Prowlers & P-3's hurting for hours?

[nfo2b]

My advisor here at the unit (ex- -14 RIO) just told me, in the course of a conversation on community desires, that the Prowler and Orion communities are hurting for flight hours right now. He even went so far as to tell me that a few of the Prowler squadrons are averaging about 5 hours per NFO per month. Now I wanna fly just as much as anyone here, so can someone please give me the real skinny on how flight hours are going in these communities? I'm not in flight school yet, but I'm already looking at putting in for either P-3 or EA-6B (tied for first on my desire list, with 2-seat -18's being a distant second, and E-6's/E-2C's not even on my radar--nothing against those 2 communities, especially since I understand that they get loads of hours in the air, but that's just not what I'm personally interested in at the moment).

 

[Brett327]

My advisor here at the unit (ex- -14 RIO) just told me, in the course of a conversation on community desires, that the Prowler and Orion communities are hurting for flight hours right now. He even went so far as to tell me that a few of the Prowler squadrons are averaging about 5 hours per NFO per month. Now I wanna fly just as much as anyone here, so can someone please give me the real skinny on how flight hours are going in these communities? I'm not in flight school yet, but I'm already looking at putting in for either P-3 or EA-6B (tied for first on my desire list, with 2-seat -18's being a distant second, and E-6's/E-2C's not even on my radar--nothing against those 2 communities, especially since I understand that they get loads of hours in the air, but that's just not what I'm personally interested in at the moment).

Of course, every deployment is different and you could have the guys in Baghram getting flight hour waivers every month (from flting too much), or guys stuck on a boat that isn't participating in any real operational stuff getting very few hours. Bottom line, in the aggregate, Prowlers are flying a higher than average number of flight hours. being a high demand/low density platform might have something to do with that. When I was in a fleet squadron a year ago, I was averaging between 20-30 hours per month while not deployed, and got ~ 850 Prowler hours in my three year sea tour. Whatever you heard about Prowlers is BS.

Brett

 

[USN99]

Throttle back, shipmate

... I'm not in flight school yet, but ...

Don't make any career moves based on what any given fuel/flight hour budget looks like for any given community in any given budget year. The budget types at DoD and Navy are mindful of aircraft service lives, operational mission requirements, as well as requisite flight hour minimums to maintain operational "readiness" and flight safety. The sea stories you pick up at your Unit are interesting but don't do any trend analysis on them, shipmate.

Brett 327 has summarized the possible explanations very well.

My advice to you is:
- get into flight school;
- don't make any decisions on type aircraft until they require you to put your preferences in writing;
- keep an open mind; and
- do what you want.

 

[phrogpilot73]

My personal opinion is this - Don't choose your platform based on how cool it is, how much per diem you get, how much flight time that you get, whether you get to shoot $hit, etc...

Choose your platform based on the personalities of the officers you've encountered in the training pipeline. Why? Because these are the people that make up your ready room, and you will spend ALOT of time with in the next 4 years. If you don't like them in the training command, chances are you won't like them in the fleet. You will love whatever you fly guaranteed, but if you pick the wrong platform, you might hate the guys in your ready room, and therefore you will be miserable in the squadron.

Just my $.02...

 

[nfo2b]

Sage advice, sirs, thanks.
However, this wasn't a post intended to pose any question pertaining to "should I choose this community or that one?" I've heard several times here that a future (as yet unwinged) aviator shouldn't choose his/her community until later in the pipeline, and that's advice I will certainly heed. I was just wondering if what my advisor said was true. As of right now, I have a very clear, but cautiously tentative, idea of what communities I'm interested in, based on my current knowledge, and I was just seeking to confirm/repudiate the info I heard.
Thanks for the replies though. I believe my question has been answered. Well, except for the P-3's...webmaster?

 

[Flash]

P-3's are hurting for flight hours this year, but that could change drastically next year. Prowler hours dipped a bit for a lot of guys last year because they shoved as many planes as possible into the rewinging/PDM line in Jacksonville as possible. I know, I flew two of them down there. They front loaded the line to have more Prowlers in the near future, so flight hours will rise again (if they have not already). The same thing with P-3's. The flight hours are down right now but once they get a bunch through the PDM line that will change. Choosing a platform on what the flight hour average is right now is shortsighted. Of course, your F-14 RIO instructor might just be bitter that his plane is going away..... :icon_smil

 

[Gatordev]

@UI:

While that's true, if someone wants to go jets, and they ignore those that poopoo jets (beyond the normal fun) in Primary, then they can get a feel for it when they're in Advanced, both FO or SNA. Or is advanced not that varied either? I'm guessing there's a cross-section there...well, as much as there could be given the number of Bugs and Super Bugs in the Navy now.

 

[Machine]

To speak to the P-3 hours...A message just came out that identified some aircraft that could fly longer each month starting Sept. 1st.

But here's the real skinny...You're going to fly a lot on deployment, and not so much not on deployment. So when you're not on deployment, you should be in a spot you enjoy. Who wants to work when there's white sandy beaches to be had down the road?

 

[ip568]

There are several things going on here. Older airframes are falling apart from a combination of overwork and too few maintenance $$. The P-3 fleet has dropped drastically from 288 airplanes two years ago to about 149 now, and of that 149, over 50 are laid up for maintenance. That leaves about four airplanes flyable per squadron (we had ten per squadron in my day). And this will just get worse, IMHO. The P-8 is supposed to come on line in 2012-2014, and they are officially quoting 108 P-8s (already down from 155 a year ago), to be augmented by the BAMS UAV (originally 50 to be built but now the entire program in doubt). My personal estimate is that only 50 or so P-8s will be built, leaving just four active VP squadrons, plus VP-30. Most VP flying now is on deployment. I don't know a crew average per month. We did 100+ hours a month on cruise; about 40/month back home.

That said, don't base your choice of community on how many hours you'll get. Pick a community that fits you and get the grades to make it happen. Good luck.

 

[A4sForever]

Pipelines and platforms??? Which is better? Where should I go? Still the age-old questions .....

There's no such thing as a "bad" aircraft or a "bad" Ready -Room. The people make the Ready Room what it is or isn't and people make the airplanes fly and fly well or not so well. You are gonna get good people and you will get dirt-bags in any Ready Room, any squadron, any community. The question is not what THEY are ... it's what are YOU ???

Get the best grades that you can and hope that when your number comes up and UNCLE is looking to fill seats you have a choice of aircraft ..... it's never been any different. And always carry a good supply of limes so as not to lose perspective .... :icon_rast

Bottom line: Are we the way we are because we're AVIATORS .... or are we AVIATORS because of the way we are .... ??? Think about it.

 

[USN99]

Both ip568 and A4s speaketh much truth and wisdom. Read and Heed.