CV-22 Osprey assignment out of pilot training, how does it work?

[RANDOMDUDE13]

Hello all,

 This is more of a "curiosity killed the cat" post, and a post that may have been answered somewhere I cannot find on this forum, so my apologies in advance for the weak searching capabilities. Cutting to the chase, how does CV-22 Osprey assignments happen out of pilot training. I have read that dropping the Osprey only occurs out of the newer HTN training pipeline, but I have also read that you can drop the Osprey from the T-38 and the T-1 through the typical T-6 UPT. Could a UPT grad for example, drop the Osprey from say the T-1 track? 

I look forward to reading any and all information given,

-Random

[yzl337]

At the moment Ospreys only drop from Rucker, that said, the community is undergoing tremendous change right now, who knows what is possible. While its a super cool airframe, it is one I would avoid right now. There is so much uncertainty and so few flying hours to go around, I cannot imagine it will be a healthy place for the young pilot development until it stabilizes. 

Edited Friday at 11:18 PM by yzl337

[DirkDiggler]

We currently have 2 former CV-22 students in the MC-J pipeline; they got non-vol’d to us after last years stand down.  Poor guys went all the way through New River and most of the way through the ABQ CV-22 sim before they were swapped.  Tough time to be an Osprey guy right now.

[RANDOMDUDE13]

2 hours ago, yzl337 said:

At the moment Ospreys only drop from Rucker, that said, the community is undergoing tremendous change right now, who knows what is possible. While its a super cool airframe, it is one I would avoid right now. There is so much uncertainty and so few flying hours to go around, I cannot imagine it will be a healthy place for the young pilot development until it stabilizes. 

 

2 hours ago, DirkDiggler said:

We currently have 2 former CV-22 students in the MC-J pipeline; they got non-vol’d to us after last years stand down.  Poor guys went all the way through New River and most of the way through the ABQ CV-22 sim before they were swapped.  Tough time to be an Osprey guy right now.

Wow, thank you both! I honestly did not take into account how the crashes would effect the community as far as flight time and overall health of the community. I guess here's another question, are there senior (like a first tour pilot) Osprey pilots being forced out of the community, or electing to attempt to leave the community for another due to the uncertainty of the future and the current situation? 

[ClearedHot]

I flew it and really enjoyed the platform.  However, as mentioned there was tremendous turmoil in the community even before the latest crash.  AFSOC parked part of the fleet, maintenance issues impacted available flying hours, and a host of other issues had a big impact on how much you could actually fly and thus upgrades/career progression.  I expect the turmoil to continue and while it is a cool airframe and fun to fly, I would avoid until things settle. 

[DirkDiggler]

14 hours ago, RANDOMDUDE13 said:

 

Wow, thank you both! I honestly did not take into account how the crashes would effect the community as far as flight time and overall health of the community. I guess here's another question, are there senior (like a first tour pilot) Osprey pilots being forced out of the community, or electing to attempt to leave the community for another due to the uncertainty of the future and the current situation? 

We currently have 1 guy I know of in the MC-J pipeline that requested to be transferred.  Seems like a really good dude; I haven't asked him his reasons for transferring.  Last year before I retired there were rumors that AFSOC was about to send a whole lot of CV guys to MC-Js due to all the previously mentioned thrash and AFSOC parking a good chunk of the fleet at CVS; I haven't seen that reflected in the guys coming the pipeline yet.  

  FWIW, my posts weren't meant to scare you off CV-22s if that's really the airframe and mission set you're most interested in.  I have several CV buddies and all of them loved flying the aircraft.  AFSOC is a phenomenal place to be in the AF.  It's just that right now (and honestly for the foreseeable future) the CV-22 program has a lot of issues that don't seem to have any quick fixes.  Their MX rates are atrocious (if you ever go to an AFSOC Wing Standup and watch the CV-22 MX officer brief the status of the fleet you'll understand) and the last 2-3 years it seemed like AFSOC was looking for a replacement (which won't come anytime soon, not sure how Connely being at the helm will affect this).  Just data points for you to consider.  Best of luck in whatever path you choose.

[stract]

On 1/3/2025 at 4:17 PM, yzl337 said:

At the moment Ospreys only drop from Rucker...

You mean Novosel 😉

[yzl337]

2 hours ago, stract said:

You mean Novosel 😉

I'm old and grumpy, get off my lawn! Yes, my bad, I still can't get the new names to stick in my brain 

[tac airlifter]

What everyone else said.  Controversial take: their infil/exfil mission is cool but with a MX reliability rate forcing 3 to make 1, they lose a lot of great missions to the 160th and there aren’t any fixes to that situation.  If you want to periodically fly a unique airframe and you’re good being an O-4 with 800 hours, a few deployments sitting alert, maybe one or two real world under your belt and tons of sim time… go CV22.  If you want to fly a LOT in actual airplanes, do a LOT of awesome real world shit and be an O4 with 3500 hours… go any other AFSOC aircraft.

[brabus]

5 hours ago, tac airlifter said:

MX reliability rate forcing 3 to make 1

Holy shit that’s bad. What’s the RC?