Hello everyone, first of all I commend all of you for having served, serving, or considering serving in the military. Okay, well every since i was very little I have wanted to be a fighter pilot, my grandfather was one in WWII, but he died in a civilian plane crash before I was born. When I was 8 or 9 years olf I went down to Alabama to go to "Aviation Camp", which is like the space camp but for jets instead. I think the the easiest, quickest, and most painless way to do this would to get into the Air Force Academy. If anyone has been throguh it how do you think my chances are?
I am 16, a junior in high school. I have a 3.5GPA and got a 28 on the ACT the first time I have taken it so far. I am in pretty good shape, but I plan on working out more now. I play competetive Golf and Lacrosse. I have no legal situations or any bad marks of that nature or any nature.
So what do you guys think my chances are of getting into the USAFA?

Thank you all for your help and for your service.

I went through the process to get in to the academy and visited it. You might want to get your ACT scores up higher, I know for the SAT they require a 600/600 split and you cant use your math scores to make up for your english so they may have an minimum for each individual section of the ACT as well. However you can take the highest from different tests and combined them!

The air force academy definatly will give you a shoe in to becoming a pilot but it is in no way easy, your first year maybe your second will be an absolute nightmare, it will be some minimal academics mixed in with a significant amount of hazing. Make sure there is absolutly nothing wrong with your eyes or anything else for that matter, competition for pilot slots (especially fighter) is so competitive that any little thing can disqualify you. There is only a finite number of planes and every one wants to fly them and since none of them are getting shot down (unlike WW2) there are not any pilots dying that you can step into so its like working your way into a company position that will only open when someone retires.

also remember that you can do ROTC or OCS, just dont make the mistake of going army or marines, they have aircraft too but you dont want to go there ... or maybe you do talk to an officer recruiter, and I emphisize officer not just any recruiter.

Now let the bullets fly from the rest of members on this forum. Be ready for the spewing of hatred. There are like 2 or 3 others that regularly participate on here that know what there talking about the rest just jump on the band wagon of spewing hate.

Thanks a lot for the help. And I know that nothing in the military would be easy I just ment that if I get into the AF Academy it would make it easier to become a pilot. Also, about the vision thing I don;t know exactly what mine is but i do have glasses, i'm near-sighted, nothing bad but for like taking notes sometimes I wear them. I don't have to wear them for driving though, but it makes it easier at night if I dont know my way around and have to read. So should I think about Lasik or something of that nature. I have see fine I just can't make out every little detail at a distance usually.

Also, about getting the ACT up high I should be able to get at least a 31 I feel once I take it two more tiems or so. Maybe even higher who knows, so I don't think that it will be too much of an issue.

Talk to a recruiter and see if you can do lasik, sometimes they frown upon that but is becomeing safer and more common place so you may be allowed to have it and make military standards for vision. I know the academys look favorably upon football players and will let academic standards slide if you are a good football player. Things are alot different now days than when your grandpa flew in WW2, back then you just had to be a good pilot now it is hyped so far up into the clouds that you have to have seperate air to breath (figurativly speaking)

Here is a cool site if you want to buy something like what your grandfather might have flown. Kinda goal for when you are in your 30s. This is what im looking into, the air force thing dident work out for me and the army thing I tried was a complete sham so im looking into buying my own plane.

http://www.thundermustang.com/

ok cool, oh and he did fly one of those I do know that for a fact and he also flew the P33-lightning or at least I think that is the correct name, I know it wwas the lightning and I know what it looks like lol. Well thanks again and if anyone else wants to add anything feel free to I want to get as much info as I can before i see a recruiter, and i know to go to an officer recruiter.

And about the football player thing, do you think lacrosse would be the same thing? I am a lacrosse player and lacrosse is a team contact sport. You have sticks with heads that have nets on them and you thrown and run a ball and try to get it in the goal, so i guess the basic principals and what you would learn from them is the same. And I played little league football for 8years so I do know what it's like.

