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Coast Guard Aviation

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SmellsLikeAvGas

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 17, 2004
Posts
45
Hello everyone:
I know I've been on a couple times inquiring, so I apologize in advance, but I am now waiting for the board to meet at the end of the month to decide my fate regarding Coast Guard OCS, and have plenty of time to think of questions!
Little background.. BA in History 3.1 GPA, Private, Instrument Rating (SEL,) experience in other areas of civilian aviation (i.e. Maint, QA..) 25 yr old female (not that the last one should matter..) with my prime goal in life to fly for the Coast Guard... application package is all in.

Ok, my questions.. I know that if you're in OCS, you apply sometime mid training for the position you desire (in my case, flight school,) and that it's SUPER competitive, and is always based on how many flight slots are available.. but my new question is, do you know how many slots are open for fixed wing v. heli, or do they just choose for flight school at large? Flying SAR and iceberg watch in a C-130 is what I want to do.. what are the odds that that's what they need to fill classes for? Also, if you ARE selected for flight school, but get heli, is there any chance to transition over to fixed wing at a later time? Do they take pilot ratings into account, and think it'd make sense to put someone with civ. airplane time into an airplane instead of a helicopter? Just trying to get as much info about this as I can. Thanks!!
 
OK, Here goes....There are X amount of slots each OCS class gets. They are just flight school, not helos or fixed wing. Considering we have three helo types(about to have two as soon as the HH-65C re-engining is complete) and two fixed wing types, you have a good shot of flying fixed wing. Personally I would not want to fly fixed wing but they are great support aircraft. If you get helos, there is limited opportunity down the line to transition. Most who do are Aeronautical Engineers who are needed at the unit but some others transition also. As far as getting these flight school slots, if you don't get on in OCS you can reapply at your first duty station and the majority of our pilots are accessed this way if they are not DCAs(Direct Commission Aviators-pilots from other services such as myself). What you will fly coming out of flight school depends on grades, flight performance and, of course, the needs of the service. I don't know why you would want to circle over a sinking boat at 5000 ft and monitor the helo crew but like I said, they are great support aircraft and the helos could not do their job without fixed wing support. When we were broke on the boat in the Bering Sea, it was great to see them drop us parts to get us back up and running. Hope this helps. Feel free to drop an e-mail.
 
CG pilot was pretty much dead on but I wanted to add to the following.

"Considering we have three helo types(about to have two as soon as the HH-65C re-engining is complete) and two fixed wing types, you have a good shot of flying fixed wing."

Strictly playing the odds, you have a greater chance of getting into a helicopter than a fixed wing but with class rankings, needs of the Coast Guard etc. the odds get scewed.

Broken down the Coast Guard has 123 helicopters performing the mission and 42 fixed wing aircraft performing missions. (There are more fixed and rotary but they are either in storage or in depot level maintenace so I didn't count them)

So your have three times more of a chance to go rotary wing than fixed. If you are going purely by odds.
 
Why not try for the coast guards Blue 21 program. If you get in under that program you go to officer training and are guaranteed flight training. Its up to you to pass of course. I was interested in it but decided to go air force and now I am currently waiting to start OTS in Jan.
 
"Why not try for the coast guards Blue 21 program"

I already looked in to that.. The college I went to didn't qualify by having enough minorities (ironic, seeing as one thing they bragged about was how diverse they were.)

I wonder if I took some grad classes at a school that did qualify would count? Has that ever worked for anyone? Just brainstorming....
 

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