What are the chances

[adamleeanp]

I've tried talking to any and every AF person I can find, short of stopping people on the street (which i have done in some cases) what are the chances on getting into UTP after college. I have a 3.8 GPA, my A&P license, almost done with my Private Pilots License, good community service record, and am going to the CITADEL. Am I missing anything??? I would love some advice from anyone that has just finished UTP or has done it right after ROTC. Thanks a lot

Signed,
One nail chewing, wannabe/hope to be pilot

 

[galaxy5]

adamleeanp,

Are you in ROTC at the Citadel? Those would be the first people I'd talk to out there. I think your chances of getting a pilot slot (at UPT, not UTP) would be better through ROTC then to graduate and apply to OTS.

Good luck.

 

[GasPasser]

Go Guard. Forget AD USAF. With the force drawdown they are going to cut way back on UPT slots, many will end up in UAVs. Do a google on BRAC, find out who are the ones going to UAVs or loosing their airplanes and chase the others. For ANG leads go to Baseops.net Good luck.

 

[Deuce130]

I've tried talking to any and every AF person I can find, short of stopping people on the street (which i have done in some cases) what are the chances on getting into UTP after college. I have a 3.8 GPA, my A&P license, almost done with my Private Pilots License, good community service record, and am going to the CITADEL. Am I missing anything??? I would love some advice from anyone that has just finished UTP or has done it right after ROTC. Thanks a lot

Signed,
One nail chewing, wannabe/hope to be pilot

For someone who goes to a military school, you sure don't seem to know much about getting into UPT. Have you tried to talking to the AF ROTC people at your school??

 

[CX880]

My neighbor in an airline flight turned out to be an AF academy junior. He said that most of the pilots in the military are from the military academies. There's very little chance for Rotc and OTs guys, they get the crumbs left over from slots the academy guys don't want. Expect to fly a desk for a few years. Sounds like you're a smart guy but sometimes we can't have everything in life, there's nothing wrong with civilian flying. I went through ROTC for 1 year in HS. Found that there is very little chance of making it as a military pilot and left ROTC after that.

 

[Deuce130]

Not exactly true. While it's true AFA cadets get a greater amount of slots allocated, there are slots allocated specifically for ROTC and OTS, slots that are designated before Academy grads have a chance to turn them down. Noone is getting anyone else's crumbs. It's too bad it didn't work out for you, but I wouldn't advise anyone to give up after 1 year of HS ROTC. Starting as a 9th grader, that's at least a 9 year journey to AF UPT, a long time to make things happen.

 

[jstock]

I'm upset to find out that my pilot slot was just the "crumbs" that the AFA didn't want:bawling: .

The fact is that this last year AFROTC had more pilot slots than the AFA. I would agree that you would be best getting it out of the citadel. Probably a higher chance through there than OTS. Usually AFROTC alots 500ish slots a year. Basically the top half.

Best of luck

 

[SIG600]

The proverbial "what are my chances...."

Dude no one can tell you definitivley what your chances are. The best thing you can do is apply to everyone you think you'd want to fly for (branches, guard, reserve, etc.) and pray to get accepted. Then enjoy the ride with where ever you go, cuz nothing you fly in the military is gonna suck.

 

[psysicx]

Is AD that bad? It must be nice to that retirement check in your forties.

 

[Jafar]

My neighbor in an airline flight turned out to be an AF academy junior. He said that most of the pilots in the military are from the military academies. There's very little chance for Rotc and OTs guys, they get the crumbs left over from slots the academy guys don't want. Expect to fly a desk for a few years. Sounds like you're a smart guy but sometimes we can't have everything in life, there's nothing wrong with civilian flying. I went through ROTC for 1 year in HS. Found that there is very little chance of making it as a military pilot and left ROTC after that.

I would disregard just about everything in the above paragraph. Most of the pilots in the military ARE NOT from military academies. If all you are looking at is shear numbers in the definition of "most" then most military pilots are warrant officers in the Army. Furthermore, most pilots in the Air Force now come from AFROTC, as jstock just stated. AFROTC has an overall pilot acceptance rate of around 65%. OTS is more competitive, but still accepts over 50% of they're pilot applicants on average. The Marines have the highest percentage of officers who are pilots (per capita), and most of them come from the PLC program. I'm not sure what the deal is with the navy but I'm certain the vast majority of their aviators are not academy grads. I'm confident I'll have a slot in the next 6 months and I sure as hell didn't graduate from any academy. In my unit, I'd say less than 20% of the pilots did. Follow your dreams. Don't let this type of misguided information send you astray.