WARRANT OFFICER FLIGHT TRAINING

[av8rnik]

awesome! Did you call Rucker or did someone notify you?

[DC8488]

Best of luck. Keep us posted.

[Helipilot PTK]

Yes I called Mr Garcia down at Ft Rucker. More than likely he was getting annoyed of me, I called him around 5 times, along with my recruiters calling a few times, trying to get my flight physical packet straightened out.

 

I called him today:

 

Me "yes my name is Josh McWilliams, my recruiters and I have been in contact with you over the past few weeks trying to fax you all the information needed to complete my packet"

 

Mr Garcia " (before I was done talking) your packet is qualified"

 

Me "really awesome, ill tell my recruiters"

 

Mr Garcia "(in a semi annoyed tone) alright bye"

 

I come to find out my recruiters already new about it. The recruiter I work with was out on leave due to his wife having a baby, and the other recruiters couldn't find my number to let me know I was qualified (or so they say). If you haven't heard back from Rucker in a while, CALL them. I found out a few times there was missing information and my packet was just sitting there incomplete, it's up to YOU to get things moving. If I didn't keep on calling Ft Rucker, it would have been sitting there incomplete for along time.

[yakfishr19]

Is it true that some boards weigh PT more than anything?

[dalockwo]

My friend got selected in March and I will find out if I get selected around Sept 11 or so. Based on our research and conversations with Senior WO's, there isn't one thing in particular that they look at. PT is important, LOR's are important, College Degree (for civilian applicants) etc. In my opinion, the most important thing is your leadership experience, professionalism, and maturity. If you have all of that together, the rest of your packet usually falls into place. Take advantage of the things you have complete control over: PT score (there is no reason NOT to get a 300), LOR, and your personal statement are all things that can help you out tremendously if you put the time and effort into them. Other than that, just study for the tests and hope for the best.

[av8rnik]

Found this today and figured i would share with the group. Happy Friday all!

 

http://www.army.mil/factfiles/equipment/aircraft/index.html

[Helipilot PTK]

Well I'm not very happy. I just got a speeding ticket for going "5 over" as it says on my ticket. Will this mess with my security clearance, do I need to fill any paper work out at the recruiting station? The max the ticket will be is $130 and possible 2 points on my license. I know it says for anything over 250 you need a waiver but i'm guessing I still need to fill out some paper work.

[Yamer]

You need to tell your recruiter asap... It needs to be changed on your sf86 to show you admit it but as long as this one doesnt put you over the total amount allowed you should be good still. Just be up front with it and say something... Dont keep it a secret

[Helipilot PTK]

Thats what I plan on doing, this is my second ticket, my last one was four years ago.

[Yamer]

You should still be good from what i know as long as you continue as planned

[SBuzzkill]

It's not going to be an issue.

[Helipilot PTK]

Alright here is another dilemma with the ticket. I made a court date to try to get off/not get any points on my record. But my court date is November 9, 2012 which is of coarse after the USAREC board. How should I put this on my security clearance if I haven't went to the court date therefore do not know the outcome of the ticket?

[Yamer]

Whatd your recruiter suggest?

[Helipilot PTK]

He just said we would talk about it when I come in tomorrow. I just want others opinions because recruiters aren't always the most reliable people.

[j.matt]

It is a special situation because at the time of your board you won't have been 'convicted' of anything.

[DC8488]

It is still innocent until proven guilty right?

[d10]

Pay attention to the wording of what they ask. If they want to know about convictions, don't mention it. If they want to know about pending court cases, you should bring it up.

[lunaC]

Hi, I'm so glad this isn't a dead topic, because I have some questions that my recruiter can't seem to answer.

