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Enthusiast Joined: Feb 02, 2008 Posts: 82 Status: Offline

Do you know if there are any differences in the paycheck of a driver flying e.g. a viper vs the same rank "flying" a UAV?

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Forum Veteran Joined: Dec 14, 2006 Posts: 505

I seriously doubt that a UAV pilot would get flight pay for time on UAVs. Wink

I bet he would; ain't no way in hell pilots are going to give up flight pay.

It cracks me up to think they need a "rated officer" to fly these UAVs when just about anybody with any simulator time at all can do it.

Forum Veteran Joined: Dec 14, 2006 Posts: 505

SixerViper wrote:

I bet he would; ain't no way in hell pilots are going to give up flight pay.

It cracks me up to think they need a "rated officer" to fly these UAVs when just about anybody with any simulator time at all can do it.

Don’t you think you’ve basically contradicted yourself. I don’t think the military would spend money giving most UAV pilots flight pay.

I suspect most UAV pilots have no fighter experience and have no or very limited full scale flight time. I suspect most of the UAV pilots are RC modeler aficionados/gamers and that’s suspect most of them have very little if any experience on full scale aircraft. (therefore I doubt that most of them qualify for flight pay)

There are fighter and heavy pilots that often sacrifice full scale pilot assignment because they have no choice to sacrifice their flight pay and assignment because of medical issues or other personal issues; in that case they often try to find an assignment that they are capable of that they can apply some of their skills and interests to. Being reassigned to UAVs is a remote possibility, however I suspect the brass prefers to keep those positions filled by a lower pay grade.

Newbie Joined: Nov 22, 2005 Posts: 13 Status: Offline

AFTS Crash- I was just about to rip into you until I decided to read some of your other posts and realized you're quite the agitator. Cool

Anyway, to answer the question at hand I am an F-16 driver who is unfortunately flying UAVs for now. Yes we get flight pay and all the other pay is exactly the same except now we get an extra 300 bucks for having to put up with a sh*tty assignment at a sh*tty base.

Forum Veteran Joined: Dec 14, 2006 Posts: 505

mach2 wrote:

AFTS Crash- I was just about to rip into you until I decided to read some of your other posts and realized you're quite the agitator. Cool

Anyway, to answer the question at hand I am an F-16 driver who is unfortunately flying UAVs for now. Yes we get flight pay and all the other pay is exactly the same except now we get an extra 300 bucks for having to put up with a sh*tty assignment at a sh*tty base.

To the best of my knowledge most of the UAV pilots I have met so far have been enlisted personnel and not rated full scale pilots. The few officers that I have known to fly UAVs were on the larger sometimes armed more expensive UAVs.

You say you get flight pay for flying UAVs? Are you sure that’s not the exception, instead of the rule? I find it quite strange that he UAV pilot would get more pay than a fighter pilot. Not that the military always make sense.

Elite 1K Joined: May 26, 2005 Posts: 1152

Quote:

You say you get flight pay for flying UAVs? Are you sure that’s not the exception, instead of the rule?

Yessssss. Because YOU'D know more than a USAF officer WHO IS FLYING UAVs. Rolling Eyes

mach2: Thanks for the straightforward answer. Condolences on your R/C assignment. Very Happy

Enthusiast Joined: May 14, 2007 Posts: 44 Status: Offline

While it is true that most computer geeks can fly a UAV, that is not why the military has rated officer pilots assigned to those positions.

Most "flying" of today's modern UAVs consists of sitting in front of a monitor and "pointing and clicking" a mouse. Most high school graduates can learn to fly a Predator from point A to point B using this technique.

The reason that the military wants former fighter pilots in those jobs is to make life and death decisions. That requires a knowledge and understanding of ROE, a knowledge of fighter and bomber employment tactics, the ability to work with other services and troops from other nations, and the proven ability to make critical decisions with potentially major political implications.

You may recall the many "friendly fire" incidents in which our own guys were killed. Remember the international firestorm when our A-10 drivers blew up some British APCs? The national command authorities and the local combatant commanders would rather delegate the life and death decisions to someone that has "been there before", rather than "just about anybody with any simulator time at all".

