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GreenArc

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    in Air National Guard / Air Force Reserves

    Posted

    Anybody else not gotten a yes or no from Maxwell yet? And anybody been notified of an interview with them?

    Seems they’re being super kind and giving a lot of personalized feedback if they say no to an interview this time around, so I’m just trying to gauge if there’s still a possible yes here or if they just haven’t gotten around to me yet with that feedback.

    33 with commercial rating, too late?

    in What Are My Chances?

    Posted · Edited by GreenArc

    Welcome man! Fellow 33 year-old here also vying for a UPT slot. The short answer is yes 🙂

    The fact that you already have your commercial/multi and I can only assume hundreds and hundreds of flight hours, you've got a great foundation.

    Have you taken the AFOQT and TBAS? Once you've gotten those scores, you've pretty much gotten all you need from "Big Air Force" to start locating units of interests, finding out when they have UPT boards, getting the application/package requirements, and then submitting. Speaking of which, there's a great thread here to follow on that, too:

    Best of luck!

    • Upvote 1

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    in Air National Guard / Air Force Reserves

    Posted

    33 minutes ago, Fat Tony said:

    I just got a TBNT from Maxwell 

    Thanks for the head's up on that brother, and I'm sorry to hear this one didn't work out. Have no doubt you've got a slot coming your way though man.

    I've yet to hear anything from them...maybe it's one of those things where they'll eventually get to you individually one way or another as opposed to a bulk invites/TBNT emails.

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    in Air National Guard / Air Force Reserves

    Posted

    Last sanity check question:

    For the AZ F-16 Apps, for the Form 369, are you basically just signing where it says “I hereby consent to release from your files the information requested below?, as that’s the only place it notes “To be completed by applicant.”

    Or are you filling out the top portion too? It says to be filled out out by the Recruiting Service, but feels a bit odd shipping this having just been signed?

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    in Air National Guard / Air Force Reserves

    Posted · Edited by GreenArc

    Keep in mind that I'm 33 years old, so it'll likely be inherently more difficult to get an interview, but let me offer my 2 cents:

    I've been at this game since I was 22 years old coming out of college...that's right, going into year eleven of this game in some form or fashion. I've applied to all of the following:

    • 2009 - 2010: Air Force Active Duty (2x; non-select, then board cancellation)
    • 2010 - 2013: 13 different ANG/AFRC units (12x non-select; 1 interview, 1 selection by a KC-135 unit...had to eventually relinquish my slot due to some tough family stuff that would have certainly interfered with successful UPT completion and more)
    • 2013 - June 2020: Get the personal life situation in order, while everyday thinking about applying as soon as things were. And they are now.
    • June 2020 - Present: 6 applications submitted (2 outright rejections due to age, 3 I've never heard back from, 1 that still has the chance to interview)

    I'm old, but have decent numbers: 96 Pilot, 87 PCSM (97 with 201+ hours), ~60 flight hours (post-solo) and on-track to finish my PPL this Fall, assuming CA wildfire issues don't keep grounding my flights.

    At my age, I've come to learn to learn two things:

    1. Patience isn't just a virtue, it's the ardent protector of sanity.

    While life is indeed short and years certainly do go by fast, unless you're already in age waiver territory chances are you've got several years to make this happen. I know we'd all like to be picked up on Application #1, but man, patience is key. We're all pursuing a career that is as cool and as fulfilling as it gets, and part of that career is the process: Enjoy it! Don't let impatient steal the happiness that's found in all of this! I know it seems like, if after 13 applications it hasn't happened that it may never happen, but I promise you: keep at it, improve in someway every month, quarter, etc., and simply don't stop pushing. It will work out. Be patient, and let the math (i.e. # of apps submitted over time) work in your favor. Eventually, even after years of applying, there's gonna be a unit that's gonna be like, "Ya know, this is the 3rd year in a row this guy has applied, he's visited several times, and wow, he's now got his PPL, instrument rating, and his PCSM just hit 99. Let's get him in here to interview."

    2. Be yourself. ALWAYS.

    And when you get that interview, come more prepared to this interview than you have anything else in your life, and be yourself. Take it from someone who's done it: pretending to be anybody else but yourself is incredibly difficult, a cancer to the soul, and I have no doubt squadrons can see it coming from around the corner. My granddad used to say, "I can tell by the way that joker walks what he had for breakfast," and I'm sure these hiring boards are no different. I highly doubt you'll secure a pilot slot simply saying everything the board wants to hear, and if you do, you're likely to be eventually be weeded out, one way or another. So be yourself--and always strive to be your best self, but that's a different topic--and take comfort in knowing that, whether or not it worked out, it did or didn't based on you being you. There's solace to take in that, I promise.

