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I can't tell you what will happen either. Guineapig has ample reason to fear the worse. That being said, at a recent professional development day off from droning (read drinking and smoking cigars) the newer 18xers seemed quite content to continue to stay in the career field. Hopefully that echoes true for the foreseeable future. I'm done though. Peace Creech.

Bases seem to be randomly assigned apart from ENJJPT which is boarded if I recall correctly. That being said, I've heard of dudes getting assigned a base they didn't want and then finding someone else who had the base they wanted while the other person wanted their base, so they emailed AFPC with their names and desire to do a one for one switch and the request was accommodated. Not sure if that's still a thing

I'll echo the above sentiments. I too got picked up on that board, and it seems like my strong points mirrored his. I'm also a rated guy and DG'd my training program, have my PPL, didn't get the best wing strat as far as application packages are concerned, but I had a 99 PCSM and a 97 Pilot AFOQT. So it seems to me that's the common theme, as well as as the fact that most of the people that got picked up come from rated backgrounds. If you don't have good AFOQT scores, go get a study guide and retake it. Then retake the TBAS if you need to, build some flight hours, and your PCSM should shoot up pretty high. I also have an ETP, but for a medical issue. So between the two of us, shoot questions our way if you got em.

Just had a guy in my squadron get released back to the C-5. He drives to Dover this Friday.

You'll barely have time for one of those programs, so no, you can't be on both the Flying Team and Wings of Blue. The only person I know of that did something similar to that was one of my competition teammates on the Wings of Blue was also a member of the Boxing team. But he was a freak among men. I still don't know how he had the time and stamina to do both. As for being a soaring IP, I'm not saying don't do it, but my personal advice is stick to something with the word "team" in it. So if you become a Soaring IP, try to get on the Acro or Cross Country "team" within the Soaring side of the house. The reason I say that is most soaring IPs I knew thought it was cool for the first couple months and then didn't really enjoy it much after that and told me they were always a bit envious of the camaraderie that was shared among those of us on the Wings of Blue. And here's a hint- Being on any of those teams really shouldn't be about the activity. Yeah skydiving all the time was cool, but it was my teammates that made it awesome. The stuff we were doing was just icing on the cake.

Not exactly. USAFA is your best chance at getting a pilot slot if you want to talk strictly about odds. Put it to you this way, the Academy by itself gets about the same number of pilot slots for one class that the whole country's ROTC class gets. So if you want to all but guarantee a pilot slot, go to USAFA. HOWEVER- once you get to UPT, you're competing on the same level playing field as everyone else- ROTC, OTS, and USAFA. Your diploma from USAFA isn't going to help you or give you a leg up on your peers in UPT who are also trying for a fighter slot. Since your goal here is to become a pilot, your degree won't really help you or hurt you. You'll take enough core engineering classes at USAFA regardless of your major that will "shape your mind" around techy subjects, so major in whatever you like. Everyone graduates with a Bachelor of Science, whether you major in Philosophy (and yes, that's a major at USAFA now) or Physics. That being said, if you have any aspirations to become a Test Pilot at some point in your career, you'll need to have majored in engineering. So keep that in mind when choosing... I knew a few homeschooled dudes there and they didn't seem to have any advantage/disadvantage. You're either a bro to your peers or you aren't. Be humble, help out your classmates, and don't take things too seriously. If you plan on trying to make the Flying Team, finish your PPL. I'm not saying you can't go to USAFA without a PPL and still find the time to get it before Flying Team tryouts, but I'm saying you can't go to USAFA without a PPL and still find the time to get it before Flying Team tryouts. And if you're like me and didn't find the time to finish it before I went, feck it. Try out for the Wings of Blue instead. As a former team member, we had the most fun of anyone at the academy, and no one will ever convince me otherwise. Ever. At this point, you're getting a little ahead of yourself. First, manage your expectations. Dropping a raptor or strike eagle out of UPT isn't just about how bad you want it or how hard you work. Timing is everything. Go check the most recent UPT drop out of Vance on another thread on this website, and you'll see that only one person in the class got a fighter which happened to be an F-16. When you graduate UPT, you're at the mercy of the needs of the Air Force. If they don't need any raptor pilots at the moment, then no one in that class will drop a raptor, even if the number 1 graduate listed F-22 as their number 1 pick. That's just the way it is. But to answer your question, start developing a solid work and study ethic. Lame answer, I know, but that's what will get you through any rated training program better than anything you can study or work on now. If you're talking about percentages, the Navy has the highest percentage of fighter pilots. So decide if you want to live on an aircraft carrier for a significant portion of your life. No thanks... Is it possible? Yes. Should that be your goal from the start? No. Every service academy class has a few of their graduates that cross commission in to a different service branch, but I wouldn't bank on it. If you drop a heavy out of UPT, you're flying heavies for the rest of your career. Have there been exceptions to that rule in the history of the Air Force? Sure. But those instances are few and far between. So the straight answer to that is no, you cannot cross train to fighters after entering the heavy world. That being said, don't knock it before you try it. I have plenty of friends that fly something starting with a "C" that wanted fighters originally but that now love their aircraft and are glad they fly it. Hope that helps man. You're welcome to PM me if you have any other questions. I don't come close to having all the answers and much is to be gained on this forum from folks wiser than me, but I'll pass on whatever I can to help you out. We've all been there in one way or another...

