Originally Posted by
Training Risky
Not trying to be obstinate over this just to troll. I have a serious point to make. I have been on both sides of this particular fence.
I take issue with your point above about pilots being employed primarily as weapons system operators as opposed to needing ‘hands-on’ poling skills. Although I didn’t qualify as CR (that’s another thread entirely!) I did a lot of low level flying, trooping and IFR on Chinooks. I won’t bore you with the details but it takes tolerance to fatigue, sweat, vibration, spatial awareness and G to do it; not to mention CRM, leadership in the air and a hard-to-define notion of having ‘skin in the game’.
My ground tours involved targeteering and approving PW4 from Reaper in a CAOC, and Stormshadow on GR4 from the UK. Not going to say too much more on that, but I never thought for a minute that I was ‘flying’ my bomb as it hit the target. And nobody I worked with who didn’t wear wings claimed that they were doing the same job and taking the same risks as the tonka crews.
Just my view is all. (Ditto the AF Board. Self-selecting, self-serving management-speak gurus the lot of them).
I may not have explained things well, apologies.
I am not saying for a second that pilots just operate systems, quite the opposite in fact as that is what Easyjet guys do. My point was that it is mission management, working as a crew and understanding the big picture that is the hard bit. Flying a circuit, understanding rules of the air, RT, nav are taught as part of the PPL syllabus. Operating a low level, whilst not a civilian skill is not overly difficult with a bit of practice.
Regarding spatial awareness, you have shown a real lack of understanding of the nuances of RPAS with your comments, as do a lot of others. It is way easier to look out a window, have your crewman tell you or ATC give you a steer when trying to work out where you are or what threats are abound. Try doing that in a CAS stack with a 2D TV screen, no ATC, a foreign JTAC, 500' separation, one frequency and 20+ assets. The assets are all trying to chat whilst your working hard to stay within a tiny piece of airspace, typing in mIRC to get a clearance, you mIRC drops out (again!) whilst trying to engage a moving target in a piece of airspace you are not yet cleared in... Yes, some of those problems are not unique to RPAS but are made WAY more difficult. SA is something that is really easy to lose and something that all crews work hard at not losing. Oh and it's worth remembering, there is no wingman to offload things to when you lose capacity and no nav aids (not equipped), no TCAS (not equipped), no A-A radar (not equipped), no 2nd/backup radio (not equipped), no A-A TACAN (not equipped).....
CRM - Try operating with a crew of 500! Joking, kind of. It's a very different kind of CRM to tell a Wg Cdr Red Card Holder that their interpretation of the situation is frankly, insane. Or tell an American JTAC as politely as you can, go f*ck yourself as we are not bombing the school bus regardless of what his ROE is. How about foreign ATC who have just cleared you through the SID of an international airport whilst clearing a 747 to do the same as "you will see it on TCAS". How about negotiating why your unmanned aircraft is now flying itself home and cant be steered to avoid the new traffic he has given you avoiding action for. How about the brand new LEGAD that is 'concerned' that your interpretation of CDE is wrong, despite the fact you had the same argument with the previous five LEGADs, and were correct.... The list goes on and on and on. Oh and as you have a radio, mIRC, several phones, an intercom to the DA, IntO and Ops so they can ALL chime in.... Often all at the same time! It is THE most unique CRM situation of any platform.
Skin in the game - Thats relative, it is difficult to perceive a scenario on the Chinook fleet where you could inadvertently kill innocents in glorious technicolour with 500 witnesses for the War Crime tribunal!
Regarding fatigue, constant night flying whilst trying to maintain a family life, working most weekends and 100% Op flying for 3 yrs more than takes it's toll, and then some.
StormShadow or PW4 planning is clearly not flying any bomb. Much the same as when you plan a GR4 sortie, the same happens for RPAS, you have had no part in the actual 'dropping' you merely did CDE planning or programmed a bomb.
Worryingly, PW4 is not cleared on RPAS, see my paragraph LEGADs
I will reiterate, if you are able, go for a visit to Waddo and see for yourself the nuances, rather than preconceived ideas. This is why senior leaders make questionable decisions as they dont understand even the basics of the platform. Hopefully AOC 1 will change that. It is NOT an easy airframe to operate, it's very cerebral with some very unique 'isms'.
I understand there are those that want to rubbish the airframe, but please do that from a position of understanding, not opinion based on preconceived notions or biases.