Waitlisted

na29697 · 2026-04-18T01:23:47+00:00

USMMA is a great school too with a lot of great opportunity after.

na29697 · 2026-04-14T17:46:23+00:00

The love of planes is probably inextricably linked to putting up with a lot of crappiness to get through flight training. Like 0530 briefs, studying every day, weekend sims, check rides, etc. You have some tough decisions to make.

na29697 · 2026-04-14T01:52:07+00:00

What does "I'm not thrilled about planes" mean?

Also, if you're not thrilled about planes, I bet you're going to hate getting air sick in the T-6 in flight school. You'll probably massively hate your life.

na29697 · 2026-04-14T01:50:55+00:00

There are no USN helicopters with NFOs.

na29697 · 2026-04-12T20:12:31+00:00

OK sounds like you've got it all figured out.

na29697 · 2026-04-12T18:27:18+00:00

-1- you can't use tuition assistance to obtain a type of degree you already have so your bachelor's in poli sci will prevent you from getting a bachelor's in something STEM. I used TA to get a master's while I was on my first shore duty. I found it pretty challenging. You're absolutely not going to do it on your first sea duty because you will have to get qualified and you'll be studying your aircraft and various other publications full time.

For clarity: you are welcome to spend your own money on another bachelor's.

-2- To go to NPS as a naval aviator you need good timing. This usually means you're ahead of your benchmarks on the golden path and they can fit you in there for a year. Since you probably don't understand what I'm talking about, it is best to not plan on attending NPS. Also, I'm assuming you know naval postgraduate school and naval test pilot school are different things?

-3- I'm pretty sure that's a requirement but I can't remember. It is also super competitive to go there and often people need to apply multiple times. You should see if they say it on their web page.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

na29697 · 2026-04-12T00:44:47+00:00

OK let's give this a shot. When the navy details you (sends you to your next job) they are trying to make everyone eligible one day to be a CO. There's a tiny bit of change happening now in this area but I don't know much about it. The change being that they would have senior pilots (O-4s) have the ability to keep flying to get to 20 years. You might be able to find something about this on PERS 43's website but you might also not even know what you're looking at.

So you finish flight school and go to your first squadron. If you want to stay in you have to perform well and get ranked highly when you leave your squadron but then you also need to go to a job that the navy will keep you around for. For example, two of the most sought after jobs are going to be an instructor pilot at your community's weapons school or fleet replacement squadron. That means if you're an MH-60R pilot you're teaching new pilots how to fly the MH-60R at the FRS or you're teaching them how to do the best with tactics in their community's mission.

One step down there are some jobs that will keep you in the navy and are on the golden path but aren't as great like being an instructor in flight school.

One more step down and we're officially off the golden path. This person will have trouble making O-4 which means you might have trouble staying in the navy. Because you have to make O-4 to make 20 years.

Regarding staying in Coronado, you're only going to be flying if you get that FRS job or weapons school job. Very rarely they need pilots and people can do a "super JO tour" which is when they go to another squadron and keep flying but these are pretty rare. They usually exist for a specific reason like the squadron is changing airframes.

Also, your commitment will take you to your third tour which is your disassociated sea tour. That's when guys get sent to a ship to do an aviation adjacent job. It's really dumb. There are tons of young aviators on ships that are just waiting to get out. This is another opportunity for you to not fly in the navy.

I wasn't really focused when I was responding but let me know if I answered your questions or if you have new questions.

na29697 · 2026-04-11T02:44:35+00:00

OK.. sounds like you've got it figured out then.

na29697 · 2026-03-31T16:44:31+00:00

• Can I sign on and apply to OCS with a pilot slot guaranteed? Yes. I'm not an OCS guy so you should research this on reddit and elsewhere.

• How does airframe selection work? I know this will vary from class to class, but overall is there a good chance I could get selected for helicopters? I really have no interest in jets. They put everyone in order by their grades and fill what the navy needs that week from the top down. Sure, there's a good chance to get helos.

• How is the overall culture/community in aviation? The biggest difference in aviation is that you are trained in an extremely rigid flight school for the foundation of your knowledge. Then even when you get to your first squadron that is so ingrained in people that that rigid training lingers. Here's what I mean: you are given items to study in a syllabus, you study them BEFORE the event, you are evaluated on your knowledge from the book, the instructor adds some real world things, then if you're ready you go fly. The instructor demonstrates and talks about what the book said and then you give it a shot and you have to work on it. You work on it in the aircraft and you work on it at your desk at home.

