FDNYOldGuy

I got a waiver at 36 (will be 37 by the time a T6 seat graces my rear) with non-prior service, so it's entirely possible. It's all about the legwork that you put in yourself to show them (squadron, recruiter, boards, etc.) that you're ready to go and finding a unit that wants to also put in the work to get the waiver moved up the chain. Get your AFOQT/TBAS testing done, get working with a recruiter to get MEPS and (if you can) FC1 out of the way, and research/network the shit out of this site and every other person that farts in your general direction you think might be able to help. If you get all your tools working and put in max effort, anything can happen. I just stuck with heavies because I knew competition was lighter, my chances were better, and the ball would be moving faster; all important since I was working against Father Time. I also realized in my info-gathering efforts and convos with squadrons that I'm much more of a heavy-mentality/fit kinda guy, but that'll depend on your personal preference and the MO of units you're interviewing with. I got my share of rejections or just no reply email at all for packets sent, but I went 2 for 2 for interviews (an ANG and a Reserve) when I got lucky. I chose Reserves, besides the dudes I met/the plane/the squadron vibe hitting it out of the park, also because everything I saw pointed to the process with the Reserves being much more streamlined and quicker than ANG, although I've heard NGB is trying to speed their process up. And that was the case: I hadn't even spoken to a recruiter or taken an AFOQT a year ago and I'm heading to Inprocessing 1 year and 1 day from the when I sat down for the AFOQT, so it definitely went pretty quick. You can certainly make it happen if you put in the work to get yourself as spun-up as possible; make connections everywhere you can that might be able to help you along the way; and put together a solid, professional packet to apply to a lot of places and don't let any rejections shut you down. All that stuff, coupled with being a good dude/bringing good "whole person" concept to the squadrons, can give you a very solid shot. Good luck out there. Feel free to hit me up if you have any other questions.

Like many others have said, you're in the on-deck circle when many haven't gotten that close. I have spoken to a couple folkss in my (pretty limited) travels in getting a slot that were hired as alternates and got the spot when one of the main picks split to another offer (perhaps more of a round nose world thing, but still, it happens). Don't take it personal that they say "we like you; we just like this guy a little better." Them's the digs. Keep asking for feedback from anyone you've spoken with at your visits and you may catch a morsel in there that you've missed or that they're hinting at they would like you to do better. It could be something out of your control: maybe you're super young and they feel like "you've got time?" Or maybe you kill the interview, but you're not trying to talk enough to guys outside of it during the meet and greets? Or maybe you're hitting the booze a bit too much during the socializing, or not bringing booze when you go? It could be any number of little things that get you almost there, so try to find out what you might be able to do better. Either way, you're at least getting a chance that most of the others that come interview aren't and you're close to the promised land. Keep your head up and keep trying. Good luck!

+1 on the offer for help. I'm no expert, I never sent packets or interviewed with fighters (interviewed with 2 heavies and got offers for both) ,and just another soul starting off on this adventure, but I'll certainly put my .02 in for feedback on a packet, if anyone wants more eyes on it. Don't get disheartened. You're vying for a very coveted job and competition is fierce, but we can always improve and keep plugging away. It'll happen when/with whom it's supposed to!

Don't stress, bro. The board took my old ass, so you're probably just fine; especially if your squadron is behind you and makes a call up there (mine is awesome and pushed hard for me, which certainly helped).

Likewise! Was a whirlwind of emotions in a short time period, those emails. Hopefully it means we’re all on deck for one of the Jan dates! Maybe we start a thread when we (hopefully) get the final okay that we’re going?

I went half mast, dude. That's a killer idea and it looks great! I'm sure it helped you stand out a bit. Good luck!

