Yet another Air Force question...

deserteaglle

deserteaglle

New Member
Well, I guess I should ask this here and hope that I can get some good and informed answers. I'm asking here, because since my short stint in the Army I have 0 trust in recruiters. You could say I trust them as far as I can throw them...and believe me I'd love to be given the chance to try.lol

I've given a little bit of thought to the Air Force recently, and was wondering if I could get a few serious questions answered here by people who have nothing to gain from giving me dishonest answers. here goes:

1. What are the qualifications besides a degree to become an officer? The website does not say exactly what the requirements are, but it makes it sound like it takes more than a piece of paper saying you finished a four year degree.

2. Pilot slots. I am not 100% sure that I would apply for a pilot slot. While I still plan on finishing all of my licenses and ratings in the civi world, I have heard how difficut it is to get a pilot slot in the military. I plan on saving while finishing my first two years of college, taking off to finish my ratings, then finish college while instructing, and then possibly going to the AF if it seems to be a prudent avenue. I have seen some other non-pilot jobs with the AF that I would be interested in, but obviously I would love to have a flying position. My thought process though is that if flying is not going to workout financially as well as something non-avtiation I will do the non-aviation gig and fly for fun.

3. That brings me to another question. Will I be able to pick my non-aviation job before signing the papers? I was told by the Army recruiters that I wouldn't be able to pick my job in any other branch of the military, is this true? I would like to know if I could be an AF pilot with my qualifications in advance, and I definitely WOULD NOT want to sign a couple years of my life away thinking I was going to do one thing only to find out there were no openings.

4. And finally, what is the minimum comission time for an Officer?

If you read this the whole way through then I really appreciate it, and if you can answer this for me I'll be even more grateful.

Thanks.
 
1. The only real "qualifications" to become an officer per se is the degree, and to be medically qualified for service. You do have to become "commissioned" however, and there are basically three avenues to do that. The first is the US Air Force Academy, which is a four year program. Basically it's like "college-plus", but there are no ways to take any time off of that four years. This is not really a great option for someone who has already done some college, because regardless of what you've completed you're pretty much doing a full 4 year degree program. The second option is ROTC, which is where the USAF pays for some or all of your college in exchange for service as an officer following college. This may be a viable option if someone has completed some college, but not all of it, because I believe you can get 2 year scholarships as well as the normal 4 year ones. The last avenue is Officer Candidate School. This option is for those who have already completed a 4 year degree on their own, and is usually offered to enlisted members (people who were already in the USAF). It may be possible to go right into the USAF through OCS, but you would have to specifically ask the recruiter about that.

2. Depending on how you enter the service pilot slots are more difficult or less to get. From USAFA (the academy) they were very nearly guaranteed provided you were medically qualified for a number of years. That's still the place to go to have the best chance of getting a slot. Probably second easiest would be ROTC, and then getting progressively more difficult are from OCS, and then from the active duty service at large. As always, the needs of the service dictate the slots, but if you were in the Army then you already know that score. As for the financial side of it, pilots receive flight pay, and most other career fields do not receive that type of a monthly bonus, so chances are you'd make more money in that career field than most other ones.

3. No idea on this question. Proceed with extreme caution here!!

4. Academy required 5 years of service, and I think ROTC was 4. Not sure about OCS. The main factor would more likely be your career training. That would depend on the field you chose, but pilot training is one of, if not THE longest. It's alternated between 8 and 10 years following training. I think it's back at 8 again.
 
fish314 said:
1. The only real "qualifications" to become an officer per se is the degree, and to be medically qualified for service. You do have to become "commissioned" however, and there are basically three avenues to do that. The first is the US Air Force Academy, which is a four year program. Basically it's like "college-plus", but there are no ways to take any time off of that four years. This is not really a great option for someone who has already done some college, because regardless of what you've completed you're pretty much doing a full 4 year degree program. The second option is ROTC, which is where the USAF pays for some or all of your college in exchange for service as an officer following college. This may be a viable option if someone has completed some college, but not all of it, because I believe you can get 2 year scholarships as well as the normal 4 year ones. The last avenue is Officer Candidate School. This option is for those who have already completed a 4 year degree on their own, and is usually offered to enlisted members (people who were already in the USAF). It may be possible to go right into the USAF through OCS, but you would have to specifically ask the recruiter about that.

2. Depending on how you enter the service pilot slots are more difficult or less to get. From USAFA (the academy) they were very nearly guaranteed provided you were medically qualified for a number of years. That's still the place to go to have the best chance of getting a slot. Probably second easiest would be ROTC, and then getting progressively more difficult are from OCS, and then from the active duty service at large. As always, the needs of the service dictate the slots, but if you were in the Army then you already know that score. As for the financial side of it, pilots receive flight pay, and most other career fields do not receive that type of a monthly bonus, so chances are you'd make more money in that career field than most other ones.