    Eventually, it will work out. And in the off-chance it doesn't, and, somehow, it's become official that being an ANG or AFRC pilot wasn't in the cards for you, you'll be able to look yourself in the mirror knowing you didn't sucker out, and you'll likely have some awesome civilian flying and ratings to sustain your love of aviation as you move into the next phase of life.

    Best of luck to all, and as many others have said, don't stop improving, and don't stop applying!

    • Like 10
    • Upvote 3

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    in Air National Guard / Air Force Reserves

    Posted

    And I'll try to make this the last time I bump this thread today. Got everything in order for the AZ F-16's, but double-checking on this:

    "∙ Letter from a security manager verifying your security clearance"

    Is it safe to assume that's only for prior-service if you already have a security clearance? That seems the obvious answer and what I've. been rolling with, but I don't see a "if applicable" after it and just wanted to be sure before I mail this off.

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    in Air National Guard / Air Force Reserves

    Posted

    47 minutes ago, Terminator5lf said:

    Haha I can relate. Your official TBAS score the AF never releases.  I pulled this from the AF TBAS site, "There is no such thing as a "TBAS score", per se.  The TBAS actually produces a number of individual scores, all of which are combined with the AFOQT Pilot and flight hours values to yield the PCSM score.

    So yes you are correct they are the same thing. Not sure why some units ask for both.

    Ha ha Glad I wasn't alone! Thanks a ton for the education and peace of mind, brother!

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    in Air National Guard / Air Force Reserves

    Posted · Edited by GreenArc

    Just to make sure I'm not missing anything, when applications call for "TBAS Score" and "PCSM Score", those are the same thing, right? I mean, you take the TBAS to get a PCSM score, correct?

    Never really considered I could be off base here, so I figured I'd ask before I DQ myself for something silly/easily correctable.

    Those of you who have retaken the TBAS: how much did it affect your PCSM?

    in Pilot Selection Process

    Posted · Edited by GreenArc

    Adding another data point here:

    Originally took my TBAS and AFOQT many moons ago, and after the new formula revisions over the past few years, and with my current flight hours (~50) my PCSM was a 67; my pilot was a 72.

    I recently retook my AFQOT, and while AFPC hasn't updated their site yet with my official scores, the TBAS site has (which seems pretty odd, but I'm sure there's a reason for it. Would LOVE to get those from the ASAP as I owe official updated AFOQT scores to a unit 😅):

    When checking the TBAS site, it shows my AFOQT Pilot score is now a 96, and my PCSM is now an 83. So improving my AFOQT score by 24 points moved my PCSM up by 16 points; roughly a 2 point gain in PCSM for every 3 points gained in my AFOQT (or something like that; we'll see what my Quantitative score shows when I finally get the full official scores to explain any accuracy/inaccuracy here). If I get to 201+ hours, my PCSM will max out at a 97.

    @Fat Tony increased his AFQOT by 70 points, and that moved his TBAS up by 38 points. At some point I may re-read through the rest of this thread and see if we can compile more data here, but with an admittedly very limited sample set, it seems like you every every 1 point gain in your AFOQT Pilot score moves your PCSM score up by .54 -.66 points. Again, take that with a grain of salt, but it's something!

    With that said, and currently having no visibility into how I did for the rest of the scores, I focused exclusively on the Pilot sections: Math Knowledge, Table Reading, Instrument Comprehension, and Aviation Information. I used 4 (yep, four) different test books, and hammered each off them for the better part of 2 months. Almost every day, I was doing 1+ hours of study with a heavy emphasis on the Math Knowledge as that's always been my weakest point.

    My advice:

    1. If math was never your thing like me, use https://www.math-aids.com/ and YouTube. I probably did dozens and dozens of worksheets, and any concepts I struggled with, I watched YouTube videos to help me better grasp them.

    2. IMHO, Table Reading & Instrument Comprehension are as close to gimmes as you're going to find. Table Reading is very straight forward, and so is Instrument Comprehension once you nail down the concept. I'd have to double-check to confirm, but I believe there's a total of 110 questions to answer between all off the sections that compose your Pilot score. 40 are Table Reading questions and 25 Instrument Comprehension questions. That's 65/110, or 59% of all questions. And, I believe I read that we're scored on the number correct, so nailing these two sections is absolutely critical. I printed my own 20x20 table from the AFPC/PCSM website's AFOQT Prep Guide and every day for two weeks leading up to the test I did 2-3 timed Table Reading Tests. That helped tremendously, and already having a pretty good grasp on the Instrument Comprehension, I still tried to do one of those at least every other day leading up to the test.