Ahhh. My mistake. I had heard that we can sit to take those higher equivalency exams, but I wasn't sure how not having a PPL played into that. A little searching and I see FAR 61.73 allows military pilots around the PPL first requirement. The only other potential reason for getting a PPL (although, seems to be hotly debated) is logging hours (mainly T6 time) during UPT before sitting for that equivalency exam. If you have a PPL, you have the type rating (ASEL) and can log PIC time ("sole manipulator of controls" time; not "signed for the aircraft" time). It won't help with airline required hours (depending on the airline), but it seems like that can count toward FAA hours required for higher ratings like ATP. So, it seems if you're worried about being able to log all available hours PIC, then having the PPL beforehand might be able to make the 60+ hours of T6 time loggable as PIC to get you closer to the ATP hours requirement. That's how I understand it, anyway, but I can certainly be wrong about that.

Another reason I've heard to wrap up your PPL and avoid IFT is because it's another potential for failure. Sure, if money is an issue, it makes way more sense to have Big Blue just pay/pay you for the training. However, if you can swing finishing your PPL as a civilian, it might make sense because it's weeks less of potential things that could jam you up. You have already been flying, so you're probably confident in your skills, but why potentially beef up a checkride or something else that could eliminate you at IFT if you can avoid it entirely? Lastly, as I understand it, you don't get a PPL at IFT; just the ~20 hours of instruction. So, if you do want a PPL down the road, you'll still have to sit for it and get the FAA checkride for the license anyway. Especially coupling it with the months of wait time @Stoker pointed out, you might as well just knock it out beforehand, if you can.

You’ve got a pretty solid shot with some great scores. If you’re happy with a seat over picky about a particular airframe, I’d be hard-pressed to imagine you don’t get scooped up pretty quick. You won’t be able to do the Unsponsored route because the age waiver (actually it’s an ETP for us non-prior guys) requires sponsorship, so that option is likely off the table. In my experience and in talking to folks on here, Reserves route can be a “quicker” route with things moving along faster. ANG seems to be pretty slow approving waivers, with kickbacks of them for clerical errors or even as a whole at different levels. You’ll also have to do everything through your specific sponsoring unit (MEPS, FC1, etc.), so it’s hard to get a jump on that stuff before you’re picked up since that specific unit is cutting your orders (over a recruiter over many units) for things. Lastly, your age requires the ETP, but you’re not far into waiver territory and it shouldn’t be hard to get through. Good luck out there! This forum is a great resource, so utilize it!

Most definitely prices have gone crazy. Watching the prices of stocks, real estate, collectors’ cars, and nice watches over the last handful of years has made me head spin. Hell, the last AOPA Flight Training Magazine mentioned that mid-60’s to mid-70’s Skyhawks have gone up 25% in a quarter (if I’m remembering the stats correctly). That’s kinda nuts. A downturn will definitely send people that overextended to the exits and bring prices back out of the stratosphere (or we’ll get stagflation, which sucks too). I like watches and I said I’d get a cheapie vintage 5500 Rolex Air King (pretty low end Rolex, but I like its simplicity) if I was able to pull off getting a pilot slot at advanced age, but prices have jumped quite a bit in the last few years that it doesn’t make sense. Maybe I’ll wait until training is over to see if things have come down? And maybe to not put the cart too far in front of the horse, since I’ve still got a long way to go until it’s a given I’ve made it...

Shit, man, that's a really great article. They really did capture his personality, from what relatively little I knew of him. Funny story: so he had come out to his firehouse back when it was still pretty rare to just be open about it. Guys broke his balls (pun intended, I guess), like they do to everyone, but they never treated him any different because that's how the majority of the department operates. We will make fun of you for anything, but we're all brothers in charge of one another's lives. He was good at his job and that's all any of us really care about. True to his unique form, when he was killed, he didn't want the typical FDNY funeral; lots of Catholics on the job, so usually a big mass with plenty of boozing after. He actually had a really great (and quick, by FD standards) ceremony in Washington Square Park, right in the middle of the city. It was cool and a nice departure from the normal department funerals, honestly. But, the kicker was, the night before the funeral, his wishes were to have a celebration of life at his favorite gay bar. I actually worked at his firehouse driving 11 Truck that night so the guys that worked with him there could be off to go out. Of course, there were lots of jokes thrown about beforehand about them heading out to a gay bar. Some were hesitant about the venue; but everyone went, because it's what you do on this job for your brothers. Just picture 50+ gruff New York City firemen ranging from early 20s-mid 50s in age milling about getting ready to go out to a gay bar. I couldn't stop laughing. But, out they went and, to a man, came back boxed, saying they had a great time. In the morning, before his funeral, the stories flowed and the hangovers kicked in, because it's just kinda how things go. Seems like it fits his character of marching to the beat of his own drum. That article summed him up pretty nicely about who he was. Thanks for sharing. I'll pass it along to guys in his firehouse, in case they haven't seen it. Stay safe out there.

