u/Cparker_11

Hello! I’m interested in joining the reserves/guard as a pilot and was curious how competitive I am. I got a 92 Pilot score on AFOQT and total PCSM is 99. I am currently a civilian CFI with 700 total flight hours. Degree in aviation from a part 141 school and 3.84 GPA.
I honestly don’t know how competitive this is, but I talked to a recruiter and they told me to complete AFOQT and TBAS so thats what I did. Should I retake the AFOQT to get a better score? Just curious to see if anyone has insight on whether or not Im competitive currently. Thanks!

Hello! I’m interested in joining the reserves as a pilot and was curious how competitive I am. I got a 90 Pilot score on AFOQT and total PCSM is 99. I am currently a civilian CFI with 700 total flight hours. Degree in aviation from a part 141 school and 3.84 GPA.
I honestly don’t know how competitive this is, but I talked to a recruiter and they told me to complete AFOQT and TBAS so thats what I did. Should I retake the AFOQT to get a better score? Just curious to see if anyone has insight on whether or not Im competitive currently. Thanks!

Hello! I am currently a civilian flight instructor and 24 years old. I also have a bachelor’s in aviation. I’ve always wanted to be in the military, but decided to go the civilian route after high school.

I’m looking for some advice from people who have gone through the Air National Guard/Air Force Reserve pilot process. I’ve been considering the Guard/Reserve route because I’m interested in flying military aircraft (especially heavies) while also continuing a civilian aviation career.
I’m trying to understand the reality of the commitment before pursuing this seriously. My biggest question is about what happens if you are selected by a unit, commission, and then do not make it through UPT.

Specifically:
- If you wash out of UPT before earning wings, what usually happens?
- Do you still owe a service commitment, and if so, is it typically the full obligation or a shorter one?
- Are people normally reassigned into another officer job in the Guard/Reserve?
- How common is it for someone to wash out and end up in a non-flying role?
- Is there any way to know beforehand how competitive I’d be as a civilian CFI applicant?
I’m not looking to avoid serving — I understand there is risk involved. I just want to make sure I understand what I’m signing up for before making a decision.
Thanks to anyone willing to share their experience.

Hello! I am currently a 24 year old pilot working as an independent flight instructor. I also have an aviation degree from a part 141 school and have my CFI-I rating with plenty of IFR experience. The market for airline pilots is not great right now because it's too saturated. I love learning more about the aviation industry as a whole and I was curious about switching to airline dispatching, at least for now, so I had a few questions. Would my pilot experience translate at all to airline dispatching? If I were to get a dispatch certificate, how difficult would it be to find a job at a regional airline currently? Lastly, do dispatchers have a lot of off time? I was thinking maybe I could have a dispatching job and then fly whenever I can on the side, so that I stay proficient flying to where being an airline pilot is at least an option later on in life. Sorry for all the questions, I'm very new to dispatching and appreciate any insight or advice for me. Thanks!

I am just looking for a little more understanding of the hiring environment. I am aware of the insane amount of issued commercial and CFI certs these past few years. Im also aware that Spirit going down makes hiring even more competitive. I am currently flight instructing and building multi time on the side and have around 600 TT. I genuinely just want to harsh truth of what the hiring environment is. I know there are 135 VFR options but I know Im not competitive enough for that yet. Should I continue to build time as a CFI for another 1,000 hours or so before even considering these types of jobs? I guess Im trying to say should I focus solely on flight instructing and building flight hours or should I place a lot of my effort and time into networking, getting a ramp job hoping to meet pilots etc? I don’t want to waste my time if there is no shot at landing a job whenever I could be flight instructing full time as I am now. I am literally open to anything. Please be honest, thank you!