My background: Dad is a very senior American Airlines captain, no prior military exp. He has taught me everything thus far. I am 18 with over 200 hours and an instrument rating. I am going to a 4 year university next year as a freshman for their flight program to get a degree, or at least thats the plan.

What I want to know: Is it to late for me to be a fighter pilot? I feel embarrassed to be asking because I know nothing about the military.

All I know is that being a fighter pilot has got to be the most amazing feeling in the world. Just give me some advice or helpful suggestions. I don't even know what branch you would want to join to fly fighters or bombers, which is why I need help.

How do I become one?

Thanks!

 

Well, since the Air Force is the only service that flies true bombers you may want to look there. Does the school you are planning to attend have AFROTC? You need to ask the Air Force ROTC folks a lot of questions.

If your father is in this industry why in the heck is he encouraging you to get an aviation degree? Why not get training in a field that you can use as a fallback if you fail the medical or decide you don't like flying? That's the greatest thing about the military is the stability of it and the variety of things you can do as a pilot.

 

forgot to mention that I'm double majoring in marketing. He hated the thought of me majoring in just aviation.

 

Spend the next 4 years studying your brains out and graduate with a 3.7 or better. Also during the next 4 years spend a bunch of time researching ANG and AF reserve fighter squadrons. Contact the squadrons that interest you and bug them about a job.

Don't bother with ROTC or active duty. The best deal out there is getting hired by the guard or reserve, they will send you to Officer Training School (12 weeks), you'll then go to pilot training, fighter training, and then you will back with your guard or reserve unit full-time for a year or two, then you'll transition to part-time if you so wish.

The guard and reserve hire college grads off the street and send them through training all of the time. There is no better way to become a military pilot.

The Navy and Marine Corps may have a similar program, I don't know. Any input Navy and Marine bros?

Good Luck,

Buzz

 

"The guard and reserve hire college grads off the street and send them through training all of the time. There is no better way to become a military pilot.

The Navy and Marine Corps may have a similar program, I don't know. Any input Navy and Marine bros?"

Since it is the way that I went - I don't have anything against the Active Duty route. And as far as I know the Navy and Marines don't have any similar training tracks. If you want to land on aircraft carriers or be one of 'The Few and The Proud' (and land on aircraft carriers) - you're going to have to sign on the dotted line at some point, be a military officer on active duty for some amount of time, take all the goods and bads that come with that committment to serve your country, and experience some of the most incredible flying you could imagine - no matter what your community!

USMCFLYR

 

Too late to be a fighter pilot??? More like you couldn't be in a better position. You have a ton of options. You could do ROTC (Air Force or Navy), you could wait until you graduate and go through OTS/OCS, or the route I would recommend is stay in school, get excellent grades, work on getting your commercial rating and instructor rating and get a job as a part time CFI while in school to build up some hours.

When you are getting close to graduating from college start applying/interviewing at guard units. Once you graduate, if you haven't been hired yet by a guard/reserve unit, get hired by a regional airline, keep trying to get hired by a guard unit. Once you get hired, take military leave from the regional airline (and your seniority keeps on going) and after two years of military pilot training you go back to the regional, with better pay/seniority. Then you fly fighter planes on the weekend and people movers on the weekday. By the way, what university are you planning on attending?

By the way, the age cutoff for being a pilot in the Air Force is 30 years old by the time you start pilot training, and i even met a guy who was 33 with a waiver.

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Buzz

Spend the next 4 years studying your brains out and graduate with a 3.7 or better. Also during the next 4 years spend a bunch of time researching ANG and AF reserve fighter squadrons. Contact the squadrons that interest you and bug them about a job.

Oops - Magnum beat me to the punch and we have similar opinions on a few things - can't hurt to hear it twice. Great minds think alike.

Generally good advice from Buzz. However, a few cautions and a little realism are in order:

1 - Guard / Reserve units have been on the chopping block lately. The fighter unit you manage to schmooze a job from at age 22-23 may be flying UAVs, heavies or closed down completely 5 or 10 years down the road. Getting your foot in the door and into the “Guard family” may be worth risking this. However, it’s not as stable an environment as it used to be. Moving every 3-ish years and possibly changing aircraft are part of active duty life, but lately G/R units aren’t exempt from some level of uncertainty either.

2 – Returning to your Guard/Reserve unit from UPT, fighter training, survival school, etc. and going part time after only 1-2 years might be possible but it’s not the best plan. A new fighter pilot who has a grand total of 1-2 years flying that fighter is not going to be proficient enough to go part time, IMO.

3 – There is no better way to become a military pilot BUT there is no more competitive way to become a military pilot too. If you look at how many pilots are hired off the street into G/R flying units each year across the U.S. you will be looking at maybe 100-ish people per year. Ruling out active duty options completely is not smart if your ultimate goal is a spot in a military cockpit. Keep your options open and don’t burn bridges.

Good Luck.

 

I too would have once said to try the guard/reserve squadron thing. No, you cannot do that with the Navy or Marines though. Navy and Marine reserve squadrons only take previously qualified guys and usually only if they have been previously qualified in that airplane. Fighter reserve squadrons anyway.

It wouldn't hurt to hit up guard/reserve squadrons while at college and see how it works out, it just might. That would be the BEST route in terms of possible lifestyle. If it does, great and if two years later it is BRAC'd then you could try going active duty since you are already qualified.

But the way to have the BEST shot at actually getting to fly fighters is to go active Navy or Air Force. ROTC or OCS is the way to go for ease of life instead of doing the academy thing. However, being from an academy opens doors if you ever get out of the flying industry like I am strongly considering. If you get fighters in the Navy you'll be flying some flavor of the F/A-18 and possibly the F-35 down the road. Very nice jets. If you get fighters in the AF you have a few more options, some not as fancy, but some more fancy.

good luck

 

"If you get fighters in the Navy you'll be flying some flavor of the F/A-18 and possibly the F-35 down the road. "

Nothing more fancy than the F-35
Now it becomes what flavor of F-35 do you want!

USMCFLYR

 

One thing I can say about doing the ROTC route is that I really enjoyed the ROTC experience, some of my best friends came from there, and it felt really great to be involved in something like that during college. At least in my unit, we had a great sense of commraderie and team work that I would not have traded for anything (PS, it was way better than the fraternity I was in).