Would RV pilots make good fighter pilot recruits?
 

I got to watching the following video on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ij1qWr99qLE

and got to wondering: what if there were no age restrictions on who the Air Force and Navy hired to be fighter pilots - would our RV crowd be a good source of recruits?

Consider:

1) Many are engineers
2) Lots of maturity and good flying judgement
3) Lots of flying experience - many are commercial and airline pilots, some are instructors
4) Patriotism built right in - look at all the red, white and blue RVs out there
5) By nature intrigued by airplane construction
6) all end up being test pilots of a sort
7) many are skilled at aerobatics and formation flight

I mean, who would you want flying for our country? Tom Cruise with 300-400 flight hours or one of the old geezers with 15,000?

???

NO
 

Errr.I don't think so.
I guess that the Walter Mitty in us says "Yes" but the reality of the situation is a lot different. I've seen it in Ag flying. When a guy passes forty or so, the chance of him becoming a successful ag pilot are slim. A man in his 20's has a fire in his belly that starts turning into more of a hot coals scenario later. Their eyesight, coordination and bravado take them there. A very small percentage of the original recruits ever make it into the F-15's and the like. Most end up as either tanker drivers or something similar.

Regards,

YES!!
I built my -9 light, so mount a gun under each wing, a bomb on the belly, and point me towards the enemy lines. Let's git er done!

Maybe
 

At 41, I'd imagine I would be like Cougar in Top Gun - looking at the picture of my wife realizing I'd lost my 'edge'.

There are days, however, I'd say 'Yes' <g>.

b,dr

Fun fantasy. :D

Unfortunately, the reality is that the most experienced "recruit" in my class was a CFII with thousands of hours in instruction and freight dogging. He was the bottom half of the class in T-37s and washed out of T-38s. Experience in one world means next to nothing in the other - and that goes both ways. I wouldn't fly in a 60HP T-Craft with the top student in my class.

There go I, but for the myopia..... You military folks enjoy your fortune. If I were there, I'd be on your tail.

Too bad PRK didn't come along 20 yrs ago.

Edge?
 

So what is "edge"?

(BTW, no, I don't think *I* am fighter pilot material. I wish I were an A-10 pilot, but I am really just asking the question for fun.)

But what is edge? The willingness to take dangerous risks someone older than 25 wouldn't take?

Yes, Pierre but how many 40+ people wake up one morning and say, "Gee, I am going to try and be an Ag pilot!" ?

Several
 

Hi John,
Several that I know of. The first one had just retired from the Army at 40 and we sold him an airplane....a Cessna Agtruck. One week later he put it on it's back landing on his short home-based strip. We had advised him to learn the airplane at the nearby paved airport with long runways......but Nooooo :eek:

You can lead a horse to drink but you can't make him water...or something like that :D

Bys,

But why did he wash out? Lack of skill or unable to accept instruction or something else?

--John Babrick