Air Force complains of lack of quality drone pilots...

[Streck-Fu]

Who can blame people passing flight school for actually wanting to, I don't know, FLY!

LINK

The Air Force recently acknowledged that due to a “stigma” surrounding its drone program, many pilots at the controls of the deadly weapons are “less skilled” and officers overseeing them are “less competent” than their manned aircraft brethren, as alleged by the Government Accountability Office.

“Let’s be honest, when people dream about flying… People in this generation didn’t grow up and say, ‘I want to fly an RPA [remotely piloted aircraft],’” Air Force spokesperson Jennifer Cassidy told ABC News last week. “They were the ones that watched re-runs of ‘Top Gun’ and said, ‘I want to be a fighter pilot.’… So in fact the people that were lower ranking [in flight school], I guess you could say, are the folks that went to RPAs. It doesn’t mean they were bad pilots, or bad officers, it just meant you got to have some at the top and some at the bottom. That’s how that worked.”

[cbtengr]

Perhaps when it comes down to being put out via RIF or flying drones more folks will step up to the plate.

[mark46th]

I wonder what the age minimum is for being a drone pilot? My 2 and 4 year old grandaughters can use an iPad and iPhone better than most adults...

[Red Flag 1]

Originally Posted by cbtengr

Perhaps when it comes down to being put out via RIF or flying drones more folks will step up to the plate.

Not if you want to fly for a civilian airline. All that counts there is cockpit time. My thought would be to use pilots that have been grounded for medical reasons. Things like hypertension, diabeties, or vertigo; unless they mean a dq at that station as well.

[MtnGoat]

Army and Air Force have been in a pissing contest over who will pilot a UAV. Even a predator. Army has many UAVs and UASs, and who polite ours and who theirs?

http://www.goarmy.com/careers-and-jo...-operator.html

You thought rank wars were bad, guess again. Yet remember, Air Force UAV pilots got their award.

[cbtengr]

Originally Posted by Red Flag 1

Not if you want to fly for a civilian airline. All that counts there is cockpit time. My thought would be to use pilots that have been grounded for medical reasons. Things like hypertension, diabeties, or vertigo; unless they mean a dq at that station as well.

I readily agree with your comments and like your idea of using grounded pilots as drone pilots. I thought awhile back that I had read about there being a shortage of commercial pilots on the horizon. In doing an internet search I find that to be a mixed bag, some say yes some say no. There are going to be some hard choices that will have to be made in the not so distant future as far as being able to stay in the military. The outside is not looking very rosy right now.

[Kasik]

A strange job where you pilot a drone from someplace like New Mexico and, after nuking a target, go home for lunch with the wife then back to work by 1300

[BMT (RIP)]

If your real good knock off a "NOONER"!!!

BMT

[Peregrino]

Originally Posted by Kasik

A strange job where you pilot a drone from someplace like New Mexico and, after nuking a target, go home for lunch with the wife then back to work by 1300

Yeah - and there are already PTSD claims because the duty is so "stressful".

[Streck-Fu]

Originally Posted by Peregrino

Yeah - and there are already PTSD claims because the duty is so "stressful".

Because no one deployed would want the opportunity to go home to the wife and kids after a day outside the wire.....

Should that be in pink?