Hours a year by service, airplane, and rank

[alphaone]

I was curious as to what the normal times for military pilot's are a year based on service, aircraft and rank. This would be for USAF, USN, USA, and the CG for active duty and reserve.
Just looking for rough estimates based on folks experience.

[ANG135drvr]

My buddy is a 1st LT in the NY guard flying C-130's and he got around 300 years last year. Of course thats Guard. I imagine my unit will be similar if I was a bum, but i'm not so who knows.

[MDPilot]

In 18.5 years flying (in a 20 year career) I accumulated about 5300 hrs, split between T-38, C-141 and T-39. What's that, about 300 hr/year, seems to be about the average for most over the long run.

I have a friend in the C-141 (now C-17) ANG unit I was working with, who flew 850 hr one year guard bumming, but you can't sustain that. Particularly after he got hired at FedEx.

[Velocipede]

I logged 5200 hours in 11 years and 6 months. USN.

[Hacker15e]

There are so many angles to your question that it would literally take everyone posting a spreadsheet of their hour and sortie count for every year they were on duty to answer your question.

You'd also have to take into consideration how flying hours have changed/grown in the post-9/11 world with NOBLE EAGLE CAPs going on for stateside ANG and AD units, as well as the significant increase in sorties to deployed units supporting the GWOT. Fighter guys who have deployed to Iraq post 2003 will have many more hours than people who flew the same jet and did not deploy because of the LONG sortie durations.

In the F-15E, I have averaged 132 sorties and 238 hours per year over about 5 years as a Captain and Major.

In the T-38, I averaged 192 sorties and 175 hours per year over about 3 years as a Captain.

Again, there are so many variations in these numbers that it's impossible to really draw any conclusions. There were non-flying TDYs to schools like SOS, there were groundings due to Hurricanes, I had one long-term DNIF, etc.

[alphaone]

Originally Posted by MDPilot

In 18.5 years flying (in a 20 year career) I accumulated about 5300 hrs, split between T-38, C-141 and T-39. What's that, about 300 hr/year, seems to be about the average for most over the long run.

I have a friend in the C-141 (now C-17) ANG unit I was working with, who flew 850 hr one year guard bumming, but you can't sustain that. Particularly after he got hired at FedEx.

During your career, how does it work when it is decided someone will no longer fly? For instance, did you want to continue flying?

[MDPilot]

Originally Posted by alphaone

During your career, how does it work when it is decided someone will no longer fly? For instance, did you want to continue flying?

Some people want to climb the "leadership ladder" to general officer, some don't. Those that do, slide off into staff jobs earlier and longer than others, and if things go well, still come back to fly as Sq commanders and Wing commanders and such. Those adamantly opposed (I just want to fly) usually get stifled so much that they get out at some point because either they didn't get promoted or they didn't want to accept an unwanted non-flying (or sometimes even another flying) position. The hard thing to do is to balance your desire to keep flying, with the "optimal" career path that will let you fly and still get promoted at a rate that will allow a full career (assuming that is what you want).

In my case, I took a staff job at the 12 yr point, just after being promoted to Major. When I first got there, my boss told me I'd "never fly again, you're a staff weenie now." Fortunately my job (HQ level rated (pilot)assignments) kept me in the loop on things going on in the personnel world, and when a "Return to Fly " board came up, I made sure I was available. Boom, back to the cockpit after 18 mo in time to meet the LtCol board.

Then at the 16 year point, I made the decision to take a "career ending" job as an advisor to an ANG unit, rather than follow the advice of a more senior officer to take a Pentagon job and "maybe" get promoted to Col in 5-6 years. I figured that, with luck, I could fly those last 4 years to 20 and then retire. Took another little run in with the personnel guys who really wanted me to go to another staff job at the 18 year point, but I successfully avoided that. When I retired at 20, it was either retire or go staff for good. Fortunately the airlines were hiring, Got hired by the first two I interviewed with, started with SuthernJets 3 weeks after I took off the AF uniform.

[Nihon_Ni]

6 months officer training: 0 (2ndLt)
3 yrs in flight school: 300 hrs (2nd-1stLt) T-34, T-2, T-47, TA-4
3.5 yrs in a squadron: 950 hrs (1stLt-Capt) EA-6B
10 months in career officer school: 0
4 yrs in a squadron: 750 hrs (Capt-Maj) EA-6B
6 yrs in two staff billets: 0 (Maj-LtCol)
Currently in my last 3 yr tour: At my current pace, I'll get about 1500 hrs in the UC-12 before I hang it up.

[Low_Level_Hell]

Flying AH-64s as a warrant officer for the Army. ~300/year garrison and ~1000/year deployed.

[Blackhawk]

Originally Posted by Low_Level_Hell

Flying AH-64s as a warrant officer for the Army. ~300/year garrison and ~1000/year deployed.

Pretty much what he wrote for all rotary wing airframes in the Army. Between 120-300/year in garrison, 700-1000/year deployed. 1000 hours in a one year deployment in an aircraft without A/C wearing chicken plate is ALOT. Commissioned and WO. WO will fly more, but the commissioned officers MUST fly as well. There just are not enough pilots for "staff weenies" anymore.
Figure 5 years in garrison at 200 hours/year; plus 2 years deployed at 800 hours/year, at least 2600 hours in a 7 year hitch. Plus flight school (another 150).