I received quite a few emails asking for information about what it takes to be a fighter pilot, what is the daily routine, are such and such rumour true, etc, etc. This post is my attempt to answer as many questions as possible about the way to being a fighter pilot and what a fighter pilot does. Do not hesitate to ask further questions.
First, let me tell you where I come from. I joined the military at 16, under the ROTP program. Went through RMC and graduated with a Bachelor of Engineering (Mechanical Engineering). I did my Primary Flight Training in between years at RMC. After RMC, I waited for 7 months for pilot training. I did Basic Flying Training, Advanced Flight Training, Fighter Lead-In and Operation Training thereafter. I have been posted to a fighter squadron ever since.
What does it take to be a fighter pilot? You need to be a fast learner. All along your flight training, you will be evaluated on your daily performance. Based on that, you will be ranked amongst your peers. Your ranking has a big influence on whether or not you get what you want and even if you can go jets. There are a lot of good candidates and, depending on who is on your courses, it can be challenging to finish in the top of your course.
Being a good stick is not all that is required. You need self motivation. You need to be able to motivate yourself to learn and perform, even in the hardest of times, when you are down the drain (and it will happen).
You need a fighter attitude. You need to be aggressive, but able to contain and focus that aggressiveness. Most people that know me would probably not tell you I am an aggressive person. I just contain and focus that aggressiveness to accomplish the objectives of the mission.
You need to be able to analyze things quickly and make a decision quickly. Time, unfortunately, is not always a commodity we have and decisions have to happen. And you need to be right... Most of the time. This quality is assessed during all of your pre-wing flight training.
Those are, in my mind, what a fighter pilot needs to be successful in his job.
Now, what do we do as a fighter pilot? There are multitudes of things. There are a few big misconceptions about the fighter world. One of them is that we don't do anything operational. Not quite true. Even without the recent events, we conduct operations on a daily basis. Defending Canada, through NORAD is our biggest mission. We always have pilots and aircraft on alert waiting for the call. And it does happen, fairly often. Also, when shit hits the fan, we deploy overseas. Granted, it didn't happen very often, but when it happens, you are at the tip of the spear.
A lot of people ask me about my routine. Well, there is no routine. We sometimes fly day, night, we go places for exercises often. But let's try to break it down. As I said in the previous paragraph, we have pilots on alert at any given time. This means that on average 2 times a week, you have to be that guy that sits by the jet, waiting for the horn to go off. The good thing about it is that you normally get to fly during those days. At the squadron, you have a secondary duty. This will take up most of your time when you are not flying. When you fly, depending on the type of mission, it will take up most of your day for a 1h30 of flight time: Mission Planning 3h45 before take off, briefing 1h45 before take off, walk to the airplane 45 minutes before take off, fly the mission, land, review the mission and debrief the mission. This can easily get to an 8 hour day right there. On days that you are not flying you may have to work on the Operation's Desk, where you monitor the missions, you may have to do some ground training, give/get briefings on our systems/other nation's systems, etc. On top of that, you will normally study for your next "upgrade"*. A normal day will be 10 hours for me and I have already been at the squadron for 20 hours.
You will be gone from home a lot. In the last 7 months, I have been at home for 19 days. On average, you can expect to participate in 3-4 3-4 week exercises per year, plus the odd small 1-2 week deployment. Roughly 3-4 months away from home a year.
As far as flying hours go, you can expect 200-250 hours a year.
*On the topic of upgrades. When you finish your fighter pilot course, you are not yet qualified to go to combat. You need to do a Combat Readiness Upgrade at the squadron. More senior pilot will lead you on different type of training missions and you need to achieve a certain standard. At the end, you have to do you Tactical Evaluation where a Tactical Standards Officer will monitor the mission and grant you a Combat Ready Wingman qualification or recommend remedial training. There is also a written exam portion. Once you acquired enough experience as a wingman, that people see you as ready to be flight lead and the resources are available, you will be put on the Element Lead Upgrade. You then learn to become a lead, and an instructor. Same idea as the Combat Readiness Upgrade. After that, you get your Section Lead Upgrade and finally, your Mass Attack Lead Upgrade. Note that not everybody makes it up all the upgrades. Pretty much everybody makes it to Element Lead, a fair amount make it to Section Lead and a few make it to Mass Attack Lead.
I hope it answers a few of the questions you had in mind, if not, post it here and I'll do my best to give you an answer.
Cheers
) a guy in his mid-thirties who drives Caravans or flying culverts for a living -should someone that old even bother trying, regardless of how good their eyesight/reflexes/etc still is ? 
