Forum: Future F-16 crew

I'm from Urbana. (a half hour north of Springfield) I heard that the BRAC wouldn't actually happen for another 5 or 6 years from someone that works on the base. Before the BRAC, I was hoping to fly my B-course in Springfield and then be stationed in Toledo. It's about a 3 hour drive, but I guess I could work something out. I wouldn't really mind a job at an airlift or refueling base, but if I'm gonna try to fly them, I should prolly spend a lot of time around them and their pilots.

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I'm from Urbana (about a half hour north of Springfield). I heard that the BRAC wasn't happening for another 5-6 years from someone that works on base at Springfield. I was wanting to serve at Springfield while the vipers were still there (and close to home) then transfer to Toledo when I'm out of college and try for that slot. Maybe I need to tweek my plans a little. Thanks for the offer...I might take you up on it some time. I'm talking with a recruiter from Springfield this week so we'll see what happens. Thanks

C-bass, as mach2 has suggested, at your age I would assume the easiest most practical route to any air force cockpit (let alone that of an F-16) would be to speak with an ROTC representative about your options for an active duty commission upon graduation of college. After serving your term as an active duty fighter pilot, you could then begin looking into guard/ATP positions to further your career. Enlisting into the guard to ultimately become a pilot would be my last resort if I were in your shoes. Best of luck to you.

The Academy, the Academy, The Academy. That said, the ANG route seems to be the fast track to Vipers IF (Big If) your local ANG is a Viper Outfit.

But why limit your career to fighters....

I Want to be a Fighter Pilot
To LtCol Ventura,

Sir,
I am DJ Baker and I would appreciate it if you could tell me what it takes to be an F16 fighter pilot of the USAF. What classes should I take in high school to help the career I want to take later in my life. What could I do to get in the academy.

Sincerely, DJ Baker

-----End of Original Message-----

Subject: FW: Anybody want to help this poor kid from Cyberspace?
From: Lt Col Ventura

Dear DJ,

Obviously, through no fault of your own, your young, impressionable brain has been poisoned by the superfluous, hyped-up, "Top Gun" media portrayal of fighter pilots. Unfortunately, this portrayal could not be further from the truth. In my experience, I've found most fighter pilots pompous, back-stabbing, momma's boys with inferiority complexes, as well as being extremely over-rated aeronautically. However, rather than dash your budding dreams of becoming an USAF pilot, I offer the following alternative.

What you REALLY want to aspire to is the exciting, challenging, and rewarding world of TACTICAL AIRLIFT. And this, young DJ, means one thing - the venerable, workhorse C-130! I can guarantee no fighter pilot can brag that he has led a 12-ship formation down a valley at 300 ft above the ground, while trying to interpret a 9-line to a new DZ, avoiding pop-up threats, and coordinating with AWACS, all while eating a box lunch, with the engineer in the back taking a piss and the navigator puking in his trash can! I tell you, DJ, TAC Airlift is where it's at.

Where else is it legal to throw tanks, HMMWVs, and other crap out the back of an airplane, and not even worry about it when the chute doesn't open and it torpedoes the General's staff car! No where else can you land on a 3000' dirt strip, kick a bunch of ammo and stuff off the ramp without even stopping, then take off again before range control can call to tell you you've landed on the wrong LZ!

Talk about exotic travel-when C-130s go somewhere, they GO somewhere (usually for 3 months, unfortunately). This gives you the opportunity to immerse yourself in the culture enough to give any local population a bad taste in their mouths, not something those strat-lift pilots can do from their airport hotel rooms!

As far as recommendations for your course of study, I offer these. Take a lot of math courses. You will need all the advanced math skills you can muster to facilitate the calculation of per diem rates around the world, and when trying to split up the crew's bar tab so that the co-pilot really believes he owes 85% of the whole thing. Health sciences are important, too. You will need a thorough knowledge of biology to make those educated guesses of how much longer you can drink beer before the tremendous case of the s**ts catches up to you from that meal you ate at that place that had the belly dancers in some God-forsaken foreign country whose name you can't even pronounce! Social studies are also beneficial. It is important for a good TAC Airlifter to have the cultural knowledge to be able to ascertain the exact location of the nearest titty bar in any country in the world, then be able to convince the local authorities to release the loadmaster after he offends every sensibility of the local religion and culture. A foreign language is helpful, but not required. You will never be able to pronounce the names of the NAVAIDs in France, and it's much easier to ignore them and go where you want to anyway. A study of geography is also paramount. You will need to know the basic location of all the places you've been when you get back from your TDY and are ready to stick those little pins in that huge world map you've got taped to you living room wall, right next to that gigantic wooden giraffe statue and beer stein collection.