 

I signed up just to see if I could get some help here

 

I'm 29 years old, and looking into the Army National Guard, or the Reserves, although I've only spoken to the ARNG recruiter so far. I went up to MEPS to take my ASVAB last week and scored a 93, and she said I can do pretty much any job provided I pass through BT without issue, but the one job I've been wanting for a few years now is to be a helo pilot. I am a RC helo pilot already, with some considerable skill with a scale RC model (can do stunt work like inverted flight, rolls, loops, etc, as well as rebuild and maintain the model to be airborne) so I'm already familiar with cyclic, pitch, collective, yaw, etc. as well as the mechanical components, swash, washout, bell-hiller, feathering shaft etc etc. That said, I cannot afford to get into civilian flight school, the next best thing is the military..granted I waited a while to try to get in.

 

Enough personal history for now, I have been looking at the WOFT program, and there is the little thing of my eyesight..probably the main factor that might limit my acceptance, besides a lack of real-world experience or college, is that I have roughly 20/200 vision in both eyes, correctable to 20/20, but I have read that the WOFT program will not accept me if I have uncorrected eyesight worse than 20/70 without a waiver.

 

So the question is, how hard is the waiver to get? Should I get PRK from a civilian surgeon and then enlist? Should I enlist in the aviation MOS (was looking at Remote Aircraft Operator, of course, if I do get rejected for WOFT ) and hope to get the PRK after AIT and try to get accepted for WOFT after that? Which WOFT program is more likely to accept me, the NG or AR? I'm kind of stuck, I don't know exactly what I need to do next, but it's time to S**T or get off the pot, I'm 29 (just had my birthday) and I just found out my wife is in the family way (this will be my second).

 

Recruiter told me if I get PRK as a civilian it will be at least 6 months before they let me into Basic, and that they frown on civilian surgeons performing the procedure in the flight training programs. If I go the hard route, without getting into WOFT, I would have to get to rank E-5 before applying, deadline is my 33rd birthday, so leaves me just under 4 years to rank up to E-5, likely be entering as E-1 since I have no college etc.

 

What to do? Any advice is very much appreciated. I enjoyed the thread already, but didn't help me decide the best course for me personally.

 

Thanks!

[Yamer]

Ok here it is... Listen up cause what you are going through is what just went through except youre worse off and ill explain why...

 

1. National guard and active duty do woft completely different. Learn the processes before you decide. Guard requires that you be in the guard first however does not require you be e5 to apply... That only applies to be a technical warrant, not pilot warrant. Active duty route is explained tons on this sight, search around other threads here...

 

2. You dont have college. In the last board they only selected one person that had an AAS degree... All the others that got picked had either a BA or masters. Although college is not a requirement its strongly looked for based on what ive seen so thats gonna hurt you.

 

I chose the guard route, heres why. I too am old, 28 with only 56 college credits. No associates yet. Im letting the guard, gi bill and tuition assistance pay for me to finish my assoc degree, all the meanwhile im a 15r learning the airframe i could possibly fly some day. Its only gonna help my packet when its time to submit.

 

You also have to think of the lifestyle youre signing up for... If you r married and have kids guard might be harder for you with extra steps but easire on your family cause of not moving around.

If you are single or dont have kids maybe active duty would be ok then...

 

My last word of advice is this, DONT SIGN UP FOR THE ARMY JUST TO GET FLIGHT SCHOOL!!!

You should be joining the army because you wanna be in the army or because you want to be an officer in the army. The flight school and being a pilot is just an added perk of what you have. Ask anyone else here or ask any warrant officer in the army now and theyll tell you the same thing i just said. Which i learned the hard way and am learning every day as i go.. Theres so much more to this than flying...

 

Good look

[Lindsey]

You can get a waiver for LASIK/PRK pretty easily. As long as you are within pre-op limits and your surgery is successful (20/20), the waiver is pretty much automatic. The "civilian doctors will be frowned upon" bit is BS, to be frank. Look at it this way: if you had LASIK tomorrow, you have to wait 6 months. Not a big deal. Use that time to get some college credits and work on your PT. But, if you enlisted, you'd have to go through BCT, AIT, and then *hope* that the Army will give you PRK. Then you still would have to wait until 3-6 months post-op in order to do your Flight Physical. The reason for that wait is because it takes your eyes a little bit of time to stabilize after the surgery.

