Air Force One Pilot

S

SharkFisher

Well-Known Member
I am sure all of you would want to become a pilot for Air Force One. I surely do! Anyway I was just bored and did a random search and found this and thought it was interesting. From the National Geographic TV website I quote:

"To be an Air Force One pilot, you must have more than 2,000 hours in the cockpit, worldwide flight experience, and a spotless record"

Huh? That's it? I thought you needed some quality military experience on a combat aircraft and have some serious "connections" with the big guys at the white house to get the job!
 
I think I read somewhere that there are 80 Air Force One pilots. The 747 is not the only aircraft either, they have smaller ones too.

I think you do need some connections. Afterall, I would think that there are more than 80 pilots who would like to fly the president in a 747. I think you need tanker flight time or something similiar?
 
I met the guy who flew Eisenhower’s helicopter - I believe he was the first guy to land a helicopter on the white house lawn.
 
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I am sure all of you would want to become a pilot for Air Force One.

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Hellllll no. I wouldn't do that job for all the tea in China.

Not that I'll ever have to worry about the opportunity arising anyways.
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They are all active duty Air Force pilots. 2000 hours isn't as high time in the military as it is on the outside (if that makes any sense).

Ethan
 
For what it's worth, I met a Marine One helicopter pilot who flew for president Nixon. I believe he had a fair amount of combat experience from Vietnam, then worked as an instructor and test pilot for a while. Somebody higher up than him recommended him for the Marine One job when a slot opened up.

The way he talked about it, it sounded like you had to be a very good pilot and recommended by somebody, but there was nothing ultra super elite about the position.
 
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I am sure all of you would want to become a pilot for Air Force One. I surely do!

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No, not really.

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Anyway I was just bored and did a random search and found this and thought it was interesting. From the National Geographic TV website I quote:

"To be an Air Force One pilot, you must have more than 2,000 hours in the cockpit, worldwide flight experience, and a spotless record"

Huh? That's it? I thought you needed some quality military experience on a combat aircraft and have some serious "connections" with the big guys at the white house to get the job!

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Here's the requirements/pre-reqs:

-Airlift, Tanker, or C2ISR (E-3, E-4, E-8, KC-135) Major Weapon System (MWS) Aircraft Commander.

-No fighter time. (MikeD says: this job is the "private club" of the heavy community
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)

-2000 total hours

-3 years Time on Station (TOS or DEROS) by Jun 06 (NO EXCEPTIONS)

-Professional Military Education (PME) completed (any method), appropriate for rank and time in grade

-MWS/OSA Instructor/Evaluator experience

-2500 total hours desired

-250 MWS/OSA IP hours

-MWS/OSA EP experience

-Recent worldwide flight experience

-Minimal number of qualification level 3 (or equivalent) flight evaluations

Keep in mind here, people. These are the qualifications to just get into the 89th Airlift Wing. You don't start out flying Air Force 1; only a select few very senior crews do that. The qualifications above are for the starting positions of flying the VC-20, VC-9, VC-37, and VC-32 aircraft. The VC-25 Air Force 1 and 2 pilots are all VERY senior guys.

....But they are starting a PFT program.
 
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....But they are starting a PFT program.

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Uh oh...we got Mike started on PFT again.
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You also have to remember... "Air Force One" is just the call sign of the aircraft who is carrying the President at that time. So if the President is in a 152, (don't know why he would be) but if he was, that aircrafts call sign at that time would be Air Force One.

It doesn't just mean the 747.... The Helicopter he flies in from the White House is "Marine One"....
 
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The 747 is not the only aircraft either, they have smaller ones too.


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One time a few years back the 757 (I think the AF designates it a C-32 or something like that) flew in to Worcester because Gore had a funeral to attend or something, It was really cool, we drove up to the airport to check it out, and my dad pulled some binoculars out of his trunk to get a better view of the A/C, when he noticed that the nice gentlemen wearing black were looking at him through binoculars too
buck.gif
, so then he put them away hehe.
 
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One time a few years back the 757 (I think the AF designates it a C-32 or something like that) flew in to Worcester because Gore had a funeral to attend or something, It was really cool, we drove up to the airport to check it out, and my dad pulled some binoculars out of his trunk to get a better view of the A/C, when he noticed that the nice gentlemen wearing black were looking at him through binoculars too
buck.gif
, so then he put them away hehe.

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They're only ever one trigger pull away.

But seriously, if someone wants to attack a plane on a ramp, AF1 or any other, they'll likely be able to.

No different than the example of the mountaintop missile shooters around the PHX metro area I discussed before.
 
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For what it's worth, I met a Marine One helicopter pilot who flew for president Nixon. I believe he had a fair amount of combat experience from Vietnam, then worked as an instructor and test pilot for a while. Somebody higher up than him recommended him for the Marine One job when a slot opened up.

The way he talked about it, it sounded like you had to be a very good pilot and recommended by somebody, but there was nothing ultra super elite about the position.

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At HMX-1 (the Presidential Helo fleet) our CO had 6000 hrs of TT which is a lot in the military.

All our pilots came to us after several years flying in the fleet and all were Aircraft Comanders (PIC) in their squadrons before applying. They were all at least captains, and a few majors.

After some initial flying SIC in the CH-46s or CH-53s they would train on either VH-3 or VH-60s as SIC. They would fly SIC on a few VIP and presidential lifts.

Eventually they would upgrade to PIC in their aircraft, and fly backup and other missions in the white top helos.

Then they would be nominated to be named as a "Marine One" PIC. After some more training, they would be schedualed to fly the president.

The squadron CO arrived about 6 months before he took comand, and was trained in the VH-3 and automaticly became the primary "Marine One" pilot. The XO was the primary VH-60 "Marine One" pilot.


Some crew chiefs came straight from training school. Others came from the fleet. They would serve about a year on the "green side" working on CH-53s and CH-46s. Then they would move to the "cage" where the white tops were kept. They would train on one of the White Top birds, and would eventually get qualified as a VH-3 or VH-60 crew chief.

After at least a year as a white top crew chief, they could be nominated to be a "Marine One" crew chief. The current "Marine One" crew chiefs would vote to approve him or not, it was fairly competative within the squadron.
 
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I think the livery on AF1 is butt-ugly, especially the color on the bottom and the engines. Blah!!!!

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I would like to fly the AF 1, but there are other planes I would like to fly before that.
However, I would love to be a passenger on that plane.
 
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