I dont know about lacrose. I know that you dont need to talk to a recruiter to apply for the academy, your school carrer center should have the paper work you need to apply. You will need a congressional nomination, you can probably check on your congressmans website and they should have a request form, once you secure a congressional nomination the rest of the process is very similar to being accepted to a college. Keep in mind you will have the first 2 years commitment free, when you show up for your thrid year you are obligated (sort of, there are always ways to get out regardless) but its really easy if you do it in the first 2 years just FYI.

this is what I would recommend,

1. Talk to your guidance counselor and get all the paper work for the academy and go to your congressmans website. Then apply and see what happens. If you get in and make it through, you will be good to go. If the academy is not your thing then....

2. Enroll in a regular college (the air force prefers engineering or hard science 4 year degrees, not engineering or science technology programs or whatever other sham degrees there are out there, but a full blown science/engineering degree) then join AFROTC, ROTC works the same way as the academy were you get the first 2 years commitment free but you dont have to live with someone breathing down your neck 24/7, you have a few leadership classes you go to and 90% of your time you get to spend like a regualar college student enjoying life, drink some beer yada yada, trust me it makes a big difference from living in instituional like conditions at the academys. If the non pilot nonsence of ROTC is not up your ally then ...

3. Air Force OTS, unlike army OCS, air force OTS is a one shot deal right off the street with your degree in hand where you get hazed and dirt kicked in your face and your treated like a piece of crap, very similar to fraterntiy initiation, its the farthest thing from honorable but its about 2-3 months and you get your bars (army you have to go through basic and OCS for a grand total of almost 5-6 months of BS nonsence, not something I would recommend to anyone) Also the OTS route you can negotiate a pilot slot from off the street if your application is strong enough, but keep in mind someone has to be retiring and your officer recruiter must be aware of the retirement, its that cut throat.

4. You can join the air national guard and go through there OTS program and then wait for a pilot slot to open up, so once you finish OTS you will not have an OBC (officer basic course) so you will basicly sit and drink coffee one weekend a month until a slot opens up so you will be nondeployable until you finish flight school, you might want to talk to an air national guard recruiter about this.

What ever you do dont make the mistake I did and join the army to fly helicopters, its the biggest bunch of BS I have ever expernced.

WannaBSoldier:

congrats and kudois on your ambition.. things you should take under advisement

1] read and disregard anything repearso has posted on this site.. he is, as they say, a ponce of the first degree with a chip on his shoulder the size of a California redwood.

2] go and talk to a qualified air force recruiter and don't sign anything without first taking it home, reading it thoroughly and discussing it with family and someone you trust to give you objective advice

3] come back here after you've done that and ask the rest of the posters for some input, they'll give you some stright poop on things

oh, and 4] ignore repearso..he's a ponce - did I say that already ? - anyway, it's true..

good luck.

lol ok thanks. Has anyone here been to the AF Academy? If so what kinda of grades, test scores, and extracurricular activities did you have in high school?

Thanks again

Good luck and if you are signing anything at this stage in the game you will not be signing up to be a pilot. You dont have to "sign" to go to the academy or ROTC, you will have to sign to go to OTS but thats not until you have your degree in hand 5-6 years from now. Like I said before let the bullets fly.

I am probably the closest one to go to the AF academy out of all the regular posters on here, I had the congressional nomination I just dident have the SAT verbal scores, my math scores were way high but they would not let me offset my verbal with math thats how I know that. One thing that you can do as a sport at the AF academy that sounded cool to me was falconeering, though not cool enought to offset the prison like institutional living conditions.

quote:

Originally posted by rppearso:
One thing that you can do as a sport at the AF academy that sounded cool to me was falconeering, though not cool enought to offset the prison like institutional living conditions.

Hmmmm, rppearso loose interpretation: pilots don't require discipline as they know all there is to know about warfighting right from college.

