There really isn't a comparison between airshow pilots who are arguably the public face of naval aviation and "working" helo pilots. There are plenty of active military pilots out there with less than 450tt, military aviation isn't anything like civilian aviation.
Blue Angels aren't "airshow" pilots. They are hand-picked from "working" carrier pilots with the most experience to demonstrate the precision that Naval Aviation prides itself in. It is an elite slot, just like this helo mission is supposed to be, if I'm understanding it correctly. They only serve two years, and then go back to the fleet. I get that there are a lot of military pilots with less than 450 hrs, but that doesn't mean that any of them are qualified for this mission. Her check pilot had more than double her time. I wonder what the average TT is for other pilots being trained for this mission - I bet it's considerably more, which was my point.
12th Av Bt doesn't fly POTUS, that job falls to HMX1.
If there's a no-joke emergency requiring actual continuity of government evacuations, passenger air traffic is going to be ground stopped so there's not going to be planes coming and going at DCA...
Then why are they practicing it like it is a covert extraction with passenger traffic uninterrupted? Maybe I'm misunderstanding the mission, because it was presented as covertly extracting government VIPs (including the President) without interrupting commercial traffic, so as not to alert the fact that they are being extracted and giving their location away. Why else would they take all this risk to practice it that way? My understanding is that they are to get them out of there without letting anyone know that they got them out of there. Shut DCA down, and everybody is going to figure it out.
"The 12th Aviation Battalion's primary mission is to provide continuous, time-sensitive rotary wing aviation and technical rescue support to the National Capital Region (NCR),
according to Army.mil. This includes supporting senior government officials, including the
President, Vice President, and Secretary of Defense, with executive transport, aeromedical evacuation, and operational aviation support. The battalion also handles homeland security, contingency response, and emergency operations within the NCR."
