OneSki Posted December 3, 2019 Report Share Posted December 3, 2019 I just found out last week that I do not have asthma, as was previously thought. I did a test to find out for sure, and passed. I have an associate degree and know I need a bachelor degree to be a pilot. I'm enlisting in the National Guard and meeting with the recruiter tomorrow. When I talked to him on the phone, he said that the guard would start me off as a helicopter mechanic, and that they pull their pilots from the mechanic position. Is this typical? I'm 33 years old, so I don't have a whole bunch of time to waste, but I want to fly medical helicopters after I retire from the guard, so I really need the pilot position. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thedude Posted December 5, 2019 Report Share Posted December 5, 2019 Don't enlist if you haven't already. Enlisting is not a guarantee in any way that you will be selected to be a pilot. In fact, you can submit a packet as a civilian and be more competitive than you'd likely be as a brand new private, assuming your command even let you put in a packet for selection. You don't need a degree to be a warrant officer pilot. You're already over the age to be a warrant officer without a waiver so enlisting would extend that out by probably two years minimum and likely decrease your chances. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gravityrideseverything Posted December 5, 2019 Report Share Posted December 5, 2019 On 12/3/2019 at 3:02 PM, OneSki said: I just found out last week that I do not have asthma, as was previously thought. I did a test to find out for sure, and passed. I have an associate degree and know I need a bachelor degree to be a pilot. I'm enlisting in the National Guard and meeting with the recruiter tomorrow. When I talked to him on the phone, he said that the guard would start me off as a helicopter mechanic, and that they pull their pilots from the mechanic position. Is this typical? I'm 33 years old, so I don't have a whole bunch of time to waste, but I want to fly medical helicopters after I retire from the guard, so I really need the pilot position. Dude, put in a street to seat active duty packet. Start yesterday. There are a few States that will accept street to seat civilian applicants in the Guard. Call the WOSM for the states you are interested in. Street to seat Reserves might be an option as well. Not familiar with anything for them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jenn Posted December 5, 2019 Report Share Posted December 5, 2019 5 hours ago, gravityrideseverything said: Dude, put in a street to seat active duty packet. Start yesterday. There are a few States that will accept street to seat civilian applicants in the Guard. Call the WOSM for the states you are interested in. Street to seat Reserves might be an option as well. Not familiar with anything for them. I’m shooting for Reserves and it’s basically the same thing as National Guard. National Guard wouldn’t really touch my application without me enlisting first (they said it would be near impossible for me to go street-to-seat since demand wasn’t high), but the Reserves will. I’m in the same position as you - I also want to fly med after some time as my main civilian job. If you do the street-to-seat with the reserves, you know before you ever swear in if you’ll be accepted into WOCS. Enlisting in NG is no guarantee and it’s an 8 year commitment. BUT some states will pay 100% tuition for you to go to a flight school outside of the Army with the National Guard - the Reserves won’t cover even close to 100%. So that’s an option to think about as well. If you end up joining NG and don’t get into flight school, you can enroll in one and have your tuition paid. (Don’t continue your bachelors degree if this is the route you want to take. You don’t need it for the Army. You’ll have to talk to the NG recruiter about this because there was something weird about once you get your degree, school funding would stop.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike0331 Posted December 6, 2019 Report Share Posted December 6, 2019 You have bad info. Warrant aviators do not require a bachelors. Every state does things differently, but they absolutely can do street to seat if there is a want or need. Pulling from mechanics is pretty typical, but unless it is a state requirement there is no reason it has to happen that way. Before you proceed you should ask to speak to the WOSM for your state. Even if you proceed along the enlisted route, there are potentially things they can do to facilitate you getting before an aviation board sooner rather than later on that path. At 33 you will require an age waiver to fly, and it only gets harder the older you get. 33 is pretty routine though. I’ve been on ADOS the last 6 months waiting to start IERW working for the WOSM in a New England state, and I primarily handle our aviation applicants. So at least as of now my info is pretty current. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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