Dangerzone

How did you go about getting your FC1 before enlisting? Or were you already in the AF? My recruiter told me I need to be enlisted in the unit before they can go about procuring dates for FC1 or OTS

Alaska TBNT interview invites went out. Good luck to all those who got invited out.

Buddy this gets down to personal responsibility and something you should probably be figuring out for yourself and not asking an internet message board…

It was for both. Meet and great + interview.

Received an email from the 120th AW (Montana). Good luck for all those attending the board!

Would be interesting if a Gray Beard whose led a board or sat on a board could chime in and give their 0.02. If the scale is tipped in the favor of the local guy after an interview or if it's strictly business no good old boy politic games.

Congrats, not taking away from your hard work by any means and I'm sure you earned it my man. It just appears from the outside looking in that it was already a done deal, like this guy has hung around the bar and slapped hands with the pilots for 4 years we already know we want him and it would look bad if we went with an outsider. So just sucks going up neck and neck against other good dudes with the only difference being this guy is homegrown. I guess that's the nature of the game. If that's the case I'll take it on the chin and move on, but I really don't think that's always the case. The whole local guy been here for a few years lets give him a nod and see how he interviews, should only matter up to the interview, beyond that it should only about who would we rather have around for 20 yrs or who do we trust can handle the mission and not fail UPT, etc...

Quick rant, Any of you off the street or out of towners find it annoying to take time sending applications, spend money to rush and attend boards, only to hear through the grapevine afterwards they went with the local kid from afe or crew chief. Like if that was your pick the whole time why even have a board besides for formality, save me the time and money. Either have a board with only members from your unit or quit putting so much damn emphasis on people just because they’re already in the unit.

Good points, that’s the beauty of the whole thing is it costs energy to produce those blocks and every 4 years the reward is cut in half. Yeah BTC while 12 years in is still kind of equivalent to early stages of the internet, still has a lot of development to happen. BTC was not intended for you to buy chocolate with it as you eluded to due to the high and slow transaction costs, what it lacks with that it gains in security from how the blockchain and cryptology was setup. You should checkout the lightning network and what strike is going to do, if you haven’t already heard about that. Very interesting stuff.

Plenty of upside in all of those projects, however, private institutions (smart money) are not buying litecoin, eth, or anything else besides BTC. Also BTC is the only one with a fixed supply—21m coins. Forget bitcoin being used as a world currency, but imagine half of the SP500 companies putting some exposure on their balance sheet, TD Ameritrade, Fidelity, Merryl, etc. allowing you to invest your 401k in BTC, it will be used as a store of value to fight inflation akin to gold... Just my .02 don’t waste your time on anything besides BTC or ETH unless you’re good at researching undervalued altcoins and have a high risk tolerance.

Does anyone have any info on if it is possible to do the RPA or ABM route through the ANG, go to OTS all that, and then switch over to manned flying and go to UPT year or two later after training. Or do you get trapped into the job? Just trying to see if that is a good option in the current flying hiring environment, or if it's just better to keep applying to UPT boards and being patient.

After pursuing the whole "Guard is the best kept secret" route to earning my wings with no avail for the past year, I bit the bullet and called up the line officer recruiter to put in an app for an OTS pilot slot, reason being is AD is so backed up, rated board in June of 2021, OTS dates not until Summer 2022, UPT probably Fall 2022, I wanted to get that clock started in the background while I continue shot gunning apps to Guard/Reserve units. I told the recruiter I had applied to a couple UPT boards with the guard and he said he can't push my AD application in that case, it has to be one or the other, and essentially if I get picked up at the rated board there's no going back... Anyone have any SA on this, or is he being selfish and not wanting to process paperwork knowing in the back of his mind if I get a guard call first i'll go that route which is 100% the truth and he'll have wasted his time. At the end of the day I'm just trying for a UPT slot, I think my best chance is the guard but I wanted to start the AD thing since it will take a 1.5+ years, but I don't want to screw myself if I were to get a primary slot with a guard unit in the next half year. Thanks in advance

Same here, thought I had a decent shot with them... Good luck to all those who got an interview.

No have not heard back yet. Sent a follow up email today asking if a decision has been made, waiting to hear back from that. Can DM you if I hear something

What’s the date for that?

Think your scores are great dude, PCSM in the 90’s means you’re qualified and would beat out or compete with most other applicants, has been said a lot on this forum pilot section takes the precedence over the other categories so I wouldn’t retake it. Having a background as a crew chief is a huge plus, also how did you make E-6 so quickly? Lol To me that shows you’re able to take on a lot of responsibility, liked among your peers/command, and a motivated person. Nice job.