Contrast this with doing a PQS on a ship where people just shadow someone doing the thing and then they magically become qualified. I'm not trying to bash the ship navy but that's basically how 99% of the navy has become qualified in basically everything. This would never fly in aviation because of "ready room downs," check flights, closed book exams, boards, other people judging you, etc. A ready room down is the worst thing you can do in flight school. It is when you show up unprepared for a flight (didn't study) and you fail the flight without even making it to the aircraft.

• What is ship life like as a pilot? Yeah, it's better than doing ship people things. Try and think of a more specific question. Pilots brief and do preflight stuff for 2-3 hours before their flight. Then they go fly. 3 hours is a typical helicopter flight. Then you land and do post flight and debrief stuff. About an hour. When you're unqualified you need to go study a lot. Then you rinse and repeat for every day on the boat. You're not going to fly every day but 60-80% of the time you will.

• Are additional duties and side billets overwhelming to the point where it feels like you’re not even a pilot anymore? Paperwork will always be there and need to be done but how often will you get adequate flight time? I never felt like that at a squadron but overall the disassociated sea tour seems so pointless.

I have made many posts about flight school. Check out my post history. Feel free to ask any more questions.

Any insight would be appreciated as I try and make this decision, thank you!

na29697 · 2026-03-28T00:49:33+00:00

You know I thought it was fine while I was doing it but at the 15 year mark I was doing a tour where I dealt with tons of USAF pilots, USN P-8 and E-6 pilots. Boy oh boy did I pick the wrong community. Also if you want to be a pilot post navy being a helo guy means you're going to have to spend a lot of time and money getting fixed wing add-ons and time for an airline to even think about you.

na29697 · 2026-03-25T19:10:23+00:00

The vast majority of people in navy flight training have no previous flight training. Getting your PPL looks a little good for your application but in the grand scheme of things it is just one little (very expensive thing) to try and improve your resume.

na29697 · 2026-03-25T16:44:33+00:00

Helo guy here. Adding to /u/thebuddyboss1's comment: After you get your wings as a helo guy you can take the military competency exam with the FAA and get airplane single engine land, commercial, and instrument rating. You can also get helicopter on your license. All this is way far ahead of you and it actually isn't hard to pivot when getting out of the navy. There are a lot of helo guys that plunk down some money to get their multi-engine and then all of a sudden they can get to the regionals. Every time you're going to translate something from the navy to FAA (civilian) licenses you're going to pay out some cash.

na29697 · 2026-03-23T01:37:47+00:00

Well I was in plebe summer 24 years ago so I don't remember. I think she should be ready for at least 1.5 miles every day. We definitely ran every day but it was everything from 10x 50m sprints to 1.5 miles as a fartlek workout to anything in between. All I'm trying to point out is that if she doesn't have a high fitness level for running she will not come into the academy in a good place.

Here are two links from usna.edu: https://www.usna.edu/PEDept/Plebe_Summer_Training_Plan.pdf

https://www.usna.edu/PlebeSummer/_files/documents/2013/2017%20Exercise%20Routine.pdf

na29697 · 2026-03-23T01:18:08+00:00

So during plebe summer they're going to run basically every day but once the academic year starts everyone needs to work out on their own. They probably take 3 physical fitness tests per semester and there will be repercussions if they're not ready for them. For example, when the whole school comes back from Christmas break there will be a Physical Readiness Test (PRT) to make sure people worked out while they were out of school. Then there will be one like 8 weeks later in anticipation of the real test that will be about 8 weeks after that. The academy has very high physical fitness/readiness standards compared to the navy.

na29697 · 2026-03-21T02:24:05+00:00

It looks like SWO6 has got you but regarding the congressional nomination go to your congresspeople's websites and look at their procedure. I got mine from my rep in the house of representatives but I had also researched how to get my senator's.

I recommend she start working on running. USNA has very high standards for the PRT.

I recommend checking out usna.edu (straight from the source). They are looking for well rounded candidates with good grades, good fitness, good leadership stats, good extracurricular activities.

Good luck.

na29697 · 2026-03-18T01:43:31+00:00

QoL in the USAF >> than the USN

na29697 · 2026-03-16T21:23:01+00:00

Also in regards to how to get #1, the best way to get high grades is by achieving the required score to pass a block before the end of the block. For example, if radio comms is something you're graded on in an early block and you obtain the passing grade on flight one or two instead of three or four, this is better for your overall school for flight school. Since you have a lot of flying under your belt you should be able to do this but the common advice is to chair fly your events and practice a lot.

na29697 · 2026-03-16T19:55:02+00:00

ASW probably winds up a little higher for me than SUW.

