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?

[ClearedHot]

7 hours ago, brabus said:

Holy shit that’s bad. What’s the RC?

Several major problems they have been trying to resolve for years, two with the engine, one with the rotor blades.

1.  There is an issue with cracking around the engine exhaust, for years Boeing blamed Rolls Royce and of course Rolls Royce blamed Boeing.

2.  Dust ingestion degraded engine performance faster than originally anticipated.  Part of the problem is the type of dust encountered in the middle East and Africa.  I believe they have tried twice to redesign the inertial separator.   They reduced the engine wash interval and implemented a FDAC temperature increase in an attempt to reduce build up.  The CV-22 has TOLD like any other airplane but obviously they don't have V speeds, instead they rely on performance measurements that tell how much power and performance you have at current temp, weight and power production.  One of those is OGE which simplified  defines your climb performance on one engine.

3.  Rotor blade wear and tear.  Again the type of dust encountered is far more abrasive than the designers thought it would be, at once point blade replacement interval was down to 100 hours.  On the subject of the rotor bladed important to note the rotor width is not optimized aerodynamically.  The Marines controlled the airframe design and a driving requirement was the ability to fold it up and fit it on a boat.  As a result the rotor diameter is smaller than it should be to get the most out of the engines.

I only have a little over 200 hours flying the CV so I am far from an expert but I enjoyed it and when it works it is a game changer.  One of the funnest things we did in Africa was set 60 nacelle and fly low along some of the smugglers routes in Ethiopia.  At 60 nacelle you can comfortably fly 50' at 100-150 knots and it was rock solid, like driving an old caddy down the highway.  The smugglers would see us, bail out of their trucks and jump in the ditch as we blazed overheard.

[brabus]

2 hours ago, ClearedHot said:

The Marines controlled the airframe design

Say no more

[SurelySerious]

Say no more

Fat Amy enters the chat.

[TreeA10]

It was indirectly the Marines that drove the design because it had to fit on the assault ships.  "The Dream Machine" written by Richard Whittle covers the whole history of the V-22 and the limitations thereof.  Lots of compromise to get the weight and size down to make it fit on the boat.

Edited yesterday at 03:33 PM by TreeA10

[Clark Griswold]

It was indirectly the Marines that drove the design because it had to fit on the assault ships.  "The Dream Machine" written by Richard Whittle covers the whole history of the V-22 and the limitations thereof.  Lots of compromise to get the weight and size down to make it fit on the boat.

Was just thinking about that book
Recommendation to anyone who wants to know why things go sideways sometimes and when you should just do something simple like buy bigger LHDs LPDs versus building a flying transformer


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Biff_T]

21 hours ago, stract said:

You mean Novosel 😉

Mother Novosel doesn’t have the same ring.  

Break, break

@RANDOMDUDE13

What are interested in doing mission wise? If all you want to do is fly an Osprey, the Marines have the most.  It's hard (sts) to get a CV-22 as there aren't that many and they are selective as to who they take into their community, especially straight out of UPT. The CV-22 mission is pretty badass but like others have said, you can't do your mission without flying.  If you want to do a 160th type mission, go Army.  If you want to fly Ospreys, go Marines.   

 

[Lawman]

Mother Novosel doesn’t have the same ring.  
Break, break
[mention=82291]RANDOMDUDE13[/mention]
What are interested in doing mission wise? If all you want to do is fly an Osprey, the Marines have the most.  It's hard (sts) to get a CV-22 as there aren't that many and they are selective as to who they take into their community, especially straight out of UPT. The CV-22 mission is pretty badass but like others have said, you can't do your mission without flying.  If you want to do a 160th type mission, go Army.  If you want to fly Ospreys, go Marines.   
 

It’s called “Big Mike’s” now.

And for those that hadn’t heard yet…. The cinder block shame cell formerly known as Teasers burned down today.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[RANDOMDUDE13]

On 1/4/2025 at 11:30 AM, DirkDiggler said:

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.

Thanks for the advice! Honestly any piece of information regarding the pilot career field I value as I am still trying to get into the pipeline (college senior FWIW). I was fortunate to see 2 USMC Ospreys conduct a flyover for a local event. Saw them practice right over my house as we are in the flight path for the flyover, then got to see them startup and takeoff, then recover and shutdown at our local airport, where they were staging. It was pretty epic and definitely sparked the interest in the aircraft, seeing them do their run up within 200-300 feet from me and the sound of the rotors basically going through me. So not necessarily the most interested in that specific mission set, but there is definitely an interest there.

