AD UPT Unmanned pilot possibility?

[TurnHer4]

To the OP. No one here is trying to "crap" on you. @HU&Wgave you feedback that some people pay for. There is a shit ton of knowledge on this forum, I'm sure that's why you came here. Take that feed back and apply it. You wanna do CAS,  A-10s and Vipers are the way to go. If you end up AD, the Strike Eagle does a lot of CAS. (Check my math, but I don't think the Strike Eagles Reserve unit hires off the street) When you say you want CAS and then mention the F-35/F-22, but don't mention the Viper, it throws some people off. That is where the research piece comes in. Look into the Viper more. You simply know what you want, that may be true. However, the feedback you're getting here is to keep an open mind. As someone that hasn't been through UPT (myself included...hoping for Vance sometime in 2020) you don't know if you'll like that type of flying yet. They are only speaking from experience. I say keep pushing for what you want, with an understanding that for some reason or another, you may not end up there. But where ever it is, you'll like it. If you haven't already, look into some Viper Guard/Reserve units.  

[Boomer6]

11 hours ago, 1:1:1 said:

One pilot, one engine, one tail. That describes all the greatest fighters in American history.

I just hope you’ve got a 0:0 seat with that ratio.

 

OP,

Dude, surely you’ve heard someone say “just be a bro” in regards to an interview. Guard units are looking for dudes to be part of the family, so keep that in mind, but if you’re getting comments about being too informal then maybe you’re going overboard with that. No one here can pin point why you weren’t hired because there are so many variables (in-unit hires, the other dudes have better stats, were more personable, had better answers etc.).

As far as your AD questions, unless there’s a UPT IP etc on  here willing to track down every drop in the last year and sort out the percentage of fighters there were and how many of those where CAS assets I don’t think you’re going to find what you’re looking for (or you could compile the data from The Drop Night Thread and get a rough wag). If the idea of being 10 yrs from now and watching a flyover at a football game and hating yourself for not rolling the dice and trying your hand at AD for a fighter slot gives you nightmares then maybe you need to talk to a recruiter about an OTS application. I’ll caveat that to say If I could go back and go Guard I’d do it in a heartbeat.

 

Edited July 23, 2020 by Boomer6
words are hard

[fadeawaydave]

2 hours ago, TurnHer4 said:

To the OP. No one here is trying to "crap" on you. @HU&Wgave you feedback that some people pay for. There is a shit ton of knowledge on this forum, I'm sure that's why you came here. Take that feed back and apply it. You wanna do CAS,  A-10s and Vipers are the way to go. If you end up AD, the Strike Eagle does a lot of CAS. (Check my math, but I don't think the Strike Eagles Reserve unit hires off the street) When you say you want CAS and then mention the F-35/F-22, but don't mention the Viper, it throws some people off. That is where the research piece comes in. Look into the Viper more. You simply know what you want, that may be true. However, the feedback you're getting here is to keep an open mind. As someone that hasn't been through UPT (myself included...hoping for Vance sometime in 2020) you don't know if you'll like that type of flying yet. They are only speaking from experience. I say keep pushing for what you want, with an understanding that for some reason or another, you may not end up there. But where ever it is, you'll like it. If you haven't already, look into some Viper Guard/Reserve units.  

I actually had vipers as my number 1 up until about a year ago when I got the chance to meet some hawg pilots. Between them, and hearing from some friends what the A-10’s are doing in current conflicts made me place it number 1. Tbh F-16’s are probably 2 or 3. The point of the post, was to get feedback from other people on RPA’s, and whether I should look into active duty at this stage of my application process. I know things change regularly in the Air Force so that’s why I was asking about it. 

[TreeA10]

You might want to do some guesstimating on the future as current conflicts will end (I hope) and the contribution of the Worlds Best CAS platform will no longer be required and the Big Blue long desired demise of the Hawg will come to pass. The only constant is change but parking the A-10 within 6-9 years, or sooner, should not be a surprise. 

