Hey All,
I have always dreamed about being a pilot...Doesn't matter what kind. Anything will do. Fight pilot would be awesome, but just a normal cargo plane pilot would be just as well.

I just took my asvab and scored a 95 on the mech. and an 89 on elect.
I plan on.

-Signing up for 6 years
-Go in as an E3
-Work on Airplanes whether it be general or specific components, while i earn my BA degree to become an officer.
-obtain my Civilian Pilot license(recuiter says there is a program for this in the AF and they will Pay for it.)
-And then with all that under my belt in about 3-4 years I figure I'll have a great chance of becoming a pilot in the area of my choosing..or close to at least.

My question to you guys is....is this possible?

I know the recuiters job is to recuit so im not sure if everything she says is "the whole truth"

Will i have enough hours in the day to myself to go to school and earn a degree? Or will i only be able to take like 1 or 2 classes a sememster?

The recuiter says that I am a very good canidate for the air force and more then qualify for any Enlistment job i want.

Im just lacking a BA degree.

Any suggestions? Wake up calls?

I'd hate to "cross into the blue" and have my plans end up being some kind of hopeless pipe dream.

Thanx for any advice or help.

-Jason

It is doable and you certainly have the right attitude for the job ahead.

Best of luck to you.

Hey Pyro, good job on your asvab. Yes you can take a course when you enlist that will help you get your pilot license, matter fact, I am going to take such a course. I am in the airforce and I am trying to become a pilot, I need to get my bachelor's degree. I work in a career field that allows me to play with the jets so I have a general knowledge of the planes. Your recruiter is not lying to you. Good luck. Hope to see you in the future as an officer.

I am planning on being in the AF and I'm 13.
I'm wondering if you have to have atleast As and Bs.(not saying that I'm failing)

Well, my guess (and I might be wrong) would be that you need As. Like I said, I might be wrong, seeing that I'm not even in the US, but over here you ened As, and I think there is prolly a general standard worldwide.

The plan you have is doable but please take into consideration the following:

The Air Force is downsizing without cutting the number of deployments. This means that the chances of someone being able to not deploy so they can go to school is slim. Are you going to be able to take classes while your deployed and working 12+ hour days?

You will also have to participate in exercises which may mean 12+ hour days.

Then of course TDY's, addition training, additional duties, shift work, PCSing, etc all play a factor in how much time you will have for class.

I am stationed at Dyess and the C-130s and B1's are gone very often and along with them their maintance crews. Plus, from people I have talked to, it is hard work, so you may not feel like going to class after a long day of being covered in aircraft junk.

Another factor is your enlisted career. Are you going to be willing to sacrifice that for a chance at becoming a pilot? What I mean by that is that you are going to have to do additional work to get BTZ, promoted to SSgt etc. Your enlisted career is also important when applying for OTS.

I dont think it will be likely that you will get a 4 year degree in 4 years while serving in the military.

I dont mean to be a pessamist but I have seen a lot of people, even myself, join the military thinking that they are going to be able to get school done but the fact is that the military needs will always come first. If your lucky, you will have nice supervision who will accomadations for you to do as much as you can but when it comes down to it, if they need you, you have to go.

You might want to consider the Academy. You get a great education, can get your private pilots license and shoot for a pilots slot.

Whatever your choice is I wish you the best of luck

I've always wanted to be in the Air Force. And I've always wanted to fly, but never could afford flight lessons. I'm a college Jr. in a non-tech degree. I scored above average on the AFOQT. What are my chances of even getting to be an officer at all?

Well, for starters you might get better results by approaching an Air Force Recruiter.

I'm working through an OTS recruiter. I've taken the AFOQT and I'm in the application process for OTS. I'm just wondering what my chances of getting selected are?

Your recruiter should be able to give you a better understanding regarding your chances in being selected. Out here in internet never-never land, our input has a zero effect on that selection process.

We do however wish you well in your worthwhile endeavor in becoming one of the nations elite. Have you mastered the art of communicating with your hands yet? Thats a sure fire method we non-flyers use to identify pilots. Pilots rarely hold a conversation where their hands aren't moving like litle airplanes.....

Is fighter pilot life tougher on families than airlift/bomber/tanker duty? Are fighter pilots away from home and move more?

Ok here is the low down.

1. Dont enlist!! you have until you are 27 to become a pilot to be competitive never mind what the cut off is, you will not be competitive if your over 27 so time is of the essence. Your ASVAB scores dont matter unless you are going army aviation, that process is much different from the air force.