Wow. I had the SATs to get in, and the nomination to go to USAFA. I didn't want to join the Air Force because I am an Air Force brat, and I know way too much about it. Prison like living conditions?!? You are truly stupid. The USAFA is one of the nicest facilities in the world! Two-man rooms, weekend passes for plebes? Yes, so tragic. And yes, they are ALL engineering schools, so your Colorado School of Mines is pretty low on the totem pole by comparison. How does an Army guy know so much about the USAFA? I know because I instructed on the Leader's Reaction Course at USAFA for 3.5 years while stationed at Fort Carson, Colorado Springs, CO. I was stationed there for 5 years. I know a crap lot more than rppearso about the military in general, the Air Force and Army equally in depth. So before rppearso's vast military knowledge convinces anyone about anything, ask a subject-matter expert. Call the Academy. You can even speak to an admissions/liason counselor named Mrs. Ware. Who is a very close personal friend of mine.

Thanks for the help and advice everyone I feel confident that if I do good on my ACT I have a reasonable chance of getting in. Also, I know that I want to be a pilot but recently looked at helocopter pilots recently and it interested me. Does anyone know the basic pros cons of that sort of piloting.

Thanks again.

Con: its the army (unless of course you are flying the few that the air force has)

Con: you fly low enough for people to shoot at you with inexpensive weapons, high or fast flying air craft require much more expensive weapons to shoot down therefore narrowing your chances of being in the same place as someone with such weapon (unless of course we go to war with russia or something)

Con: its the army

Pro: I have been there and dident see any Pros

isent that sweet cavscout some who works at the academy is your friend, that makes everything ok. Just keep in mind you will be hazed at the academys for about your first 2 years, I dont care how new the carpet is, BTW the grounds are very nice, its just the subhuman treatment thats not so nice.

Yep...its a shame you missed the fact that I was an instructor there as well. But then again, you talk out of your ass.

Whats the maximum military flight speed of the UH-60 series Blackhawks? Oh, thats right...you have no flipping clue. How about the operational ceiling for the AH-64D Apache Longbow or AH-64C Apache Attack helicopters? You don't know? Guess what, you are incompetent on military matters again. Guess what else? The stinger ain't an expensive weapon...and it'll drop a fighter in a heartbeat. Or how about an AIM-120AMRAAM? They're super inexpensive...and will drop any aircraft, too. And....our enemies...to include China, use predominantly Soviet weapon systems, like SA-6 or SA-9s, and the ever present RPG-7/8. You seriously should consider staying at home and playing with your Barbies before you come and try to challenge the educated Men of this realm. You are the most complete retard, ever! Stop posting on matters which you have no idea. Start your own thread..name it "I Am A Disenfranchised Conspiracy Theorist Military Non-Hacker That Wants To Bitch To Anyone Who Is Gullible Enough To Believe Me." For the love of God...please practice contraception, and/or negligent street crossing habits.

All I know is anyone who reads these threads and joins up will be thinking back to these threads when they are sitting in reception or in the summer months at the academy before the academic year and wonder what the hell they are doing there, of course its the lucky ones that dont get singled out during thoes times that go on.

When was the last time you heard of an F-15 being shot down by a stinger, super rare. How about helicopters, alot more frequent. I dont need to know the cruise altitude of an apache to know that it has to get low enough to engage a concealed enemy and then I can shot at it with a .5 cal armor piercing round, I dont need an AMRAAM.

Um, F-15s being shot down....we don't really use the F-15. It was phased out by the F-16...then the F-22. Are you retarded?

WTF are you talking about Apaches getting low enough to engage a concealed enemy?!? You have no clue what a concealed enemy is, idiot. Hide in a building or bushes, FLIR-3 sees you. God, you should consider suicide.

Wow this is kind of a funny thread. And no offense Rppearso you seem hateful and biased towards the military. But how do the missions, daily life, adn other stuff of that nature compare to fighter jets? Thanks again