3. No idea on this question. Proceed with extreme caution here!!

4. Academy required 5 years of service, and I think ROTC was 4. Not sure about OCS. The main factor would more likely be your career training. That would depend on the field you chose, but pilot training is one of, if not THE longest. It's alternated between 8 and 10 years following training. I think it's back at 8 again.
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To answer the OTS questions. Yes, you can get in from "off the street" for a commission. Standard ADSC is 4 years, more for various training and schools (nav school, etc). OTS slots vary with the needs of the service. As officers are too much, they produce less; too few, they produce more. In the 90s for example, OTS was actually closed for a year or two.
 
Also you have to be physically fit. There are the height/weight standards, as well as the physical fitness test. I saw the entire spectrum when I was in, from the 1.5 mile run with pushups, pullups, situps, and long jump. Then, it was the bike with a 1-5 scale. Then, it was the bike with a percentile rating, and then when I got out 5 years ago, it was back to the bike plus a combination of pushups and situps. Not sure where it is at today. The bike was a joke; my overweight boss passed with a high rating while another guy who was a marathoner failed several times. I was at Brooks when they were drafting the new standards, in part because of situations exactly like those I witnessed when I was in.

As far as a non-aviation job, they used to have slots that, while not a specific job, at least ensured you a specific category prior to committing. I don't know if that is still the case. When I came in, the slots were: Pilot, Navigator, Missileer (which I think now is covered as part of Space Ops), Technical (Engineer), Non-Rated Ops (which used to be AWACS flight crew or something along those lines), and Non-Tech (everything else, which was 90% of the jobs). I knew a guy who got a missile slot and turned it down prior to committing. However, as the bulk of non-aviation jobs were Non-Tech (anything from Supply Officer, Executive Officer, Security Forces, etc) you really still had a wide range you could end up in.
 
So what you're saying is that were one to join the AFROTC and finish a degree while in the AFROTCI would be signed up for 4 years and have a slightly better chance of getting a flying job over someone who walks off the street with their degree?
 
deserteaglle said:
So what you're saying is that were one to join the AFROTC and finish a degree while in the AFROTCI would be signed up for 4 years and have a slightly better chance of getting a flying job over someone who walks off the street with their degree?
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Well, it's all about force projection levels. For the Academy and ROTC, they plan 4 years out, meaning right now, the number of slots available for cadets joining the ROTC and Academy are determined based on the total number of pilots that will be in the service in 2010. They take this number and factor in projected retirements and separations and then look at the total number of aircraft. So, let's say they are projecting needing 450 pilots, and thus, award 450 pilot slots today.

Now, let's say that the economy tanks in 2008 and half of the pilots expected to retire don't (let's assume 300 were projected to retire, so now there are 150 extra pilots in the service). To solve this, they will cut the number of pilot slots from 450 to 300. Then, the F-35 delivery schedule slips, so they will not be procuring the 50 new aircraft expected to arrive in 2010, meaning there will only be 250 slots. So, in 2008, the 2010 year group is now faced with having only 250 slots; 200 pilot slot officer candidates lose their slots. (This happened in my group in 1992, when we went from 36 pilot slots at ERAU to 6 or so.)

Now, 2010 gets here, and 200 pilots retire instead of the projected 150, meaning 50 new slots are open. These slots are available to be filled by anyone, and if they can't find enough people from the active duty (some people have begun reporting to their duty assignments and can't attend UPT), they can open up those slots (which have to be filled) to OTS. But, those slots are only available at the last minute and not planned ahead of time like ROTC and the Academy; it really is a gamble as to whether there are any slots or not.

In 1989, there were tons of pilot slots given out, and we had like 20 some at ERAU among the class of 89 graduates. In 1990, my group had 36 pilot slots and things looked good. By 1992, the drawdown had occurred and as a result, they cut those slots drastically. Further, since the number of slots was so limited, there were no medical or age exemptions given; no 20/20, and not 27 by UPT, and you didn't even have to waste their time with an application package. (And they were even "banking" pilots, meaning you had a pilot slot, but would have to wait 3-4 years before getting into the cockpit and serving that time in a non-flying job.)

However, by the late 90s, they were waivering things left and right, and I know of a dozen people who missed their shots in 1992 picking up a slot after being on active duty in 96 and 97.

It's all cyclical, and no one can tell you now what the force requirements will really be in two or four years. However, there is an equation used to determine how many slots the AFPC will award based on current trends in retirement, procurement, and graduation rates. Since the Academy and ROTC slots are factored using that equation and OTS slots are used to fill the remaining slots unfilled from other sources, you stand a better chance of getting that slot in ROTC or the Academy. But, as was the case in my year group, you may not keep that slot; and as was also the case, OTS that year had only two classes, and if I recall correctly, almost all of those slots were engineer slots, as they had enough people from the Academy and ROTC to fill all the non-tech slots (especially when they had a glut of previous Pilot slot holders who shifted over the non-rated ops and non-tech slots).