 

In my opinion, get the surgery done on the civilian side (I did this) and then apply for whichever WOFT program you choose. Your recruiter is trying to get you to enlist.

 

By the way, Yamer is dead on - don't look at the Army as a way to get your helicopter certs for free. Face it: you are not going to get hired on the civilian side, at least not for a long while. You won't get more than 200 hours during flight school, and unless you get lucky on a deployment, will NOT log a sh*t ton of hours during your first enlistment. If your goal is to have the Army put you through flight school, and then have a civilian helicopter job on the side (when you're not flying for the Guard/Reserve), you need to strongly re-evaluate. To get hired anywhere on the civilian side you'll need a minimum of 1,000 hours - with the economy this number can range up to 1500 hours. Basically, if you join the Guard or Reserve, you need to have some idea of what you'll be doing on the civilian side after you return to your unit from flight school at Fort Rucker.

 

P.S. The RC flying is good for initial control touch - beyond that, not too much. Being in the helicopter is a lot different than being on the ground controlling it. I have noticed, as a flight instructor, that guys with a lot of RC time can do well straight and level on their first flight -- put them in a hover, and it's like a zero hour student (because that's what you are). I'm *not* knocking your RC time - I can't fly an RC helicopter to save my life, but you do need to realize that it's not going to put you leaps and bounds ahead of the curve. An edge, yes. But that's it.

[lunaC]

Thanks for the quick answers. I was looking into the PRK surgery today, $3700 including follow ups, and they offer financing with no interest for 12 months..a great deal in my opinion.

 

I don't want to join the Army just for flight school, I actually was looking into the Army before for college, and to get on with the rest of my life without having to work menial jobs for the rest of it. I want a career in aviation, whether military or civilian, it's something I am passionate about. Passionate enough to want to get the PRK done without knowing if I am going to pass my 1A flight physical for sure..

 

One other question I have is, I had knee surgery as a teen (arthroscopic to remove a bit of cartilage when I twisted my knee), my range of motion and knee strength is normal, occasionally though I have experienced some swelling (it goes down when I go to bed and is fine in the morning, I attribute it more to being on my feet standing in one spot for 8 hours at a time rather than my knee surgery, since it has occurred in my other knee once or twice as well. It is never swollen for more than a day, and I've never had to have it drained). It doesn't hold me back, or limit my activity, I can run and jog (jogged 4 miles yesterday, going for 3 more today, just to prepare for PT) and duckwalk, but I'm just curious if this medical history is going to result in automatic DQ of a flight physical?

 

My eyes were the biggest hurdle, I figured I'd get advice on that before bringing up my relatively minor knee issue.

 

Thanks again!

[Lindsey]

Thanks for the quick answers. I was looking into the PRK surgery today, $3700 including follow ups, and they offer financing with no interest for 12 months..a great deal in my opinion.

 

I don't want to join the Army just for flight school, I actually was looking into the Army before for college, and to get on with the rest of my life without having to work menial jobs for the rest of it. I want a career in aviation, whether military or civilian, it's something I am passionate about. Passionate enough to want to get the PRK done without knowing if I am going to pass my 1A flight physical for sure..

 

One other question I have is, I had knee surgery as a teen (arthroscopic to remove a bit of cartilage when I twisted my knee), my range of motion and knee strength is normal, occasionally though I have experienced some swelling (it goes down when I go to bed and is fine in the morning, I attribute it more to being on my feet standing in one spot for 8 hours at a time rather than my knee surgery, since it has occurred in my other knee once or twice as well. It is never swollen for more than a day, and I've never had to have it drained). It doesn't hold me back, or limit my activity, I can run and jog (jogged 4 miles yesterday, going for 3 more today, just to prepare for PT) and duckwalk, but I'm just curious if this medical history is going to result in automatic DQ of a flight physical?

