Which path to take...
 

I am a recent graduate with a B.S. in Criminal Justice, and I am looking for a little input or advice on what path I should take. My goal is to serve in the ANG as a pilot, and I have two options that I am weighing. One option is to go to a flight school, and spend a lot of money to get more ratings and hours (I currently have a PPL w/ about 60hrs) and keep applying to different ANG units. The other option for me is to accept a job as a highway patrol officer and continue to fly a little on the side. I would be making pretty good money working as a highway patrol officer and I would still be applying to different ANG units. Im not sure what would look better for the ANG units, having several hundred hours of flying with all the ratings from the flight school, or maybe a 100 or so hours but working for the highway patrol? I graduated with a 3.5 gpa and I do have a lot of volunteering hours. Any advice, input or recommendations would be appreciated. Thank you.

Besides the guard what is your long term goal? Airlines, corporate, or LE? Hours isn't an issue. I know several guys who were selected with 100 or so TT. LE is paramilitary, so I think it would look good on a resume. What do you want to do if you don't get selected, fail out of UPT, fail the physical, etc. Never hurts to have a good plan B! If your goal is airlines in the event you can't fly military, it will slow your flying career down since you wouldn't be flying full-time(CFI, Banners, etc.). If you're not sure, accept the academy class in the meantime and figure it out as you go.

don't go to UPT with low flight time.

The amount of flight time you have beyond about 200 hours makes basically no difference in your chances of being selected or graduating pilot training. In my UPT class, none of the top 10% (distinguished graduates) had virtually any flying experience prior to UPT.

My advice would be to join an ANG unit as a non-pilot and work your way to pilot training from there. Guard units frequently hire from within for pilot positions.

might have been the case in 1seat's upt class, but in mine the dudes with 700+ hrs did very well. I wished countless times I had more flight experience when I was there.

In my not so humble opinion... Total time isn't the deciding factor. Just like the football coach says- practice doesn't make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect. IF you fly- seek out pilots who have been IPs in the branch you are entering- for instance- I had a WWII Hellcat and Stuka pilot as my glider CFIs at age 14- good training- I thought every flight had to have a loop roll and spin in it! I had normal C-150/152 training in college- BAD training for SUPT. I had 200 hours of Pitts time before SUPT- including intermediate level competition and basic 800' Airshow waivers- Good for S/A and all attitudes, NOT good for USAF SUPT as I had a USN hangarmate/form lead and the piston singles don't fly form like a T-37- the Pitts has instant go and instant stop compared to an old Cont. jet engine in the Tweet- so that took more getting used to than I wanted (fought ride 1 and 2 in form, CAFB 99-08), plus I was used to flying TOO close, which is too easy (aileron being washed out by lead's vorticies to know you are "in"...) compared to where the IPs wanted us on the wing.

Again- total time won't help- it's well known that experience helps at first, but others catch up over the course of the year- good exposure and practice will help. Some of my favorite flying after SUPT was taking casual status Lts on spin flights in a Citabria and pacing it like a T-37 sortie- visual dept/area work/spins/vis recovery- I know now it helped them out get ready for SUPT in a way that just going thru the PPL course prior to SUPT would not- after they got rid of the T-3 program.

from what I know of the guard/reserve they definitely want you to have another job...they don't want you to be sucking at their proverbial teet for the next xx years - they've probably already got guys who are doing that now.
I would go for the highway patrol job and keep applying. I had 110 hours PPL before SUPT and I think I did pretty well. I know a few people who had their CFIs and so on and I think it took them longer to adjust.

whatever you do good luck

Thanks to all for the great insight, It has given me a lot to think about.

It's all new after primary...
 

I had 1100hrs before starting and dudes with no time had better grades than me, my opinion once past primary the rest is all new to everyone...Formation, BFM, ACM, A2A, A2G etc...Need to look at your long term goals as pilot training requires 8 years AFTER you successfully get your wings.

For the record that 1100 got me into F/A-18C's and an exchange tour flying F-15C's with the AF; only thing I would have changed had I known more about it was to try and be a guard baby vice AD.

Good Luck...

Go Guard!
 

I'm a T-38 IP at Columbus. The guard and reserve send plenty of pilots our way that they hire off the street. The guard and reserve have a problem on the horizon and they are well aware of the problem: Next year the AF pilot commintment change kicks in. What I mean is, by next year the folks with the 8 year pilot training commitment will have gotten out, signed on for more active duty time, or joined the guard or reserve. The folks with the 10 year pilot training commitment can't get out until around 2010. So for 2 years, there will not be any senior captains or new majors leaving active duty to join the guard and reserve due to the change from the 8 year UPT commintment to the 10 year UPT commitment. So, with no influx of active duty pilots for 2 years, your chances of getting hired by a guard or reserve unit and getting sent to UPT are pretty darn good.

Oops, hit the reply button twice....

Depends on the class, but our top 4 guys in the class had over 4,000 hours combined flight time. If you have hours and a bad attitude, you'll go nowhere. If you've got hours, keep your mouth shut about them and are willing to learn more, you'll accel. IP's love to pick on the guys that talk about their civilian flying experience, whether it's helping them or not. They'll make an example out of you in no time. So if you do end up going to UPT with a few hundred plus hours of flight time, keep your mouth shut and let the IP's think you were born with great hands (sts).

Myself and the other 6 or so guys in my UPT class that had substantial prior civilian time had a *Slight* edge when it came to instrument phase and some of the academics. By the end of our 54 weeks, we were all equally trained and experienced...by the end, some of the guys with 20 hours were kicking our @$$.

Go Guard or Reserve. I enjoyed my tenure flying fast in the Air Force...I just wish someone would have explained to me the difference before I joined active duty. Now I'm getting out in 21.069 days (but who's counting) and have a Reserve job lined up. Took me 8 years to figure it out.

I am an instructor in Navy UPT or "primary training." Most pilots come in with about 25 hours from IFS (Intro Flight School) which the traditional civilian training. However, a few guys come in with much more. But I can't agree more with the previous post that anything over 200 hours is negligible. After a few months everyone is pretty much at the same level.

Gunnar,

I am an instructor at a TC-12 (King Air 200) squadron and teach all services the multi-engine perspective. From what I have seen the last 3 years doing this that those with 1000+ hrs do well in our advanced program. Most of the guard guys tend to be either below par or way above it. Reason I think is that some are content that they have a guard slot and don't work that hard. These tend to be right out of college and haven't had a lot of military time under thier belt. The other type are the young commuter guys that have busted their tails and fly well and love the fact that they are makming more money flying on AD than before.

The guard/reserve guys still stress over their other life and what job they will get to wait out the time building for the majors. The AD guys stress over their jobs because the pay is good but life can be hard with more deployments and etc...