I fly with a lot of former Army RW pilots who transitioned to FW at some point in their career. Who knows - you may find that the challenging type of flying that you are doing in the Army is right up your alley and you can't imagine flying along the flight levels on autopilot. As for as the FW transition, I understand that it is very competitive; but then so is military flight training. This time though you are competing against many of the same caliber individuals - all with the same qualifications, experience, and motivation. Good luck in your journey. It is a heck of a ride!

USMCFLYR

I wish you all the luck in the world, but I need to make you aware of a few things. First of all, the Army is a little different than other flying military branches. The type of aircraft you fly is entirely dependent on the mission you are qualified for, or rather, what they think you are qualified for. Fixed wing in the Army is the "Holy Grail". As long as you go into your career with the understanding that you will NEVER get to fly Army fixed wing, you won't end up being disappointed later. If you should happen to make it into that extraordinarily elite club, congratulations. Things change constantly with the manning requirements and sometimes they seek out mid-grade junior officers and other times they only seek out highly experienced senior officers. Either way, the fixed wing mission in the Army is highly specialized and qualifying for a slot is reflective of the need for more pilots to fly intelligence gathering aircraft. There are some VIP transport type missions, but the primary utilization of US Army FW assets is ISR.

As far as 141 vs 61 is concerned, no one cares how you came to earn a ticket. The differences between the two structures are so that one is compatible with college curricula. That's pretty much it. Part 141 training ensures uniform compliance with all of the training minimums and tasks and can be used to accommodate multiple students at once. There are some other differences between the two, but from a point of origination, that is it.

Your tour in flight school at Fort Rucker will not only be an intensive RW training experience, but will also be a life changing series of events that while designed around producing a quality aviator, are more designed to produce an effective leader and combat multiplier, who also happens to know how to fly. As a commissioned officer, your primary function in life will be management/leadership with a pre-determined career path towards upper management and pseudo-corporate type positions. Flying will be an insignificant aspect of your career and over the course of a 20 year career, you may end up serving in capacities that keep you out of the cockpit for several years at a time. In order to maximize utilization in the cockpit, most aspiring aviators opt for the Warrant Officer route. Warrant Officers are the "Technical Experts" who's primary function in life is flying with career paths leading down the maintenance path or the instructional (CFI/CFII) paths. The fact being that you are under a contract means that Warrant Officer is not an option for you at this time. You may decide later on that the path you have chosen is right for you. However if you decide that you made a mistake and you would rather be flying more, you will have the option of resigning your commission and accepting an appointment as a Warrant Officer...as long as DA lets you! This won't be available to you for several years until you reach the end of your initial service obligation.

Good luck!