3000 hours of thunder: Squadron CC reaches milestone

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Ryan Callaghan
  • 23d Wing Public Affairs
MOODY AIR FORCE BASE, Ga. --  The 75th Fighter Squadron commander hit a career milestone July 17, 2014, at Moody Air Force Base, Ga., by surpassing 3,000 flight hours in an A-10C Thunderbolt II.

U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. David Rayman joined a select group of pilots by accumulating 3,000 hours on a single airframe, and an even smaller group to accomplish such a feat in the A-10.

Equal to approximately 125 days of non-stop flying, his 3000.9 hours are comprised of approximately 750,000 nautical miles, enough to fly to the moon three times, as well as 1,382 sorties, including 218 combat sorties. Despite his already impressive statistics, he says 3,000 hours is a pretty big milestone.

"I, of course, remember the 1,000- and 2,000-hour marks, but 3,000 is special to me considering there are only a handful of guys in the A-10 community with this many hours," he said. "A lot of pilots don't fly jets long enough to accrue that many hours."

Capt. Gary Glojek, 75th FS c flight commander, agrees with Rayman, saying 3,000 hours is impressive.

"Active-duty people don't get 3,000 hours; it's really rare," he said. "He's one of maybe two or three people at Moody who has gotten to 3,000."
For Rayman, it's a childhood dream taken to an extreme.

"I've wanted to be a pilot ever since I can remember; It had always been a childhood dream," he said. "I lived on an A-10 base growing up, and I always enjoyed watching them fly around."

After taxiing his aircraft to a halt and climbing down to the ground, Airmen from Rayman's squadron greeted him with a ceremonial celebration, spraying him down with water hoses.

"I was not expecting that at all," he said. "I really felt honored to have the squadron out there when I got back," He said.