Hey man! Best of luck to you in your UPT hunt! One route that you may not have known about is the Air Force Reserve unsponsored route. I weYou can submit an application to the AFRC and get a UPT slot that way. If you get picked up, you go to OTS and UPT, and you have until the end of training to find an AFRC unit to sponsor you. This will eliminate your “age waiver” question when you rush units if you already got the green light from AFRC. You’ll still need an age waiver, but getting set up with a solid recruiter who will route your paperwork well can hook you up.
The board meets every other month and it looks like the unsponsored route is getting scarcer and only every other board is accepting unsponsored applicants. The upcoming May Board is accepting a limited amount, and the deadline is end of April. You’ll have results within a few weeks of the board meeting date.
After you get selected (with your scores etc I’m sure you will). Then you’ll start rushing units as a guy who’s already got all the admin complete and has a for sure UPT slot. It is a way better position to be in when rushing units. Also, this could open you up to all the fighter units because you’ll have the age waiver sorted out via AFRC before even rushing.
Beware: the default route for a typical unsponsored dude is to track T-1’s in UPT unless you get sponsored by a fighter. So your timer for fighters runs out at the end of T-6 land.
Additionally, after the selections come out, you’ll get phone calls from various heavy units that are interested in sponsoring you. Some of these may be invites for interview boards, meet and greets, or just flat out job offers pending a squadron visit.
If you are highly motivated to just get your ass in the cockpit and sort out the location and airframe later, go this route. I just confirmed with a recruiter that they’ll do age waivers for unsponsored applicants.
One final note: this will restrict your options to AFRC units only, so all ANG is off the table once you get to UPT unfortunately. That being said, there are tons of units to go around, but fighters are very very few, and heavies are the majority.
Hit me up if you have any questions. These forums have been so helpful to me, so I’m happy to pay it forward.