I was just curious about this...I read the book Airwarriors a few months ago and one of the pilots wanted to be an astronaut so he wanted to fly jets. At the very end it said he was assigned to helos, but is wanting to transfer. Also, if I read it correctly, one of the Blue Angels this year (event coordinator), flew an E-2 Hawkeye. It then says he completed the F/A-18 syllabus later on in his career. I was wondering, how hard was it for these guys to transfer?
It is called transitioning, not transferring. There are two types of transitions in the Navy and Marines, one is from NFO to Pilot and the other is going from one aircraft to the next.
Since you are talking about going from Helos to jets the latter would apply. There used to be two boards a year and they would select 10-15 pilots and NFO's (about 80-90% pilots) to transtion. They stopped having them for a few years because of all the S-3 guys transtioning but that should mostly be over so I imagine the boards are going again. A lot of it depends on your CO, he has to sign off on it and that is the biggest roadblock most of the time. If you have done well in your original aircraft you have a good chance of getting one. Interestingly, the other big factor is not that many guys put in for a transfer. Most settle into their original aircraft well and are happy, and don't want to start at the bottom again.
But don't be that guy who shows up and declares to his VP/VQ/VAW/HSL wardroom that he is just biding his time until he can put in for jets......those guys rarely transtion. Do well in your career and all possibilities are open to you, including transitioning.
Do a search too (transition), this topic has been covered.