So, this loss happened a little before I joined the site. When I did, I didn't want to put too much personally identifying info up while I was interviewing for slots, so my apologies for bringing this thread back up. But, I was wearing one of the memorial shirts for Tripp recently and it got me thinking about these guys. I unfortunately didn't know Raguso (he worked in another Borough/Division from me and our paths never crossed), but Tripp originally worked in the firehouse (Engine 28/Ladder 11) next to mine before promoting to Fire Marshal years back. I'd only worked with him a few times on details between firehouses and caught a few jobs with him, but more knew his story from the guys he worked with more than I knew him personally. Pretty incredible dude all around, with his military service and law degree from Stanford, that was talked of very highly by the guys in his firehouse who knew him well. They all figured he was on track for a life in politics, which he sure seemed like he would have excelled at. Anyway, the FDNY sendoffs for him and Raguso, with the Air Force also playing a big part, were great. They gave the families a lot of pride and showed a lot of love from those of us that worked alongside them. Those were followed up by memorial t-shirts for each of them, and one for Jolly 51 as a whole. One of the ones is pictured below and I thought was a cool mix of FDNY and USAF, so I figured I'd share it here. Belated cheers to those that were lost.

As @flat4power said, and from what I've seen, they did up the age and commissioned service time for the AD board upcoming next month. 33 for age and 7 (I think) years for total commissioned service. There hasn't been anything I've seen on it spilling over to AFRC/ANG yet, but it certainly doesn't hurt chances for those candidates. I was able to get a non-prior service ETP for a Reserves heavy unit through at 36 (technically, I'll be 37 by UPT start, too). There was a whole lot of hustling/annoying people, by myself and my squadron (they were awesome at making calls), to get that to happen, but it worked out. I made it through the wavier process and the board, was just sworn in last week, and I've been working with the 340th and just awaiting inprocessing/official OTS start dates. Anything is possible and it's always worth the shot. Good luck!

Call or email the squadron PoCs and talk to them, interact on this board with as many folks as you can and make quality posts letting people know who you/why you want a spot/that you're not a tool, and attend rush/drill weekends if they offer and have convos with squadron members. You don't have to always be selling yourself; just get to know them and let them get to know you organically. You'll get out of it what you put into it and, for me, networking was one of the biggest leg-ups of the process.

Thank you for all of the great input, guys; you cleared it up nicely for me. Seems like opinions vary for sweating logging flights (with things being much easier these days with the airline hiring frenzy, for sure), but that it's not as vital to worry about all the different times at this point. And that we get to log PIC (not for signing for the aircraft purposes, but for manipulator of controls purposes) with or without the endorsements if you have a PPL. I also didn't do enough research to understand what all the HP/Complex endorsement entailed. I thought it was a handful of hours with some knowledge/proficiency/maneuver milestones, as opposed to a potentially relatively simple sign-off, which was my bad. Anyway, thank you again.

This is a really great thread with a lot of info on logging time. Reading through it from page 1 and talking with others headed off to UPT before long, I was wondering thoughts on something: Do you think it would be worth taking the time to get a high performance/complex endorsement before heading to UPT? I've heard having this endorsement allows a student to log PIC time along with dual received for T6 flights with an IP. If I understand the discussions on the earlier pages on this thread, it sounds like time logged can be used toward FAA/ratings time, but NOT for airline time since students aren't signing for the plane/true PICs. Most of those discussions are from 10+ years ago, so I'm not sure what, if anything, changed on MIL or AIM sides from when that info was written. At this point, I honestly don't have any plans for the airlines and want to finish out my career with the FD when I'm in TR status after training. That said, I'm a big believer in having options open and, in the very least, I would like to continue working toward higher ratings in case the job or family situation changes someday. So, it seems like that time might be worth spending the ~$1000 or so now to be able to log those PIC hours in training, but I just want to make sure I'm not off base or missing something. Any input is appreciated and thanks for your time.