[RANDOMDUDE13]

50 minutes ago, Biff_T said:

Mother Novosel doesn’t have the same ring.  

Break, break

@RANDOMDUDE13

What are interested in doing mission wise? If all you want to do is fly an Osprey, the Marines have the most.  It's hard (sts) to get a CV-22 as there aren't that many and they are selective as to who they take into their community, especially straight out of UPT. The CV-22 mission is pretty badass but like others have said, you can't do your mission without flying.  If you want to do a 160th type mission, go Army.  If you want to fly Ospreys, go Marines.   

 

FWIW, I am a college senior not even in the pipeline, so right now it's all a dream. I am interested in any mission, I want to serve my country as a pilot. That said, I would say the two missions that really, really, interest me are Close Air Support, and CSAR. However, missions like OCA, DCA, Airdrop, Air Assault, Air Refueling (NKAWTG!), etc, they are all interesting to me. I am not going to be heartbroken doing any of them, I just want to serve my country as a pilot...cliche I know, but I'm being honest here. I am not against serving in the other branches of the military either, if the USAF, be-it AD/AFR/ANG doesn't work out. 

[Biff_T]

1 hour ago, RANDOMDUDE13 said:

I would say the two missions that really, really, interest me are Close Air Support, and CSAR.

Not a lot of CAS for USAF Helicopters.   AFGSC does either CAS or AI, but they are stateside missions.  No rockets or missles just the M-240.

CSAR dudes have a very cool mission.  They have 50 cal and mini gun action.   

If you go AF helicopters, you'll have a good time.  Just realize AF Helicopters are not slinging hellfires like the Army and Marines.   We sit a lot of alert regardless of what helicopter you end up in.   

[RANDOMDUDE13]

16 minutes ago, Biff_T said:

CSAR dudes have a very cool mission.  They have 50 cal and mini gun action.   

I agree to the cool mission, saving lives is something personally I would be willing to go into harms way for. I have been interested in this mission for years since finding old clips of the Nat Geo documentary on the 38th RQS in Kandahar, Afghanistan on the show "Inside Combat Rescue" and subsequent research after. 

 

18 minutes ago, Biff_T said:

Not a lot of CAS for USAF Helicopters.   AFGSC does either CAS or AI, but they are stateside missions.  No rockets or missles just the M-240.

 

 

19 minutes ago, Biff_T said:

If you go AF helicopters, you'll have a good time.  Just realize AF Helicopters are not slinging hellfires like the Army and Marines.   We sit a lot of alert regardless of what helicopter you end up in.   

I don't know how to join two quotes^ my apologies. In all honesty the lack of hellfire and CAS in the USAF helo world is A-OK with me. Personally CSAR with the HH-60s would be my top choice for helos now learning about the issue with the Osprey mission set, but again I would be happy flying anything. Now an apology for the lack of research, but If I am correct, the USAF flies the Cv-22, HH-60, UH-1N, and the MH-139 for helos.. where UH-1s, and the MH-139 specialize in training, nuclear missile field protection, and VIP transport. Are there any other helicopters that I am missing, or any other mission sets I am missing. 

[Biff_T]

26 minutes ago, RANDOMDUDE13 said:

Personally CSAR with the HH-60s would be my top choice for helos now learning about the issue with the Osprey mission

Good choice.  

27 minutes ago, RANDOMDUDE13 said:

but If I am correct, the USAF flies the Cv-22, HH-60, UH-1N, and the MH-139 for helos

You are correct.   

[SurelySerious]

It was indirectly the Marines that drove the design because it had to fit on the assault ships.  "The Dream Machine" written by Richard Whittle covers the whole history of the V-22 and the limitations thereof.  Lots of compromise to get the weight and size down to make it fit on the boat.

Since NGAD is in a development pause and who knows what’s going on with CCA, what are the odds we can rope the Navy/Marines into both programs to really ensure success? What was that Kelly Johnson line? Ah, that’s right, “never work with the Navy.”

[brabus]

They are in both programs. 

[Boomer6]

1 hour ago, SurelySerious said:

Since NGAD is in a development pause and who knows what’s going on with CCA, what are the odds we can rope the Navy/Marines into both programs to really ensure success? What was that Kelly Johnson line? Ah, that’s right, “never work with the Navy.”

I don't think it's on pause, I think they just moved production to china..