Radio

I am one of the active duty guys in the second Beta test. All of the active duty picks graduated IFS (4 Captains). I have talked to some of the active duty officers who were not selected...and I have spoken to all of the selectees. It seems like the board specifically avoided picking officers who already had their PPL or who had a lot of private hours. This put the average UAS Beta Test #2 trainee below the average experience level for pilots attending IFS (who mostly seemed to have at least a few private hours). Despite this difference in starting experience, only one Beta trainee was eliminated for poor performance. At IFS, we were visited by a GO from AETC who told us the first Beta test had gone very well and that he was confident a new UAS Operator career field would be started soon. He expected the UAS Operators to be considered "rated" officers, since as he put it, they will earn an instrument rating during training. If that holds true, it might clear up some of the legal problems brought up in this thread.