Just my .02 from seconding what @Yaweh said: you’ve got solid scores, a solid GPA, and you can build that PCSM with some hours. Your score is not terrible with such low hours, but you’d be certainly better off if you did as he said and get to at least 21 hours and aimed for a solo sign off, if you can swing it. I can’t advise on your AD hopes, but have you looked into the Unsponsored route, as well? Some heavy squadrons will cold-call Unsponsored guys since you’ve already got a slot, so it might be a way to get you higher on interview lists. Put together a professional looking packet and be locked down for your interviews, I think you’ll be a pretty solid candidate. Good luck!

@dotonfire, there definitely is. If my old, non-prior service, ass can get one at 36, it’s certainly not impossible to make happen. Good luck with the continued push!

It is only for this upcoming AD board, but seems like that it'll eventually filter down to the AFR and ANG if it pans out well. Even if not, don't let it deter you! Waivers are completely dependent on the squadron; some don't want to mess with it at all and some will be willing to put the legwork in for a solid candidate and help push the ETP up the chain. If your goal is to fly and you're not set on only fighters/one specific airframe, you can certainly find a squadron willing to put the effort to get it signed in if you're a standout applicant. Bottom line, it's not a given that a waiver will get done and it could get kicked back for any reason, but it's also always worth a shot to apply and see if the squadron is willing to push one. You sell yourself to the squadron, they sell you up the chain, and hopefully it works out.

@brabus has solid advice. Just wanted to tack on you could certainly try for an Unsponsored slot, as well, which will get you accepted to OTS/UPT program without having to get picked up by a squadron initially. After you have that slot, some squadrons (probably only heavies; not fighters) will be cold calling you to come interview, instead of the other way around. If you're set on fighters, then you'll still have to do legwork and get your interviews on your own, but it's certainly a way to get yourself in the door without getting picked up. As for the TBAS, do a little research on where you can do it in your area, as there might be an option besides a base. I took my AFOQT and TBAS at an ROTC detachment at a local college, which didn't require any work from the recruiter/clearance. Hell, I was able to book both online and just showed up at the time I booked. Your scores are absolutely killer, so work on those flight hours (some units want you to at least have soloed) to bump up your TBAS. Definitely make contact with hiring PoCs and other pilots in the squadrons you're interested in. Talk to them about flying, life in the squadron, missions, etc. to make sure that fits what you're looking for. They'll also get to know you in these convos, so it'll help a lot with them knowing your name when it comes time to sending out interview invites. Lastly, put together a solid, professional-looking packet that you're sending out to squadrons. It's your sales brochure, so make it look good. Good luck! You've got a pretty solid chance of getting picked up!

Tacking on to what @Sit On Acorns said about MyFlightBook. If you hit the button on engine start, it’ll provide telemetry (takeoffs, landings, speed, altitude, etc.). It also backs up daily to an online drive, if you pay $25/yr. Not sure how well it integrates with Mil or how easy it is to grab your phone each engine start and stop during training, so maybe it’s not ideal. But, I’ve liked using it for GA and, if you don’t care about it automatically backing up daily, it’s free to use.

