Career Advice from Bograt

[Bograt]

I think I am the poster child for 30 somethings who want to become CF pilots. My inbox is full of questions like the one I received today. I thought I would post it and my response.

<i>Hello, I was just going through some posts and came across yours. I too lived in summerside and Greenwood as my father was a flight Engineer. I am now 29 and am teaching but am becoming more serious at looking into a career change and would like to go Pilot in the CF. I have a wife, a house and am wondering what the training demands are in the early stages. Should my wife come with me and stay on base in PMQ's or stay with the house at home and work? I am trying to cover all angles and process this decision as best as I can.

Thanks,</i>

BOTP is a challenging course, but I found that my experience gave me an advantage that other officer cadets did not have. I performed very well in all my taskings. I prepared myself physically and was ready for the stresses of basic training.

I have a little sign above my desk that says" What have you done today?" Do everything you can to prepare-you only get on shot to get your wings.  Very few can call themselves CF pilots- Billy Bishop, Chris Hatfield, Inch It is a neat to be associated with that group of people .

After BOTC, you can be expected to do Second Language Training in St. Jean. It is 7-8 months. Luckily, I received a compassionate posting to Shearwater as a result of my wife having our second child while I was on BOTC. I was the exception. My friends with families had to endure PQ for that period of time. Some moved their families at their expense, others just bit the bullet. I don't think you can get PMQs while in St. Jean.

Surprisingly I receive a lot of emails from people who read my story. As a DEO, the average age is around 32. You are not too old. I love my job. Last week I was in Comox doing sea survival. Next month I will be in Halifax, and Vancouver. The next two months following I'll be doing Air medical training, and SERE in Winnipeg. I flew Sea Kings as part of my On the Job Training. I am chasing my dream with some other fantastic people.

How bad do you want it? There are a lot of hurdles one has to jump through, and there is a lot of sacrifice ahead if you choose this path. Sometimes it will feel like it is taking forever, and other times will be just a blink. I wish you the best, but my wishes wont do anything- only your hard work and your wife's support will do.

Cheers,

PS. I am going to post my response. Hope you don't mind.

 

[Inch]

Why did you wait until you left Shearwater to start kissing my a$$?

Good post, glad to see you're looking at the bright side of things.

 

[WannaBeFlyer]

Good post Bograt. Some of your previous age related posts inspired me when I was considering whether or not to apply.

I am 30 and awaiting the call for Aircrew Selection. Obviously I can't add much except I do know all of the "What if's?" that most people my age considering becoming a CF pilot are asking since I had a lot of them. I have found that even in the infant stages of the process, some of things I worried about for a long time seem to zip by and they hardly worth the time I spent thinking about them.

Anyway, I guess my point is I am really excited to be where I am right now which to some may seem like nowhere. I realize I have a lot of hurdles and a lot of hard work ahead of me but I really feel that if I don't get accepted and I gave it my best shot, it is a lot better than melting away in my cubicle wondering what would have happened had I not applied. I don't think I could have lived with the big "What if?" for the rest of my life.

Good luck to all those who are considering applying.

 

[double0three]

I'm have applied and currently am awaiting to get some info on ASC.

I was kind of worried that @ 23 years old I had wasted too many years of my life before I decided the forces is what I wanted to do.  But if you say the average age is 32, that means even if I don't make it in this year, I still won't be in rough shape.  I *am* applying to ROTP so I have a few extra years ahead of me before I can actually begin my career, but I feel a bit better now. 

Hope I didn't make anyone else feel old or anything, haha.  Even at 40 years old you're still doing pretty good these days, I hear it's the new 20!

 

[pipstah]

Oh Bograt, you have forgot something... OPME after BOTC!  For PMQs in St-Jean, there's none but there's a nice airforce base at St-Hubert wich is around 30 minutes of St-Jean. I'm 25 and I was the baby on the french PON. Like Bograt said, you are doing alot of training at different places. Its nice and kinda weird when you look at that. You go at Basic SERE in Winnipeg and on that course you have friends from Comox, Cold Lake, Petawawa, Greenwood and Valcartier. Then your geographic vision of Canada is making you think that this country is really small... While you wait for a course, time is passing very slowly and you just cant wait to get on your course. Then guess what you are now only a week away from going to your course! Then you are on your course and there's so much stuff to study that you wish that you could have more time! You think the course is passing slowly and then you just finding yourself at your course party with your friends remembering the good time you had on that course...