Moderators: richierich, ua900, PanAm_DC10, hOMSaR
Whats Going To Happen To The Boom Operator
we had a conference with the head of AirForce enlisted aircrew this week. he said that when the airforce gets its new tanker that it will be an automated system being monitored by one of the flight crew members and since it will more than likely be a 767 or something very much like it, it will only have a 2 man crew. he said that the airforce is still trying to reduce crew sizes so this is probably going to stay a 2 man crew. among the other things we discused.
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- Duce50Boom
- Posts: 723
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RE: Whats Going To Happen To The Boom Operator
at this point i think the air force is gonna go bankrupt trying to save money!
a 2 man crew may work fine for the airlines, but it just won't cut it in the military. it was hard enough for 5 people to control the situation when i had an F-15E refueling sortie in january or february. we had 15 mud hens come up on us in less than an hour.
we had an engineer writing tail numbers, and getting the right fuel distribution and offload, a co-rocket flying the jet, a boom doing the refueling and talking to the guys on the wings and in contact, and 2 pilots working the fighters clearances (and it was just a 2 or 300 mile hop for the fighters back into seymour from AR-636). it was still a goat-rope.
and now they think they can get away with having 2 people do all that? if that even works in peacetime, it sure as s**t won't work in war. and what about cargo flights? is the copilot gonna be qualified in all the cargo stuff too?
what's next? the c-5's new avionics upgrade is gonna make the flight engineer, navigator and loadmaster obsolete?
i gotta paraphrase 'apocalypse now' by saying that there are a bunch of 4 star clowns who are threatening to give the whole circus away.
a 2 man crew may work fine for the airlines, but it just won't cut it in the military. it was hard enough for 5 people to control the situation when i had an F-15E refueling sortie in january or february. we had 15 mud hens come up on us in less than an hour.
we had an engineer writing tail numbers, and getting the right fuel distribution and offload, a co-rocket flying the jet, a boom doing the refueling and talking to the guys on the wings and in contact, and 2 pilots working the fighters clearances (and it was just a 2 or 300 mile hop for the fighters back into seymour from AR-636). it was still a goat-rope.
and now they think they can get away with having 2 people do all that? if that even works in peacetime, it sure as s**t won't work in war. and what about cargo flights? is the copilot gonna be qualified in all the cargo stuff too?
what's next? the c-5's new avionics upgrade is gonna make the flight engineer, navigator and loadmaster obsolete?
i gotta paraphrase 'apocalypse now' by saying that there are a bunch of 4 star clowns who are threatening to give the whole circus away.
RE: Whats Going To Happen To The Boom Operator
Who needs a copilot anyway... With computerised cockpits one man can fly a big jet and in a few years a fully autonomous system can do the jobs of all crewmembers.
Robot tankers refueling robot fighters on their way to bomb a SAM site manned by computers.
Robot tankers refueling robot fighters on their way to bomb a SAM site manned by computers.
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- Guest
RE: Whats Going To Happen To The Boom Operator
This s**t is just too damn funny! The USAF will find out, sooner or later, that a two-man crew ain't always the answer for certain problems. I am very confident that the C-5 will never fly with less than a 6-man basic crew. As for the KC-10, the boomer doubles as a loadmaster. There is no way a glorified taxi driver (pilot) will be will to do that job!
RE: Whats Going To Happen To The Boom Operator
If we used the probe/drogue system, maybe nobody would be needed in the back to run the boom. I was in a RAF L-1011 tanker about 2 weeks ago, and they used a camera to give the FE some idea of what was going on back there. However with the boom system, which I don't see going away, I don't think tossing the boomer is a very good idea. Where do these people come from that come up with these crazy concepts? Maybe one of our maintenance brains got fired, and got a new job in the aircrew world.
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- Guest
RE: Whats Going To Happen To The Boom Operator
I can't forsee that happening at all. I think the enlisted force will most likely shoot that idea down. Sounds like they want to do away with more and more enlisted jobs. Mike had a good point too....so the Taxi Drivers are going to do all this stuff themselves? Right! Ever seen a pilot with dirty gloves?
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- Guest
RE: Whats Going To Happen To The Boom Operator
Ever seen a pilot with dirty gloves?
LOL!!!
Only once while I was flying, and he was an ex-enlisted troop!
LOL!!!
Only once while I was flying, and he was an ex-enlisted troop!
RE: Whats Going To Happen To The Boom Operator
Is it time the the "Brass" tried a 'Back to the floor' exercise, were they actually fly on missions and see the workload/problems first hand. If they did that then maybe, just maybe, they would realise that saving money can cost lives. It is my opinion that losing just one life to save a million £'s ($'s, DM, Kroner etc) just aint worth it.