Naval Aviation

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johndoe11

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I am interested in perusing a career as a Naval Aviator. What colleges and degrees give me the best chance of becoming an aviator? Do flight oriented schools (ex. Embry-Riddle) give me a better chance? What else may I need to know?

Thanks!
 
Others will provide more-precise counsel, but this much is clear: School and major won’t matter as much as academic performance, leadership ability, physical fitness and clean bill of health.

Regardless of school or commissioning path, there are English majors who fly and aeronautical engineering majors who don’t.
 
not rocket surgery
1. graduate with a solid GPA - the higher the better - but not so high you get voulentold into nuke school
2. be a LEADER and solid performer in your NROTC unit
3. perform in the top end of your PT test
4. do well on the flight aptitude test
 
Nothing useful to add to any of the above. They said it all, IMHO.
 
Somebody watches too many movies! How many times have you seen that one, @Humey! :biggrin:
 
Fun and informative posts above. Also, please oil-up and pause and flex into the camera every once in a while while playing volleyball - apparently that's a key to keeping a pilot or navigator slot.

I'll just add that one question you may wish to ask each unit you are considering is what percentage of their commissioning midshipmen received their first or second choice of where to serve (sub, aviation, surface warfare, marine officer, marine aviation, etc.) . I found that some schools - like you mentioned Embry Riddle have a 98% first-choice track record for the last 3 years. Other schools when I asked were lower - more like an 80/20 split between first/ second. I do think some programs have a halo around them, positive or negative and that may impact those percentages - just my unscientific opinion. Maybe that's based on prior graduate performance - not sure. Embry had a lot of unmanned aviator degree recipients (drone) or commercially rated airplane pilots that were then after commissioning heading to Pensacola for flight school / got naval aviator slots (Maverick). Had a few more that were navigators (Goose) then some for Marine aviation, marine officer, a couple of subs and surface warfare (all on youtube - not spilling Colonel Sander's secret recipe here). That's just correlational data - not cause/ effect - ultimately I agree it's all about the needs of the navy on any given year, but it may help you and I do think some programs have a stronger track record of getting people what their top choices. That being said, I've heard no less than 20 times that being an ATP-track pilot in undergrad offers no advantage to getting a pilot slot in the navy - it's just good if that's what you want to do after the navy. Buyer beware. For the AF though I did some prior research and it's an advantage to have your PPL and hours for getting a pilot slot. Navy drone pilots do go to flight school, fyi - not all branches do that.

Top Gun 2 is coming out soon and I maintain this will have an impact in the next couple of years both on navy recruitment and an increase in midshipmen putting aviation down as one of their top 3 - numbers spiked incredibly in recruitment and interest in these slots after the original movie in 1986. Navy called the original "the best recruitment campaign we could have dreamed of".

Just to share, Navy- Marine option midshipmen currently have guaranteed aviation contracts available, if you pass their evals/ meet their standards. Also Army and of course air force also have pilot slots. May wish to apply to all if your dream is to serve and fly. All are competitive / have advantages.

Good luck!
 
If you're shopping units, a good question to ask is what is the proportion of accessions to the different warfare communities (percent surface, subs, aviation). If there's a good spread, then chances are you can get picked up for aviation as long as you meet the commissioning requirements, pass the flight physical, and flight aptitude test.

As far as what school to go to, I'd look more as what school would I go to if I wasn't ROTC? That way if you do run into issues you are at least at a school you want to be.
 
Herman_Snerd said:
Fun and informative posts above. Also, please oil-up and pause and flex into the camera every once in a while while playing volleyball - apparently that's a key to keeping a pilot or navigator slot.

