Stoker

Fair enough, I meant to say that I wasn't sure what the percentage of domestically produced parts was.

With regards to all the discussion about domestically built aircraft having an advantage... I know Embraer is a Brazilian company, but the A-29 is built in Jacksonville, at least for US contracts.

You're interviewing with the 78th, right? I got picked up by them last December. They said expect one eight-week deployment every eighteen months or so, with TDYs being more common.

Off topic, but do people really think MacArthur was a great general? He let basically the entire Far East Air Force get destroyed on the ground by the Japanese, ten hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor. He won victories later in the war, sure, but they were victories won with numerical superiority and an overwhelming material advantage.

Thanks. My recruiter sent my package in on May 1, so hopefully I don't miss this round. He didn't seem to think there was a problem.

I've been told the same thing for the Reserves, which is a good thing since I had my AFRC board package and my FC1 request both sent in yesterday.

Does anyone know when the deadline is for the upcoming AFRC rated board is? I know it's soon if it hasn't already passed, and I'm trying to ensure my recruiter gets everything in on time. Haven't been able to make contact with him for a bit, so I'm just getting nervous that I'm gonna miss it and end up waiting an extra six months for the next board.

Passed the depth perception "five circles" test today at the Tyndall med group after originally failing it at MEPS. It really was as simple as taking my time, focusing, moving my head a little, and taking a break if nothing was popping out before trying again. The med group gave me a full eye workup, which I'm not sure if is because I failed DP at MEPS and now they wanted to check everything to be sure, or if that is standard before going to WPAFB for the FC1.

Har har on the acronym. Guess I should have thrown a "so to speak" in there somewhere. What can I say, I'm new. TK, the corpsman who gave me the exam explained it as picking whichever circle looked darker. It was very hurried. I got checked out by a civilian doc afterwards (as I was in fear that I didn't have any depth perception and would be DQed), got the test explained correctly, saw the circles clear as day and passed. But I guess now I and my recruiter need to figure out how to officially move forward, as I'm guessing my word saying "Oh yeah, the doc said it was fine," isn't enough. I had thought from the Depth Perception thread that a failure on the circles test at MEPS wasn't enough to be disqualifying, and I'd just get sent to Wright-Pat for the FC1 where they'd sort it out, but from what I'm hearing from my recruiter that is not the case.

Finally completed the MEPS process today, five months after my first visit. When I was handed my chart, I noticed 30+ pages of medical documentation for some other dude just stuffed in there... no similarities on SSN, name, DOB, or anything else that would, in theory, lead to the confusion. Someone taking five seconds to compare the names would have saved me months of worry. Now I've got all of two weeks to get everything sorted out before the application deadline for the Reserve board. This might be better answered in the other thread, but in the interests of not double posting: Recruiter is now saying that, since I "failed" the Depth Perception test at MEPS the first time, I'll need to have it redone at a Reserve base before I can go to Wright-Pat. Anyone have experience getting a Depth Perception test done at a random Reserve base? Can't get it done at my sponsoring unit's base as I'm 1,000 miles away. I know I have DP, had it tested with a civilian doc, just failed at MEPS due to the examiner telling me to select the circle that was darker (rather than the circle that was darker or lighter), so I ended up guessing between two equally dark circles while ignoring the (correct) lighter one.

I can only speak from my own experience, but when I was trying to get picked up by a Guard/Reserve fighter squadron, it seemed like the person or persons who ended up getting hired fell into two categories. Category one were applicants who made a real connection with the guys at the squadron, and fit well into the culture. Category two was the same as category one, but add an ATP license and a resume that had a bunch of contract ISR work on it. I had better scores than you, but didn't really mesh well with the several fighter squadrons I visited. Luckily ended up finding a heavy unit that I really fit in with, and got hired by them. My point is, your scores are fine (PCSM a little low, but get enough flight hours til its in the 80s at least and you should be good), but what's gonna make it or break it is if you get along with the guys in the squadron bar, and they like you better than they like the 15-30 other people who came to visit/rush.

