# How much practice time do military pilots get?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-practice-time-do-military-pilots-get/927646>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [December 9, 2020, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-practice-time-do-military-pilots-get/927646 "2020-12-09T13:45:07Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![rsat3acr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a3d4f5/32.png) [@rsat3acr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rsat3acr)\
**Post date:** [December 12, 2020, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-practice-time-do-military-pilots-get/927646/21 "2020-12-12T18:43:27Z")

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I was an Army Huey pilot from 80-85. I don’t remember details but we had minimum requirements of about 10-12 hours a month. We usually got more that that but there was a lot of variation. If the unit we supported was in the field we flew more. We had instrument hour requirements but nothing like a required  
number of take offs or landings

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**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\
**Post date:** [December 12, 2020, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-practice-time-do-military-pilots-get/927646/22 "2020-12-12T18:58:02Z")

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> [@AK84](#):
>
> I read somewhere the the optimal annual hours for fighter pilots is 200-250 and anything more starts being counterproductive.

That’d be one flight nearly every workday. That’d be a tough pace to maintain, much less exceed long term. It’s darn tiring work. Especially in peacetime, not actual combat, after awhile you may be building more complacency and fatigue than you are sharpening the edge to a fine hone.

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**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\
**Post date:** [December 14, 2020, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-practice-time-do-military-pilots-get/927646/23 "2020-12-14T16:12:18Z")

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One obvious answer is test flights don’t involve paying money to the defense contractors unless a problem is found… Oil companies do get paid.

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