2. go to college and get your BS, preferably in engineering or science.

3. You will need to take a test called the AFOQT, an AF officer recruiter will set you up with the test, it has to be an OFFICER recruiter and they wont even talk to you until you have your BS. You will eventually have to take what is called a FAST test as well, the officer recruiter will help set you up with that as well.

4. You can try doing the AFROTC route as well but you have to commit after your sophmore year and they wont guarentee a pilot slot, but it is an option if you are a gambler. The Air Force academy is an almost gaureteed pilot slot if you can get in and make it to graduation.

5. After or if you can pull it off while you are going to school you will need to get your private pilots licence with as many hours as you can afford. I would recommend taking your spring break to take your ground school test, its like an 1-2 hrs test and you can study right out of a book you dont need to pay for a class its pretty easy stuff.

Once you do thoes things you will be able to talk seriously with an AF officer recruiter about a pilot slot if you did not go AFROTC or the academy.

What ever you do dont enlist, you will get all kinds of advice from people here, but the bottem line is you have little time to do all of that and there will most likely be a year just waiting for a pilot slot to open up and do all of the paper work etc. Also in the AF you have to be a commissioned officer to fly and there are only 4 ways to become an officer and the 4th (direct commission) does not apply to pilots. So you are left with AFROTC, the academy and OTS. The nice thing about AF OTS is you go 11 weeks of your hazing and your done then you start the good stuff flying. If you do army the non flying nonsence drags on forever.

I'm aware of all that. I will graduate with a bachelors next year, took the AFOQT, did my physical, and I'm a few days away from my interview. I've heard of fighter pilots that are hardly ever home and know one personally that has a wife and kids and they've done fine. I'm single, but I'm curious as to whether fighter pilot duty is tougher on a guy's family than airlift/bomber/tanker duty.

ah yes, rppearso the voice of experience and reasoning at it again. Haven't even read what he wrote, but it probably goes like this: DON'T DO IT, DON'T ENLIST, they'll yell at you or haze the crap out of you.

He's AWOL/DESERTER in case you didn't know.

If you make it and you do get to be a fighter pilot, you will get deployed at some point during your career, count on it. And or multiple deployments. As to its effect on families? Not much different effect than on any other family whose husband, dad, father deploys.

All pilots jobs are dangerous. Granted, some more than others. Survive the training, apply the training, and the large majority of new pilots do just fine.

With the currant war pilots jobs (save helicopters) are way safe, air craft are rarely shot down and few nations have the resources to go toe to toe with us and actually engage us in the air and give us a run for our money (meaning a high number of planes shot down and pilot killed like in WW2 or even vietnam) on the flip side that means it is harder now than ever before to become a fighter pilot because they are qusi lifer positions (so long as they can maintain there flight status). They will not gaurenttee you a pilot slot in any of the commissioning programs so you have to sign in good faith knowing the military may not act in such good faith so it is a crap shoot with 8 years of your life unless you dont care if you get a pilot slot or not.

BTW gunny I really wish you would stop with the lies, you need to look up what it really means to be a "Deserter" and if I were AWOL I would not be working with the guard to get out I would have a warrent out for my arrest and have been dropped from the rolls neither of which has happends because I still get financial statements from the guard with 0$. If they were going to issue a warrent I would go back, I would not coooperate or be in uniform but I would physicaly be present to avoid AWOL status, I would probably also not get paid since I would be way out of regs but that wouldent matter because I would constantly be in contact with JAG for issues of hazing and abuse unless of course they left me alone to do my own thing during drill weekends and not get paid for it, military resources are tapped and they dont have time to have someone watch me study for my PE licence or read a news paper.

nice response way to keep everyone intellectually engaged.

You are just passing troll gas here so why would anyone respond to your blithering? Additionally, you would not know intellectual if it hit you in your vacuous head.

join the reserve. why? you will have more time to go to school AND still be in the AF. If you go active duty you cant even touch your GI Bill for a year and you get no sign on bonus. AND take it from a guy who has a lot of active duty friends, you wont have time to go to school as active duty. Especially as a mechanic. I may be reserve but im a crewchief and ive done enough active days to know that maintenance boys have very little time outside of work. Im very glad i went reserve instead of active. even tho we work once a month we are no less a part of the military than the active guys. we wear the same uniform and get deployed just like them, while being able live a civilian life too.