"Food for Thought of Fighter Pilot Hopefuls (FPHs) By Chris Dickens

I read the thread below and I found it disturbing that there are some people who would consider quitting or not doing UPT if they could not get a fighter slot. First, think real hard about this one: upon graduation, despite what you fly, you will be a member of one of the best aviation organizations in the world. Just the fact that you wear wings will mean that you are among the worlds top pilots.

I have flown (or flown in) a number of aircraft. I have been (obviously) in UH-1 Hueys, along with UH-60 Black Hawks, OH-58 Kiowas, Bell 206s, Boeing KC-135s, Beech C-12s, C-21s, various light airplanes and have flown in small biz-jets. I would like to fly any of them. Like one poster said, there are benefits to flying each.

I think Randy stated somewhere in his journal that people don't understand what it's like to BE a pilot, but concentrate instead on the ideal of what they perceive being a pilot is about. I'm sorry, no slight to anyone here, but flying in Cessnas no matter how many hours you have can't prepare you for what it is like flying military aircraft. The military demands that you know certain things above and beyond civilian pilots, and there are many operational considerations way outside what private (or even commercial) pilots have to deal with. The idea you may hold in your head of what a fighter pilot does may be very different that what reality happens to be.

I call it "Top Gun-itis". That is, many guys and gals are lured by the idea of flying "fast" and wearing a cool leather jacket, but in reality, the jacket (while it is cool) is a tiny part of it, and flying Mach 1 at FL350 isn't what it seems. I can tell you know that flying 150 knots 5 feet over trees will give you a better sensation of speed, but hey, helo flying isn't well advertised.

I am here at Maxwell completing the IFT program, and you know what? I am having a BLAST flying T-41As that can't muster better than 110 MPH on a GOOD day. But I have 3 roommates here, and all three want to fly F-16s. All 3 of us are going to Laughlin for class 01-12 in July, but I can BET you that not all 3 will get T-38s, or even F-16s for that matter.

It did sorta piss me off when one of them said he would consider breaking a law to get out of the military if they gave him helicopters. I told him flying helicopters is fun (although career options aren't as broad as fixed-wing), and he responded "helicopters suck dick". The idiot hasn't even BEEN in a helicopter.

Let me continue my soapbox speech...consider that flying a C-5 is much better than flying a Cessna 152 as a CFI for the next 5 years of your life. Think about the fact that if you don't go AF, the most exciting aircraft you will fly will be perhaps a Brasilia flying short hops to Des Moines Iowa. You will be slapping yourself in the face because your friend (me) will perhaps be flying a C-17 into short strips in Africa, or maybe even enjoying a long RON (remain overnight) in Rome after flying my C-130 from Turkey.

I could be getting a type rating in DC-10s (KC-10s) flying fighter-drags over the Pacific while you try to bid at a Regional just to upgrade to captain in a Jetstream 31 flying 19 smiling (complaining) passengers into some crappy midwestern town.

Or, heaven help me, I could be flying a rescue mission in the mountains trying to save some sorry F-15E (sorry Randy) pilot's ass in my HH-60 or MH-53 while you are shooting the "exciting" ILS into Houston as a 727 FO.

I apologize if I offended anyone, but I only see the airlines as a place to go once you get your 20 and get out. At that point, I'll have had my fun (probably still having it in the ANG), and then I'll just be working on a second retirement making $150,000 a year to put my kids through school.

In any event, not getting fighters isn't the end of the world. Flying a DC-3 laden with tanks of armpit sweat is better than sitting behind a desk wishing you were flying...trust me...I was there only a few years ago.

Every aircraft in the military inventory has a good side. You will only realize that with experience. Sure, try hard for your fighter, but realize that the other aircraft have equally great opportunities as well.

Animal--- Flying helicopters is great! I like them better than Fixed-wing, but hey, if I gotta do flight school over again, I'm going to do something different for once.

Chris Dickens (yes, I am a 2d Lt now).

Response from Randy Haskin: A-f*#king-men, Chris! I'll reiterate what I've tried to tell a lot of folks on this board: there's no way that you can KNOW you want to fly a fighter until you have some experience and make an educated decision. No amount of flying light civil aircraft or simulators can tell you if you like it or not. It's fine to have a dream, but let's not be ridiculous. Read this next sentence twice:

If you don't *love flying* enough that you will like flying a heavy just as much as a fighter, then you should NOT be a military pilot and I don't want to be wasting tax dollars on your training. Questions?

The other thing everyone needs to think about is that you don't KNOW you want to fly a fighter. You *think* that you do right now, but you don't know enough to bet your flying career on it. You wouldn't believe the number of people who start UPT saying, "I want to fly a fighter," then by the time Track select comes around, they're no longer interested. I've got a friend who I've known for a long time who always said, "I want to fly an F-16, man...it's F-16 or nothin'" then when track select time came, he took the T-1 because he didn’t like the fighter-type flying he’d done in Tweets (formation, low levels). Another guy I went to Field Training with was a 300 hour commercial pilot who was a self-professed future F-15 pilot. He SIEd from Tweets because he couldn't handle flying formation...it scared the hell out of him.

Nobody knows if they're going to like tactical aviation until they've done it (or at least something like it). Getting some backseat flights or some sim time may wet your appetite for flying a fighter, but until YOU'VE actually done it and had some experience doing it (by this I mean *at least* flying formation and low levels in Tweets), you really can't say if you like it or not.

Being a 100-hour private pilot and growing up with a father and brother who were both pilots in no way prepared me for what it was going to be like to fly a fighter. In fact, if you read my journals from around track select time, you'll see that I didn't even know what was best until about a month from graduating Tweets. I'll echo what Duke said -- about 3/4 of my class said they wanted to fly fighters on the first day. By the time track select came, that was down to about 8 or 9 guys and only 6 got T-38s.

Here's an even better story: I've got three pilots in my FTU who are cross-training from other aircraft: one from a KC-135, one from an AC-130, and one from a B-1. The KC-135 pilot is *the* smartest and hardest working pilot I've ever met. He was really kicking ass at the beginning of the program when all we were doing is flying instruments. Now, he's having trouble and his quote to me was "I made a BIG mistake by leaving the tanker...I hate this." The other guys are not having a whole lot of fun either. This is WORK. It's not just flying around in a glitzy jet and shooting fake badguys down. I've never done anything more challenging in my life. F-15E FTU makes SUPT look like elementary school, complete with recess and all. There are nights that I sit at home with my head hanging low saying to myself "there's no way I can do this. I can't do it. It's too hard." The difference is that I LOVE TO FLY and I LOVE FLYING FIGHTERS. There's no motivater greater, so I stick my fangs out and go for it.

So, I'll step down from *my* soap container now. Sorry to go off like that, but it's disgusting to hear someone say "I want fighters or nothing." You sound like a buffoon. You can take that attitude and sell it to someone *else* who wants it...because the Air Force doesn't."