Chances of becoming a fighter pilot?

[Aarkh]

Hi guys, Im really new to Naval Aviation, I've been reading up on the USAF stuff.

I was wondering what are the chances of someone going into the Navy and becoming a pilot of say an F/A-18?

I've always wanted to fly fighter jets since I was little. The USAF sounds like its pretty hard to become a pilot there. Any Expirence out there?

 

[ControlledBurn]

Granted, I haven't gotten there yet, but as one of my instructors (A former Top Gun) loves to say of Naval Aviation, if it were easy, we'd let the Air Force do it.

 

[beau]

NON!!!..................................Needs Of Navy

Something every Stud wants to predict, but really cant! You can kick some butt at Primary (flight school phase#1) and still not select your first choice.

 

[Squid]

1 in 3.480735^23

at least if you mention you considered the air force to anyone in your chain of command

 

[paikea]

If you're in the 13-17 range try the US Naval Sea Cadet Corps.

http://www.seacadets.org/

They can help you get prepared for a military career if that's what you want to do. Personally, I'm with them because I know it'll look good on an ROTC app.

 

[thumper]

ENSsquid doesn't know what he is talking about. Its 1 in 3.480738^23.

 

[Kycntryboy]

Its 1 in 3.480738^23.

I thought a pi was suppose to go in their somewhere... hmm.

 

[Squid]

no, pi's waaay rounder. then you gotta worry about pieces of pi, and who gets the biggest.

/threadjack

 

[kmac]

You guys are stupid. It's not a numbers game. It's a drunk monkey with a bunch of darts. They (the powers that be) sit him on a barrel and have him launch a dart for each primary stud. About 5 feet away is a big target... if he hits that your EP/P-3s... About 30 feet away are 2 small bullseyes.... if he hits them, you're either Kingsville or Meridian. If the dart has the distance but not the accuracy, it'll hit the floor and you'll get E2/C2s. If the boozed up monkey just falls over and drops the darts, you're helos.

 

[airwinger]

Kmac, that is pretty funny and sadly enough might as well be true.

 

[American_Ace]

To be a fighter pilot get good grades, keep in shape, play sports, and take it one step at a time. Jr High, high school, College, Universal Pilot Training, more training, Pilot (in the long distance). Live day-by-day. Focus on your next test or your next game and keep flying in the back of your head.

If you want to be an AF pilot I'd recommend joining Civil Air Patrol (join a squadron that is on a military base, they're always more serious) and going to an encampment. You get to do fun things, like one-minute showers, 5 am PT, three-hour formations, and you get to hold your little blue book four inches from your face with your elbow parrallel to the ground for long spans of time, but it's probably a good indication whether or not you'll be able to put up with the basic military training (Academy, ROTC, OTS, etc). Personally, I left more fired up than ever.

However, one thing that amazed me about encampment was how many fat kids wanted to be pilots, so I must stress this; play team sports, the more competitive the better. They will teach you about leadership, teamwork, followership, aggressiveness and it keeps you in shape. You could tell instantly whether someone played sports because they were leaders, they worked in harmony with the rest of the team, they didn't make excuses, and they didn't huff and puff after running 100 yards.

 

[thumper]

What the hell is the Civil Air Patrol? I saw some on base, all gussied up like they were military, but they were still a little off.

 

[bunk22]

To be a fighter pilot get good grades, keep in shape, play sports, and take it one step at a time. Jr High, high school, College, Universal Pilot Training, more training, Pilot (in the long distance). Live day-by-day. Focus on your next test or your next game and keep flying in the back of your head.

If you want to be an AF pilot I'd recommend joining Civil Air Patrol (join a squadron that is on a military base, they're always more serious) and going to an encampment. You get to do fun things, like one-minute showers, 5 am PT, three-hour formations, and you get to hold your little blue book four inches from your face with your elbow parrallel to the ground for long spans of time, but it's probably a good indication whether or not you'll be able to put up with the basic military training (Academy, ROTC, OTS, etc). Personally, I left more fired up than ever.

However, one thing that amazed me about encampment was how many fat kids wanted to be pilots, so I must stress this; play team sports, the more competitive the better. They will teach you about leadership, teamwork, followership, aggressiveness and it keeps you in shape. You could tell instantly whether someone played sports because they were leaders, they worked in harmony with the rest of the team, they didn't make excuses, and they didn't huff and puff after running 100 yards.

