USCG Flight School - Numbers

[Haveaniceday]

Still waiting to see how many flight billets USCGA class of 2023 will get to put in for after graduation as a first tour. In prior years it has ranged around 20 billets per class, plus or minus. We will know on Billet Night March 2, 2023.

A selection panel recently (last week) selected 21 LTGJs and one Ensign for flight as a second tour after commissioning.

Those interested in flight are usually told at USCGA that first assignment after graduation is not the only chance to fly. 22 reporting to Pensacola by April 30, 2023 is a good number for second tours as flight school is impacted and the accession pipeline is still smoothing out from the covid slowdown.

 

[Offshore]

Should be 15 this year for class of 2023.

 

[ProudMom7]

If I counted correctly, there were 23 Flight School billets given out last night at Billet Night. That represents a little less than 10% of the class which seems to be about normal.

 

[#14mom]

Do you know about how many apply to flight school each year as their first assignment?

 

[ProudMom7]

Do you know about how many apply to flight school each year as their first assignment?

Around December or January the list of possible billets is given out to all the 1/c cadets. The cadets then submit their wish list of assignments ordered 1-n where n is their class rank or possibly even a few more. I have no idea how many people hope for a flight school billet right after graduation. Definitely more people want it than there are flight school billets. On the other hand, lots of high ranked cadets aren't interested in flight. It would be interesting to know the class rank of the cadet who got the last available flight school billet.

Many cadets go to a cutter for a first (and maybe a second) assignment and then apply to flight school. As long as they get good ratings, anyone who wants to go to flight school should be able to get it as a follow-on assignment. The Coast Guard actually has the highest percentage of pilots of all the services.

 

[2026cgahopeful]

When we dropped our swab off last year, we talked to one of the girls headed to flight school. She said there’s an intensive application process for flight school. And from that application, people are chosen to interview. She said because of the application process being time consuming, a lot decide not to apply and most that applied got accepted. I’m not sure how accurate this is but I’m guessing it’s fairly accurate given it came from an ensign headed to flight school.

 

[ProudMom7]

When we dropped our swab off last year, we talked to one of the girls headed to flight school. She said there’s an intensive application process for flight school. And from that application, people are chosen to interview. She said because of the application process being time consuming, a lot decide not to apply and most that applied got accepted. I’m not sure how accurate this is but I’m guessing it’s fairly accurate given it came from an ensign headed to flight school.

Yes, this is true. They also have to pass additional medical tests for flight school. I should have mentioned that above. So they have to be qualified for flight school in order to even be considered for one of those billets.