Originally Posted by Winged Wombat
Very Sneaky,
That should clear it up for these guys. You almost sound as if you work at RMC or the PSA?????
Do the guys who go to RMC first and want to be pilots get to go to flight screening? Also, is the sign on period the same for GSO and the other pilot type?
Haha nah I don't work there WW! I just had a couple of in depth conversations with the Army rep Maj. Heffernan while I was at PSF. He was very helpful at clearing these kind of questions up.
As far as I'm aware you can't be streamed to the pilot role without attending flight screening, so I would assume that this would take place at some point during RMC. As preo mentioned earlier, there may be an opportunity to do so within the first 12 months. If selected for the aviation stream, all GSO candidates go through BFTS at the conclusion of RMC.
In terms of sign on period, the sign on period for GSO is 13 years where it is only 9 years for SSO. I would assume that this difference would have something to do with the length of training. GSOs spend 18 months at RMC, where SSOs only spend 32 days, but this may also be due to the fact that GSOs are considered 'career' officers, where SSOs are essentially just there to fill a position, at least this is the way it was explained to me. This is however reflected by the limitations placed on progression of the SSO pilot to a maximum of Major or, under special circumstances, Lieutenant Colonel.