Do that. Don't list anything but pilot unless you want anything but pilot

My 2 cents: I live in Summerlin. It's been a nice part of town for a while and it keeps getting better. The Downtown Summerlin area was completed about a year and a half ago- cool new area with lots of awesome restaurants and stores. Couple that with the Boca Park business area and you really can't get bored. Yeah its on the other side of Vegas from Nellis, but put it to you this way: I'm stationed at Creech which is much farther than Nellis and I've never once regretted living here during my commute to work.

Yeah I think thats what YoungnDumb was getting at. Usually around 500 slots and only about 550 of the 1000 member class wants a slot. So odds are pretty good. My experience with this a few short years ago was that everyone that wanted a slot pretty much got one. The only people that didn't get one were literally at the bottom of the class and wouldn't have gotten one even if the whole class wanted one. We can agree to disagree, but I would maintain that (almost) guaranteeing a pilot slot is at least one of the main reasons to go. Don't suck, try a little, don't get caught with beer and freshmen in your room and you'll get a pilot slot at usafa. I had a blast there, but as previously alluded, I spent most of my time at the airfield.

For what it's worth, I know you specifically asked about ANG units, but the reserve squadrons that augment our active squadrons in our ops group at Creech send their new guys to UPT before going through any RPA related training. In fact, a friend of mine in one of those squadrons was picked up by that unit to fly MQ-9s, went to UPT, and then did an MC-12 tour before going to the MQ-9. Not the most desirable manned tour, I get it, but it seems that they still treat their members as actual pilots in some respects with regard to career progression. But I'll agree with what others are saying in this thread. RPAs are 1) in VERY high demand as I'm sure you're aware and 2) They're cheap and easy for the politicians that advocate for them. RPA infrastructure is a bit of a nightmare, but that's not the politicians problem and all they're going to see is the difference between the hourly operating cost of the RPA compared with the Viper or whatever it was before.

Thanks for the info!

Seems like that's where a few of us are headed from these boards. Hoping the hail storm that took out 80% of the T-1 fleet isn't going to cause too many delays. Either way, looking forward to meeting you guys down there

If you go to the PCSM website and type in your info, it will actually give you what your projected PCSM score will be if you increase your flight hours. http://access.afpc.af.mil/pcsmdmz/

Yeah I probably have a pretty biased outlook since I didn't go that route. The board I applied to only took 15 guys Air Force wide for UPT, so if your scores weren't nearly perfect, your chances were slim. I apologize if I steered you down the wrong road. Thanks for the other perspectives.

I also heard that the guy that dropped the KC-46 in that class was a Guard guy who's unit is going to convert to KC-46s but hasn't yet and won't anytime very soon, so he'll likely fly 135s first.

