Stupid questions about Naval Aviation (Pt 2)

[Flugelman]

Do they at least try and hook you up with the plane with your name on it? Seems kinda dumb to have names on the birds if you don't get 'yours' kinda often. Thats like using someone else's coffee mug!

'Splain that to the Maintenance Chief... But wait 'til I get there to watch...

 

[A4sForever]

You can paint it however you want?

Uhhhh ... no.

You can paint it however you want ... as long your "wants" are the same as the Air Wing/Squadron "wants" ...

 

[A4sForever]

Do they at least try and hook you up with the plane with your name on it? Seems kinda dumb to have names on the birds if you don't get 'yours' kinda often. Thats like using someone else's coffee mug!

Nope, you don't get hooked up ... unless mebbe it's on a fly-off ... and then just "maybe" ... but for everyday ops it would be a logistical nightmare to try and match pilots/NFO's with a specific bird w/ their name on it. Just not reasonable nor possible ... unless you do the names with Velcro strips.

It's not "dumb" when you consider the names start w/ aircraft 00 (double nuts) for the squadron CO and proceeds south in order of seniority (discounting CAG). Multi-crew aircraft have the pilots' names on the pilots' side and the NFOs' names on their respective side in general ... personally, I'll fly anyone's bird any day, any way to get the mission, the time, and the trap.

Example: this bird sports the name of a gent who probably is the 5th senior LT B/N in an A-6 squadron ... plus, he likes to read in flight.

 

[a_m]

Every good NFO probably has a version of that picture.

 

[A4sForever]

Every good NFO probably has a version of that picture.

I stuck my tennis racquet up there once on a shot to the beach ... I was later told "not to do it again" as it was bad for morale. :sleep_125

 

[a_m]

I stuck my tennis racquet up there once on a shot to the beach ... I was later told "not to do it again" as it was bad for morale. :sleep_125

Now THAT is awesome.

 

[ea6bflyr]

I always thought about placing a re-produced LARGE "Handicapped" sign on the dash when parking near the island....but I never got around to it.

-ea6bflyr

 

[stalk]

Do they at least try and hook you up with the plane with your name on it? Seems kinda dumb to have names on the birds if you don't get 'yours' kinda often. Thats like using someone else's coffee mug!

Legitimate question if not familiar with the way things work. I used to have to explain this to my Dad (about 20 times) since he was a Korean War Vintage Vet.

Ok Nugget here it is. There are more pilots than airplanes in a squadron. As an example, Hornet squadron used to deploy with 12 airplanes (only 4-8 when back at the beach). There were normally 16 pilots in a squadron. 2+ planes down for Mx and 1-2 more stuffed in the hangar bay. This isn't WWII where one plane and one pilot took off and 4-6 hours came back and they were done for the day. The planes keep flying on cyclic ops. Logistically there is no way that each pilot can have his own plane (though I think heyjoe had enough pull to get away with his on flyoffs :icon_wink)

I understand that the name on the airplane thing alludes to each pilot having their own plane but if you look at the right side of the single seaters you'll see a different name than the left especially on the high # planes like 310, 311, and 312.

In my squadron we had 16 pilots and 4 ground pounders and 12 hornets. The 00 bird had CAG on the left and DCAG on the right. CO/XO was their name only and all the rest (in seniority order had one officer on the left and another on the right.

It was great for sending pictures home but drove our Corrosion Control MX guys nuts. They finally bought a computer stencil machine for the names.

 

[MasterBates]

Never have had my name on the side of a bird. When you deploy with 2 birds, and 6 pilots or 1 bird and 5 pilots, and are the junior pilot both times, you just don't get it. Good for sending pics home, but that's about it.

 

[HeloBubba]

When you deploy with....1 bird and 5 pilots,

East Coast LAMPS Mk III single-ship Dets deployed with 5 pilots? How many AW's? LAMPS Mk I single-ship Dets were standardized at 4 pilots, 2 AW's. They would sometimes bump it to 3 AW's if we had extra. But I never saw more than 4 pilots.

 

[LazersGoPEWPEW]

Uhhhh ... no.

You can paint it however you want ... as long your "wants" are the same as the Air Wing/Squadron "wants" ...

Good to know. There was a bit of skepticism in that comment.

 

[MasterBates]

Helo Bubba:

This was the manning when I left
1 plane det:
5 pilots
2 AWs
~15 mechanics

2 plane det:
6 pilots
3 AWs
~18 mechanics

I saw a couple 6 pilot one plane dets, but that was usually on a "good deal" cruise such as BALTOPS.

 

[Gatordev]

Helo Bubba:

This was the manning when I left
1 plane det:
5 pilots
2 AWs
~15 mechanics

2 plane det:
6 pilots
3 AWs
~18 mechanics

I saw a couple 6 pilot one plane dets, but that was usually on a "good deal" cruise such as BALTOPS.

And I think part of what MB was seeing was the hours draw down. My first deployment was one plane, 4 pilots, 2 AWs. Pretty normal for a one plane det. Second deployment was 2 planes, 6 pilots, 3 AWs. Again, normal. When I left (2005) they were sending a 2 plane det with 7 pilots just to get exposure to the nuggests since there weren't a lot of cruises to go around.

 

[Uncle Fester]

The usual ratio I've seen - at least in tailhook squadrons - is 1.5 crew-to-plane. e.g., we had four planes, 18 FOs and 12 pilots. The Bug squadrons had 12 planes and 18 pilots. And so on.

So since there's more planes than aircrew, squadrons set their own policy on how and when you get your name on a plane. We didn't get our names on a plane until we qual'ed as CAPC/CICO, pilots under the cockpit windows and FOs on the fuselage just forward of the prop-arc-warning stripe. The Corrosion divvo kept a list by seniority, so when one guy left the squadron, the next one on the list took his place.

They tried to implement that "your name on it, you do dailies" idea. Didn't really take.

 

[HeloBubba]

MB, gator,

Thanks for bringing this dinosaur up-to-speed. I can understand the correllation between less cruises equals more pilots per cruise, but what was your OpTempo underway? We flew 10 hours per day, 5 hours in the morning (7:30 - 12:30) and 5 hours in the evening (17:30 - 22:30). We typically didn't fly on Sundays. Phases took 3 days tops. Mix in the odd maintenance and weather issues and we cranked over 600 hours in the 6 months we were on WestPac.

BTW, I am so glad I didn't participate in a 2 plane deployment. Space was a premium as it was. And we took only 8 mechanics and a Chief.