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Requirements to be a Fighter Pilot?
How to become a Military Pilot

Thread Starter: Fireball
Started: 09-30-2002 7:20 PM
Replies: 5

Community Server :: Forums » Military Aviation » How to become a Military Pilot » Requirements to be a Fighter Pilot?

Fireball is not online. Last active: 8/1/2004 7:03:41 AM

Fireball

Top 200 Posts

Joined on 09-30-2002
Posts 1

Requirements to be a Fighter Pilot?

Hi

I'm a Freshman in high School And im thinking of being a fighter pilot for the United States Air Force. As I start high school i"m starting to see that its time for me to start finding out i need to do to become what i want. One of the thing i need to find out is what are the educational requirements i must met? What classes or courses must i take? what exams must i take?

If anyone has any answers to any of these questions please go ahead and post them.

Thank you,
S~ Fireball

run is not online. Last active: 8/2/2007 7:10:14 AM

run

Joined on 08-15-2002
Denmark
Posts 139

Re: Requirements to be a Fighter Pilot?

Hi Fireball

Check out the following thread: <post>1848</post>

Run

02 Dec 2004, 12:03 PM

KenV

Joined on 11-29-2004
Posts 27

Re: Requirements to be a Fighter Pilot?

First off, you MUST become a commissioned officer.

Your best bet for that is to get into a service academy. Talk to your guidance counselor and do all you can to make yourself competitive to get into a service academy. But to put it into a nutshell, you need to take a heavy math and science load while in High School AND you must get good grades with that load. GPA of 3.7 or better to be competitive. It helps to have plenty of extra curricular activities you can point to to prove you are not just an academic geek, but well rounded. Sports helps, but is not required. If you are especially athletic and have good grades, you're a shoo in. The service academies recruit athletes just like any other college. Joining the Boy Scouts and earning your Eagle rank can also be a BIG plus. Then start applying to the USAF Academy (USAFA) while in your junior year at High School.

If you get into the USAFA, you're well on you're way. If you don't, well, don't forget to also apply for the USNA, and maybe even USMA. You can cross-commission from ANY service academy into the USAF. Even if your cross commison attempt fails, if you're a USNA graduate you can become a Navy pilot with wings of gold rather than a zoomie pilot with wings of lead. Afterall, everyone knows Navy pilots are hotter than USAF pilots Smile

You can also get a USAF commission through an ROTC program. The chances of getting a commison through ROTC just go down relative to a service academy, and the chances of getting a pilot slot once commissioned also go down. But ROTC is still a good way to go about getting a pilot slot in the USAF or USNA.

If your grades are not too great, you can join the Army and fly for them. The Army's pilots are warrant officers, not commissioned officers and no college degree is required to become a warrant. But in the Army you are probably only going to get a chance to become a rotory wing pilot. The Army has LOTS of helos and few fixed wing aircraft. And absolutely no fighters at all.

Good luck with your ambitions.

15 Feb 2006, 9:26 PM

SemperFly is not online. Last active: 4/28/2006 12:30:56 AM

SemperFly

Top 10 Posts

Joined on 02-03-2006
Yuma, AZ
Posts 18

Re: Requirements to be a Fighter Pilot?

Fireball,

Most of the requirements are slightly different depending on the service, the program, and when you join the program. You will find, however, that the Air Force has some of the tightest requirements on grades and scores.

I get asked a lot about engineering and math. Here is the scoop, those courses really matter for the AF, matter a little for the Navy, and don't matter at all for the Marine Corps.

I wrote a pretty long summary of all of these considerations, so if you want it in more detail go to my website for guy like you: http://www.fighter-pilot.org. Or, e-mail me at ace@fighter-pilot.org.

Semper Fi,

Ed
http://www.fighter-pilot.org

12 Mar 2006, 3:38 AM

King_Wakka

Joined on 12 Mar 2006
Australia
Posts 16

Re: Requirements to be a Fighter Pilot?

if u want to be a fighter piolt in australia all u need is a average grade of C in yr10 science and a pass in yr12 maths and english and then u can be a f-18 horet piolt or a F-35 JSF

15 Mar 2006, 1:45 AM

SemperFly

Top 10 Posts

Joined on 02-03-2006
Yuma, AZ
Posts 18

Re: Requirements to be a Fighter Pilot?

I noticed that about you Aussies...jk...actaully I would have loved to do the exchange to Tyndal / Darwin.

http://www.air-force-pilot.com

Ed

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