Enthusiast Joined: Jun 03, 2006 Posts: 54 Status: Offline

Meteor is correct, I currently work on the GlobalHawk Sad

and we have both enlisted and pilot alike working to fly it, (and I dont mean maintainers) but it is an actual pilot sitting behind the mouse clicking "taxi" and the like. Although enlisted will sit in on the op to eval stuff like the systems or photos. We even have a pilot come do a walk around prior to launch, and its just as funny on "real aircraft" to hear some of the questions, even though I do understand that they are used to other jets, just as I am.

And while I dispise mach2 for his extra $300 a month for just the shitty base assignment, I'm at Beale and other then Creech I cant imagine it being worse then here. But most are used to it so we cant complain, there are shops that get paid more for the kind of work they do, even as a Crew Chief I deal with these systems more then a backshop ever would, yet they get the extra pay just cuz of the fact that THAT is their job.

Elite 1K Joined: Apr 26, 2004 Posts: 1215 Status: Offline

What they do lose is combat pay......Other than that they are rated pilots.

Purple

Elite 2K Joined: Jan 14, 2004 Posts: 2815 Status: Offline

Ok, I'll have to help clear up some misconceptions here:

1) UAV pilots are exactly that, PILOTS, e.g. rated officers, if you will. Enlisted serve as "Sensor Operators".

2) UAV pilots are operating an airborne weapon system. Therefore, they receive flight pay, and they still meet their flight pay gates, like any other aircrew member.

3) When UAV pilots deploy to OIF or OEF bases (and it does happen), they do get tax free, hostile fire pay, etc.

There has been talk, however, of opening up UAVs to non-rated officers, and even enlisted. Theoretically, this would free up the rated officers to return to the cockpit.

This is truly scary.

To Mach2 my condolences also.

Would this now make you Mach .2?

Is this one of these deals where if you're good at it they need to keep you in it, but if you're not good at it, they won't let you out of it as punishment?

regards, OL

Forum Veteran Joined: Dec 14, 2006 Posts: 505

Guysmiley wrote:

Quote:

You say you get flight pay for flying UAVs? Are you sure that’s not the exception, instead of the rule?

Yessssss. Because YOU'D know more than a USAF officer WHO IS FLYING UAVs. Rolling Eyes

Lets just say I’m skeptical that all RQ-11 Raven UAV pilots get flight pay, and have to be all full scale rated combat pilots, and all are officers.

I am even more skeptical of the claims of Lt. Col Thomas E. Bearden PhD (retd.) { MS (nuclear engineering), BS (mathematics - minor electronic engineering)}. I think he is somewhat of a nut. I find some of his claims so outrageous that it’s entertaining.

Soviets Shot down the space shuttle Columbia and sank the USS thrasher with EM weapons. Rolling Eyes

Flight 800 was shot down with EM weapons.

He believes streptococcal infection is a symptom of electromagnetic radiation

Not that I’m saying anyone here is nut. I’m just saying I’m not going to go blind over some alleged credentials or ignore my skepticism and logic.

I had a few drinks with some individuals that were UAV pilot’s in my gist is that they were enlisted. They even joked about the trailer park being the UAV pilot’s quarters.

To Mach2 my condolences also but I can understand your point and the reasoning to have a tactically aware person in the loop.

In another thread an active discussion on the new uniforms is going on, in support of that discussion I offer the following flight suit option to the USAF design guru's:

.

Elite 2K Joined: Jan 14, 2004 Posts: 2815 Status: Offline

ATFS_Crash wrote:

Lets just say I’m skeptical that all RQ-11 Raven UAV pilots get flight pay, and have to be all full scale rated combat pilots, and all are officers.

You're talking about MUAVs. Not the same thing as a UAV/UCAV. RQ-11s are operated by the Army, and yes, those are enlisted personnel. MUAVs pretty much get a throwing start, like a paper airplane.

All UAVs operated by the USAF are, for now, operated by rated officers. There is supposed to be a group of non-rated officers who will start training in 2009, IIRC.

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