Aviation Billets

[devildolphin24']

hey guys, got lots of questions about potential aviation after the academy.

Do aviation internships/experience conducted through the academy help a candidate earn a flight billet? What about the flight team/aviation club, does this help a candidate earn a flight billet too? Or is selection based strictly on grades, and ability to pass a flight physical/ATSB(?) results?

Is it possible, or does anyone know someone who has gotten a PPL (private-pilot-license) while at the academy? Or is this very unrealistic?

If someone gets to become a CG aviator, does he or she get to stay as an aviator throughout their career (presumably up to a certain rank) or do aviators frequently change to other jobs early on in a career?

If a person gets a cutter billet out of the academy, how early can graduates of the academy apply for a flight slot?

I'm guessing CG fixed-wing aircraft slots are competitive. Are pilots allowed the opportunity to switch to a different airframe in their career? Or are they "stuck?"

Does CG send their pilots to Naval Test Pilot School? If so, is this rare?

Lastly, which might be a better major in preparation for a flight slot or perhaps even an Aerospace Engineering post-graduate degree? Heard Mechanical Engineering is good for a solid foundation (as Aerospace Engineering seems to be more or less a "concentration" of Mechanical Engineering), while Naval Architecture/Marine Engineering can be similar with some Electrical Engineering thrown in, with the main difference being the type of medium (i.e water vs air) that an object may pass through. Is there a major that people consider harder, or one that may have more career opportunities on the outside?

Thoughts?

 

[ekb1398]

I'll take some shots here, but bear in mind I'm a Cadet not an active duty officer nor pilot.

I would argue that aviation internships are more about people getting the experience to make sure aviation is really what they want to do. There's always lots of flight slots that go to people who didn't do an internship. Being in the aviation club is a good idea, but won't give you a huge boost in application status alone. It seems that medical and ASTB are more of checkboxes the past few years, and a lot is going by interview. Each of the past two years, aviation slots have gone to some people quite low in class rank.

It's possible, but it won't be paid for by the Academy, at least as of right now. You'll still pay for it like anyone else.

Aviators will generally stay aviators unless for some reason they no longer can. The Coast Guard paid a lot of money to make you an aviator and they'd like to keep you there, especially with so many getting out to take commercial jobs right now.

People outside of aviation can apply to flights school twice per year when fleet solicitations are put out, so at most six months. Realistically, a year is more to be expected so that you have your first evaluation and qualifications and proven track record.

All aviation slots are competitive, and you don't pick fixed wing or rotary wing until well into flight school. With that said, there is an ebb and flood of interest for each. Right now, it seems the interest lies largely in rotary wing, based purely on the people I talk to at the Academy and nothing more. It is not super common but not rare either to switch airframes, even from fixed to rotary. I have heard from numerous sources it is decidedly more common for those in the Engineering department of aviation to do so.

For NTPS, no clue. I'm sure if it is a thing it's very rare.

Any major is okay for flight school, and for engineering, although at least a STEM background would be helpful. I have a teacher who was an MES major then went to grad school for aerospace via the Coast Guard. You really can't go wrong with either ME or NAME. They're really very similar. Are you more interested in focusing on one particular machine or component, or an entire system of machines and components? I'm also interested in Aerospace, and it fact was an aersopace major at my previous school. I came in ME, then switched in October of 4/c year to NAME. You're right in your thinking that NAME and Aero are similar in that you're creating some structure to move through a fluid efficiently. Many consider NAME to be harder, but I would same NAME and ME are pretty similar in terms of difficulty. That said, don't pick a major by difficulty, pick it by what you think you'll enjoy. If you enjoy it, it will be a lot easier even if it is objectively more difficult. Difficulty can be really subjective; I would find Government to be pretty hard, because I hate writing. More career opportunities? ME, it's so broad, you could into anything you want. If you're satisfied with being in the maritime industry though, NAME far and away. Just named the number one most valuable degree in America by on of those rating institutions, although I forget which. Really high pay, and lots of growth in the number of jobs for people with NAME degrees.

 

[devildolphin24']

I'll take some shots here, but bear in mind I'm a Cadet not an active duty officer nor pilot.

I would argue that aviation internships are more about people getting the experience to make sure aviation is really what they want to do. There's always lots of flight slots that go to people who didn't do an internship. Being in the aviation club is a good idea, but won't give you a huge boost in application status alone. It seems that medical and ASTB are more of checkboxes the past few years, and a lot is going by interview. Each of the past two years, aviation slots have gone to some people quite low in class rank.

It's possible, but it won't be paid for by the Academy, at least as of right now. You'll still pay for it like anyone else.

Aviators will generally stay aviators unless for some reason they no longer can. The Coast Guard paid a lot of money to make you an aviator and they'd like to keep you there, especially with so many getting out to take commercial jobs right now.

People outside of aviation can apply to flights school twice per year when fleet solicitations are put out, so at most six months. Realistically, a year is more to be expected so that you have your first evaluation and qualifications and proven track record.

All aviation slots are competitive, and you don't pick fixed wing or rotary wing until well into flight school. With that said, there is an ebb and flood of interest for each. Right now, it seems the interest lies largely in rotary wing, based purely on the people I talk to at the Academy and nothing more. It is not super common but not rare either to switch airframes, even from fixed to rotary. I have heard from numerous sources it is decidedly more common for those in the Engineering department of aviation to do so.

For NTPS, no clue. I'm sure if it is a thing it's very rare.

Any major is okay for flight school, and for engineering, although at least a STEM background would be helpful. I have a teacher who was an MES major then went to grad school for aerospace via the Coast Guard. You really can't go wrong with either ME or NAME. They're really very similar. Are you more interested in focusing on one particular machine or component, or an entire system of machines and components? I'm also interested in Aerospace, and it fact was an aersopace major at my previous school. I came in ME, then switched in October of 4/c year to NAME. You're right in your thinking that NAME and Aero are similar in that you're creating some structure to move through a fluid efficiently. Many consider NAME to be harder, but I would same NAME and ME are pretty similar in terms of difficulty. That said, don't pick a major by difficulty, pick it by what you think you'll enjoy. If you enjoy it, it will be a lot easier even if it is objectively more difficult. Difficulty can be really subjective; I would find Government to be pretty hard, because I hate writing. More career opportunities? ME, it's so broad, you could into anything you want. If you're satisfied with being in the maritime industry though, NAME far and away. Just named the number one most valuable degree in America by on of those rating institutions, although I forget which. Really high pay, and lots of growth in the number of jobs for people with NAME degrees.

Thanks for the response! Very helpful. Just curious, what made you switch to NAME, and what reason to some people consider NAME harder than ME? Are NAME classes smaller than ME students? I would think that smaller class sizes could help offset the difficulty. How would you consider engineering instructors in general at USCGA?

 

[ekb1398]

Thanks for the response! Very helpful. Just curious, what made you switch to NAME, and what reason to some people consider NAME harder than ME? Are NAME classes smaller than ME students? I would think that smaller class sizes could help offset the difficulty. How would you consider engineering instructors in general at USCGA?

I may be biased, but I believe the NAME instructors are the best on campus, which is part of why I switched. The other part was just talking to students and teachers from NAME and seeing how much they enjoyed it and seemed passionate about it relative to other majors. Lastly, I did the proper amount of research and realized there was a large job market for it, which was a worry of mine. I've had instructors from both NAME and ME (and one civil) and all have been fantastic. We definitely have less NAME majors than ME, but they split into multiple sections of classes where we often are all in one class together. We get to know each other way better than other majors typically do, which is pretty fun too, even if it is from painful late nights in the lab