I'm really confused with your post. What does playing sports, making good grades, taking one minute showers (really confused with this one), 5 a.m. pt, etc, have to do with becoming a fighter pilot? If you're talking about being accepted to into ROTC or one of the academy's then followed by acceptence into the flight program, then sure. Fat kids being pilots? Being in shape, looking good in uniform, setting the example for the troops are IMO, part of the program for being a military officer. That's reason enough for staying in shape. The benefits of staying in shape are obvious but I guess can also help with those who pull mega g's, long flights, long work days, etc. However, being in shape has nothing to do with the quality of a pilot, at least in my experience.

If being a fighter pilot is the ultimate goal, as is the usual, go Air National Gaurd. Not that it's not possible in the Navy or Air Force, it absolutely is but it's just not gauranteed. The Navy's needs come first and foremost. At least with the Air Gaurd, if you are accepted to an F-16 unit and make the grade in flight school, you will fly F-16's. You could be top of your class during flight school with the Navy, but if no jet slots are available, guess what buddy, jets you won't be flying. If anyone wants fighters, make it a goal but just know there exists the possiblity of flying something else even if you make the cut. I've been there done that.

I'm also a firm believer that civilian flight time is a bonus. I'm not talking about just a few hours. A decent amount of flight time (100+ hours) will aid in smoking the program. I don't buy into that BS of civilian types having a hard time learning the navy way. If a pilot with 500 hours can't learn the navy way, he or she probably sucked anyway and would have been cut regardless of flight time. Of those I knew with a lot of prior flight time, not one didn't make the jet cut. Of course not all selected strike due to what I talked about earlier but at least they made the cut, giving them a chance if the position was available. A great example is a good marine buddy of mine. He entered the flight program with just under 2000 flight hours. He cleaned up from primary to advanced jets. He has been flying F/A-18's for about 6 years now. Under the old grading system, he had right around 100 above's for selection, 50 more than me. His previous flight time definitely came in handy.

 

[American_Ace]

I'm really confused with your post. What does playing sports, making good grades, taking one minute showers (really confused with this one), 5 a.m. pt, etc, have to do with becoming a fighter pilot? If you're talking about being accepted to into ROTC or one of the academy's then followed by acceptence into the flight program, then sure. Fat kids being pilots? Being in shape, looking good in uniform, setting the example for the troops are IMO, part of the program for being a military officer. That's reason enough for staying in shape. The benefits of staying in shape are obvious but I guess can also help with those who pull mega g's, long flights, long work days, etc. However, being in shape has nothing to do with the quality of a pilot, at least in my experience.

Err, are you serious? You don't think you need good grades or you need to be in shape to be a pilot? I see what you're doing, you're making me clarify so that kid will understand my post a little more. Good idea.

OK, let me put this in perspective; to be a pilot you first need to be an officer, and to be an officer you have to meet certain PT scores and weight restrictions. Even airline pilots have to stay within certain weight restrictions, blood pressure, etc. Being a pilot and staying in shape (especially in the military), goes hand and hand. Also, you need good grades to get accepted to OCS or the Academy. You can join ROTC without a scholarship, but it's been proven that kids who don't do well in high school don't do well in college, and when the military considers candidates for pilot training grades and PT are pretty important.

Also, I recommended joining CAP because they have a program called 'encampment' which is modeled after AF OCS. If you can't stand encampment, chances are you aren't going to do well in real OCS, the Academy, or ROTC. My dad went through OCS, my mom went through ROTC, and a few of my friends there had parents who went through the academy, and they all said it was 'just like *insert officer program*.'

I recommended team sports (soccer, football, etc) because they teach invauable lessons about selflessness, teamwork, leadership, followership, etc. which are all core values for combat pilots, or any officer for that matter. You could tell instantly which kids were in sports, and I know sports gave me a huge leg up. The more competitive the sport or the league, the better. I played soccer for competitive travel teams since I was 11 and I played high school soccer, and I can tell you from experience that it gave me a huge leg up on everything that builds an officer. I also do track and field, and, whereas it's a great sport, it's not quite a team sport and it doesn't quite build the leadership that other sports do.

 

[American_Ace]

I agree that CAP is a good extracurricular, but who are we kidding, we all know all the kids in CAP are gay. "I'm a SAR C-172 Navigator for the CAP, SSIIIRRRR"

AHAHAHAHA It's funny because it's true. Seriously though, you can sort out the strivers from the S!@&-bags pretty quick. When you pick kids the kids you're going to hang out with just ask yourself "would I trust this guy if he was my wingman" and you'll end up with the strivers.

Just don't be one of those weird kids that like to wear BDUs in public.