Edited July 23, 2020 by TreeA10

[Danger41]

4 hours ago, 1:1:1 said:

One pilot, one engine, one tail. That describes all the greatest fighters in American history.

I don’t think the Iraqi Air Force would agree with that.

[nsplayr]

I’ll raise you ~8.69 pilots per sortie, 1 engine, and 3 tails 💪🇺🇸😆

To the OP - leave out the stuff about CAS and just sat you wanna be a fighter pilot and support the guys on the ground. No shame in saying you’d rather fly manned and no need to really explain that. GL!

Edited July 23, 2020 by nsplayr

[Hawg15]

5 hours ago, 1:1:1 said:

One pilot, one engine, one tail. That describes all the greatest fighters in American history.

 

36 minutes ago, Danger41 said:

I don’t think the Iraqi Air Force would agree with that.

Or the pacific theatre. 

[Ant-man]

All good info above. I think the most important thing you can glean from this forum is the general consensus that controlling your destiny with a guard/reserve spot is preferred over the dynamic nature of AD assignments.

That being said, there’s a gotcha to every good deal in the Air Force, even guard/reserve. For instance, you could get picked up by a Viper unit, discover that military flying is a different kind of challenge and that it’s not clicking as fast as you expected, and you find yourself struggling. Fast forward to the end of phase 3 and your unit no longer has confidence in your ability to pass IFF/B course and they drop you (seen it happen). Or, you get picked up by a fighter unit and they switch to an RPA unit while you’re in UPT. Guess what you’re flying after you graduate... I’m not saying this to deter you, and truthfully nothing anyone on this forum says should discourage you from pursuing what you want. 
 

On the active duty side, my personal opinion is that there’s nothing wrong with wanting to be a fighter pilot to be a fighter pilot. And in fact, once you see how much work they put it that doesn’t involve raging, pulling Gs, and shooting guns, you may realize that the desire to be a fighter pilot for the sake of the achievements alone is almost required to stay motivated enough to put up with endless hours studying threats and counter tactics, getting crushed in debriefs, and having to accept that your best is never good enough. The benefit of the active duty side is that you’ll have the ability to pursue a different lifestyle should you realize that it interests you more. There are a lot of really cool missions in the Air Force that aren’t highlighted well, even in UPT.
 

But if you want fighters, I wouldn’t worry about “chances” of getting a 38 slot. UPT IPs might back me up on this, but nowadays, if you’re good enough, you’ll get one. If not, it’s not a reflection of you as a person, and your instructors have seen a enough studs come through to know what they’re looking for. You’ll end up generally where you belong. You don’t wanna be the last guy that barely squeaked into 38s.
 

Best of luck in whatever you pursue. Sounds like your head is in the right place. 

[1:1:1]

On 7/24/2020 at 2:09 AM, Hawg15 said:

Or the pacific theatre. 

The Pacific theatre took the scraps from Europe.  Here are a few to support my theory:

P-47, P-51, F-80, F-86, F-100, F-104, F-105, F-106

 

As to the OP: I know a lot of people who thought they knew what they wanted to do in UPT. You've never dropped a bomb or gone to the merge so you really can't know yet. Just work hard and have an open mind. 

 

[Hawg15]

He’s got a good point OP. Your SA is about as high as the vipers blowing through the entire stack claiming they have radar SA, even though they almost hit everyone, including their own wingman and still don’t see the guy in front of them. 

You just don’t have the experience yet with that sort of flying. Most people start UPT wanting to be fighter pilots, many finish with no desire to ever go over 60 degrees of back again. The guard is still the way to go in my opinion. Once you’re in your in. If fighters don’t end up working out a heavy unit will almost definitely take you if you’re not just a total hazard, and even then I’ve seen some scary 135 guard. 

Edited July 25, 2020 by Hawg15

[fire4effect]

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/02/world/middleeast/qassem-soleimani-iraq-iran-attack.html

Sometimes removing a couple of malignant tumors require the right scalpel.

Our military is ultimately here for two things. 1)Deter war if possible 2) Win the war if necessary.

Good Luck OP