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

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 BA, 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.

If you have anymore questions let me know.

What ever you do dont enlist, you will get all kinds of advice from people here, but the bottem line is if your 18 now you have 9 years 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.

Sorry I ment BS not BA you dont want a BA

You can also go army aviation, but I would not recommend it unless you can get a special contract. You will most likely not be able to have the time you need for R&R, school, study etc along with "meeting the needs of the military"

The last spring break of your senior year, that way you can get straight to flight training for your private licence and not burn the summer doing ground school study.

Sorry I keep making additional posts in series, but you will have to sign a 11 or 12 year contract as a pilot and flight training is a year and change so it is a hefty commitment.

I tried to become a fighter pilot and exhausted all of my options, I went army aviation and it was not anywhere close to what I expected, in the army even aviation you are woven to close to the full metal jacket sgt types where in the AF once you finish OTS and start flight school you are segregated from the general military population.

Thanks for the advice...but... What is wrong with enlisting and then becoming an officer? I want to join now. I live in the bay area. Its wayyy to expensive to do everything you just listed...and i have wayyyy to many friends to distract me from getting serious about my life.

The major reason im joining the AF is for the "life reset" and to get myself into a more structured enviorment. Im looking forward to boot camp. I can't wait. I want to Eat Dirt And Run till i throw up. I want the Drill sargent on my ass..SCREAming at me to squeeze out that last push up. I wanna wake up before the sun does and run through the cold showers and eat nails for breakfast.

You didn't really answer my question about whether what i stated was possible...instead you just sorta told me your plan.

I totally appreciate the time you take to give people advice on here.

But i don't understand why your here?

From the looks of it, you hate the military and everything they're about.

why are you here?

And where are you now to be giving such advise?

are you even in the military? at all?

just wondering

-Jason

Im on here because its fun to debate with the other members. But the advice I gave you was serious, regardless of what you decide to do thoes are the only ways to become a commissioned officer in the AF and a pilot. I think you should try to schedule an informational meeting with an officer recruiter and you will see im not lying. I think being an AF officer would be great I just took a wrong turn with the army national guard and left after a year (the reasons for me quiting is a whole other story) and am now bared from all services, priorities in my life changed, I got married and got a job working towards my professional engineering licence, I am a chemical engineer. I dont like to eat nails, I like to fly, im finishing my pilots licence in a few months and its great, the military did not work out for me but the process is still the same, I researched every angle of the AF and army to become a pilot. I also got a congressional nomination out of high school for the air force academy but decided to go to the colorado school of mines because the air force academys engineering department was not as strong and I knew flying was a long shot and I wanted a back up. I did AFROTC for 2 years in college and got out before having to "sign the dotted line" becasue the attitudes of alot of the fellow cadets were way to hard core for me, outbursts in the middle of a school library, really unprofessional stupid shit like that.

I am assuming your 18 or 19, if you go enlisted for 6 yrs you might be able to get your degree while your in but an engineering or science degree is hard enough on its own and thoes degrees are favored when being considered for a commission as a pilot, and trying to be AF full time will make it harder, you could go Air National guard that way you still get school paid for and you only have to work one weekend a month, thats a route that works for alot of people, but you are still running the risk of being deployed before you finish school. So after you finish your 6 years if you dont have your degree yet that only leaves you with 3 years of competitive time left to fly and you still have to get your pilots licence and take your tests as well as wait for a slot to open. It boils down to a race against time.

There is another thing you can do, you can apply for an AFROTC scholarship which will pay your way through college and even if you dont get a pilot slot after AFROTC you got a free education. You can also request to go guard after AFROTC that way you go one weekend and read a paper until a pilot slot opens up.

This is just my advice, you can take it or leave it. It would be cool for you to realize your dream, I just want to make sure you get the right information, I dont have any quotas to fill or numbers to meet.

Well your right about one thing..it is a race against time seeing that im 21. I've talked to a few people in the air force since i posted yesterday, 1 was a pilot and they said its a matter of me getting a degree, and becoming an officer before im 26. in fact, The Pilot I talked to did almost exactly what i plan on doing. i don't know if he was 21 though. I plan on taking some clep test along with some accelerated courses online, I should be able to get my degree in 3 years max.

Even if I don't make the deadline and become a pilot the journey will still be worth it to me

pyro...your taking advice from a guy that tubed out of the national guard of all things!

