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Coast Guard looking for more aviators

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ck130

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 27, 2001
Posts
45
Greetings All,

Just a heads up for those of you that might be interested, the Coast Guard is holding another selection board for direct commission aviators.

For helo bubbas you need at least 500 hours and for fixed wingers you need at least 1000 hours in something other than training aircraft.

Fixed wing guys, especially C-130's, will probably be in high demand on this next board.

The board should be some time in early spring so don't take too long to think it over, the application package can take a little while to get together.


Good Luck,

CK130
 
Website says not over the age 31 at time of selection.

Anyone know it they will issue a waiver on the 20/50 uncorrectable vision requirement?
 
RedDogC130 said:
I wish they had reserve aviation units
Click to expand...

If they did they wouldn't need any direct commission aviators. Same thing with bonuses.

As far as medicals, the CG will waive just about any requirement when they need bodies. That said, they may not waive something on the initial application, but again, if they don't get enough applicants they might. The only way to know for sure is to apply, both for the program and for the waiver.

Go to a CG flight surgeon somewhere and get the flight physical from them. If they are willing to waive the eyesight you would know up front. It might take some time to work through the paperwork, so you would need to do it ASAP. If you miss one board deadline, get your ducks in a row for the next one.

I went through Navy flight school in '84 (as a CG officer) and back then the Navy wouldn't let pilots in who had less than 20/20. The CG did. So several of my CG classmates went through Navy flight training wearing glasses.

Bottom line, if they need bodies, they will waive just about anything.

Good luck.

FJ
 
Does the Coast Guard have an interocular pressure ("puff of air test") standard? If so, anybody known to have waivers on that?

A buddy of mine in high school was being recruited heavily by the USCGA; he was a 5-time state champion in swimming and wanted to be a Rescue Swimmer. Unfortunately, he was medically DQ'd because he had been diagnosed with asthma as a 4-year old...despite being the state high school champion in the one mile freestyle.
 
The point is do not admit to anything, let them find it. They do not check your previous medical records.
 
I'm a former C-130 guy. Now doing C-12s in Corpus. I've always been interested in this but last summer was told I'm too old for a waiver (I'll be 35 next month). Do you see them being that desperate? And what's this about being knocked down to an
O-2? Is that still in effect?
 
Safesix,

The Coast Guard needs pilots for all our platforms, but the Herc is probably hurting the most right now so if anyone would get some slack on waivers it would be a Herc driver. Bottomline apply and see how it goes.

As for the O-2 thing that is still a fact of life. The reason being our promotion boards cannot consider anything but CG fitreps (OERs). In the past folks that came in as O-3s came up for the O-4 promotion board and only had a handfull of OERs to look at and ended up getting past over and booted out. To avoid all that the Coast Guard makes you an 0-2 so you have enough time to build a Coast Guard service record so you will compete well for O-4 and beyond.

Hope this helps...

Good Luck,

CK130
 
Bingo,

While we do see quite a few guys moving from rotors to fixed wing it usually doesn't happen the other way. That is probably due to the fact that not many fixed wing guys ask for it.

That being said I do know a handful of guys that have done it. However, because you are currently a FW guy you would more than likely stay in that community for at least your first couple of tours.

Good Luck,

CK130
 
Is this a deal for former military pilots who are already qualified on a type they fly, or is this for any of us regional pukes who are looking for something different?

Can a guy with a few thousand hours of airline time and no military background apply?
 
Sorry....I guess I should have said that up front. This a program for guys that are already rated military aviators.
 
Bengalsfan,

I'm not sure why you would want to, in fact the question alone makes you suspect at best :).....but yeah they are still putting guys into the Falcon even though that airframe is going away in the next few years. It is being replaced by the HC-144A (CASA 235-300M)

CK130
 
Yeah, shows my knowledge of the Coast Guard. :)

I've got 3 years left in the AF, and couldn't take the demotion, but it would be a nice way to get some corporate jet time for the future... I don't know what a CASA 235-300/HC-144 is... I'm just an AF puke

Have a good one... I wish we had the bases you guys have, and the deployment rates :)
 
ck130 said:
Bengalsfan,

I'm not sure why you would want to, in fact the question alone makes you suspect at best :).....but yeah they are still putting guys into the Falcon even though that airframe is going away in the next few years. It is being replaced by the HC-144A (CASA 235-300M)

CK130
Click to expand...

Do you have any idea what will happen to those birds once they are decomishioned? I wonder if they will be available for purchase on the civil market?
 
Exactly which services fixed wing pilots are they trying to get? With an age restriction of 31, the USCG has ruled out any AF pilots (10 year commitment after wings) or Navy/USMC Aviators (8 year commitment after wings) to apply for the program. So basically the only ones left are the Army fixed wing pilots.
 
