brabus

"When Thunder Rolled" by Ed Rasimus (Retired Maj) is awesome. It details his life from getting out of UPT, going to Nellis for 105 training and then to SEA. It has incredible stories about flying fighters in Vietnam...I couldn't put it down. He also came out with a new book "Palace Cobra" detailing his experiences as an F-4 pilot over Vietnam. Obviously, he did two tours. Haven't read that one yet, but I'm going to as soon as break hits and I have some time. I'm sure it'll be just as awesome as the first.

Go ROTC man. The Det here has had above 90% since I was a freshman. Sure the national average is 50%, but that's when you take into account all the guys that applied who either don't have a shot in hell, or just didn't get that GPA up enough, etc. If you work hard enough and do decently school, you'll most likely get one. And yes, everyone's saying the worst thing is you could spend 4 yrs in the AF doing something else. Well look at it this way, you'll at least have a guaranteed job for 4 yrs w/ decent pay and good benefits. Then after 4 yrs (you'll only be 26), you can easily start working towards the civilian flying world. Or, maybe w/in those 4 yrs you pick up an AD flying slot. You never know. Point being, the risk in ROTC (of not getting a slot) is not too high unless you just slack off and don't give much effort into it. Worst case, you get a great, guaranteed job for 4 years that will look awesome anywhere in the civilian world. Much better than all my civilian friends who have no idea what the hell they're going to do when they graduate in May.

It won't matter at all. Do you use your right hand for the mouse on your computer? If you can do that, you can handle a stick in your right hand (sts).

If you're on scholarship, you'll get $400 a month by the time you're a senior and somewhere around $350 per semester for books...all of this in addition to tuition being paid for. So if you get a scholarship, then the driving time might be worth it considering you're getting a free education and getting paid to do it (something you won't have if you go through college yourself and try the OTS route). Just something to think about.

We have guys driving up from Colo Springs (1.5 hrs or so) every Thu for LLAB and AS class. They just turn in memos for PT and the POC cadets do their other class via teleconference. I'm sure it sucks on Thu to have to do a 3 hr round trip, but all in all the whole thing is relatively manageable.

A guy at my det got a FAM ride in a 16 at Luke a few months ago. He ralphed inside his mask in flight. Then once on the ground, before getting out, he used his helmet as the receptible, thus effectively ruining the helmet and mask. The life support guys just said screw it gave him the mask/helmet. Lucky bastard. Now we all know what to do on FAM rides!

Your junior year in ROTC you'll get your pilot slot (hopefully), then you have a FC1 medical. If you pass that, you're medically cleared to fly. From there, after graduation/commissioning you'll go to UPT. If you don't have your private license by then, you'll do IFT (get your license); if you do, you'll go to UPT. The time between graduation and UPT depends...sometimes it's fast, sometimes it's 8-13 months (seems to be the average nowadays). This is all assuming you did well enough in school and ROTC to get a slot and you didn't screw anything up (i.e. get a DUI, MIP, etc.)

I tried searching, but the thread that comes up just has the original post, one small post, and then a post by Toro locking the thread...there's gotta be more to it, anyone have those replies?

Anyone have the original link to the CAP thread, I want to see the replies! [ 11. October 2005, 20:42: Message edited by: brabus ]

Hahaha, wow...I don't think tool even begins to describe that guy.

Yeah, on one hand, I wouldn't f*ck w/ your stuff...97 PCSM is obviously practically perfect. I would 100% stay w/ that, but I'm ROTC. It does seem that the guard/reserves look much harder at actual AFOQT scores (instead of like us where it doesn't matter as long as your PCSM ends up good). Guess you'll have to see what the guard/reserve pros say.

Yeah, it could happen. What's your PCSM right now and what's your Pilot AFOQT score right now?

Yep, every year 90% of the Freshman class do some kind of engineering. By the 2nd semester, 70% of them change. By the end of the first year, 90% of them are out of engineering. DO NOT do it unless engineering is what you want to do. I know several people who will get engineering degrees this Spring but would absolutely kill themselves if they had to do engineering as a career. If you want to fly, do something smart and choose a major in which 1) you like, and 2) you can get a good GPA in (becuase that's ALL that matters in school as far as pilot slots go). P.S. I was one of those kids who switched out of engineering (to Poli Sci) after the first semester. Had to work up to a 3.4 from 2.5...that was not fun (luckily got it to that in time for boards). Don't screw yourself like I and tons of other people have. [ 07. October 2005, 13:31: Message edited by: brabus ]

You can get a slot through a guard unit, go to AMS and there ya go. However, the process is extremely competitive...your chances of getting a pilot slot are much higher if you do ROTC (depending on how old you are, still in school?, etc), or maybe even OTS. Getting a slot right now through OTS is also very difficult. If you have connections in a guard unit, then you'll have a way better chance, otherwise, good luck w/ the process. Bottom line - Possible, but very competitive right now.

