Army piloting options
Hi Wiz,
The major difference is that the GSO entry stream involves a more Army career type foundation prior to moving onto being a chopper pilot. The SSO scheme will get you into the cockpit quicker but if you are going to make a full life time career out of the Army you may be better off doing the extra year of officer training which includes people management and other career type skills. SSO's do about a year of pilot training but only one month of officer training. This is basically to make sure they know how to dress themselves, don't open beer bottle tops with their teeth or crank up a farting contest at the the officers mess or other unbecoming behaviour. After the awarding of wings, SSO's are required to pay back 5 years of service before they can leave to do other things. Total time in uniform is about 7 years from sign on to leaving. The Aussie recruitment website defencejobs.gov.au has the differences outlined but check it out and try to talk to some operational pilots before making a choice. Although it is a great job, I understand that some guys and girls are only flying a couple hundred hours a year and if you don't have other duties you may find yourself a wee bit bored. This (theoritically) also means that you may only leave with around one thousand or so hours of total flying time which really isn't a lot for 7 years of service. Albeit great machines and experience.
Best you look at the website for the other job conditions and pay etc etc. All the best.