Yep, he is right but a degree before 26 is the bare minimum requirement. I am trying to give you an edge to be competitive for a slot. I highly recommend setting up an informational meeting with an AF officer recruiter and you will find that he will tell you the same thing I am. I had my reasons for leaving the guard, mainly becasue basic training did not end after basic and the hazing phase of training was dragged out forever and I began to loose patience with the guard. However the air force will fast track you through the BS and get you to doing what you need to do if you go OTS. If you are 21 you have like 5-6 years left. If you insist on enlisting at least do so in the air national guard that way you will actually have time to study.

Pyro,

By all means, if you would like to join the service of your choice, do so. My only advice, as an Army Recruiter working in Southern California, is all branches pick their pilots, and they are allowed to be specific. You do indeed have a better chance from inside the military, than as a civilian applicant.

Example, for Army Aviation only. The U.S. Army Warrant Officer Flight Training Program in the last 4 years has selected 2 civilians to enter the program. Don't take my recruiter word for it, check the USAREC homepage. (http://www.usarec.army.mil) Secondly, the military teaches you to fly the military way. A civilian pilot license is not preferential to you becoming a pilot, in any branch. Cut-Off by DoD is 29 for all pilots entering training.
The Air Force's pilots are indeed officers, whereas the Army is 95% Warrant Officers, very few officers are pilots. I wouldn't take rrpearso's advice, seeing as he didn't even make it through Initial Entry Training.

Are you seroiusly going to start a debate here, all of the steps that I gave him are nessicary to becoming an AF pilot, there is very little personal opinion in there. For the air force a pilots licence is preferential, i was told that by an AF officer recruiter, flying is flying what the hell does that even mean "flying the military way" does that mean someone is screaming in the radio on the other end. Dont go army aviation unless you want to be infantry before you fly. Being prior enlist might give you some brownie points but it does not wave the requirement to have a degree. The armys process is much more convoluted where the air force is straight forward, you get the qualifications on the check list and put in a package and either you get it or you dont and if you dont you go home. Where as the army, oh you dident get selected well now you can serve the rest of you time meeting the needs of the army, what ever that might be.

When i said i plan on getting a degree by the time im 26....i meant from within the military.

Im shippin off to BMT as soon as i finish my sememster of class here.

The only thing im worried about is if i get in there and its completely unrealistic to earn a degree in a short time.

Im looking into AIU...they do an accelerated degree program completely online. Its a little expensive and im sure i'll have to pay my share but i think it will be worth it...just for the chance of possibly becoming a pilot.

I mean..i have to get my degree anyway. Might as well get one as fast as i can.

Even if it turns out i can't be a pilot im still going. Being a pilot is just some major motivation to get my ass in gear.

Can Anyone whos actually in the Air Force give me some advice?

Ok good luck and have fun.

Again, your mouth has overloaded your arse. Seeing as you have no clue about how the Accessions Command works, nor how enlistment contracts are filled by USAREC, your idea of how the Army's process works is your own twisted view of it based on hearsay. Since when were you a pilot in the Air Force? So how are you so knowledgeable about the process? I can say the exact same thing for them, don't join the Air Force to be a pilot unless you want to be a BB stacker first. Everyone, including the young man asking questions, wants to know why you give such advice, and what position do you hold in any said branch that would make you so knowledgeable of its programs and procedures? You are an RE-4 wash-out, that is disgruntled, and wants to let the world know. You couldn't hack the part-time National Guard training path, and he knows it, I know it, the whole darn Forum knows it.
And for the love of God, Smart Guy, please, I beg you, please; spell check before you post again.

I seriously hope you are not trying to discredit the facts because you disagree with my personal opinions, that is a major disservice to someone who needs to know the bottem line and not just be another feather in a recruiters hat.

If enlisting is what you want to do first, then stick to what you plan on doing. Sometimes you have plans to do this and this, and when you enlist you find that you don't have time to get your private pilots license and you don't have time to be a full time college student. Even taking a few classes here and there will take you longer than 4 years to complete your BS. I had this same plan as you when I enlisted into the Navy, I soon foundout that I didn't have time to do what I had planned on doing. All of the schooling I had took up ALL of my time. I didn't want to fail anything so I studied all the time and alot of my flights were evening flights so I didn't have time to do anything else. I was either in a classroom, a simulator or in the air. After all my training was complete, 2 years had passed. Just keep reminding yourself what your plans are, don't go out partying or let anything keep you from deviating from your plan. And if you get a girlfriend while in, forget about everything .

The list that I gave you above that you fought me on is what you have to do, its not negotiable unless you have a letter of recommendation from a general you might be able to get away with out having the pilots licence, but having a degree and becoming an officer are manditory.