what rank do you have to be to be a pilot in the air force?

Question

and after you retire from the air force,, do you have to go to pilot school to become a commercial pilot?

Answer 1

Things don't work that way. You will have to have a college degree first in an engineering based science in order to apply for Officers Candidate School to then maybe be picked up for pilot school. You will be O-1 when you enter the AF if this all happens for you. Then you earn the rest of your officer ranks from there based on minimum times and performance evaluations.

Answer 2

Okay, first of all: You don't ENTER the academy as a 2nd LT, you graduate as a 2LT. To be a pilot you must be an officer, and to be an officer, you must graduate from college. All pilots spend about a year at pilot training. If they went as soon as they commission, they still are a 2nd LT when they graduate. Upon graduation from Pilot Training, you are generally assigned to your primary airframe. The follow on training can be a few months to another year. Most of my Fighter Pilot friends spent at least 6 months at FTU. So at that point they have been commissioned and in training for a year and a half, and are still a 2nd LT. Although, with FTU and other course loads, most have pinned on 1LT by the time they report to their first unit. As for making rank, things change with almost every year. But in general, you pin on 1 LT after 2 years in service. Then in another 2 years, you pin on Capt. Back in the day, you stayed a Captain for about 7 years! Now I think that timeframe is closer to 5... You are generally a Major for 4 to 5 years, etc. In the old days, being a fighter pilot was pretty much a guarantee of making rank. However, I have seen boards where pilots actually had the WORST promotion rates (deployed too much to get advanced degrees, or PME being the most common thing). You can be an instructor pilot (IP) at just about any rank. You can come out of pilot training, and go straight to PIT. Heck, I actually outranked my T-37 IP (I was "late to rate" and class leader). Although generally you need to be in a particular airframe for a while before you can become an IP. As a Major, I was the IP to 4 star generals though, so rank has nothing to do with your designation on the aircraft. If you have the A code, you are in charge, no matter what your rank. I often had Colonels as my co-pilot when I was a Captain on the KC-135. There are often transfers, but generally you stay in a "track". If you are a fighter pilot, you generally stay in the Air Combat Command structure, and if you are a Transport pilot, you stay with Air Mobility Command. Rank has nothing to do with the type of aircraft you fly. If you make rank, you keep it unless you get busted down due to legal repercussions. I hope that helped.

Answer 3

you have to go to the Air Force academy, and become an officers. Yes, military personal need to get a license to become a commercial pilot.

Answer 4

You have to be selected for Flight school (10% or less)... I'm not sure if the USAF commissions non-academy students before or after completion of pre-flight training, but they'll all start as 0-1's (2nd Lieutenants).

Re: your other question, YES, military pilots have to get CIVILIAN certification from the FAA to become private or commercial pilots. The FAA does NOT recognize a military pilots designation as equal to a PPL... you have to go get it on your own time.

THOUGH... your FLIGHT TIME counts regarding experience.. ie instrument time, multi-engine time.

Answer 5

become a Marine! after ocs, you a guaranteed a spot in the mos of your choice, including piloting the super cobra.. of course in order to go to ocs you need a bachelors in a science. after ocs is the basic school, then the mos training. you'll be a 2lt by end of tbs. i dont know about the air force though buddy, sorry!