|
USAF drone pilots in mass burn out, robo-flights canceled
 The US Air Force has reduced the number of drones it keeps in the air because their stressed-out pilots are quitting in large numbers.Ummm... Really? Those who've met me in person have commented on my handsome set of antennae, which pop right up at the scent of bullshit. (And also Brut by Faberge, but that's another story.) In February, the Air Force said it was planning to increase the number of daily drone flights over the Middle East and Asia to 65 a day, possibly rising to 70 a day dependent on need. But Colonel James Cluff, the commander of the Air Force's 432nd Wing, told The New York Times ...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... on Wednesday that this would be cut to 60 because of remote-controller burnout.  Allow me to express my strong sense of disbelief. If there are cutbacks it's not because of pilot "burnout," unless they've been recruiting extraordinarily large numbers of pilots for their political opinions and/or skin color and/or sexual preferences. I suppose that's possible. Even then there are administrative actions that could be taken: shorten shifts, shorten tour lengths, pull pilots from other sources (that would certainly torque up the guys currently in place.) "Having our folks make that mental shift every day, driving into the gate and thinking, 'All right, I've got my war face on, and I'm going to the fight,' and then driving out of the gate and stopping at Walmart to pick up a carton of milk or going to the soccer game on the way home -- and the fact that you can't talk about most of what you do at home -- all those stressors together are what is putting pressure on the family, putting pressure on the airman," Colonel Cluff said.Gee. Golly. Shucks. And all the rest of us had to worry about was artillery. Drone pilots, who control their aircraft from afar, are not posted to dusty deserts nor frigid mountaintop air bases, but they are worked much harder as a result. The typical aircraft pilot will fly about 300 hours a year but drone operators work 12-hour shifts five or six days a week. Sounds like they're understaffed. When I was flying in Vietnam (crew, not pilot) we put in between 100 and 150 hours a month, usually. My first month in the unit I flew about 300 hours, but that wasn't typical; I was the only guy with my skills they had yet. Two more guys came in the next month and the hours dropped to more manageable levels. Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 2015-06-20 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=420953 |