OK465
I realise this thread is straying into the ‘not enough hours’ territory but your previous post shows an entirely different perspective.
It is no coincidence that fatigue has long been recognised as a threat in itself and 80 hour months (I’m guessing the Tweet wasn’t a particularly high G aircraft and I’m also assuming your totals include a fair amount of taxy time but that’s a different argument) sound horrific. Obviously simulators weren’t a realistic option back then.
I’ve done a few 30’s and a 40 hour month and I felt ball-bagged at the end of them (mostly high G sorties in the training world).
So, as with everything I’d say there’s a happy medium. I think it’s plain to see that the dearth of hours nowadays is not a good thing. But 20-30 airborne hours per month with a sim as back up would make for FJ ninjas in the modern world.
The problem, as I see it, is VSOs looking at the world through the prism of how it was for them when they were junior pilots. 2-3 tours as a JP before any responsibilities and 300+ hours per year as standard (or so the stories have us believe on here).
If we were to have a bean counter (or any non aircrew individual) as CAS I can only imagine it would get a lot worse.
Flying is expensive. Even drones need fuel. Aircraft crashes often cost significantly more though.
BV
(In reflective mood).