Spartacus

I have a friend that interviewed about two years ago for the Oregon KC-135 unit and got a slot. He is from there so they liked him, but he just walked in off the streetand beat everyone else out. They only gave one slot at that time.

So, how does that work with the AF and committments etc? I'm almost 26 and won't start UPT for another year. I assume that I will serve 10 as a pilot and then I could go to Med school? I guess I'm asking what the ins and outs are to doing this. I might just fly for 20+ but I have always been interested in being a doc too. Also, how does that work out financially? Does it make sense to go to med school that late? (At 38+)

Ok, so here is a really weird questions, but one that I think is interesting. A lot of cadets at my Det want to be pilots, but a few of them are decided to go to Med school to be Flight Surgeons! I have a friend in the Navy who is a flight surgeon, (dang good one too! I guess he almost got flight surgeon of the year for the whole Navy!) This friend gets to fly F-18's and all too! What a deal! My question is: Have you ever heard of anyone being a pilot for 10 and then going to Med school after that? To either be a doc and/or flight surgeon. Highly unlikely I know, but just wondering. I do know that many people change careers and go to med school in their late 30's and 40's even. Every med school has a few of those from what I can see. Thanks for your help.

So, I take it that it's a really good idea to buy income/rental properties wherever you go? Is that where you can make a lot of money? Is there a lot of liability with that? Is it hard to do, and how risky is it? Thanks, sorry for all the questions!

Sorry, one more questions. What will a flyer make after 20 years? I've also heard that there are a lot of bonuses after 10 to stay competitive with the airlines. How much is this and does your base pay go up too just to stay with airline pay?

Some good info and advice! MajorMadMax, If you don't mind me asking... what kind of properties do you own? Are you talking rental, or did you buy a house in Colorado, a cabin in Montana, and a house in Germany? I'm just kind of curious about how you did and what the ins and outs to it are. I'm getting married soon and my fiance comes from, well... MONEY. I don't care about being Bill Gates but I want to provide well for my family. I plan on taking advantage of TSP, getting a Roth IRA, and investing in Mutual Funds the Stock market (maybe), and real estate. I just want to be able to buy a nice house (not a mansion) and a few acres of land to surround it before I'm 50! Also, I'm leaning toward staying for 20, but either way you can make some good money in the airlines. Southwest for example pays pretty dang good (right now), better than a lot of the majors even. So, whenever I get out if everything goes well I'll have the pension plus airline pay. (I would also like to own my own business someday.)

Bergman, Thank you! That gives me a little better of an idea. Is the $88,000 hard money or are you talking about benefits that are included in that too? One more question. At my Det the Colonel has 28 years in the AF as an aircraft maintenance officer. I was under the assumption that he was making around $95,000 a year. If a Major makes $88,000 after 10 as a flyer then what would the Colonel be making at 28?

Ok, so I decided to go after my dream and not think about money or anything like that. I am so excited to be an AF pilot, but what can pilots expect financially? I know about the pay charts and flight pay, but what can you count on making? If you stay in for 10 years where can you be financially? (Assuming that you are responsible and invest.) For 20 years and beyond where can you be? I've heard of officers investing well and retiring completely after 20 years with 1 million+ in the bank and a nice house. What's your take on all of that? Is flying for the airlines after you are done whether it's 10 or 20 years a good way to go? I don't care about being a huge millionaire but I do want to be able to buy a nice house with some land after a while.

That does really suck man. I don't think that I would like that situation either. However, a couple of things to think about. When we all sign on the dotted line we understand (or at least should) that things like this could happen. We are going to be an Officer first and that is what is most important. That you will get to be an Officer in the greatest AF in the world is a priviledge. Now, I'm sure that doesn't make you feel any better but what has happened to you is the nature of the game. Give your job a chance (if you don't get Nav back) and do your best. If you hate it after four years then get out and do something different with your life. The bright side though is that you get to serve your country and will be an Officer while you do it. Again, I'm sorry that this has happened to you, and I know that it must hurt. Do your best though in whatever you are given!

Sorry for the stupidity but what is an Aggressor Pilot? I've never heard of that before.

PP2004, That may not be what you have. I went to the doc and that is not what I have. I'm no doc but I'm sure if that's what you have either.

Doc, Is IBS (irritable bowel syndrome) a DQ condition for pilots?

I have heard that in the Air Force you are required to do a remote tour at some point in your career. Is this usually without your family? Can you request to do one where your family can come with you? Is it normally a year long like Korea?

Just thought I would let you all know. My Det actually screwed up everyones OM that retook the PFT for categorization, and HQ will not update our OM's. Therefore I'm not the only one at my Det that had to bend over which really sucks. However, the good news is that HQ told my Det that myself and one other cadet are in the top 10% of pilot selects and said that both of us will get ENJJPT and not to worry about our lower OM's because of this. YEAH!

