nomi.med.navy.mil/NAMI/Academics/flightsurgereq.htm that you need to have normal depth perception, and i am pretty sure i do not! it never affects me in real life, but my ophalmologist confirmed that i see with 1 eye. could you get a waiver for that, or it's out of the question, and i should go for dmo?
Also for those FS people who get into the program to be dual-designated by going through flight school, how much additional service time do they accrue?
thanks!