So how many Helicopter Pilots we got in here?

[Viking 0]

Are you 100% sure on the no collage degree required? thats what cought my eye. I considered the airforce a little while back but i'd have to wait two years to get my bs finished out. How much is flight pay by the way? I see on the charts a W1 starts out making around 2300. How fast does promotion happen with someone who is driven? What kind of perks do warrant officers earn with there rank? Does an O1 butter bar still outrank you?

I read something about a selection board? whats that all about?

Aside from the 6 years enlistment what are the other down sides to the deal?

I swear you must have footprints on the back of your helmet - chicagoskydiver
My God has a bigger dick than your god -George Carlin

[ffejdraga 0]

I haven't started for that exact reason.

I have most of the fixed wing stuff, only missing ATP, and I was talking with the local flight school, Quantum Helicopters here, and being a fixed wing pilot will not shave off that many hours for me, so to get to Rotocraft CFI will be about 50k.

It is too rich for my blood at the moment, but I have been working on learning to hover with real helicopter controls and a proportionately reactive flying machine. I guess you could call it an "emulator" It is fun, and I figure it better to be hover proficient before I start the real training. I have about 3 hours in it, and I can hover pretty well. Best part is after the initial investment of a few hundred bucks, it is pretty much "free" heli training. Good times.

VTOL is where it is at.

jeff D-16906

[redlinemike 0]

I had about 30 credit hours of college when I originally applied. I know 100% for sure there is no college requirement.

Flight pay is dependant on your years of aviation service Starts at 125 a month and hits its max at 840 a month with 14 years of service. Go here and you can see the rates, http://www.dod.mil/dfas/militarypay/newinformation/WebPayTableVersion2006updated.pdf . As an officer you will collect Base pay, Basic Allowance for subsistence, Flight pay the same as everyone else your rank with same time in service. In addition you will recieve Basic Allowance for Housing which is dependant on housing costs where you live and possibly Cost of Living allowance depending if you live in an area deemed to be more expensive than average. There are a few other pays available but you probably will not se them as they are rare situations.

You are a W1 for 2 years, W2 for 4-5 years, W3 for 6 years (average, but varies), and W4 until you have 20 years of service, then you hit W5. I am not sure what you mean by perks. Nobody really gets any perks in the military with their rank.

An O1 butterbar does out rank us but they would not even dream of messing with us. Rank in the Warrant side is almost automatic so we do not really have to go against each other to get it. With the regular officers you see a lot of back stabbing and things like that but that never happens with Warrants. As a result we are all very close and protect each other. Because we are the technical experts we control the majority of aviation. We are the maintence test pilots, we are the Instructer pilots, we are standardization, we control the operational rate and many other things. Too fuck with us would be insane for a commander to do because his operational rate would go to shit and then the levels above him would be breathing down his neck. It happens.

You have to submit a packet and be formally selected. Creating the packet is probably the hardest thing about being a warrant. It is a pain in the ass to collect everything the packet requires. It is worth it though. I promise you it is.

Should you decide to convert to regular officer one day you will stay aviation, that is about the only way I can think of to be sure about your branch as a regular officer.