 

My eyes were the biggest hurdle, I figured I'd get advice on that before bringing up my relatively minor knee issue.

 

Thanks again!

 

For the knee stuff, check out this link below:

 

http://armypubs.army.mil/epubs/pdf/r40_501.pdf

 

You'll want to look at Chapter 4 as that deals specifically with the Flight Physical requirements.

 

Regarding PRK - you cannot do too much research on this. Please realize that *both* PRK and LASIK are acceptable. The decision is personal. I chose LASIK. The other thing to consider very, very strongly, is where you go to get it. These are your eyes (obviously), and a top-of-the-line surgeon can be the difference between you seeing 20/20 (or 20/15 in my case) after the surgery, and 20/75 afterwards. Not much point in spending ~$4K if you still can't pass a Class 1A flight phys afterwards right?

 

Something I forgot to mention in my earlier post - while the Guard does not offer street-to-seat, the Reserves (usually) do. If you are undecided between the two, this could maybe tip the scales a bit. This means that you can apply as a civilian, very similar to active duty WOFT, instead of enlisting first. Just some food for thought.

[Yamer]

If you mention it, be prepared to show your med file to prove everything. You can google the regs for medical, i dont remember the number. Itll explain it more in depth for you.

 

So if i came across as mean, im a straight shooter and will tell you how it is, no sugar coating... Lemme know if you choose guard or have more enlistment questions about it.

[lunaC]

Yamer, I was in no way offended by your frankness..I appreciate a straight shooter

 

Lindsey, so you say the Guard doesn't offer a street to seat program, but the Reserves do? So, if I were to join the Guard, would the 153A MOS still be available right out of AIT, or would I have to attain rank in order for eligibility?

 

I just read that the WOFT program is 'for civilian applicants only' on the Army website, is that the Guard program or the Reserves program? Or both?

 

Of course my recruiter for the NG said 'Just enlist, get through BT, choose an aviation MOS, and then request for WOFT', of course I'm sure she just wants me to join ASAP, I, on the other hand, am more concerned about physically and mentally preparing for Basic before just going from the couch into the military.

[Lindsey]

Yamer, I was in no way offended by your frankness..I appreciate a straight shooter

 

Lindsey, so you say the Guard doesn't offer a street to seat program, but the Reserves do? So, if I were to join the Guard, would the 153A MOS still be available right out of AIT, or would I have to attain rank in order for eligibility?

 

I just read that the WOFT program is 'for civilian applicants only' on the Army website, is that the Guard program or the Reserves program? Or both?

 

Of course my recruiter for the NG said 'Just enlist, get through BT, choose an aviation MOS, and then request for WOFT', of course I'm sure she just wants me to join ASAP, I, on the other hand, am more concerned about physically and mentally preparing for Basic before just going from the couch into the military.

 

Your recruiter for the National Guard is right - because she's talking about the National Guard.

 

Here's the basic breakdown:

 

Active Duty: WOFT. Street-to-seat. You can apply as a civilian without enlisting first.

 

Reserves: Same as above. The only difference is that you are applying to a specific unit and have to go through their process (Battalion board will be at that unit, not the Battalion board that is used for Active Duty WOFT).

 

National Guard: There is no street-to-seat (except in a few, very very rare, cases). You do have to enlist first and apply from within. The typical requirement is that you have to serve a year in your unit before you can apply to WOFT. However, that varies unit by unit and depends on their needs. Some units will allow you to submit a packet the second you get back from AIT, others may realize they have enough Aviators at the moment and never let you put your packet in.

 

The website you are looking at, I presume, is the USAREC WO Recruiting website? That's fine to use as a guideline, but be aware that it is written ENTIRELY for in-service applicants for Active Duty WOFT. That is, it is not written for civilians. There are differences. It is also not written for Guard/Reserves. Try to get into contact with whoever is in charge of WO Accessions at the local Aviation Guard and Reserves units. They will be able to give you a more individual idea. We can only give you basic guidelines, as each unit is different.