What's my quickest / best route in at this point?

[jvlonardo]

I've posted before, civilian with a decent shot that is applying to the 910 AW (local). I've got some good networking / seem to be liked there, but they could have an enlisted guy who's been waiting to go or someone otherwise more qualified than me so I'm not getting my hopes up.  As for my preferences, the general A10 mission is my favorite but I doubt I'm competitive enough to apply to a base like the 122 FW. The 910 AW is top pick for me considering their unique mission and the fact that its local. I don't care about fighters much, but maybe because I'm not taking into account close air support missions. After that, I guess beggars shouldn't be choosers.

Right now I just feel like I'm burning up time that I could spend in training, so I'm eager to move but I worry about AD because of the chance of being an RPA pilot. Is there any guaranteed way to avoid this, ie going a specific track?

Also, is the PCSM score-checking page down for anyone else? Waiting for my score update so I can apply to the 910th.

Link to my old post: (PCSM is now 83)

 

[Switch408]

1 hour ago, jvlonardo said:

Right now I just feel like I'm burning up time that I could spend in training, so I'm eager to move but I worry about AD because of the chance of being an RPA pilot. Is there any guaranteed way to avoid this, ie going a specific track?

Some people will tell you that you should go Guard/Reserve to guarantee a certain airframe. There's certainly a lot of truth to that. But if you are making the decision between AD and Guard/Reserve to avoid being an RPA pilot, I would offer that your odds are similar if you make either decision. If you earn an AD pilot slot, you have 'guaranteed' that you won't be an RPA pilot based on the current situation in UPT in which no one is dropping RPAs. That could change. Similarly, you could be hired by a Guard/Reserve unit and be 'guaranteed' that you will fly a certain airframe and that you won't be an RPA pilot. But I have heard more than one story of an individual being hired by a unit only to be halfway through UPT and find out their unit is switching airframes. And yes, that switch has been to an RPA. There are certainly plenty of caveats and dynamics that play in to those situations, but the bottom line is that I would caution you to be making a decision on AD vs Guard/Reserve because you don't want to be an RPA pilot. There are plenty of other worthy reasons to be making that decision. Can't say I blame you for your line of thinking though! Just checking your blind spots.

[jvlonardo]

9 hours ago, Switch408 said:

Some people will tell you that you should go Guard/Reserve to guarantee a certain airframe. There's certainly a lot of truth to that. But if you are making the decision between AD and Guard/Reserve to avoid being an RPA pilot, I would offer that your odds are similar if you make either decision. If you earn an AD pilot slot, you have 'guaranteed' that you won't be an RPA pilot based on the current situation in UPT in which no one is dropping RPAs. That could change. Similarly, you could be hired by a Guard/Reserve unit and be 'guaranteed' that you will fly a certain airframe and that you won't be an RPA pilot. But I have heard more than one story of an individual being hired by a unit only to be halfway through UPT and find out their unit is switching airframes. And yes, that switch has been to an RPA. There are certainly plenty of caveats and dynamics that play in to those situations, but the bottom line is that I would caution you to be making a decision on AD vs Guard/Reserve because you don't want to be an RPA pilot. There are plenty of other worthy reasons to be making that decision. Can't say I blame you for your line of thinking though! Just checking your blind spots.

Thanks for your response. I was going to ask, it seemed like there were no RPA slots on the recent drops thread, I wasn't sure if they were being excluded or not. I don't know a whole lot about the OTS to UPT route so I'll have to research it more. I thought that if you apply to OTS boards, you could end up stuck either with a pilot, RPA, CSO, or ABM.

[Hofjaldguune]

5 minutes ago, jvlonardo said:

Thanks for your response. I was going to ask, it seemed like there were no RPA slots on the recent drops thread, I wasn't sure if they were being excluded or not. I don't know a whole lot about the OTS to UPT route so I'll have to research it more. I thought that if you apply to OTS boards, you could end up stuck either with a pilot, RPA, CSO, or ABM.

You can be stuck with RPA, CSO, or ABM if you list them on your application package. I listed pilot and CSO in the last board and got picked up for CSO. You may apply for pilot only, but your AD recruiter or interviewing officer may give you a lecture about the needs of the AF or being an officer first, aviator second. YMMV.

Many applicants who listed pilot only got phone calls saying they were not selected for pilot and were offered CSO instead.

[jvlonardo]

5 hours ago, Hofjaldguune said:

You can be stuck with RPA, CSO, or ABM if you list them on your application package. I listed pilot and CSO in the last board and got picked up for CSO. You may apply for pilot only, but your AD recruiter or interviewing officer may give you a lecture about the needs of the AF or being an officer first, aviator second. YMMV.

Many applicants who listed pilot only got phone calls saying they were not selected for pilot and were offered CSO instead.

Interesting, I didn't realize this was the case. Thought if I applied for a rated position, they were all possible. I will definitely look into this and reach out to my Reserve recruiter for a point of contact. I was also concerned about swearing-in before getting a UPT slot guarantee but sounds like that's doable as well then. Thanks for sharing your experience!

[matmacwc]

Put down pilot only, the AF can’t afford to play games and you shouldn’t either