Simviation Forums

Hey guys, I need some help here and figured you all would be the people to ask. Im currently 16 and working on my private pilots liscense, I love to fly, I mean a friggin love it as most or all of you probably do. I was wondering about a careet in aviation, wether it be the air force or an airline. I maintain about a 3.6 in school and have a crap load of extra curriculars, I was just wondering how hard is it to get into the airforce academy, how good is the competion. I went onto the airforce site and read their coloum in fighter pilots, cargo pilots etc...it looked like it was written for a partially retarted monkey, they all pretty much said "you get to fly, AND WE PAY FOR YOUR COLLEGE" I need much more info than that if I want to look at this as a serious career path. If thats the only info I have on getting into the airforce then im questioning wasting time in highschool following this path only to be crushed when I hand in my application. If any of you guys, or gals have an expiernce or info I would greatly apperciate it if you could share it here, as im sure a lot of you have the same questions.

Watch it! We have a retarded monkey here you know...  ;D
Welcome to simviation Strahl02.
I don't know anything about the airforce academy. I do no that, in Holland, it's nearly impossible to become a jet fighter pilot. I heard they select a pilot out of every 1,000 applicants  :-[ Maybe it's a bit easier in the US, but I wouldn't underestimate it.
The only advise I can give you: If the selection procedure is for free, why not go and try?

I talked to a lot of recruiters and then air force guys before I came to the conclusion that the air force way is risky business. Basically with the air force you need to be in tip top shape and a certain height to be a fighter pilot, that and you need to sign something like a 7 year contract. If you fit the criteria and are okay with that then its a good option. A major advantage of the AirForce or Navy is that if you are a pilot they will use you and you will get a lot of flight hours so when you get out if you dont go career you have a boat load of hours recorded to take to the job market. As for going civil all the way there are a number of flight schools and also a number of full and tecnical colleges that have flight programs.  And after you get trained its all about getting in there and getting more hours and meeting people.

If your 16 I assume you are still in high school, talk to your  counselor about college programs and if they are clueless see if there is a book of schools in your state that lists programs, do research and compare. Alternately if your school is big enough there shold be sevral recruiters that come to your school throughout the year, if not just look them up in the phone book, there should be an office near by.

Now as for getting your foot in the door, maybe one of the more established pilots here has a good answer for that.

Regarding entering the USAF, I'm sure they have an equivalent of Careers office where they'll be able to give you far more information than they'll put on the web, and you'll be able to ask them any questions you like. I first contacted the RAF careers people over here when I was 12...

I talked to a lot of recruiters and then air force guys before I came to the conclusion that the air force way is risky business. Basically with the air force you need to be in tip top shape and a certain height to be a fighter pilot, that and you need to sign something like a 7 year contract. If you fit the criteria and are okay with that then its a good option.

From what I understand the US Forces take fitness very seriously. However that should not put anyone off applying. If you want to fly then that would be a small sacrifice (if you could call it a sacrifice anyway). From what I've heard they provide excellent facilities too for their personnel.

As for other criteria, such as height, thinking that you may be a little too tall again should not stop you from applying (you do have to be within certain limits, but they can cover quite a large height range) until they've actually measured you on their electronic measuring kit (and in some cases later in your carerr they may actually do a physical check inside certain cockpits) you can't be 100% sure whether you're too tall or not. Just don't make that decision yourself - let the recruiters do it for you.

The military way will give you experiences you'll never legally be able to experience anywhere else...

Well Strahl, we have a lot in common.

I am also 16, also getting my PPL, (31.8 hours in), and I also plan on flying in the airforce.

You may already know this, but you don't have to go to the airforce academy to fly.  There's also AF ROTC in college, OCS (officer candidates school), and more.  Each year there is a limited number of pilot slots available to graduatung sudents of AF academy, AF ROTC, OCS, etc.  50% of these slots will be given to graduates of the academy, with the rest being divied up between the other graduating students.

I'm not good at sports. All the clubs at my school suck.  Hence, no extra carricular actvities at school for me (although I do have non-school related stuff).  Therefore, the academy wouldn't appear to be for me, (my father knows senators and judges on the federal appellette court, but I still don't think I could get accepted) so I instead plan to do AF ROTC in college, get straight As, and get a pilot slot.  I believe that, for me, the hardest thing will be getting into flight school-once I'm in there's no stopping me

My advice?  Keep at it, and talk to a recruiter-it'll be a big help.

And one other thing to keep in mind...if you have your heart set on being an airline pilot, do NOT go into the Air Force thinking it will be a good way to "gain hours"...because it's a HUGE commitment...so keep that in mind...and like Brendon said...ROTC is a great way to go, probably what I'm going to do. And if you want to go in the Air Force, I would reccomend joining the Civil Air Patrol...

Good luck!

Ben

Well Strahl, we have a lot in common.

I'm not good at sports. All the clubs at my school suck.  Hence, no extra carricular actvities at school for me (although I do have non-school related stuff).  Therefore, the academy wouldn't appear to be for me, (my father knows senators and judges on the federal appellette court, but I still don't think I could get accepted) so I instead plan to do AF ROTC in college, get straight As, and get a pilot slot.  I believe that, for me, the hardest thing will be getting into flight school-once I'm in there's no stopping me

My extraciriculars were stuff like TSA: Member, Anime Club: Trouble Maker, Philosophy Club: Big Trouble Maker. The only thing going for me with the military is Eagle rank which automatically gets me like a $0.10 pay raise and I'm decent with a bolt action and a shot gun.