The CW2 would have been the experienced pilot on board. The fresh Capt....where and when did she go to flight school? Navy helo pilots fly helos for a living they don’t do political social aid tours at the white house. Idk about Army but generally Army help pilots are CWOs.
Agree, the CW2 was the more experienced aviator. Of course, not every Army helicopter pilot is a warrant officer; otherwise, who would be the commanders of the aviation companies, battalions, & brigades. I’ll guess her flight training & operational experience were delayed or interrupted by the WH aide assignment; not a good thing. Pretty obvious she exercised poor altitude control the other evening. Two hundred feet high is unacceptable. Will be interesting to see if the crew were using NVGs and how that might have affected lookout doctrine and basic flying performance.
Experienced army pilots are WOs. The commissioned officers don’t fly that much. I was in the Air Force flying 60s with the 82nd on a loaner program. I flew with an Army LTC who had 2500 hours and could barely takeoff-tried to kill us a few times, so they do a lot of “leading” and not flying.