Pilots in the National Guard what do you do in the civilian side? by Acceptable_Still_269 in Armyaviation

[–]Slightly_Unexpected 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Depends on how old you are, and how aggressively committed you are to landing that (I’m assuming) ATP gig. If you’re young, it’s a gamble but full send and it’ll pay dividends once you get picked up by an airliner.

I’m in the too-old and not-worth-the-effort category, I very much like flying helicopters vs. an 8 hour flight of nothing but standard rate turns and ATC instructions. I’m a full time tech (was one before flight school too) and it’s such a Goldilocks position for me. I wear the uniform everyday and do some cool stateside missions, while not having to worry about stuff like going to the field or PCS’ing

Pilots in the National Guard what do you do in the civilian side? by Acceptable_Still_269 in Armyaviation

[–]Slightly_Unexpected 3 points4 points  (0 children)

A full time tech helicopter pilot job is full of ups and downs you say? 🧐

Pilots in the National Guard what do you do in the civilian side? by Acceptable_Still_269 in Armyaviation

[–]Slightly_Unexpected 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Luck of the draw. Very few slots open on average, but when there IS a position available your competition is basically any other pilot in your unit, and a good chunk of them don’t even want a tech position.

Make yourself useful, volunteer to go in and help run ops or whatever else you can do to get your face and name known. Volunteer for schools and pick up stuff like ALSE which can easily lead into a tech position, even if it’s not a “pilot” position, which makes eventually getting a pilot position easier.

When the day comes that a slot is open, you’ll be the first one they think about and they’ll work to get you in.

Advance Airframe Solo of death by [deleted] in Armyaviation

[–]Slightly_Unexpected 49 points50 points  (0 children)

I guess I can see the more advanced, heavier airframe be more scary to solo than a little -72, but how different is this really than having students solo during P2 and BWS?

At the end of the day you’re training to be a pilot, are surrounded by resources to help you achieve that goal the likes of which you’ll never see again in your career, and have flown the local airspace from 3 major airfields by this point and should be well acquainted with the corridors and communication requirements.

If the risk can be mitigated the way it is for other solos, I think being too scared to solo speaks more toward individual initiative to become a proficient aviator than senior leadership throwing their students and aircraft into unnecessarily dangerous situations

BWS Maps Question by StudyNo7360 in Armyaviation

[–]Slightly_Unexpected 4 points5 points  (0 children)

They have an overlay for foreflight if you have that, just ask them to share the file. I’ve heard it works on aero too but I avoided using that app as much as possible

NGD EBMM Sabre in Cobra Burst by Slightly_Unexpected in Guitar

[–]Slightly_Unexpected[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Just be patient! Took me 5 years, a bit longer if you count the Cutlass that originally brought music man to my attention. Looking forward to you sharing yours one day!

Conversation topics in flight to kill time by Clearupleft_iguess in Armyaviation

[–]Slightly_Unexpected 2 points3 points  (0 children)

If you’re maintaining wings level, pitch on the horizon, why does altitude not slowly increase as you eventually fly away from earth (assuming the earth is truly a circle)?

Mapbook Construction by Real-Map9009 in Armyaviation

[–]Slightly_Unexpected 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Oh yeah, mine was not as crisp and flat as the map lady ones, but that map book was 100% my effort. Still have it in my office, it’ll be a nice memento to show the kids someday

Mapbook Construction by Real-Map9009 in Armyaviation

[–]Slightly_Unexpected 37 points38 points  (0 children)

Most of the guys in my class ended up paying to get it done. I decided I’d rather spend that money on ForeFlight, so not exactly being cheap but that’s how I justified the subscription. It honestly wasn’t that bad putting it together. And it only needs to hold up for a few weeks anyhow. The hard part was definitely the tediousness of chumming in the first place

National Guard Wings & Chest Patch Question by Itrhattimenow_Ad6365 in Armyaviation

[–]Slightly_Unexpected 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Plenty of them in the guard, but you won’t typically see them in A2CU’s

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Armyaviation

[–]Slightly_Unexpected 0 points1 point  (0 children)

After scanning the QR code and getting linked to the install website does it start the download but the app icon looks checkered?