A PCSM in the 60s isnt "great." The PCSM scale goes from 0-99. However, there's a lot of speculation about how much your PCSM plays in to selection, and a lot of that also depends on which route you take. As you mentioned, Guard and Reserve units tend not to be as concerned about PCSMs, while Active Duty slots tend to go to guys with higher PCSMs. For example, I heard that on the last Active Duty UPT board, any application that didn't have at least a 90 PCSM wasn't considered very competitive. But take that with a grain of salt because it was a rumor and it was the Active Duty board. The best thing you can do to improve your PCSM is likely to get more flight hours. Getting a PPL is great, but its the flight hours you obtain that influence your PCSM, not the PPL itself. That being said, having a PPL is also a great thing to put on your application, and I know on previous boards that tended to set applicants apart from the herd. Your AFOQT scores aren't bad. It might not be a bad idea to take it again if you think you can do better. Did you use a study guide before taking the AFOQT? If not, I highly recommend picking one up, studying the sections that influence the Pilot score and retaking. Most people I know that have done that (myself included) tended to get a 95+ pilot score after using a study guide. Keep in mind that your AFOQT Pilot Score is part of the composite that makes up your PCSM score, so any improvement there will also help. And if you think you can do better on the TBAS knowing what you know now, take it again. If I'm not mistaken, though, you only get 2 shots at the TBAS, so choose wisely.

It's been about 3 years since I was there and created this tumblr account, so some of these jokes may be dated, but I figured some of you going through the program would get a kick out of it. http://whatshouldwecallreaperpilots.tumblr.com/

I'll throw my 2 cents in, . I'm going to give a little background on myself so that you know realistically what you're up against if you're trying for an Exception to Policy (ETP). I DO NOT say any of this to brag or toot my own horn, only so that you know the route I took to get an ETP for a Flying Class 1 (FC1) physical as an untrained asset so that I could become a pilot. The hearing in my right ear is considered unwaiverable by the Air Force medical community for FC1 standards. I knew this very early on but also knew that the hearing problem had never affected me while flying, so I decided to apply to USAFA as I thought that'd give me the best shot. I got in to USAFA (with a waiver for my hearing solely to commission- not to fly), maintained a relatively good GPA there, was a member of the Wings of Blue Parachute Team which got me decent face time with some of the higher ups, etc. When it came time to apply for the ETP, I first had to have my FC1 waiver denied by the medical community, at which point I could start the process. It was basically like applying to college again. It's a VERY involved application. I was told by USAFA that only 1 person in the last 7 years had gotten one, so I knew my chances were slim. That being said, I pressed on. They sent me to Wright Patt to have all kinds of crazy tests done on me so that the medical community could give their recommendation on the ETP (which will almost always be a recommendation for disapproval since they already told you they disapproved by denying a waiver), then the ETP will start up the chain. And it is a VERY long chain that it goes through- all the way to the Vice Chief of Staff of the Air Force. He/she will then approve/disapprove. I started that process my junior year at the Academy and didn't find out my ETP was approved until the summer after I graduated. So there's a timeline for you... That being said, you have to remember that by applying, you're trying to prove to the Air Force that you're worth the risk of allowing you to fly/commission/etc whilst having a medical condition they deem as "unfit to fight" basically. And not only that, at the basic level you start at (for me it was my USAFA squadron AOC) you have to prove to them you're worth a bunch of Generals' time that will ultimately have to review your package. And obviously, it doesn't hurt to have a few generals/congressman/etc that are willing to go to bat for you. Ultimately for me, the USAFA Superintendent, a 3-Star, decided to take up my case after receiving prodding from other people I "recruited" to help in my fight. And I owe him big time for that. Anyway, I don't say all of that to discourage anyone from applying, I just want you to know what you're up against. And I'd be happy to answer any questions if you want to PM me. Hope that helps.

Disclaimer, I'm an active duty guy, but I have plenty of bros in the guard unit that augments us that have been through the guard process. Looks like you've got a competitive package, so don't wait to apply since you're already 27. And also don't limit yourself to only 1 guard unit and only C-130s. Beggars can't be choosers right now when it comes to getting a UPT slot. Find out who's hiring, go visit those units, be a bro, and I think you've got a good shot at getting picked up. Also, I've heard a rumor that there are "un-assigned" guard/reserve UPT spots that are going unclaimed. I was told that if you get one of those spots, you go to UPT, and then a guard unit will take you afterwards. I don't know all the ins and outs of that, but its something to look in to if you're really serious about going to UPT. Hope that helps.

Just a heads up for people still on this thread. Squadron Commander just called to let me know I got picked up for a UPT slot, so your Commanders should have results!

Active Duty guy here. Squadron Commander just called to let me know I got picked up, so your commanders should have results!