I am worthy of trying to earn the wings?

Hi everyone, nice to meet you all (virtually that is!) :hello2:

I have been thinking about a career in the FAA for a while now (as a pilot) but there are a couple of things holding me back.

Firstly my grades arent exactly what you would expect an officer/pilot to have! Reason being that when I took my mocks they were quite high, so very stupidly I was over confident that I didnt have to bother with coursework/additional study. As I need to retake the exams, would the Royal Navy be dubious of considering me for the job since I didnt pass with good results the first time round?

Secondly, my age - I am 20 at the moment. I believe the age limit is 26 so as daft as this comment sounds, I wonder if there will be any bias against someone my age since the selection and training takes a long time and the Royal Navy would want a fair amount of years out of me whilst I'm young-ish (12 years I believe)?

Last but not least, not to do with the FAA but sport. I am keen oarsman and I would like to keep up with my rowing if I do join the Royal Navy. Does anyone on here row?

I just thought I would ask those first two questions on here since I'd rather be heckled on rumration than be laughed out of the AFCO! (but be gentle!) :roll:

Thanks for any comments/advice its greatly appreciated. You are all doing a fantastic job, I hope I can work alongside you all one day :notworthy:

 

If not academically qualified for pilot, why not Obsever, of which the FAA are very short of. Sport, well the navy will fully support especially if you are rather good, but operational deployments will always take precedence. Good luck.

 

When in doubt, go for it!

Most ships will have a rowing machine onboard. I know that it is not the same but it will allow you to keep your oar in! (Groan!)

 

I think you will find the observer is the one normally more academically qualified.

 

If you don't have the quals, come to the Army and be a better pilot and fly Apache (bigger guns to kill people with)

 

thats a good video thanks for that

 

IF you can impress the board then it doesn't matter how many times you took an exam.

To the age thing I took the board at 24 and they accepted me. I went through training with a guy who was 26 and an ex manager for tesco fruit and veg. The training currently takes 4 years for commando rotary, looking about 5 and a half years for merlin. Of course if you're royalty you can do this in about 3 months (Grrr..........).

As to the observer issue don't go unless you really want to do it. Nothing worse than getting banter you don't deserve such as "no stick, no vote". If you're good enough for either go for what you want not what you feel you "deserve".

As for the rowing that may impress the board, Dartmouth has a very good gig team. Not sure about pure rowing ala Oxford V Cambridge but I am fairly certain the PTI's there will point you in the direction of a guy that will be able to satisfy your every need and desire. As for the rest of the fleet and your particular sport most bases have clubs to help your "passion"

 

Matelo99 cheers for clearing those questions up for me, I am most grateful!

Going to book an appointment with the AFCO for Friday

As for the rowing, I may even get the chance to row with Pete Reed one day! :thumright:

 

I can confirm that there is indeed a 'pure' rowing team at Dartmouth. Twice, sometimes three times a week in fact. It's quite probably the best sport to do there, as it gets you out of the college in the first seven weeks, which you otherwise would not be allowed to do. And maybe even a trip to Morrisons if you're lucky. We used to have the old college commander putting us through our paces in the gym on a Monday afternoon. He was a character to say the least.
He had a few brilliant lines to shout at people during the beastings:
'Show me your sex faces!!' and 'Sort your farking life out!'. He has left now however. He will be sorely missed.

 

Rowing? Sort your farking life out. If that's not rowing I don't know what rowing is

 

My personal view is that the fact that you've recognised what caused the problem and are doing something about demonstrates maturity and intelligence in a way that exams can't and don't. Don't see your results solely as failure, move on and be positive.

The upper age is the cut-off not some arbitary age below it! There's a balance to be struck, while callow youths offer potentially longer in harnes, they also come with inexperience and immaturity - if your age is more in the middle of the application range, you'll offer a good balance between potential length of servitude coupled with already having had a number of your rough edges already knocked off!