Washout rate for Army flight training?

[airspeed]

Okay, i spoke with the recruiter and am taking the asvab next week. He said that after I pass there is a board I have to meet with to give the thumbs up or down to send me to flight training. Does anyone know anything about this board I have to meet with, and he also mentioned that if i were to wash out that i still owe 6years to the Army. Does anyone know the washout rate or how hard it is. I have a desent background 2400TT 1100Multi typed in the HS125 700Turbine PIC in BE200, BE99 ETC and some airline time in the DO328JET. Thanks.

 

[Anaconda]

Check your private messages...

It was over ten years ago when I tried to get in from the civilian ranks but from what i remember it consisted of three army officers of various ranks asking me a number of your typical human resource type questions.

As for the washout rate, it was virtually zero when i went through in 94. even if someone had problems they were given many chances to complete the training. like all army schools flight tng is geared to the lowest common denominator so given the experience level you claim to have you will probably be sleeping through most of your tng.

given the quality of new pilots i encountered during my last year as an army instructor pilot, the washout rate must now be ZERO...i ran across a lot of people that i couldn't believe earned wings...they must be giving them away at the PX now...

Are you really sure this is what you want to do?

 

[jurisj]

airspeed, a few answers for you...

First off, I've seen several people get washed out from flight training, but the rate's got to be real low. I'm guessing one or two people out of each 40 person class will wash out. That's pretty liberal, too. The number may be actually lower. If people have trouble, they most likely get set back or awarded additional hours to meet the "standard". (The "standard" has gone severely downhill in the last couple of years.) As anaconda said in the other thread, retention rates have become abyssmal. The Army can't afford to wash out too many people because they need to fill the ranks.

As for the recruiter's line about owing 6 years if you wash out? Bull. The recruiter's got an incomplete picture, which is not unusual for recruiters when it comes to the Warrant Officer program. What they don't know is this: you sign up for a 3 year enlistment with the MOS of 09W, "Warrant Officer Flight Training Enlistment Option". Upon completion of Basic, you come here to Mother Rucker for Warrant Officer Candidate School. If you don't complete WOCS for some unlikely reason, the Army may hold you to your earlier 3 year enlistment. They will assign you an MOS, often having to do with aviation. I have not seen anyone eliminated from WOCS, spare the odd sort that couldn't pass the PT test, which should be a breeze coming straight from Basic.

However, the night before you graduate WOCS and pin on WO1, the Army discharges you from your enlisted contract. You'll get an Honorable Discharge certificate and everything. That three year enlistment is null and void. You do incur a new 6 year obligation as a Warrant Officer upon completion of your technical and tactical training, aka flight school.

If you wash out of this training, you will not be forced to revert to being enlisted. The Army has no enlistment contract for you anymore so they have no basis for reverting you. You do have a few options that you can work through B 1/145 AVN, which is the company you'll belong to here as a Warrant student pilot. I've seen people simply go home and become civilians again. You also can search, beg, plead to go to a different Warrant Officer MOS. I know someone who, upon washing out of flight school, is now in training to become a CID Agent. I've heard of other folks becoming 151A, Aviation Maintenance Tech. Other people with prior enlisted service can apply for other Tech Warrant MOSs. Unfortunately, having come straight from the civilian world, you do not possess the required Army experience for most of these MOSs. Soemtimes the requirements are waiverable, sometimes not, depending on how understrength the MOS is.

Here's the bottom line... you sound like you've got some great flight experience already and that you're a mature person. As long as you can tough it out through Basic training and WOCS, and have a decent level of motivation, you should have no problem. I've got no prior flight experience and I am doing quite well. It's certainly not easy. Right now in Basic Combat Skills I have duty days that last 14-16 hours, so we do put in work but it's not impossible. Good luck, and let me know if you have any additional questions.

Cheers,

- Juris