You got any flight hours under your belt or at least been on a discovery? Did you serve in the military at all? Those are both kind of critical things to gauge your interest. For me having never flown anything besides a dinkey Cessna 172, being in the air is surreal, being a pilot in control of an airplane thousands of feet or a few hundred feet above the ground is a special experience most people will never be lucky enough to experience. I can’t even imagine what’s it’s like going 600+ kts as a fighter or doing cool mobility/tactical pilot shit. If you played sports growing up, that feeling of we all got a job to do and being a part of a good team with your best buds, that’s the squadron environment, not to mention the sense of enjoyment you get being a part of something bigger than yourself and taking the fight to people that hate America and you’re on the end of the spear helping that 18yr old with a rifle or delivering critical supplies or whatever. But for me it’s mainly the challenge, the camaraderie and team environment, and I love to fly airlines and want to get paid to do it.

Hey all, I know this question has been touched over the decades and before I get crucified on here, I did search through the forum a bit and found the same message of “be a good dude, be yourself, don’t be a douche... etc. I recently got offered an interview with a fighter squadron and also have a good shot with a heavy unit. Besides reading through the interview questions and having a good response for each question ahead of time—so you’re not sitting there in silence when the question “what’s your weakness or when did you mess up in life” is asked and reluctantly say I don’t know I’ve never thought of that and looking like an idiot and probably losing your spot right there. For someone who feels like he’s got one shot to leave it all out there, how does someone set him/herself apart? Besides the I love America, I have what it takes sort of answers that are probably recited at every board; is there a topic to be an expert on, or a certain personality trait that is desirable to hear someone has from a boards perspective and is indicative of breeding success. I understand it’s not “one thing” but the whole person concept. But as someone who tries hard and wants to make a good impression, how would you prepare if you had to go back in life? Is there a type of person fighter/heavy squadrons are looking for or is it simply whether they think you’re sharp, won’t fail out of UPT, and seem fun to be around. I appreciate any assistance.

As a UPT hopeful myself, if I were you I’d take the sure thing vs wait for the potential. I’m sure your situation is similar to mine, get a flying position with the AF, location is kind of irrelevant because you don’t have control over that unless you’ve been with a unit for a long while and have some rapport established. I’ve been told many a times if you want to fly you can’t really be picky, I think the COVID environment and airline furlough situation only makes it that much more uncertain. Take the gig. ; ) If you happen to get multiple offers go with what works best for your family and long term goals, I don’t think anyone could fault you for that, and toughing a situation out when you’d rather be elsewhere will impact your work and the mission.

Seems to be the resounding answer, good point on better to have options vs not having any. My personality has always been more entrepreneurial or I’m going to make something of myself, so the whole burned out at 26 thing is more so I feel trapped in an environment I landed in right out of college and spent the last 4 years involved in, but I don’t know any other occupation except the one I’m currently in which meets one need ($$) but not the others (fulfillment, enjoyment, etc), so yes the grass is looking bright green doing anything else. I’m constantly reminded that the environment I find myself in does not fill up my tank, not that I can’t do the work, I definitely can but at the end of the day when I go home I just feel drained not in the physical sense of building a home but in the mental sense of I don’t care to do this work. I just don’t want to look back 10 years from now with regret because I was too scared to try something else.

Reagan was the last charismatic leader America has had and that was a long time ago. I am in agreeance with you, I think it's an absolute disgrace that with all the great minds/people in this country, these are the two nutjobs we decided should represent American. I believe we're going to have our equivalent of the French Revolution in a not so future time. Wealth gap keeps widening, socialistic ideas becoming increasingly popular, racial tension... There is so much anarchy and unrest and Americans have become completely us vs them in the two party system.

Since when does “being more human” whatever that means make you a good candidate to run the most successful and empathetic country in modern history. Mother Theresa and Ghandi were ideal humans, don’t think I’d want them making the important decisions tho. I hear this so often I can barely handle it—Trump is evil the other side states. He wasn’t that evil 4 yrs ago when you were inviting him onto your TV shows and staying in his resorts and hotels. As soon as he started playing the politics game and putting his foot down on things he became “evil”, and the mob media has gone to extreme lengths to portray him in that way. While yes I will consent Trump is a major asshole, needs to seriously learn how to play in the middle, be a little more decent and have some tact, but I don’t vote for someone based on if they’re nice people or if I like them, I vote based on the policies they’re wanting to implement and if I agree with them.

Saw that as well. Anyone have intel on what the status is?

Thanks for sending. Anyone have an idea how to get a list of what units are undermanned? Figure it’s tankers in obscure places like Kansas, but would be nice to not waste time applying to units that can’t hire a pilot for multiple years.

My favorite part of the whole debate. “Oh would you shut up man” - Biden speaking to the sitting President of the US.