For units that don't offer rushing, it can be a little harder to stand out. That said, it just puts it more on you to have a solid, squared-away packet that stands out. Have a good picture of your face. Even if they ask for full length, nothing says you can't have another of your mug to help make you recognizable if/when you do get invited to a meet and greet/rush weekend/interview. Honestly, I used my firehouse headshot with my helmet on. Cheesy, for sure, but it stood out and made me more recognizable as the old geezer fireman trying for a spot. Make sure your resume looks professional. Have business-minded friends or colleagues look at it, or feel free to send it to me, if you want random stranger feedback on it. Include unofficial copies of your transcripts, any flying stuff you have, and your LoRs in the packet. Make sure it's all in one PDF and not multiple files. Spend some serious time on your cover letter and, like your resume, have it proofread by friends/coworkers (or send it to me). It should have a little of everything; who you are, why you want to fly, why you want to fly for that specific squadron, and what kind of asset you want to be to your squadron after training. Keep it to one page. Lastly, make contact with the hiring PoCs through phone or email (or both). They're getting blasted with packets from a bunch of people they don't know (who are probably blasting packets out to lots of squadrons themselves), so all you are is numbers and letters unless you make contact. Try to speak with other pilots to ask questions, express interest, and (without sounding like a bragging douche) talking a little about yourself to have them get to know you a little. The pilots will talk and, if they know who you are, I'm sure they can help the hiring board with input on who to invite for interviews. It'll also make it less awkward when you do show up if you have spoken with a few pilots in the squadron to strike up conversations. Bottom line, you've gotta create your own luck and that's by putting in most of the heavy lifting yourself. You don't want to be psycho stalker level of bugging them, but you want to make sure you're making solid contacts and showing you're interested, if you can. The squeaky wheel getting the grease and all. Just sending your packet out and hoping the numbers and letters on the pages are enough to get you a job offer might not be enough when you have plenty of other solid candidates; you've got to have personality do some of the work. Good luck!

@ssup is 100% right. My original response you quoted is wrong; I had bad info and thought it was still an option then, so my apologies for false hopes. Unsponsored positions CANNOT require an ETP/waiver and you won’t be able to go that route at 30. The ETPs/waivers are sponsored by the squadron that has decided they want YOU over all other candidates and they’re willing to take the age risk on themselves. Exactly what @ssup said. The paperwork is a lot of legwork for the unit to go through for your benefit, so having a heavy unit do it and then jumping ship to fighters because that’s what you want isn’t a great move. You’re also taking a spot at that heavy unit that another applicant would love to have just to squareroot the system a bit. If you want fighters, rush fighter units. Most might not write you off at 30 and would probably give you the chance to at least come down and interview, although some certainly may balk at your age. Only after applying and hearing fighter units’ input on your packet and age will you be able to make a decision. If flying anything mil is your goal and you can get stoked about heavies, your age is certainly surmountable and you’ll get picked up somewhere if you interview well. My apologies again for the bad intel on Unsponsored slots. I thought it was an option when I posted that but realized I was incorrect upon further investigation. They seem to stop around 28, giving enough time to jump through all the other hurdles to get to UPT before turning 30 to avoid any requirements for ETPs/waivers. If you want fighters, they’re not off the table for you if you put together a solid packet, have strong background/test scores, and interview well. An ETP at your age is a much easier sell than at mine. Good luck!

I’m very new to the EFB options, but I’ve used Seattle Avionics’ Fly-Q and been pretty happy with it. They’ll let you test drive it for 30 days for free and you can extend that time by using a different email and another trial, if necessary, to get a better feel. If you buy it, it’s $69/year for VFR and $129/year for IFR, IIRC. Not sure about discounts for Mil or CFI. I’ve been using it with an iPad 4 (snagged a used one off of eBay for pretty cheap), which is a bit of a big screen and not really yoke-mountable, but I like having the larger display personally. The previous charts/printouts in my lap weren’t much smaller and it’s easy to read. There are some kneeboard cases out there, too, but I don’t have one yet. If you’re not sure yet which to use, it’s maybe worth a look with the free trial, IMHO.

Backing up with @JustHangingOut said. My unit is currently working on my waiver and OTS packet, but I’m still wrapping up with the recruiter and haven’t sworn in yet. Hell, haven’t even heard it mentioned or gotten a timeframe. Someone else I spoke with that was hired ANG was still waiting on their packet at NGB (can’t remember if they needed a waiver or not), but they were definitely still in the process/without dates and sworn in/attending drill weekends. YMMV by the unit, but that’s the gist I’ve gotten. Actually, I’m curious if what would happen if something happened with the process and the waiver or packet was kicked back and UPT became off the table?