Originally Posted by
Adlerdriver
Once you're in UPT, you've got to graduate. 50% of my class washed out. I'm sure that statistic varies but I doubt it gets lower than 25-30%.
That's probably a valid "total attrition" number over time, but that's not the washout percentage by a longshot. About 10 years ago the washout rate was something like 14%, and I have to guess it's even lower now. Your number probably includes all the SIEs, med-disquals (airsickness), etc.
Here are some citations showing those statistics:
- A 1996 paper by Thomas R. Carretta which considers the validity of the AFOQT, shows that of 14,403 officers who attended UPT between 1981 and 1995, "88.3% of the pilot trainees successfully completed UPT." (meaning an 11.7% washout rate)
- "Over the last several years, UPT attrition rates have been steady at about 22%." (Source: "Group Differences on US Air Force Pilot Selection Tests", Thomas R. Carretta, 1997)
- A report which was looking at the impact of T-3/IFT showed that initial classes going though UPT after the cancallation of the T-3 program (1998 time frame) saw an increase in attrition from 6% to 19%. (Source: "The pre-Pilots Fly Again", Air Force Magazine, June 1999 Vol. 82, No. 6)
- The "US Air Force Pilot Selection and Training Methods" study by Coretta in 1999 said that the washout rate from T-37s alone during the two data periods they used was between 7.8% and 8.8%.
- "Approximately 15-20% of Undergraduate Pilot Training (UPT) students are eliminated each year." (Source: United States Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine (USAFSAM) website)
- FY 88 UPT attrition was 37% (Source: "Air Force Pilot Selection Assessments", Tina Strickland, Air Force Personnel Operations Agency, 2 Nov 04)
- "The academy has a 50-percent lower attrition rate for pilot training than Reserve Officer Training Corps or Officer Training School. During the moratorium, attrition rates at UPT jumped to more than 20 percent at some bases." (Source: 'The Officer' Magazine Sept, 2001 by Jennifer Brugman)
- "Without the benefit of T-3 flight screening, attrition rates for SUPT climbed above 15 percent. The Air Force considers an 8 to 10 percent attrition rate acceptable." (Source: "AF replaces T-3 flying program", Air Force News Service, 13 Oct 1999)
- "General Welser said the Air Force's goal with the expanded IFT was to maintain an acceptable attrition rate. "Over the period of time we've been doing IFT vs. the T-3, we're finding the attrition rates within 1 percent of each other," he said. "7.8 percent for the T-3 and 8.8 percent for IFT." (Source: "AF replaces T-3 flying program", Air Force News Service, 13 Oct 1999)
The current UPT focus is on more selective picking of guys to go to UPT to minimize the waste of washing out so many candidates.