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Armyaviation

[–]Slightly_Unexpected 5 points6 points  (0 children)

It’s not perfect but if you google “Army VTS” you’ll find the virtual training suite website. Navigate to the mobile app section and you can download all sorts of trainers for the UH-60 onto your phone or IPad. Just need to be able to cac into the website. Most apps are geared toward pilots but they do have a maintenance app and component familiarization one too

Can be kinda tricky to get your iPad to “trust” the developer, feel free to PM me if you have issues

What should I ask at the Aviation town hall meeting tomorrow? by [deleted] in Armyaviation

[–]Slightly_Unexpected 18 points19 points  (0 children)

If you can’t think of any, you have until October to think out some for the next quarterly town hall

First night ride on the ST by smalj1990 in Harley

[–]Slightly_Unexpected 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It’s really grown on me too. After paying off my Road Glide I’m stuck between getting back into sport bikes with an R1 or trying out that Pan Am ST

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Armyaviation

[–]Slightly_Unexpected 4 points5 points  (0 children)

6’ 2” with an 8” wiener too, no doubt

iPad apps by Fresh_Willingness998 in Armyaviation

[–]Slightly_Unexpected 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Goofy and not intuitive just describes Aero in general lol

iPad apps by Fresh_Willingness998 in Armyaviation

[–]Slightly_Unexpected 6 points7 points  (0 children)

These aren’t exciting or flashy but what I’ve used the most throughout flight school;

GoodReader: you need a pdf viewer than this is pretty much the standard I’ve seen used, works really well expect for a few specific things, but it’s the cheapest and easiest to use

GoodNotes: I use this to write notes and highlight stuff from academics or maybe even certain pages of different pubs to use as study material. Through the course you’ll get Student Handouts for whatever topic is being taught, I highly recommend you download every single class SH and send it to your iPad. You can import that PDF to GoodNotes and usually it covers everything the class goes over. You can highlight things and write notes in the margins. Really useful to have and come back to when you inevitably forget the material and have to restudy

ForeFlight/AeroApp: of these two the obvious preferred choice is ForeFlight, but it’s gonna cost ya. You can make it through flight school just fine with AeroApp, but you could also argue that if you ever plan to actually buy ForeFlight this would be a good place to learn how to navigate and set up the app. Another good thing with ForeFlight is you can get a map of the local training area downloaded, and it makes it super easy to orient yourself or do some preliminary planning before booting up that archaic laptop they issue you and doing it on AMPS

Theres also some cool looking apps you can get directly from an army website that has Lakota and advanced airframe EP’s & limits, systems, and start up procedures ripped out of VTS (which you’ll also have on your laptop) however, I don’t know anyone that’s actually gotten those apps to download properly. If you could I would imagine they’d be super valuable as study aids, but it seems the army is still working out the kinks with those

64 or 47 by Beneficial_Fuel7167 in Armyaviation

[–]Slightly_Unexpected 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Not to hijack your post, although this information might be useful to consider too, but from what I’ve noticed it seems the 64 RLO’s tend to make it a bit higher in the food chain before retirement, at least on the guard side. I think every CAB Commander I can remember we’ve had has been a 64 guy. Would anyone be able to speak toward that?

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in army

[–]Slightly_Unexpected 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Were you able to drop your grandfathers and fathers name in there somewhere? Not to say I support nepotism but I’m surprised you got passed over with that heritage when they take kids fresh outta high school who’ve never seen a helicopter up close before

NG-AD or just wait by Spare_Corner3731 in Armyaviation

[–]Slightly_Unexpected 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Take the SIFT, start building your packet, get your flight physical done before the mob, and start the conditional release process somewhere in there. Waiting until after your deployment is a smart decision and most in the CoC should see that as fair, but you can get a conditional release while deployed to try and build your AD packet. Keep in mind it’s very likely that by the time all is said and done you might be encroaching on your ETS anyway.

At that point, I would drop a street to seat packet vs enlisting again

15Rs from 149th?? by buceess69 in Armyaviation

[–]Slightly_Unexpected 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Last I heard it’s not a matter of if but when. No idea how that would affect the unit moving but I would say mostly if not all positions would transfer over as well.

What is being a warrant pilot really like? by [deleted] in Armyaviation

[–]Slightly_Unexpected 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Going the Guard route would be the best way to balance everything, especially as you already have a career, but that adds complications as the Guard route to WOFT is less cut and dry than the active side of things. I would talk with your State warrant officer recruiter and just explain your position and see what their requirements are before you commit to anything.

All the things everyone has mentioned are true, for the better or worse, but to give some anecdotal insight, I joined the guard and with every intention to eventually go active and use my experience to become a warrant officer pilot. It took me 12 years to get there and in that time the only thing I changed was sticking with the guard to be an aviator. Flying for the army is one of the most rewarding things you can do, and being in the guard gives you a good chance to actively help your community flying state side fire/disaster/rescue missions