Forum: Air Force Life

Hey ya all.

I was wonder how fighter jocks handle night ops.

Do they get enough time for personal stuff [Link pending approval] family, recreation. What routine do they follow? It's really intriguing for me and I wonder if any one out there could shed some light on it.

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raider wrote:

.....and I wonder if any one out there could shed some light on it.

That would help.

regards, OL

It can't be any worse on your life than night maintenance. Your family and personal life suffers, especially if you are working five 8 (12) hour night shifts rather than four 10 (12) hour shifts. I'm sure the pilots have issues with the flying part of it. Maybe not so much with the addition of night vis.

Take a closer look to the pods, raider!

12 hour shifts, dude you must have been getting cutbacks! *L* What i find funny is that when i was on F-4s we had a higher FMC rate and worked less hours then the Kids crewing F-16s!! a much much much easyer aircraft to maintain. yeah night shift sucks, however dayshift is for the whimps who cant handel the night.

Raider, your question applies not only to the fighter guys, but all aircrew members. We get 12 hours of crew rest before a scheduled alert time, followed by one hour til show. Those 12 hours are yours to do with as you please, but it is understood that you need at least 8 hours of uninterruped sleep (yeah, like that always happens). So, that leaves you 4 hours to handle your personal stuff, grab a meal, etc.

We don't always fly at night either...and unfortunately, these days, we don't fly nearly as much as one would think. I generally know when I'm on the schedule at least a week in advance, so that gives me until my crew rest time to do whatever I want.

Crew rest? what’s that??? yeah I always found that funny they give weapons folks and Pilots "Crew rest" but the rest of the Maintainers are flogged tell the jobs get done! I remember a few years back when it wasn’t uncommon to work 14-15 hour shifts!!! It used to tick me off that on “Fist Fridays” we would see the “Zipper suite” Guys & Gals partying it up, drinking beers on their patio while the maintainers would be working their @$$’s off on the flight line.

The longest duty day I've run into while flying was 24 hrs. +45 minutes. We had finished offloading at the deployed location, and were walking away from the jet as we ran out of duty day. Granted, there were 4 pilots, and 2 Loads, so you can swap off as needed, but it's still a tough day, especially when you're dealing with 4 stops in OIF, or 2 stops in OEF.

I do recall Pops coming in many a time from 12 hour shifts on the flight line, that turned into 16, or 18...Those definitely suck, especially when the same F-4 keeps breaking, due to "Phantom Mysteries".

We wear reflective belts... Devil

Yes, if we don't wear our disco belts at night, we disappear. Laughing

*L* Disco belts rock!! *L* yep roll into the "Club" sporting disco belts and ear pulgs at 4 AM.. wohooo...

Forum: Air Force Life

How do you handle night ops?