Army National Guard Warrant Officer Pilot Route

[Blackhawk]

Lots of information here, thanks all.

Been talking to a couple WOSM's and it seems to vary by state. I'm getting told I can do IEFW by some and nay by the others, which makes sense with the dialogue I've seen here.

My ultimate goal is to just fly fixed wing professionally, however I get there isn't that important - but I don't want to waste time. The sooner the better, I'm about to start flying lessons here in New Bern.

Going through IERW in its present form, while not helping your build FW hours, would give you some good knowledge and skills. In addition you will find serving in the Guard/Reserves, even in a RW unit, will give you great contacts in the FW world. When I was in the Guard almost all of the "part time" WO pilots were pilots outside of the Guard, either FW or RW. I remember one mission in Iraq when my copilot was also from my airline. We picked up a unit and, as usual, the senior officer was given a headset to talk to us if needed. After listening to us for about 30 minutes he asked if we were airline pilots. We responded that we were. He asked which airline and we told him. Turned out he was a pilot for the same airline.

 

[Andrew_Neal]

Going through IERW in its present form, while not helping your build FW hours, would give you some good knowledge and skills. In addition you will find serving in the Guard/Reserves, even in a RW unit, will give you great contacts in the FW world. When I was in the Guard almost all of the "part time" WO pilots were pilots outside of the Guard, either FW or RW. I remember one mission in Iraq when my copilot was also from my airline. We picked up a unit and, as usual, the senior officer was given a headset to talk to us if needed. After listening to us for about 30 minutes he asked if we were airline pilots. We responded that we were. He asked which airline and we told him. Turned out he was a pilot for the same airline.

Nice. Funny how small the world is when you're deployed.. I had a couple similar situations, non flying related, while I was in Afghanistan. I'm actually sitting here on duty right now staring off into space giving this a lot of thought, and I don't think I would mind flying RW. I read that article on the main website about transitioning from RW to FW in order to fly professionally, and I believe if I flew RW for the guard or reserve.. that there would be no reason I couldn't do both if I worked on my FW certs via part 61. Not sure how it would work with working a normal full time job, but I've made crazier plans work.

 

[Soku39]

Lots of information here, thanks all.

Been talking to a couple WOSM's and it seems to vary by state. I'm getting told I can do IEFW by some and nay by the others, which makes sense with the dialogue I've seen here.

My ultimate goal is to just fly fixed wing professionally, however I get there isn't that important - but I don't want to waste time. The sooner the better, I'm about to start flying lessons here in New Bern.

Lots of information here, thanks all.

Been talking to a couple WOSM's and it seems to vary by state. I'm getting told I can do IEFW by some and nay by the others, which makes sense with the dialogue I've seen here.

My ultimate goal is to just fly fixed wing professionally, however I get there isn't that important - but I don't want to waste time. The sooner the better, I'm about to start flying lessons here in New Bern.

You did look into Air National Guard or is that out for some reason?

 

[Lawman]

You did look into Air National Guard or is that out for some reason?

Degree probably if I had to guess...

If be in the air guard in a second if I wasn't already in my 30s since I'm one of the few warrants with time in service left to burn and a bachelors degree.

 

[Soku39]

Degree probably if I had to guess...

If be in the air guard in a second if I wasn't already in my 30s since I'm one of the few warrants with time in service left to burn and a bachelors degree.

That said you know what's really boring? Flying C-17s.

 

[Lawman]

That said you know what's really boring? Flying C-17s.

Yeah but having worked for both AF an Army, at least you treat your pilots like that's their actual job.

Haven't met a lot of AF Majors who spent a Saturday after coming back from a month in the field power washing tents and cots in the sun.

 

[deadstick]

Yeah but having worked for both AF an Army, at least you treat your pilots like that's their actual job.

Haven't met a lot of AF Majors who spent a Saturday after coming back from a month in the field power washing tents and cots in the sun.

Those silly additional duties, like flying.

 

[Andrew_Neal]

Haha.

Yeah I have 2 years left in my degree, I go online since I'm still on AD. The ARNG just seemed like a quicker way into the pilots seat, but my primary goal has been UPT. Close friend of mine who got selected via UPT with the AF reserve insists that I just finish school and apply. I start flying lessons next Sunday at a part 61 out of Wilmington, NC so if I can manage to get some flight hours and finish my degree on time (I will be about 25 maybe 26 when I graduate) maybe I'll just stick with that plan. I keep going back and forth about how I'm going to get there, I just want to fly...

 

[Soku39]

Didel

Haha.

Yeah I have 2 years left in my degree, I go online since I'm still on AD. The ARNG just seemed like a quicker way into the pilots seat, but my primary goal has been UPT. Close friend of mine who got selected via UPT with the AF reserve insists that I just finish school and apply. I start flying lessons next Sunday at a part 61 out of Wilmington, NC so if I can manage to get some flight hours and finish my degree on time (I will be about 25 maybe 26 when I graduate) maybe I'll just stick with that plan. I keep going back and forth about how I'm going to get there, I just want to fly...