Probably the wrong forum (there's one specifically for Guard/Reserve stuff), but yeah, you probably stand a very good chance if you score decently on the AFOQT and TBAS, aren't a tool, and have decent records from your enlisted time. You are closing in on the age when some units will not want to hire you. 30 is the magic birthday at which you must have started UPT, unless you receive a waiver. The process to get to UPT is long enough that many units will require you to be no older than 28.5 to apply/interview, so you've got a limited window to find a unit, or go unsponsored Reserves. That said, if you're not picky about airframes or locations you can probably find a heavy unit that will take you quickly, and/or give you a waiver if you need it.

When I rushed the 100FS (AL ANG), one of their pilots was attempting to be the first Guard pilot to go to Test Pilot School. So presumably it is, to some degree, possible.

With a 95 PCSM in addition to your other stuff you're probably extremely competitive for an interview at any heavy/bomber unit out there, and probably have a good shot at fighters too (just can't speak from too much experience there). If you get the job, well, that's a lot more down to interviewing well and meshing with the squadron personality-wise.

It's good to know I'm not the only one. Was starting to wonder if I had actually had the surgery after all... I've let the hiring contact at my sponsoring unit know. Will continue to harry my recruiter in the meantime.

Sorry if this is the wrong forum for this, or if it's been covered elsewhere (I did search), but I've been having loads of trouble simply getting my MEPS physical completed and was wondering if anyone had any advice. I went to MEPS initially in mid-November, and during my talk with the doc he said that since they were missing documents for my Lasik (they'd been sent, but not received, apparently), I'd need to return for a workup with a MEPS eye doc. I wasn't really looking forward to more time off work, long drives, and time spent at MEPS, but no big deal. Since then, however, my recruiter's requests for me to return to MEPS have been cancelled something like five times, due to them missing various documents. A couple of time it was for Lasik docs (that have been sent, and re-sent, at this point, by my recruiter), two other times it has been cancelled because MEPS required documentation on my jaw surgery (I've never had jaw surgery, nor any issues that would require it, but trying to convince them of that is more difficult). Now it's almost four months since my initial visit. I've been sponsored by a Reserve squadron, but I can't get the ball rolling with the FC1 until MEPS is complete, and with the April deadline for the board fast approaching I'm getting nervous. Anyone have any advice on the best way to clear things up? My recruiter is sympathetic, but I don't think he's doing much more than re-submitting my scheduling request to MEPS every time it's cancelled.

All of the Guard/Reserve units I interviewed with and visited, it was just "Do you have a degree? Box checked." No one particularly seemed to care about the GPA.

If you're set on getting married, and the decision is courthouse wedding either before or after OTS, why not do it before to net an extra couple thousand bucks of BAH?

It's MEPS, if nothing silly happens then it doesn't count.

Yes, because you need to talk to a recruiter. They will get you the documents you need to fill out, schedule your AFOQT/TBAS if needed, and get you sent to MEPS for a med screen. There's not a ton to do that doesn't involve a recruiter.

I've done a fair amount of regulatory/legislative work on autonomous vehicles, you aren't likely to see fully autonomous cars (no steering wheel, no gas/brake pedal) for twenty years or so, because you need them to "play nice" with all the other non-autonomous vehicles on the road, or drive on autonomous-only roads. So it's going to be a phase in process as older, manually operated vehicles. When it comes to aircraft, expect the cargo carriers to go to single pilot operations, then after about ten or twenty mishap-free years passenger airlines can go single pilot.

Isn't having gone through T-38s strictly better than T-1s, from a pilot's perspective? I've been selected by a Reserve heavy squadron, but if the opportunity to track T-38s came up I'd leap at it, just because it gives you better options ten years down the road (and, even if you're totally happy with heavies over fighters, as I am, who doesn't want to fly fighters a little bit?).

As someone who also failed the depth perception test at MEPS (but knows that I do, in fact, have the required depth perception thanks to a trip to a civilian doc), it's very reassuring to hear that the docs at Wright-Pat are there to help you, rather than weed you out.

The KC-10 training is done at McGuire or Travis as far as I know, so no return trip to Altus. I just wonder if they'd bother to "waste" time training me on the -10, or if I'd end up stuck as the squadron gofer for a good chunk of time (more so than the average new guy). Not that the answer changes anything, I'm just curious.

I might be getting ahead of myself, but what do you think would happen to a Reserve pilot fresh out of UPT/Altus who got to one of the -10 units, say six months or a year before the -46 actually arrived? Shouldn't be an issue me unless the -46 production is delayed (which would never happen, right?), I'm just curious.