<p>I have a brother interested in becoming a pilot for the US air force. Is this the school to make his dream come true?</p>
<p>The main focus of the Air Force Academy is to prepare you to become an Officer.
While i’m not there right now, i’m pretty sure that pilot slots go out on a very competitive basis.</p>
<p>I guess to answer your question: It could be.</p>
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<p>If you’re medically qualified and not at the bottom of your class, you’ll get your slot. That being said, the mission here is to produce officers, not pilots. Everything after officership is secondary.</p>
<p>so how does one become a pilot? after graduation?</p>
<p>do they have to join another program?</p>
<p>Approximately half of each graduating class at USAFA attends UPT (pilot training).</p>
<p>All pilots are officers, and all officers need degrees. Your primary job as a cadet is that of a student. Do well in school and you’ll go to Undergraduate Pilot Training after graduation. After UPT and other training programs, you’ll be assigned to an operational flying squadron.</p>
<p>You are a great brother to assist, but to add onto not only the AFA being the best option, it is the hardest to achieve. It is not only about the GPA/SAT.</p>
<p>Your brother will need to jump throw several hoops to just get on that track.
- AFA gets 10K people every yr opening a file. From the PCQ (pre-candidate questionairre), about 6K are allowed to become an applicant.
- MEDICALLY QUALIFIED…even something like having to take Acutane for acne, allergies or even braces can disqualify him for the AFA. It can take months to get DODMERB to give a waiver
- CFA.
- Nomination</p>
<p>If he is a rising SR in hs, he can go on-line and fill out the PCQ. He will know sometime in the summer if he qualified to move foward.</p>
<p>As everybody has stated you don’t go to the AFA to be a pilot, you go for the military training regarding officer/leadership while getting an IVY LEAGUE education. The majority of these cadets have SATS in the strong 600’s for each subject. They are varsity letter winners, class officers, Eagle scouts, NHS, etc, etc, etc.</p>
<p>I am not meaning to frighten you, but that is the truth of what the AFA cadets have in their resume. Now if your brother does not meet those levels, than he might want to think about ROTC.</p>
<p>Here is the link for the AFROTC scholarship:
[U.S</a>. Air Force ROTC - Scholarship Types](<a href=“http://www.afrotc.com/scholarships/hsschol/types.php]U.S”>http://www.afrotc.com/scholarships/hsschol/types.php)</p>
<p>Our DS in the end elected to chose ROTC over the AFA (he wanted to still be a student, after being an AF dependent for 18 yrs he wanted a break) His university has had for 20 yrs given UPT slots to 95% of their cadets. The only ones not to get a UPT were students not involved with ROTC and carrying a GPA lower than 3.0) His det is quite large and that too is a factor, larger dets like Embry, OSU, Purdue have more slots than smaller units.</p>
<p>If he really wants to be a pilot, I suggest that he takes some flight lessons. Not everybody has the hand/eye coordination when it comes to flying.</p>
<p>Re: If you’re medically qualified and not at the bottom of your class, you’ll get your slot.</p>
<p>Technially even if you are at the bottom of your class you will get your first choice. I’ve heard that everyone that is qualified for pilot in 2010 (luke) should get a pilot spot.</p>
<p>And yet somehow there’s always a list…</p>
<p>Where does Luke come in the picture for 2010, b/c they only get PILOTS, and there are several UPT bases, thus just b/c you are graduating in 10 it is not necessarily true that you will go to Luke. I think most would rather go to Sheppard, since it is the only UPT base that you are guaranteed a fighter, but you also have Laughlin, Vance, Columbus, and Randolph wear you can earn your wings. As you can tell the class of 10 will be scattered to all of these bases, not just one, especially since one base doesn’t even graduate 500 pilots in a yr!</p>
<p>“Luke” is the name of the USAFA class of 2010 exemplar. GroogWaugh was not suggesting the name of a base.</p>
<p>Thanks, that is why I was confused.</p>
<p>sheppard is not guaranteeing fighters anymore. i’m in contact with an '07 grad there right now, and he said with the new swing of things only the top 2 or 3 per class, even out of ENJJPT are getting fighter slots. still way better than normal UPT bases, but still not good. welcome to the changing world</p>
<p>WOW…just remember that AF pendulum swings to the opposite about every 5 yrs, so there is a good chance that it will swing back by 13</p>
<p>I like the sound of that…</p>