Nothing Replaces the Air Under Your Seat

As a part of the DoW 2027 $1.5T (Yes, Trillion) budget request, the Air Force is looking to increase its flying hour program to its highest levels in 4 years.

Why is this significant? Well, this is a monumental shift from previous guidance on how much Air Force pilots should be flying each year in order to maintain proficiency. The Air Force flying hour program has been steadily declining for years, decreasing the amount of overall time in the jet and finding unique, and sometimes useless, ways to try and replace flight time with simulators or virtual reality.

The average inexperienced fighter pilot is only flying around 150 hours a year with the average experienced fighter pilot even less! (Think about those numbers if you are a BogiDoper looking to become both a fighter pilot and an airline pilot later in life!). It is extremely difficult to maintain proficiency in a fighter, or any aircraft for the matter, flying only 12 hours a month.

The Air Force has tried to augment this lack of overall flight time with simulators successfully but at what cost? Has overall pilot proficiency been at a steady decline along with the flying hour program?

I can tell you as an F-35 guy, the simulators are great (Insert Shameless Lockheed Plug). But even the best simulators in the Air Force cannot replace, or replicate perfectly, the air under your seat. Pilots need to fly to be proficient. It is one of the key advantages we have over our adversary’s. Practice makes perfect.

Perhaps the Air Force is finally realizing the same.

Happy Mother’s Day!

https://www.airandspaceforces.com/air-force-request-flying-hours-2027/