Coast Guard Pilot Facts????

[13579ms]

I recently saw on the CG website that you can fly with up to 20/200 eyesight that is corrected 20/20. Thas good. But I want to know is it true that you have to wait a few years behind a desk just waiting for flight school? Thanks for the feedback.

 

[HueyPilot]

USCG

Last I heard (this was about 3 years ago), if you went to the USCGA, you could go to pilot training shortly after your commission. If you did the OCS thing, it was alot more common to get a non-aviation assignment first, and try to get into pilot training later. The other option if you want to fly Coast Guard is to fly for the Army for 6 years, then do the DCA program (Direct Commission Aviator).

I would have liked to have flown for the Coast Guard, but I never thought about the Academy, and I didn't want to get a ground assignment. And after spending 3 years flying for the Army Guard, I didn't have enough flight time to get a DCA slot (you need about 1,000 hours TT to be competitive). So instead I went Air Force and got out of the helo business.

I'd check it out first before you take my word for things.

 

[ck130]

If you go the academy route you have to spend 2 years aboard ship after graduating(as well as get a lobotomy). If you go to OCS there are usually 3-5 slots for flight school out of a class of about 60. These guys/gals go straight to flight school after getting their commission. Everyone else goes to a variety of jobs. Flight school boards are held several times a year and pick up around 25-30 people. You can begin applying as soon as you get to your first unit. Most people get picked up within 1-2 years. Hope this helps.

Fly Safe

ck130

 

[HueyPilot]

I was right! In that you should check other sources. Most of mine was gouge I got from other Army guys trying to do the switch, but I did have a pretty good idea that going OCS would have been tough to produce a pilot slot.

Good luck with the Coast Guard.

 

[80drvr]

I was right! In that you should check other sources. Most of mine was gouge I got from other Army guys trying to do the switch, but I did have a pretty good idea that going OCS would have been tough to produce a pilot slot.

Good luck with the Coast Guard.

Actually, OCS wasn't that hard to get a pilot slot. Remember, that the CG is a diverse service and only a fraction of the 60 in a class came in with the desire to fly. Many classes have 10-12 flight school slots on the high end. If there are more applicants that billets, those people are usually picked up for flight school within a year. At times they have guaranteed aviation, but I don't know if they're doing that now.

The Academy grads are required to do their first tour on a ship and usually do at least 18 months before getting picked of for flight school.

 

[Sonic Cruzer]

keep the GPA up (not that I didn't try)

I lived and breathed CG Aviation in college. I racked up a lot of time flying under CG Orders with the CG Auxiliary and training as a watchstander at a CG Sta. I had recomendations from the CO, XO and Ops Officers of the air station I flew and trained with. They all told me I'd be a shoe in for a flying slot straight out of OCS. Just before I graduated I went to a recruiter to get a jump on the paperwork. He shot me down on my GPA. Everything else aside, he showed me a reg that requires a 3.0 GPA (which I didn't have) to get into OCS, gave me the damaged goods treatment and simply said, "Sorry, Have a nice day."

Instead I got on with a major aerospace company and began aplying for a reserve upt slot with a branch of the armed forces where the "whole person" concept means just that.

I don't have any animosity for the CG, indeed I still fly for them as an auxiliarist, but I think that recruiter could have been a bit more tactful.

Best of Luck & Semper Paratus

 

[HueyPilot]

Well, I'm glad I didn't try that route....

I had a 2.85 with a degree in Geology....lots of calculus and other stuff. I guess they would have overlooked the fact that I was an honor graduate of a military pilot training school and that I had lots of leadership experience as a warrant officer! That would have just made me mad. I'd think the Coast Guard is overlooking some great people with such narrow standards. Most of the better pilots I know weren't the 3.9 GPA aeronautical engineers in school....

 

[SaabStory]

3.0 GPA?? I don't know about that one?. Anyway, CGA=Afloat tour first, then most go to P'Cola if they want it. OCS=a few slots outta 60 or so. I went to a staff tour in Wash D.C. first (9 months), played golf, drank beer, had mucho fun before wearing sunscreen in the Florida panhandle. Coast Guard aviation is a very, very good job. Best of luck.