Minimum flying hours to keep current

[wotan]

Gents, Ladies


Im doing a little research on minimum acceptable flying hours per year for military pilots. Understand NATO have a 150 hr recommendation for Fast jet types to keep operationally current. Would appreciate any info for maritime / transport types and also rotary.


PM's very welcome.

[Courtney Mil]

Wotan, that is an excellent question. I'm not going to answer it - sorry. I was SO1 Training in 1Group/Air/Strike/etc and spent a long time reviewing that very subject. Sometimes my views on the subject didn't match funding/aircraft availability/strategic thinking/stuff I didn't understand/etc.

I'll tell you this. Pick whatever number you like, be it recommended by NATO or anyone else. There is no single figure. Examine the role, or roles, you want your pilot/crew to be proficient in (sorry for ending preposition) and then do a training analysis. Not a financial one, a real one. Then you shall have your answer.

There is no one-size-fits-all answer. Especially in this time of multi-role.

Maybe more to follow on the AD side - possibly the easiest aspect of it answer. Maybe.

[Wensleydale]

..and there is the difference between the minimum required for currency and what is required for competency. Flying the minimum for a month or so (so you are still allowed "solo") is one thing, but flying the minimum for a year or more really reduces effectiveness. My final (desk) job in the RAF required me to maintain "currency" but I would not have wanted to go to war again without a good refresher of intensive flying first.

[BBadanov]

Yes, no size fits all.


But I always believed 18hrs a month would be an absolute minimum to cover the (typically) three roles a unit might cover.


18 x 11 months = 200 hrs pa.


Of course back in the day, we could crack 300-350.

[John Farley]

In my view currency is not about hours. I believe it is about how you spend your time while airborne and the number of sorties flown.

I started on the first P1127 in 1964 and it was not until 1982 that I managed to get 50 hours in any year on jumpjets.

[Typhoon93]

Pilots aside, does each airframe need to be airborne for a set number of hours each year to ascertain serviceability in the event that the aircraft needs to be deployed?

[Courtney Mil]

Typhoon, no. Not really. Serviceability/availability/flying hours is a very different issue, although one that has a clear impact on the OP's question. Just watch this one and read the responses.

[Sun Who]

What Courtney said.

A better question is "What hours are necessary to remain competent? This is determined by what you need the crews to do and how good they need to be at it. The answer is frequently more expensive than budget holders are prepared to countenance.

Sun.

[wotan]

Thanks chaps, aside from fast jet any ideas on average hours flown on transport / nimrod (sadly gone now) / 146,125 for peacetime ops pre Herrick Iraq etc. looking to get a comparison to our small Western Europe based air corps!

Thanks

[Courtney Mil]

What is your interest in this, Wotan?

[Chris Kebab]

...sound like he's doing your old job mate!

[VinRouge]

Either that or a paper for sdsr 15...

[Two's in]

Don't forget that an aircraft type will usually have some type of 'Agreed Flying Rate" set during procurement upon which the training and maintenance plans will be based . Quite often the training branch will "adjust" the flying rate to meet a more immediate need (NVG as an example) only to find the aircraft and spares availability suddenly take a hit with the higher usage. Long-winded answer to say you can't just pluck a new flying rate out of thin air without considering the entire support strategy.

[Biggus]

As has already been said, currency/competency isn't just about hours flown, it's what you do with those hours.

As one example (probably not the best one I'm afraid), I seem to remember someone saying on pprune a few years ago that the average co-pilot on Tristars at that time had only ever really flown into about 4 different airfields, Brize, Akrotiri and a couple in the Middle East. They might have lots of hours, but very little variety within those hours - therefore, the experience they were gaining was limited.

[wotan]

Just really want wanted to compare what the norm was in other airforces. Our maritime guys are averaging about 250 a year which in my opinion is a little low. Rotary guys roughly the same.

Thanks for the info