How To?

[Cowboypilot]

My 16yo son asked me how to become an Air Force pilot. The only thing I could tell him was it took a degree to be able to get into flight training. I told him I would check into it. So here I am.
Myself, I'm a 14,000 hr corporate pilot with no military experience.
Thanks in advance.
Scott

 

[stonewall]

Do good in school. If he has the grades and extracurriculars now, get him to go to his guidance counselor and ask about applying to the Air Force Academy. If that ain't for him, tell him to start looking into ROTC scholarships now. If he doesn't get a ROTC scholarship, that's okay. Tell him to join AF ROTC when he gets to college. All those will point him in the right direction.

For now? Grades, grades, grades.

 

[RickKC-135]

I have to second what Magnum said. Good grades will get farther than anything else however here are a few more thing that will go along way. The Air Force academy loves and wants people who have shown leadership. There is a very high percentage of young men who were Eagle Scouts. This is a very good way to demonstrate leadership at a young age. Additionally, things like being a leader of some other organization like church groups, small projects, athletics etc. I have known lots of guys who got into the AF Academy and several who have not. In the cases who did not get in, it was always one of three things, gades too low, didn't take enough of the hard classes, or didn't show enough leadership.

As for an AFROTC scholarship, that is the route I took. When giving out these, the AF looks for the exact same stuff as above.

Once you're in the AF academy or ROTC, then it's just a matter of being one of the best out of your class by demonstrating the above; grades and leadership. Addtionally, it's not a requirement, but technical degrees are prefered i.e. engineering, math, and science. I was told, years ago by a general in charge of ROTC; it's not that a techniocal degree is require to fly an air plane, it's just that the degree shows a higher level of academic dedication. Which translates into better study habits and higher probability of UPT comletion.

 

[Cowboypilot]

Thanks, I'll print and show him.

 

[gcsass]

Also overlooked is the ANG/USAFR. Check into any local units and start talking to their recruiters. They will take him from the ground up as far as OCS and Pilot Training goes. You are not limited by geography in this, he can apply to units all over the country or target certain aircraft. As the others have mentioned grades, grades, grades. PM me if you would like a little more info on the guard/reserves.

 

[pilotyip]

Look at all options

Have him expand his options, go for the Navy, USMC, even Army option also. He can always turn it down if he gets an offer from the USAF. If he dosen't want to be a Navy pilot then he really does not want to fly airplanes. By this I mean if his choices are USAF pilot or nothing, he can not be too far into flying airplanes. This subject has been gone over a bunch of times; you can do a search. Remember you do not join the military service to fly, you join to serve your country to fulfill the needs of the President by flying. You serve at the pleasure of the President. No matter what you think of the President you will do his bidding. You will not fly that much in the Military unless you go to a conflict. There is tons of office duties and family separation. In 11 years of Navy Active duty I got 2,500 hours, 800 of it in 6 months during Vietnam, then averaged under 200 hrs a year. I was gone from home for nearly 4 years. Saw my wife and son from about about 11 months in three years. If you go into fly, you will have a 10-11 year obligation, which as an officer will include at least 3-4 years of not flying and doing office duties, or standing phone watches at a command center evening and weekends. Or inthe Navy floating around on a boat not flying. It is not a lot of flying.

 

[Mongoose69]

My $0.02

Have him expand his options, go for the Navy, USMC, even Army option also. He can always turn it down if he gets an offer from the USAF. If he dosen't want to be a Navy pilot then he really does not want to fly airplanes. By this I mean if his choices are USAF pilot or nothing, he can not be too far into flying airplanes. This subject has been gone over a bunch of times; you can do a search.

I've got to disagree here. There is a HUGE difference between flying in the AF and flying in the Army. I joined the AF becaused I wanted to fly fighters and I didn't want to live on a boat for 6 months at a time. That pretty much left me with one choice. If the boy wants to fly for the AF, then don't settle for something he doesn't want to do just because it's another option.

Remember you do not join the military service to fly, you join to serve your country to fulfill the needs of the President by flying. You serve at the pleasure of the President. No matter what you think of the President you will do his bidding. You will not fly that much in the Military unless you go to a conflict. There is tons of office duties and family separation. <sic>

Again, I've got to disagree. The only reason I joined the AF was to fly. (Again, one of those reasons that I didn't sign up for any other service) Yes I serve my country proudly, but that is a given. Just like all the other junk you will find people going on and on about if you do do a search on this topic. I think some folks on here have a bad habit of getting on a high horse when someone asks this type of question. Some people just love to fly, and will take the rest (deployments, long hours, etc...) as the price of admission to flying the greatest aircraft in the known universe. The bottom line is, sit down with your son and figure out what he _really_ wants to do, short term and long term. Then, when you have a goal, you make your plan to get there, with as many different options and contingincies as you can come up with.

soapbox/off

Jason

"A goal without a plan is nothing but a dream"
-Capt Trevor Gray III

 

[coolyokeluke]

Do good in school.