Not exactly true. We just picked up fixed wing pilots from every service. the AF and Navy are both looking for ways to shrink the roles and are willing to give conditional releases depending on the case.
 
sardaddy said:
Not exactly true. We just picked up fixed wing pilots from every service. the AF and Navy are both looking for ways to shrink the roles and are willing to give conditional releases depending on the case.
Click to expand...


Roger. Didnt know that the Navy let anyone out of their initial commitment. I myself have never seen this happen.
 
ck130 said:
Bengalsfan,

I'm not sure why you would want to, in fact the question alone makes you suspect at best :).....but yeah they are still putting guys into the Falcon even though that airframe is going away in the next few years. It is being replaced by the HC-144A (CASA 235-300M)

CK130
Click to expand...
Why does the CG more often than not buy foreign aircraft?
 
Because the people who run acquisitions in DC are a bunch of true amateurs who are only interested in doing things on the super cheap.

FJ
 
I'm current in the C-130. Can I go over from the Navy Reserves and keep my O-4 paycheck?:cool:

Oh yeah - I'm 37 too.
 
Papyco said:
Exactly which services fixed wing pilots are they trying to get? With an age restriction of 31, the USCG has ruled out any AF pilots (10 year commitment after wings) or Navy/USMC Aviators (8 year commitment after wings) to apply for the program. So basically the only ones left are the Army fixed wing pilots.
Click to expand...

One target audience is the Army Warrant Officer, fixed or helo. There you have a highly experienced pilot force, and plenty have enough time without hitting the age restrictions or 10 yr AD limit. Zip them from CWO2 or CWO3 to O-2, hey there's a big promotion right off the bat.
 
three answers

Fins up: No. You will have to accept O-2. As for the age, maybe you could get a waiver but that is really pushing it.


TXDanno: Warrant officers come into the Coast Guard as O-1s not O-2s.

As a DCA myself and as a former instructor at the school house, I can honestly say that "highly experienced" is subjective. I have seen hot shot (enter any service here) pilots that have come over to the Coast Guard and fail miserably unable to conduct our mission. I have also seen some that came over and could not handle the different (more relaxed) atmosphere and go back to their services and excel. But more often than not, the prior experience does help pilots quickly learn the new mission.
 
I'd have to be a stinkin', dirty, sweathog JG ?!?! Forget it. hehe
 
How strict are the vision requirements? Do they give you any gurantee of a flight slot or anything? I graduate in May and would like to fly in the Coast Guard, but thought my vision would always stop me from doing that.
 
TO: The DCA program is for guys who have completed military flight training with the other services and are interested in joining the CG.

It sounds like you are in college, so if you want to join the CG you would need to talk to a recruiter and apply to Officer Candidate School (OCS). OCS is an approx 4 month school to learn how to be military and tell time in 24 hours instead of 12.

During OCS you could apply for flight school, and you might get it, or you might end up in some other CG billet as an O-1 (Ensign). You could continue to apply for flight training as long as you cared to if you didn't get in right away, until you hit the max age (which you never know, it could be waived too). You would have an obligated service commitment from OCS, which I'd guess is 5 years, it could be more, could be less, I don't know. (I retired almost 6 years ago and I was an Academy puke. I'm sure things have changed since I left.)

You should also realize that a pilot in the military is an officer first (lots of paperwork and other BS to put up with, you will be expected to do other, non flying duties) and doesn't involve as much actual flight time as you might wish. There are certainly benefits and it is a rewarding career, but remember the SERVICE aspect of being in a military service.

Anyway, if you are interested in OCS, you should make sure you get your entrance physical from a CG flight surgeon and make sure that you are physically qualified for flight training if that is the only type of job in the CG you would be happy with. That way you would know going in if you were eligible for flight training, and any waivers for vision (which the CG is fairly lenient with when the need pilots) that you might need would have been granted in advance.

There is still a chance that you wouldn't ever get flight training (even with all the physical aspects taken care of) because it is a competitive process that you can't control (other than to perform well in OCS and at whatever job you end up in at your initial unit) and might take several attempts to get through. There is some risk of never getting into flight training and having to serve as ship board officer until your commitment is up.

It is definitely worth pursuing, but make sure you get with a current, fairly junior CG pilot who has gone that route to get their ideas on the whole process.

Good luck.

FJ
 
Coast Guard Reserves - Aviation.

Word on the street is that USCGR aviation may be in the works (once again) but this time on a much more limited scale. It will be stood up to augment the FITU at NAS Pensacola. The idea behind the reserves is that it will free up the AD component to do missions that require higher currency than IP's at P-cola. This movement along with the DCA program are ways for the CG to ease the pain of the current flight crew staffing shortage.

The CG "O" guys have requested this with the "R" guys.... just waiting on the funding side of it to come through.

Anybody else got the gouge on this... Whats the latest?
 

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