    3. For the Pilot section, go flying. Invest in ground school and 6-10 hours of flying. It'll be worth it, I promise. Why 6-10? For some studs, 10 hours is enough to solo in working toward your PPL, but it'll also a) give you a boost on your PCSM as the 6-10 bracket is the second bracket that improves your scores b) give you a much better understanding of how airplanes operate in general and c) doing ground school will "make real" aviation concepts from the test. From there, study the AFOQT books (IMHO, Barron's was the best), and then knock that part of the test out.

    4. If you think you did well on the TBAS--specifically getting all of the directional orientation questions correct--I'd advise against retaking it unless you feel really, really good about doing so, or at least retake the AFOQT first. I remember getting all of those correct, and while I thought of retaking the TBAS, I was like, "nah, let's just do the AFOQT because I think it's a bit too risky to retry the TBAS." While I'd like my PCSM to be in the 90's right now like some of the cats around here, IMHO, if you think you did well on the TBAS but still need to improve your PCSM score, start with the AFOQT.

    Finally, to end this novel: I have 4 AFOQT prep books, a laminated 20x20 Table Reading grid for practice (printed from the AFPC AFOQT prep guide), and a few spare answer sheets I made copies of from the back of the Barron's book for taking (a bunch of) practice tests. If you want 'em, PM me, and they're your's, 100% my treat. Unless you happen to be in a unit I'm applying to, then all I ask for is to put in a good word for me 😉 

    Best of luck to everyone grinding. Take it from me, someone who is not the smartest or most talented, and who has struggled mightily at times with math: You can do well on this test if you just hammer any concept you struggle with from the prep books until it makes sense, even if it takes months (and some coin)!

    • Upvote 1

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    in Air National Guard / Air Force Reserves

    Posted

    It’s a year out, but the Swamp Foxes flying the F-16 out of SC have posted that they’re having a board in the Fall of 2021, accepting packages 6 months prior to the board date...so maybe around February of next year it’ll open up? A ways out for sure, but it’ll be here before we know it!

    https://www.169fw.ang.af.mil
     

    “The 169th Fighter Wing will hold an Undergraduate Pilot Training (UPT) Board during the Fall of 2021. We will start hosting visits and accepting resumes approximately six months prior to the board. The specific dates of the board and visit dates will be posted on this page when they are determined.”

    • Upvote 1

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    in Air National Guard / Air Force Reserves

    Posted

    24 minutes ago, SubsidedRhyme11 said:

    Apps due a couple weeks ago with interview notifications before August, -130’s.

    Wow. Mind if I ask where you found the posting/how you got word? If when another comes up, especially for the HH-60, I want to be sure I don’t miss that! I can take this to PM too if that’s better to avoid clutter, but figured asking here may help others as well.

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    in Air National Guard / Air Force Reserves

    Posted · Edited by GreenArc

    Also, I dug this one up, too: C-17's out of West Virginia!

    https://www.167aw.ang.af.mil/Units/Careers/

    It sounds like they've got a board coming up relatively soon, so I'm going to reach out and see what if we're good to start submitting packages for the October board:

    Quote

    The 167th Airlift Wing will conduct SUPT candidate interview boards during UTA weekend of April and October every year. 

     

    • Upvote 2

    Upcoming Boards

    in Air National Guard / Air Force Reserves

    Posted · Edited by GreenArc

    So when it comes to searching, I've got two go-to queries for Google:

    For ANG units, just copy and paste this: site:ang.af.mil "upt" OR "supt" AND "apply"

    For AFRC units, just copy and paste this: site:afrc.af.mil "upt" OR "supt" AND "apply"

    You can swap out "apply" with other words like "submit" or "deadline" and see what comes up! I've found 3-4 boards not listed on GuardReserveJobs.com or BogiDope.com this way; hopefully the more eyes searching the more options we'll dig up! Also, another thing to do when searching is to click "Tools" > and instead of "Any time" choose "Within the past month", so you know you're getting recent results.

    ETA: You can also just search by squadron (i.e. "47th Fighter Squadron" AND "upt", something like that) and see what comes up as well! I believe I've had some luck finding boards that way, too. That way, you can target specific squadrons that you're interested in and see if anything comes up!

    Best of luck to you all!

    • Upvote 6
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