I'd also encourage him to do well in school. Sorry, couldn't help it. All the other advice is valid as well.

 

[pilotyip]

Only looking at options

Mongoose69, true if he wants to be USAF, by all means go for it, But not everyone will be as cool or skilled as you or as good as you to get fighters in the USAF, they might go USAF and fly C-130's, or oh my gad! Heloes. Second class citizens who cannot be USAF fighter pilots drift off into the other services and struggle to get by knowing they are second class citizens. Are you recommending if that happens to him he should drop out of flying? Is that what you are recommending? I was only giving the opinion of keeping all your options open, which I still think is a good idea. You will also have to admit you do not fly much compared to your civilian counter parts. I see resumes from 20 year military pilots, they average around 4000 hours for their 20 years, that is about 200 hr per year average the same as I flew except combat. So if someone is joining the military to build up flight time they may be disappointed.

 

[stonewall]

I'd also encourage him to do well in school. Sorry, couldn't help it. All the other advice is valid as well.

0130 knee-deep in jack and cokes. Wasn't thinking about my grammar. Couldn't help it, huh? Nice.

 

[Mongoose69]

Mongoose69, true if he wants to be USAF, by all means go for it, But not everyone will be as cool or skilled as you or as good as you to get fighters in the USAF, they might go USAF and fly C-130's, or oh my gad! Heloes. Second class citizens who cannot be USAF fighter pilots drift off into the other services and struggle to get by knowing they are second class citizens. Are you recommending if that happens to him he should drop out of flying? Is that what you are recommending? I was only giving the opinion of keeping all your options open, which I still think is a good idea. You will also have to admit you do not fly much compared to your civilian counter parts. I see resumes from 20 year military pilots, they average around 4000 hours for their 20 years, that is about 200 hr per year average the same as I flew except combat. So if someone is joining the military to build up flight time they may be disappointed.

This is the crap that I'm talking about. Do I care what other people fly or how they feel about what they fly? No. Do I care that I might ONLY get 4000 fighter hours in 20 years, instead of 10000 autopilot point to point hours in some commuter BE-whatever? No. I joined because I wanted to fly fighters, and I got that wish. I am happier than a pig in $hit and that is what I tell folks when they ask about what I do. Just because someone can't/won't/didn't get to fly fighters, they shouldn't try to turn someone else off from wanting to do the same.

One of my best friends in pilot training came to me halfway through Tweets. "Jason", he said "I can't make up my mind". "Part of me wants to fly fighters, but part of me isn't sure if I can hack it or even wants to be part of that lifestyle." "What should I do?" As far as I can tell, there are 3 types of people in the world, and here is what they would have said:

1) (If he's not sure, then he shouldn't fly fighters and take a spot from someone who is sure) "Don't do it dude"

2) (If he decided not to try for a fighter, that's one more slot for me) "Don't do it dude"

3) (Flying a fighter has got to be the coolest thing in the universe, and I think everyone should get a shot at doing that) "Dude, if you at least don't try for it, you'll never know if you could hack it or if you would like it. Go for it!"

I chose #3, he got a fighter (not necessarily just because of what I said), and now is an F-16 IP.

Sorry for the rant, but I get tired of reading all of the "you should join to serve, not just to fly" and "if you REALLY want to fly, you should be happy flying a cargo plane full of rubber you-know-what out of Hong Kong". I honestly don't know how I would have felt if I hadn't gotten to fly a fighter, but I'm sure "seriously disappointed" would have been close to the mark. I guess I'm just not up to everyone elses' standards...

Jason

 

[Wolf King]

nevermind

 

[frog_flyer]

i got some great advice from someone recently ( i think on here?)

you'll always be able to fly heavies when you get out.

fly the fighters while you have the chance!


I'll fly whatever the air force wants me to and i'll love every minute of it! ... and the hundreds of hours of desking in between those minutes!

 

[pilotyip]

Thanks Jason I am sure we all feel better now. We go back to the start of this thread, the guy did not say his son wanted to be a fighter pilot in the USAF. However it seems you assume everyone wants to be like you, you know that is not the case. I am very happy that you are very happy. Everyone should be happy, life is much easier that way. But you can not define anyone elses's happiness. If guy wanted to fly "rubber stuff out of Hong Kong", then more power to him. Keep up the good work and I wish you the best. BTW the Navy will keep the sea lanes open for you so your fighters cna be supported overseas. They will do it with SSN's, P-3s and CVN's

 

[stonewall]

Someone had a post over on PPW, the new site. He seemed to think every thread here, no matter how it started, degenerated into name-calling and my co*k is bigger than your co*k. Wonder how he came up with that?

Three posts into trying to help some kid, people are critiquing grammer and starting the fighter/heavy stuff. No help to the original poster. FI is starting to suck.