I hope that helps.
 
Very helpful Mike, thanks. I guess it's good I'm not dead set on a pilot slot IF I decide to go on to the AF.

Also, I'm not really that interested in a fighter pilot slot...are there more openings for say Airlift pilots? I'd rather be a freight dog outside the AF anyway.
 
Isnt there an age restriction though ? I mean I'm very lucky to be healthy with excellant vision and no medical problems, but I'm 27. I thought I heard that the cutoff for them even considering you for military flying was like age 25.
 
IndianaPilot said:
Isnt there an age restriction though ? I mean I'm very lucky to be healthy with excellant vision and no medical problems, but I'm 27. I thought I heard that the cutoff for them even considering you for military flying was like age 25.
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I don't know what the age restrictions are, but I am 20 and in my first year of college.
 
You can get waivers for just about anything. I think the highest you can get up to is 30? when you enter UPT? I'm not sure, I haven't signed the dotted line yet.
 
I just found this on the Air Froce website,

Pilots incur a ten-year active-duty service commitment
Click to expand...


What I don't understand is that if you aren't guarunteed to have a pilot slot, how can you be expected to sign up for 10 years rather than 4? Does "incur" in this instance mean that you will sign up for 4 years and have to sign again for the extra 6 years to take the slot, or do you just have to sign up for 10 years if you have any aspirations at all of flying?

Six years is a nice little stretch if you're stuck in a job you don't like so much that keeps you from pursuing a civilian aviation career isn't it?
 
When you graduate from pilot training (UPT), you incur a 10 year committment (starting on graduation date) that runs concurrently with the 4 year initial service commitment.
 
MDPilot said:
When you graduate from pilot training (UPT), you incur a 10 year committment (starting on graduation date) that runs concurrently with the 4 year initial service commitment.
Click to expand...

Ahhhhhhhh, that sounds alot better, and sadly I can see a recruiter telling me, "Oh yeah, you're pretty much guarunteed a pilot slot now. Now sign here.":)
 
deserteaglle said:
Well, I guess I should ask this here and hope that I can get some good and informed answers. I'm asking here, because since my short stint in the Army I have 0 trust in recruiters. You could say I trust them as far as I can throw them...and believe me I'd love to be given the chance to try.lol

I've given a little bit of thought to the Air Force recently, and was wondering if I could get a few serious questions answered here by people who have nothing to gain from giving me dishonest answers. here goes:

1. What are the qualifications besides a degree to become an officer? The website does not say exactly what the requirements are, but it makes it sound like it takes more than a piece of paper saying you finished a four year degree.

2. Pilot slots. I am not 100% sure that I would apply for a pilot slot. While I still plan on finishing all of my licenses and ratings in the civi world, I have heard how difficut it is to get a pilot slot in the military. I plan on saving while finishing my first two years of college, taking off to finish my ratings, then finish college while instructing, and then possibly going to the AF if it seems to be a prudent avenue. I have seen some other non-pilot jobs with the AF that I would be interested in, but obviously I would love to have a flying position. My thought process though is that if flying is not going to workout financially as well as something non-avtiation I will do the non-aviation gig and fly for fun.

3. That brings me to another question. Will I be able to pick my non-aviation job before signing the papers? I was told by the Army recruiters that I wouldn't be able to pick my job in any other branch of the military, is this true? I would like to know if I could be an AF pilot with my qualifications in advance, and I definitely WOULD NOT want to sign a couple years of my life away thinking I was going to do one thing only to find out there were no openings.

4. And finally, what is the minimum comission time for an Officer?

If you read this the whole way through then I really appreciate it, and if you can answer this for me I'll be even more grateful.

Thanks.
Click to expand...

Save yourself the trouble and join the Coast Guard instead.
 
IndianaPilot said:
Isnt there an age restriction though ? I mean I'm very lucky to be healthy with excellant vision and no medical problems, but I'm 27. I thought I heard that the cutoff for them even considering you for military flying was like age 25.
Click to expand...

The reg reads something like candidates must begin UPT by their 30th birthday.

But for planning purposes, anyone wanting to fly for the AF should be interviewing at approximately 28 1/2 or younger because of the shear amount of waiting you do while your package is processed and then waiting done when your package is approved and you get a number slot for training. So, at 27, get applying son!! You don't have much more time! I got a slot at 27 and was told I would have had to gotten a slot by the next year to have hope of making it. Problem being that most AF organizations hire for the next fiscal year.
 
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