What's competitive for UPT selection?
 

Hey all,
Was wondering if anyone on here has good gouge on what makes for a competitive AFOQT/TBAS score for USAF pilot selection. My son is 24, a college grad, but with no flying experience. Has decided that the business world is full of turds, and wants to take the tests for USAF. My experience with it is over 37 years old, so I have no good info for him on what he needs to score to compete. Any help appreciated. Thanks!

I can’t speak to active duty at all, and only anecdotally as a guy who rushed guard/reserve units for years, but I saw a huge range of what constituted a “competitive” package based on talking to people who got interviews and who got selected from those interviews. Some units seemed to not care about test scores much. Some cared a lot. I know some guys with 60s and 70s in some areas, including the pilot section, who got hired. I know guys with 98-99s who got hired. Most units seem to take a “whole package” look at dudes, with personality and ties to that area as the top two discriminators (assuming an otherwise strong application), also using test scores/GPA/Flight experience to try and get guys who have a high likelihood of making it thru training.

90s seem competitive, but certainly don’t give up with less. Plenty of guys get hired with lower scores. I’d say have him study for it, take the test, get apps out to as many units as he can, and get some flight experience (hard to get hired with none, and it is a part of the TBAS score). Rushing units and talking to some of the bro’s can give insight into what they are looking for, as well as getting them to talk about how they got hired.

When I was competing for UPT in the early-mid 90's, the rumor was those with a PPL and at least 100 hrs were good-to-go, assuming all other criteria was met (medical, grades, scores, etc). YMMV. The age cut-off is, I believe, 33, so plenty of time. Best of Luck to him.

Start some flight training locally. A private pilot certificate helps, and maybe he will decide that flying is not for him.

Joe

Age limit is 28.5 to meet the board, 30 to start UPT...Without a waiver.

With a waiver is up to 35.

Old unit probably hired guys with approx. a minimum of 500 hrs. Most had more.

Wow! I only had 14 hours of powered time before I got to pilot training.

Oh. You meant ANG or AFRES. My bad. I was assuming the OP wanted to know what it took for his son to get into the Active AF.

Right now, if your son has a pulse and can be corrected to 20/20, I'd say he's sound as a pound. There are some AFOQT and TBAS gouge pages on the interwebs. TBAS is about doing 2 things at once...kinda like texting and driving, while seeing if you focus on the correct task at the correct time...

As long as he cab be a good bro he should be fine. GPA, test scores and flight time all depends on the unit. I just did the process not to long along and got hired by my #1 unit. I visited and showed them I wanted to be there. The whole thing if you have a pulse you're hired is not true. For.my interview there were 14 people interviewing for 3 slots. About 6 of them were airline dudes.

Currently, AFRC turned in 22 unsponsored UPT pilot slots last year. If your son is serious, in today’s age, all he would need to do is contact a recruiter and take the AFOQT, the BAT test (not called this now but I can’t remember new name), and pass the Class 1 medical. Then, he can apply to the AFRC unsponsored UPT pipeline. If all three above are good, he’s pretty much done. They can’t even get close to hitting their yearly quota.