6/28    I want to join the USAF. I am only 26 years old. However, to
                \_ There's your real problem right there.
        be eligible to be a pilot, I need to finish the cadet training
        before I am 27.5. Why 27.5? Isn't it usually better to be older
        (and more experienced) than some inexperienced young guy?
        \_ You also have to have 20/20 vision in both eyes (which I guess
                you probably don't, by virtue of the fact that you
           \_ I'm 29.  Does it happen like magic when I hit 30?
              \_ Yes. Ask your girl/boyfriend.
                use the CSUA).  A friend of mine is on a USAF military
                scholarship in medical school, and when she got
                her eyes checked, one eye was 25/20, and the other
                \_ You'll be laughed out of court since there's a valid
                   medical reason.
                   \_ Medical reason being I'm not in my sexual prime anymore.
                was 20/20, and she wasn't eligible, not that it
                mattered, since she's going to be a doc and not a pilot
                anyway.  --pcjr
        \-it might be economics ... they feel it isnt worth investing the
        big$ in someone who will be a pilot for less than N years...and the
        age you start is a predictor of how long you will be a AF pilot. --psb
                \_ Considering all flying is done by computer, why do
                   you even have to have eyes to fly anymore?
                   \_ Actually, very little of the avionics is controlled
                      by computers at all.  Many are fly by wire which means
                      that humans still have complete control.  On planes
                      that look completely outragous (like man of the stealth
                      planes in the US arsenal) the planes would simply fall
                      out of the sky if there weren't any computer assistance.
                \_ According to http://careers.airforce.com, it must be no worse
        \_ because when you hit 30, you become slow and stupid and you are
           not as physically buff as before
                   than 20/50 correctable to 20/20 with eyeglasses.
                \_ the navy required 20/20 to enter flight training around '90
                   but would allow some correctives for operational pilots.
        \_ How does it help to be "more experienced" in anything other than
           flying a plane? sheesh... this isn't a programming position...
        \_ so sue the USAF for age discrimination.  Good luck on the suit.
        \_ The govt. doesn't want to waste money training pilots who will
           be too old to fly in a couple of years.
                \_ Wait, isn't this age discrimination?