Well, DJ, I hope this little note inspires you. And by the way, forget about that Academy thing. All TAC Airlifters know that there are waaay too few women and too little alcohol there to provide a well-balanced education. A nice, big state college would be a much better choice.

Good luck and see you on the SKE scope!

Maj. Lowenfast

An oldie but still has remarkably good info.

You only get a short chuckle after reading it the second time. Good joke anyways.

-Aaron

I remember reading that a while ago....good story

I'm also throwing around air refueling and airlift (maybe c-17's...I don't know about hercs) can anyone tell me about those? (how long you're gone, flight training, chances of getting a pilot slot, etc)

I've got a buddy who flies C-17's and he's been gone from his family upwards of 260 days a year for the past couple of years.

That being said, if you're active duty, chances of getting a pilot training slot are the same as if you want to fly fighters. The reason being that everyone comes into pilot training at the same level. They don't determine who's going to fly heavies and who's going to fly fighters until you're almost done with the first phase (T-37's/T-6's). At that point, the top 6-9 guys (or gals) in the class go to T-38's to fly fighters (as long as that's what they want to do), and the rest go to T-1's to train to be heavy drivers (and a couple may go to UH-1's for Helo's or T-44's for C-130's - you can go to C-130's from both the T-1 and T-44 track). Initial pilot training is the same length regardless of the track you follow (you all enter as a class, and graduate as a class). Afterward, however, is a different story. A fighter guy will spend another year or so before he gets to his first operational assignment, and then another couple of months once he's there getting spun up to be "Mission Ready". The heavy guys go to Altus AFB (or Little Rock), train for a few months, graduate as co-pilots, do a local checkout at their assigned base, and then are fully qualified co-pilots. Heavy guys from my pilot training class were flying operational missions before I had gotten through my first phase of training at Luke.

There are tradeoffs. It just depends on what's more important to you. If you want to fly a lot, be gone from home most of the year, and see the world while driving from Point A to Point B, then fly heavies. If you want to fill your logbook an hour and a half at a time, fly fast, upside down, and drive from Point A to blow up Point B, then it's fighters all the way!

My problem is that I want a family...that's why I wanted to go ANG.

Can anyone tell me about working as an egress mechanic or doing life support? Those are the two jobs I'm considering right now...any info would be helpful. Thanks.

You'd would work on the ejection seat and pack parachutes?

www.afrotc.com
www.usafa.af.mil
www.afoats.af.mil

Ahhh C-Bass, sry but I just found out you cant apply for a pilot slot at Springfield unless you already fly Vipers. They are an RTU so the only people that consistantly fly there are IPs. I think thats what I was told anyways. Toledo is your best bet. They also have A-10s up in Michigan.

-Aaron

Enlist first. I was a flight ops major in college and wish I enlisted going in so I could use the GI bill. Definitely go guard. I'm glad I did. The ANG is the best kept secret in the AF. The ANG will also give you more money for college than the active duty will. As far as hours, get good flying experience. Your flight time will contribute (a little) to your PCSM score. I did AF ROTC my freshman year of college, then got out of it after learning about the guard.

Right now all Springfield has open is egress. Toledo has life support and a lot of other jobs. I'm only a half hour away from Springfield, though. Either way, if I want to apply to a viper slot, I'd have to go through Toledo...so maybe starting out there, working around their crews and getting to know them over a few years would help my chances. Now I have to decide if that's worth the 2+ hour I75 drive every month...

C-Bass I make the 2.5 hour drive to Dayton twice a month to handle various businesses I have happening there from Toledo. Youll get used to it; its not bad. Its not a very scenic drive (as in there is nothing to look at) but if you crank up the music and zone out youll be there in no time. Just be careful on the stretch between Findlay and Bowling Green. I always see cops waiting there for some reason. If you enlist there PM me and you can look me up when you come up sometime. We have a few guys in our det enlisted there now and Im thinking about enlisting there. (Thing is; I dont want a family, so I like the idea of being AD and having to travel a lot; even if it is to crappy bases)

-Aaron

Forum: Future F-16 crew

High schooler wanting a different route to the Viper cockpit