Question for Senior / Master observers:
How many of you had 100 hours flying time before you got to 3 years?
I've been an observer for about 5 years and I am at about 85 hrs right now. Senior observer seems to be fairly rare to see, and i do not recall ever having seen a master observer.
Quote from: cnitas on October 03, 2018, 06:02:06 PM
I've been an observer for about 5 years and I am at about 85 hrs right now. Senior observer seems to be fairly rare to see, and i do not recall ever having seen a master observer.
I think it's more a combo of people not knowing about the additional ratings or not caring.
Pilots log their time as a matter of course, I don't know too many other aircrew, including myself, who
care enough about it to bother.
Took me just under 4 years to reach 100 hours for senior and I should knock out the last 12 I need for master around the 5.5 year mark.
Its never occurred to me to keep a log of the times I've been a MS, MO, AP, or MP, as aircrew. Since you are given one of those when entered into a Sortie seat, wouldn't that be tabulated in WMIRS somewhere? Can a report be pulled that shows how much of each "job" a person has?
Quote from: etodd on October 03, 2018, 10:24:07 PM
Its never occurred to me to keep a log of the times I've been a MS, MO, AP, or MP, as aircrew. Since you are given one of those when entered into a Sortie seat, wouldn't that be tabulated in WMIRS somewhere? Can a report be pulled that shows how much of each "job" a person has?
The report in WMIRS is easy to get to, all it doesn't do is give you is a total. It does let you export the entire report to a spreadsheet and calculate it that way.
Quote from: cnitas on October 03, 2018, 06:02:06 PM
I've been an observer for about 5 years and I am at about 85 hrs right now. Senior observer seems to be fairly rare to see, and i do not recall ever having seen a master observer.
I have never seen a senior observer either, and the two master observers in my squadron got those ratings decades ago.
Quote from: Eclipse on October 03, 2018, 06:09:42 PM
Quote from: cnitas on October 03, 2018, 06:02:06 PM
I've been an observer for about 5 years and I am at about 85 hrs right now. Senior observer seems to be fairly rare to see, and i do not recall ever having seen a master observer.
I think it's more a combo of people not knowing about the additional ratings or not caring.
Pilots log their time as a matter of course, I don't know too many other aircrew, including myself, who care enough about it to bother.
Which, following the intense arguments I see about the uniforms themselves, Is nothing short of Bizarre.
It took me 5.25 years to get to Senior Observer, then it took an additional 2 years to hit Master Observer.
CD and Disaster Assessment in CAWG really helped accelerate things from Senior to Master.
Quote from: Bayareaflyer 44 on October 03, 2018, 11:10:54 PM
It took me 5.25 years to get to Senior Observer, then it took an additional 2 years to hit Master Observer.
CD and Disaster Assessment in CAWG really helped accelerate things from Senior to Master.
Honestly I never gave this a lot of thought until I started doing CD missions. I was only getting at most 3 hours out of an entire weekend Sarex and senior observer wings were just not something I was going to have anytime soon.
Then I went from 25 to 81 hours in the space of two months, and its pretty much given I'll pass 100 this weekend.
(pre-) Congratulations!
Quote from: Bayareaflyer 44 on October 03, 2018, 11:48:52 PM
(pre-) Congratulations!
Hit 100.3 hours coming home today.
After seeing how many CD crews are two pilots instead of a pilot and pure observer, and that such crews trade places after every sortie, I am convinced at least some of the pilots in my squadron are also senior observers, they just don't care (because they are pilots).
Quote from: Dwight Dutton on October 08, 2018, 12:01:26 AM
After seeing how many CD crews are two pilots instead of a pilot and pure observer, and that such crews trade places after every sortie, I am convinced at least some of the pilots in my squadron are also senior observers, they just don't care (because they are pilots).
Correct. Some of us see ourselves as co-pilots when right seat.
Might be doing CAP duties of Observer, but in our minds, we're still a pilot. ;D
Meh. Some, but not all. I keep two log books. I'm proud of my piloting as well as my observing. Two different animals during a search, and I appreciate both seats. Takes a lot to keep the dirty side down, but it also takes just as much to provide reasonable and lucid command of the search to meet the specified goals. Get a capable individual in either seat, and their weight is in (aviation) gold!
My hats off to all that keep the mission objective in mind, and achieved!