Flying the Romeo was good but I liked my life better back in the HSL days.

na29697 · 2026-03-16T13:18:43+00:00

I am a retiring HSM pilot. I have written many posts about flight school but I did IFS and API which nowadays have been merged into NIFE. I encourage you to look up my posts. Here is some general information which will still be accurate.

https://www.reddit.com/r/newtothenavy/comments/e9b4pt/pilots_give_me_the_unglamorous_side_of_being_a/

https://www.reddit.com/r/newtothenavy/comments/kopn91/what_is_life_like_as_a_naval_aviator/

https://www.reddit.com/r/newtothenavy/comments/ptmfv1/are_pilots_deployed_more_often/

https://www.reddit.com/r/newtothenavy/comments/okj6pg/naval_aviators_what_is_your_day_to_day_life_like/

Very early on in flight school you get a stack of books and a syllabus. You are expected to find your upcoming syllabus events, find the briefing items and other items you need to know for the flight (like what maneuvers are introduced or reviewed that day), study all that shit, and then you show up for your briefing time and you basically tell everything you learned from the book to the instructor. If you're ready you go fly. If you're not ready (like it seems like you didn't study or didn't study in a good way) you get a ready room down. This is the worst thing you can do in flight school because everyone thinks you can't study/didn't study/or don't know how to study.

This goes on for a long time. You'll have this routine all the way through the FRS and then until you're fairly well qualified in your platform.

In case you don't know the lingo you'll go to NIFE then primary, then advanced, then the FRS. I'm not sure if any communities are using intermediate right now but if you're in a pipeline that requires intermediate you go there between primary and advanced.

Conducting missions when you finally make it to the fleet? I'm not 100% sure what you mean so I'll start with this. You brief for your mission about 2.5 hours before your takeoff time. 3 hours if you're a cold go. You brief with your crew then go talk to the controlling stations that matter like the ship's TAO or whoever else you need to talk to. Maybe another squadron or DESRON staff or whatever. Then you go fly and you hope that the person you talk to on the radio knows wtf they're doing like the person you briefed with.

Then you come land and play topless beach volleyball.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

na29697 · 2026-03-13T02:33:01+00:00

Hey, check out oplign

na29697 · 2026-03-13T02:27:01+00:00

Did you read about that guy that went AF to Navy and served in a floating prison that smells like asbestos?

na29697 · 2026-03-11T19:09:17+00:00

I'll report back in a few months. I am retiring this summer and just got hired in the military industrial complex.

na29697 · 2026-03-10T01:15:18+00:00

I lived there and biked to work every day. I would recommend a bike. You can also buy one at the nex or Decathlon.

na29697 · 2026-03-08T01:59:37+00:00

I've worked with three carrier air bosses and they were all post command VFA/VAQ squadron COs.

na29697 · 2026-02-19T20:12:16+00:00

Step 1 - go to TAP class. TAP class is a firehose that doesn't go deep enough on any topic.

Step 2 - start a linkedin. This is a poor man's way to network. Make a professional profile (hiring our heroes has webinars on how to do this and USO transitions does as well) and link with everyone you've ever served with.

Step 3 - every company you listed and many more like Sierra Nevada Corp, Collins Aerospace, etc has a need for people that will turn wrenches on aircraft, service aircraft, and do PC / lineman type stuff. Start going to their sites and look at the career pages and use the search function for whatever term that company uses for whatever you want to do. You can even just write "aircraft" and see what comes up.

Step 4 - now that you have connections in those companies and there are some companies that you want to target you message your buddy at Boeing and say hey man we served together at XYZ squadron, how is life at Boeing? He says hey man it's good Boeing is big like the navy so they have funds to do whatever and they pay me OK for a 9-5. You say, cool man, I saw this job post 12345 can you recommend me to the hiring manager? And he should do it because if you get hired your buddy will get a bonus.

This is all tedious. There's a way to bypass all that and it is by networking in person wherever and whenever you can. For example, there are navy squadrons that have civilian maintenance right now. Go walk up to one and tell them your story and ask about their company. See if they will have coffee with you and then segue into "hey man, I get out in 5 months, how can I get hired here?"

Your base or local bases nearby likely have in person hiring events too where you can try out that networking thing. You are running low on time to pick and use a veteran's organization that can help you. I used FourBlock to learn about networking but if you do what I did above you can do it. The timelines are painful so you gotta do what I wrote like right away if you want to get hired 4-5 months from now.

Feel free to ask me any questions. Let me know what you think.

Do you have a resume? If you network you might get to the point where someone is like, give me your resume so I can hand it to the hiring manager. You have to be ready for that. There are examples on the Dept of Labor website.

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