I'm going to assume that the pilots have been training in the Sensoriums, tinkering with upgrades to their ships, and generally lounging around. There's not much for them to do if the Ohm aren't attacking RIGHT THIS INSTANT, but most of their pilot time has been taken up by squadron and cross-squadron training.

As far as promotions go, I'm pretty sure that for each squadron we wanted a commander and two lieutenants if possible, but IC promotions are being handled by Milo so you might want to ask him about that.