No one can top 170 in the Diamondstar!!!....damn, I want something fast :(

Some jackass in a citation almost caused a midair with our otter a couple days ago. Flew right over the DZ, missed by maybe 300 ft or so...which for me is WAY to close to another plane in that type of situation. I hate incompetent pilots. But after reading this thread, I think I'm definitely holding jumping off until after UPT. No swooping for me :( .

Yep, FT's a pretty lame attempt to grade everyone against eachother. Some FTOs are total d bags and others are really cool. Some don't care if you can't stay in step, others will practically give you a form 17 if you don't. All the evaluators (FTO and CTA) are just so different between flights and camps that FT really is a terrible way to provide part of ranking. Not to mention who's in your flight is huge. So, terrible sysytem, but just something we all gotta do. Worked out fine for me, but I certainly saw my fair share of cadets get totally screwed.

Anyone want to chip in to the "I need a plane ticket fund?" I wish I had money...damn. [ 13. August 2005, 00:20: Message edited by: brabus ]

Just wondering, why can spouses get o-rides in heavies, but not in fighters? Does the AF just think it's too risky?

I saw a guy get a waiver for it at Brooks back in May. So you're probably not completely screwed.

Well, when did you actually get yours? And to the orig poster, what ENJJPT said is all correct. I gave you the reality, that does not mean give up. I completely agree with ENJJPT here. Have a positive attitude, put a portfolio together and do whatever else you can. Give it your best. If you don't get one, don't worry about it, if you do, that's awesome! However, just know that right now it's nearly impossible w/o a technical degree (such as the ones I listed). Don't give up, do what you can. You never know.

I would guess it depends on how bad. If you have three tickets for 20-30 over each time, then that's pretty bad. If they're more minor, then it's probably not going to kill you. If only one is more than 12 over, then you're probably fine. This is just me guessing though.

Getting non-tech scholarships out of HS right now is virtually impossible. Hate to tell you that, but that's the way it is right now. As with everything in the AF, this will change over time, then change back...the whole damn cycle continues. I got mine for Poli Sci, but that's back when anybody could get one. Now if you're not engineering, meteorology, or nursing, you're pretty much screwed. It's not impossible, but very likely you won't get one unless you have one of those majors. I wouldn't suggest doing one of those majors just to get a scholarship unless, a. you really want to study that, or b. You have absolutely no other way of affording college. Best thing to do is major in something you're interested in, that way you like it and do much better (and GPA is big for many things in ROTC and jobs later on down the road). Just my 2 cents.

The AF LOVES engineers. Reasoning is because they really really need all you smart folk to keep rolling out all the cool stuff and to keep all the crazy stuff we have running. However, the AF faces a huge problem of engineer attrition because you can make tons more money doing engineering in the civilian world. So, a lot guys do 4 and get out so they can make way more money. I know a guy who's now doing developmental engineering (he was an aero major); he loves his job. I don't know for sure, but I'd say he was probably in about the middle of his ROTC class. That might be able to give you at least a little perspective. As far as being selected for engineering, if you say you want to do engineering and you have an engineering degree (assuming decent grades), then you're pretty much a shoe-in. Commander's ranking is decently important for getting exactly what you want, but like I said, you don't need to be in the top 5% to get engineering. I know countless people who have gone into engineering who were the cross-town, nobody knew them, kids. They didn't do a ton in ROTC, but still made it to what they wanted, engineering. Now, don't take this as me saying you can slack off in ROTC. Do the best you can, volunteer, try to hold good positions, but don't let the people going for rated slots try to tell you that you have to make ROTC 90% of your life to get what you want. Do the best you can in ROTC, but don't feel that you have to bust your ass to be #1. Personally I would bust mine because I like being at the top, but that's just preference, not a requirement in your case. Sorry, I don't really know of a site like this more tuned to other AFSC's...I know it must be annoying for you with baseops considering it's practically all pilot/nav oriented. Keep looking, maybe you'll find something. Also, a good thing to do would be to find out what guys ahead of you in your position have done. i.e. do you see guys going to engineering who were ROTC studs, or were they just kind of there, did some stuff, and comissioned. There's basically those two ways to go through ROTC. Neither is necessarily better or worse, it just matters on which is best tailored to your situation. Sorry for the long post, hope something helps out of it. Let me know if you have any questions or would like me to clarify anything I said in this one (as I wouldn't be surprised if I had to ;) ).

I think what uniball is getting at is that you shouldn't put all your eggs in one basket. Working hard in ROTC and caring about it is great, as you should. The example of 6 hours on the phone is trying to show someone who is not very well-rounded. While you should care about ROTC, you need to do other stuff. Doing ROTC stuff on a Friday night should ALMOST never happen. If you've got something big going on Sat, then I could see it, but if not, then let it go and do something fun for the weekend. You're not well-rounded if 95% of your time is spent doing ROTC stuff (that doesn't include hanging out with friends from ROTC). Let me know if I'm wrong on this interpretation uniball.