If UPT is primary then focus on that. Getting hired for UPT vs Army Flight school are just about equally demanding, yet you are young enough to make it happen. Is your ADSC also up when you are 25/26? I wouldn't let your degree not being done stop you. We talked to kids that were juniors in college last go around for our UPT boards. You need to start building the relationships at the squadrons where you want to get hired sooner than later.

 

[Andrew_Neal]

Didel


If UPT is primary then focus on that. Getting hired for UPT vs Army Flight school are just about equally demanding, yet you are young enough to make it happen. Is your ADSC also up when you are 25/26? I wouldn't let your degree not being done stop you. We talked to kids that were juniors in college last go around for our UPT boards. You need to start building the relationships at the squadrons where you want to get hired sooner than later.

I'm off AD in 5 months.

 

[Soku39]

I'm off AD in 5 months.

Dude, you are definitely not behind the curve for getting a UPT slot in the Guard/Reserves. Do you have any questions about how that works? If fixed wing is your goal, then that should be your primary focus.

 

[Lawman]

Dude, you are definitely not behind the curve for getting a UPT slot in the Guard/Reserves. Do you have any questions about how that works? If fixed wing is your goal, then that should be your primary focus.

Out of curiosity, if you guys are talking to guys missing or short of major qualifications what is your unit/states stance on Age Waivers for UPT.

Last unit I talked to was a 130 unit looking for pilots and the word was, "we can't ask for them even if your the best qualified guy and even though you have 10+ years left of active service before retirement."

 

[Soku39]

Out of curiosity, if you guys are talking to guys missing or short of major qualifications what is your unit/states stance on Age Waivers for UPT.

Last unit I talked to was a 130 unit looking for pilots and the word was, "we can't ask for them even if your the best qualified guy and even though you have 10+ years left of active service before retirement."

No age waivers right now unfortunately.

What I was speaking of are kids in college age 21-24 that are sharp juniors or sophomores (we will interview people that will have their degree done before the start of OTS), show promise, are motivated and are interested in flying ANG. We didn't invite any of them to interview formally, but they are welcome to visit the squadron at any time, get to know us, pick our brains to see what we want in a candidate when they are ready, etc etc.

 

[Blackhawk]

I would use the shotgun method. Look and apply to all that you can, see what pans out.

 

[scoobs]

Did I read this right. The scout guys are getting sent to Uav's? Are they offering them a chance to get out early?

 

[Lawman]

Did I read this right. The scout guys are getting sent to Uav's? Are they offering them a chance to get out early?

Not strictly.

What's going on with the 58 community is a damn shame. It read like a joke when it started but basically every scout guy went into a room and was interviewed and ranked and like some super secret order of merit list nobody got to know where they washed out in ranking across the community. So now your CW2/3 Joe Blow at 2-6 or 3-4 Cav and you have no idea if your gonna have a job in two years or what it's gonna be, but keep working/flying your birds to the desert for storage like nothing is wrong and you'll find out when you either get orders to an AQC transition or you don't. Our shadow Plt warrant is a former 58 guy. He didn't want to take a new aircraft this close to retirement so he just said I'll go UAS. Other guys are sitting around just waiting.

The scout units themselves are being retired/reflagged. So what we are doing is taking a standard attack battalion of 24 Apaches and turning it into a "Heavy Attack Recon Squadron" by adding two platoons of Shadows. This replaces the standard cavalry Recon squadron in a medium CAB. Also the CAB it's self is supposed to be getting Grey Eagles so it has additional recon capability. So essentially every CAB is becoming what used to be a "Heavy CAB" but 1 we add UAS and call it "full spectrum." Only unit that's actually taken it to war is 101.

Used to be Shadows and Grey Eagles were all directly owned by ground teams so there wasn't a lot of sharing of "my toys" between ground units. The idea of the full spectrum CAB is now units will go through the same AMR cycle to request UAVs as they do to get other air. Pisses off the ground guys not owning stuff but it should be a more efficient use of assets because when ground unit A doesn't need them or doesn't have a high priority mission we can give them to ground unit B or C instead of having them sit/fly idiot circles where they aren't needed.

 

[Andrew_Neal]

Dude, you are definitely not behind the curve for getting a UPT slot in the Guard/Reserves. Do you have any questions about how that works? If fixed wing is your goal, then that should be your primary focus.

I think I've got a handle on what it takes to be competitive. I'll turn 24 here in October and I'll EAS from the Marines in December/January depending on when I start terminal. So my biggest challenge is finishing my 2 years of school that I've got left, while working and making enough to support a wife and 3 kids. I'm 90% sure I'm capable of doing it, but it puts me at 26-27 finishing my undergrad and I'd really like to get some flight hours built up before I apply too. To me that seems like I'm cutting it close when the cutoff is 28.

 

[scoobs]

I'm pretty sure the AF is 30 for prior service and 28 for the Navy.

 

[Soku39]

You need to start UPT by 30 in the Air Force no matter who you are.

 

[Andrew_Neal]

Left field: Anybody know anybody who's done the pilot-physician program with the AF?