I'll just add that one question you may wish to ask each unit you are considering is what percentage of their commissioning midshipmen received their first or second choice of where to serve (sub, aviation, surface warfare, marine officer, marine aviation, etc.) . I found that some schools - like you mentioned Embry Riddle have a 98% first-choice track record for the last 3 years. Other schools when I asked were lower - more like an 80/20 split between first/ second. I do think some programs have a halo around them, positive or negative and that may impact those percentages - just my unscientific opinion. Maybe that's based on prior graduate performance - not sure. Embry had a lot of unmanned aviator degree recipients (drone) or commercially rated airplane pilots that were then after commissioning heading to Pensacola for flight school / got naval aviator slots (Maverick). Had a few more that were navigators (Goose) then some for Marine aviation, marine officer, a couple of subs and surface warfare (all on youtube - not spilling Colonel Sander's secret recipe here). That's just correlational data - not cause/ effect - ultimately I agree it's all about the needs of the navy on any given year, but it may help you and I do think some programs have a stronger track record of getting people what their top choices. That being said, I've heard no less than 20 times that being an ATP-track pilot in undergrad offers no advantage to getting a pilot slot in the navy - it's just good if that's what you want to do after the navy. Buyer beware. For the AF though I did some prior research and it's an advantage to have your PPL and hours for getting a pilot slot. Navy drone pilots do go to flight school, fyi - not all branches do that.

Top Gun 2 is coming out soon and I maintain this will have an impact in the next couple of years both on navy recruitment and an increase in midshipmen putting aviation down as one of their top 3 - numbers spiked incredibly in recruitment and interest in these slots after the original movie in 1986. Navy called the original "the best recruitment campaign we could have dreamed of".

Just to share, Navy- Marine option midshipmen currently have guaranteed aviation contracts available, if you pass their evals/ meet their standards. Also Army and of course air force also have pilot slots. May wish to apply to all if your dream is to serve and fly. All are competitive / have advantages.

Good luck!
Click to expand...
As much as I like Top Gun, the movie that got me think about going in was Officer and a Gentlemen
 
yes that was a good one

the movie that first got me motivated was the original "Midway", in the theatre with Sensaround! in 5th grade

then the one that got me motivated about 'modern' naval aviation was "The Final Coundown"

then "Officer and a Gentleman" gave me hope that i could still fly in the Navy even though I had no shot at USNA

by the time Top Gun came out, I was hoping i'd get accepted before all the new wannabees applied!
 
A6E Dad said:
yes that was a good one

the movie that first got me motivated was the original "Midway", in the theatre with Sensaround! in 5th grade

then the one that got me motivated about 'modern' naval aviation was "The Final Coundown"

then "Officer and a Gentleman" gave me hope that i could still fly in the Navy even though I had no shot at USNA

by the time Top Gun came out, I was hoping i'd get accepted before all the new wannabees applied!
Click to expand...
Funny you mentioned Midway, saw the old one and the current version. I still find it weird that the Navy fliers were actually able to take down the Japanese carriers. I mean so many pilots were shot down and were so uneffective, especially the planes that dropped the torpedos. This isint a slight againt the pilots but rather against the planes and weapons they were using. The technology upgrade between Midway and the end of the war was revolutionary. That movie would have scared me from ever thinking about joining up.

Final Countdown was very cool and it would have been more interesting if the they had stayed in 1941 and changed the course of history. Of course that would be have been better for a book (or tv series today) and not a movie
 
It was serendipitous timing. The Empire's aircover dropped down to defend against the torpedo planes. When the dive bombers came along at high altitude there were no Japanese planes at that altitude to fight them off.
 
Funny... my DD was waitlisted this year and immediately said..” Oh no... Top Gun 2 comes out in June! I’ll have to compete with TONS of applicants for 2025!” However, thanks to Covid, they pushed the premiere til December. Silver linings, people!!!😜
 
Navybrat71 said:
Funny... my DD was waitlisted this year and immediately said..” Oh no... Top Gun 2 comes out in June! I’ll have to compete with TONS of applicants for 2025!” However, thanks to Covid, they pushed the premiere til December. Silver linings, people!!!😜
Click to expand...
😆😂😄
 
When you say "Naval Aviator" are you including both the Navy and the Marine Corps side? I ask that because one can contract aviation sophomore year for the Marine Corps in NROTC. My DS did. The Platoon Leader's Class (PLC) program also offers opportunity to contract aviation.
 
johndoe11 said:
I am interested in perusing a career as a Naval Aviator. What colleges and degrees give me the best chance of becoming an aviator? Do flight oriented schools (ex. Embry-Riddle) give me a better chance? What else may I need to know?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

ERAU is a very expensive place to attend before paying for flight lessons, which are more expensive at ERAU than at flight schools surrounding its campus.

My oldest came out of USNA with no flight hours...got a whopping 15 hours behind the yoke at IFS but will be flying a turboprop in Primary.
 
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