Candidate Q: Female Aviation Contract
Candidate Question:
Published in
1 min readDec 10, 2012
I am seriously considering going through the Aviation path of a Marine Officer, but I have a few questions before I decide:
- How long will your contract be when being in an Aviation Position?
- Do you have to have a Pilots License or anything specific before joining?
- What tests do you have to take to get into an Aviation position?
- I’m female, will that set any limits on me?
Thank you in advance, by the way this website has been really helpful and I’ve learned a lot from it!
A:
- Eight years active duty from pinning the wings (probably 11 years total), 4 years reserve. Flight school takes a few years to get through.
- No training in flight whatsoever is required but it does help.
- Aviation Selection Test Battery, which currently has sections on math, reading, mechanical knowledge, spatial awareness, and naval aviation “jargon”
- Yes. Check on size, weight, height restrictions especially. Very few women are the right size/shape/whatever for minimum safety requirements of ejection seats in jets, so it’s much more likely you’d pilot an Osprey, helicopter, or C-130 eventually.
Lastly, I highly recommend you talk to as many USMC pilots as you can! Do NOT go into the 3 year flight school pipeline naively or ill-informed.