Ok listen. I totally agree with what you guys are saying about being happy with what you got. However, I have worked my butt off to get where I am. I have over $20,000 in student loans for all of my flying, and I did it to be more competitive for pilot and ENJJPT. ENJJPT is what I want and I have worked to get there. To get jacked over by someones stupid mistake after all of my sacrifice is what sucks plain and simple. Sure, maybe I'm being a little conceided but I have worked hard and sacrificed A LOT to get the credentails that I have. Instead of being out having fun I spent a lot of time studying and flying and doing crap like that. I gave up my college fun to get where I am and for an idiot to misplace my PFT card and not get my right score in for the pilot board pisses me off!!! To answer a few questions. Yes my PCSM is 99 and if you want me to prove it I will. Yes, I do have a pilot slot FY06. rangerbob5, According to my calculations my OM would be a 95.45 with the 91.5 PFT and a 94.89 OM with the 86 PFT score. You seem to know whats up, my scores are above at the beginning of this thread. Can you confirm my OM scores. (I'm not sure about the PFT calculations.) The PFT is 10% and the 86 is 8.6 points and the 91.5 is 9.15 points from what I figure. Is that right?

I respect what all of you have said. However, think of it like this. Your package is sent in and you don't get a UPT slot because they messed up your package. So, you have to take a Nav slot. Hey, Nav is great and yes you should be happy with it. But, wouldn't you be a little pissed that you weren't given credit for what you did and therefore didn't get what you had earned? The same thing goes with this. I am dang glad that I got a slot but what if this mess up is just enough so that I don't get ENJJPT? That will piss me off! What if I would have gotten ENJJPT if they had my stuff right, but because they messed it up I will just miss it? Do you see my point?

But it does mean jack to get into ENJJPT so that you have basically an 85% percent chance of getting a fighter, which is what I want. In UPT you have to compete like crazy to get that fighter!

Don't get me wrong I'm extremely excited! It just makes me mad because I wasn't given full credit for what I did. It's like taking a test in school and getting a grade lower because your professor messed up on the grading. My NCO explained it like this. Your score will "follow you" so you want it as high as you can get it. We are always ranked in the military and this could change my "rank" by 10, 20 or even more positions depending on how competitive the boards were. Do you see what I mean?

I thought the board met for ENJJPT in September. So will I be able to get my OM fixed or is HQ going to give me the bird even though it was not my fault? Kill, Sorry about that crap happening to you too! That really sucks!!! Believe me I know!!! Thanks all for your help and for posting your numbers. Any more help would be appreciated!

Ok so this one really pisses me off. I got a pilot slot and am hoping for ENJJPT. But, guess what I found out today. I had a bad feeling about my PFT score, because I took it right before the board deadline for pilot. Well, my feeling was right! My cadre submited my old PFT score of an 86. My new score was a 91.5. So, my OM score has the old 86 in it and I flipped when I found out. (So, did the cadre.) I guess my PFT card got lost and they found it in a stack of papers today after looking for a while. I think that my OM was around a 95 if my new PFT score was in it, but with the old PFT score I don't know what it is and my cadre say that they can't tell me the official OM. All they said is that these two scores do change my OM. Well, they said that they will fix it and to talk to them on Friday. I am very wary of this though because I think they are blowing smoke! I don't think that they will be able to get my OM changed just for this! I sure hope this doesn't preclude me from going to ENJJPT. My question is: Can my Order of Merit be changed because of this mistake that was NOT my fault? Here are my scores: Commanders Ranking: 3rd out of 32 GPA: 3.80 PFT: (UUGGGHHH) 86 or 91.5 FT: SP PCSM: 99 Can CAVOK or anyone out there tell me if this is competitive for ENJJPT? The OM calculator that I found doesn't work right and I can't get the new numbers to add up for the new PFT and Commanders Ranking. Sorry for the long post. Any help would be appreciated!

Quick question... Can yon only log combat time if you're in a "combat" aircraft? Or do you log it as combat in whatever aircraft you're in as long as you are flying over a "combat" area?

There is some good advice about TPS on here. I was just at Edwards this last week and saw the TPS. Pretty top notch people there. The briefing that we got said that the average GPA is around a 3.6 for pilots, navs, and engineers. Your flying record needs to be at least near perfect and most guys there had a masters and a lot even had PhD's. It's pretty elite stuff. You get to fly 25-30 airplanes throughout the course and you travel to other countries to fly some of their planes too. One of the TPS class is heading to Brazil and Spain right now to fly some of their stuff and see what they have going on. From what I gathered it seems like flying life is pretty much over after TPS. You spend 3-4 years being a test pilot and then you get sent to the Pentagon to fly a desk and you'll probably never fly operationaly again.

Ya all and c17wannabe, METAR is an acronym. It means: Meteorological Aviation Report. I guess it's not really fair though because I'm working on my CFII.

All, Sorry to kinda change the topic but thanks for answering that question! Those were some really good responses! I guess why I got to thinking about this is because I am unmarried and am an only child. My mother has heart problems and my father just had a CT scan and they found a lot of build-up on his brain that causes strokes. Seeing as how I will be going AD in a while I have worried about this a little. Family is important and I just would hate to be in azerbajain or some place and find out that one of my family members only has 6 months to live. Then it would suck if the AF would say... "Well, when the person dies we'll give you 3 days for the funeral." That would really suck!

Just a question for AirGuardian... Something that you said in your post made me think. In the Guard if you have a sick family member or whatever you said that they will work with you and help you to get closer to what's happening. What about if you're on AD and say a family member were to get really sick with cancer or whatever? I know this is a weird question, but I never really thought about it until you wrote that stuff. Will the AF just give you the bird and say, "oh well, *hit happens" or will they try to work with you so that you can be close to that person?