Originally Posted by
cherokeepilot
Hi everybody!! I'm new here and thought I would say hi. I was wondering if somebody could give me the pros and cons with the Air Force and commercial flying. Right now I'm really not sure which route to take. I am 17 and going to a community college working towards my AA degree in business. I should graduate in the spring of 2009. I am also graduating high school this spring. A year early because of college. I also have my student pilot license. I should get my private here pretty soon. I have about 108 hours of flight time. Really the only thing that I can think that will disqualify me from the Air Force is my vision. I do have contacts and a very slight color defciency with red and green. I do not have any waivers on medical. Thankfully! I can pick out every number in that color blindness book thing. I just take awhile to do it. I have to run my finger on the page to figure out the number. Try to figure out the pattern.
If anybody has any questions please let me know! Thank you everybody!
Cherokee,
I don't even want to touch the color blindness issue. All I can say on that topic is "I don't know how that will affect your goal of military flying." What I can say is talk to the Dr. that did your medical. If he can't answer the question on your eyes, he will know who can.
As far as other qualifications: You will need three things. 1) Bachelor's Degree 2) Commission as a military officer (Bachelor's degree is required to commission 3) Pilot slot.
How to get these:
1) Bachelor's Degree - pretty self explanatory...go to an accredited university or a military academy
2) Commission - This can be obtained 3 ways. 1) one of the military academies 2) ROTC or 3) OTS Links for information are found below.
3) Pilot slot - you compete with your peers for a ticket to pilot school about 1 year before you complete your Bachelor's degree.
USAFROTC
NAVY ROTC
USAF Academy
Naval Academy
If you want to fly choppers, give the Army ROTC and West Point a look.
There's MUCH more information available to you to help you plan your career. If you have more questions, post on here or PM me. There are a lot of military guys on here who can offer some great advice and wisdom, but this should get you started.