I've never been in a helicopter, so I should pry try that out first before I do that.
And you're suggesting the warrant officer program right? Is that so you don't have to get stuck being in an office filling out paperwork as a commissioned officer later in my career?
Yep, and I'm not referring to just later in your career either. If you're into the flying aspect instead of being a supervisor / manager, then WO is the way to go.
Here's the basic route if you go
ARMY commissioned vs warrant. Obviously you'll go to a commissioning program which is a couple of months. After that, you'll attend flight school for about 1.5 years flying the UH-72, then either the UH-60, CH-47, AH-64 and IF selected FW (C182, Grob, BE58, C-12). You'll attend various courses (dunker, alt chamber, survival course) as well. You graduate, get your wings pinned and hopefully get to choose your first duty station.
After flight school the roles of warrant and RLO differ greatly. A warrant shows up to a line unit and assigned as a pilot. You eat, breathe, sleep being a pilot. That's why they're referred as "technical and tactical experts." It's their main focus. As a commisioned dude (RLO), you sign into your unit and can get assigned to any number of positions. You'll find yourself as a young LT sitting behind a desk in supply (S4), operations (S3), maintenance (D Co), Administration (S1), or any number of staff jobs. Yes, if you get lucky, you may get assigned a line unit as a platoon leader. Don't get your hopes up in flying a lot in that position though. More on that next.
Now, you might be wondering why the RLOs aren't getting the hours and missions like a warrant. Well, you have to look at the make up of a particular flight company; they refer it as an MTOE or modified tables of organization and equipment. A company is kinda like a squadron in another service only slightly smaller. Say you have 13 aviators assigned to that company. Out of that 13, you'll have a CO (CPT), 2 plt ldrs (LT) and 10 warrants (WO1-CW3). As a warrant, you are assigned as a line pilot. That means your job is to fly. You have various BS additional duties, but you primarily fly. As a CO or Plt Ldr, your primary job is to lead and manage. That means you'll spend your days doing Power Point, inventories, soldier evaluations, etc, etc. A never ending pile of paperwork.
It doesn't end there either. If you were lucky enough to get a flight company out of flight school as a RLO, you won't be there long. After 1.5 - 2 years in that position, you'll get sent to one of the other staff jobs. Those jobs have a reduced flight hour requirement with them and I can tell you, most barely stay current. Currency for a Black Hawk is 60 hrs per year. I can tell you first hand, I've taken staff guys out for a lap around the range just to maintain their one flight every 60 days currency!
I don't want to come off like the RLO route is all doom and gloom. You do make more pay and have a slightly higher status than warrants. Some of the finest officers I've ever met were RLOs. What's sad is, most of those get out after their 6 year obligation for the reasons above. Most of my RLO friends don't even fly civilian because they never got the hours / experience to get a job.
If you do go RLO, I would highly suggest on applying for 160th, test pilot or try and snag one of the few IP slots like Soldier64 has.
