Six years also when I looked into it as a grunt...that was longer than 7 years ago though.
Morph, It was a while ago, but I was in your shoes as far as Army pilot goes. Wanting to go enlisted (WO in your case) before comissioning is not an uncommon plan for many, but yours is a first for me. If you know anything about Army WO pilots you know there's some definite perks vs. being fully commissioned. Later on down the road you don't get steered towards the desk more, quite the opposite actually. Your flight pay doesn't shrink with your hairline either, it keeps going, and going, etc. As a matter of fact, the current CO for all Naval Aviation training is a former Army chopper pilot with 500 combat mission in Viet-Nam.
As for your question, technically (and this is the last time I checked) you could get an age waiver for Navy pilot up to age 31 over the standard 27 cut-off with 4 yrs active duty. Is there a guarantee that you'll get it, or that this rule will even exist 8 years from now: NO!
Some other things to think about: As cool as Army aviation would be (one word: Apache!) I think you should shoot for your ultimate goal, especially if you're in college now. Sure, you can quit now and always finish your BS later for a comission, even while on active duty, but when you're working, and in between deployments with a family (trust me, you never know!?) things can get real complicated. Can it be done: of course. Will it be hard as hell and make you regret not finishing when you were a young, single guy: most likely. Then there's the "on-base" campus's. Sure, you can take college classes but will they be as good and as equipped as the Aero program you're in now? I don't know what kind of senior year classes you need for an Aero degree but I can quarantee you'll have a hard time finding them at an overseas base. Yes, you can commission with any degree but if you're in Aero, doing well and liking it, (and being selected for Navy Pilot is you ultimate goal) you'd be silly to give up a gold star like that for a Poli-Sci or Comm degree from some base campus because that's all they offered, and you can't guage what your shooling options will be because you have no idea where you'll go.
You have to decide what you want, but I would say to finish school first if you can because you'll have more options with a degree no matter what you decide. Even if you still decide to fly Army, pursuing a Navy commission and SNA will be an option vs. something that "may" happen some day. You can fly Army for a while and apply for a service transfer, very rare but possible.
You mentioned flying "heavies". Exactly what type of planes are you referring to? If a large, multi-engine jet tanker or cargo plane is your final goal you might want to look at the Air Force. The only large planes the Navy has are P-3's and E-6's (Boeing 707). P-3's can actually be as, or more, competetive than the much sought jet slots and the E-6 is the rarest of all selections. So unless you're the top of your class in flight school you'll most likely end up in...you guessed it...Helo's.
Best of luck
