Leaderboard

If you are set on a particular airframe, find a guard or reserve unit that flys that plane and start talking to them.

We paid Rand a bunch of money for this line Given current airline and Air Force pay, pilots make more money over a career if they separate from the military at the first available opportunity (near the eleventh year of service), get hired by a major airline, and fly for the ARC. The difference in lifetime earnings is literally in the millions for those who get out early vs staying in. Big Blue has to compete on QoL because they will never make up the difference from a financial aspect. Even if they adjusted flight pay and the bonus for inflation, it couldn't overcome the opportunity cost of an earlier seniority number.

My question is how can you do 75 push-ups and run a 6:40 mile and now can only do 1 pull-up? Back in the day with the old 5-event test (which was much harder). in ROTC/AFA, guys had to do at least 4 pull-ups to pass. Perhaps you're 6'5" and weigh 270lbs, but even then I would expect someone with the rest of those stats to do more pull-ups. Just struck me as odd. Either way, guys on here are giving you some good advice. As for what type of aircraft you want, sure it's fun to have far reaching goals--but at this point you should focus on goals that are more attainable at this point in life. Right now if you want to be an officer and potentially a pilot, focus your goals on getting into a commissioning source and figuring out how to do well in school and be a good cadet. I'm getting to be one of the older guys now, but I can still vividly recall how people were at my AFROTC freshman orientation day, most of who were talking about wanting to fly fighters--well a 1/3 of those people didn't go to field training, only half of those even eligible got pilot slots, a handful of those guys quit/washed out of UPT, so in the end maybe 2 or 3 of that original class of 50-60 became fighter pilots. Just some perspective for you if your only goal is to fly fighters...odds are (especially now) you won't. I know you're young and have aspirations (which is good) but the first to thing to start trying to learn is what it means to be in the military and more importantly an officer. Good luck and make sure to learn how to be a good follower/teammate along the way.

Ha! I got an in-res MBA (nights and weekends) from U of AZ (3.8something GPA). Every job interview included a question along the lines of "ok, you have an MBA, but what do you bring to the table?" Needless to say, I'm doing the airline thing now. My MBA was a colossal waste of my GI Bill... haven't earned a penny with that $50k piece of paper and the education has atrophied. "Who you know" gets you the job. Network, network, network. It definitely helped in getting hired at my airline. If you need an MBA, your employer will tell you that you need one and will likely pay some or all of your tuition (like the 30 or so Raytheon "up and comers" in my cohort). Don't waste your money on an MBA hoping it will help you get a great job. "Military officer" is the resume bullet that will get you the job. Networking and experience are everything.

Two things. 1) The Air Force wants more people deployed, that is the only way they can tap into that gloriously endless pile of OCO money. That's why you are going on that bullshit 365 doing something you could have done at home on staff somewhere. Fvck you and your QOL. We need the money and you are expendable, replaceable and still have a commitment. 2) Show me someone who joined the military to be rich and I will show you someone who is really $hitty at math. Not saying that it isn't a well paid job, but most of us type A, go-getters can make money on the outside. Higher QOL=better retention, easier recruiting and $$$$ savings on personnel acquisition costs. At this point either our O-6 and above senior "leadership" is either inept or incompetent. I put my money on the latter.

I'd rather have them match the lack of outside-of-flying qweep and get paid the same.

Shack. It's not about money for a lot of people, it's about the horrendous level of bullshit/terrible family QoL that makes guys run. I know too many dudes who "would never fly for the airlines," and we're not driven there by the money, but ultimately by how the Air Force had mismanaged the shit out of their "work life," which directly impacted their "family life" in a negative way. It shouldn't be hard to kill bullshit deployments (especially 365s), it shouldn't be hard to knock off the queep/taskers that have zero utility to anyone, and it shouldn't be difficult to see that taking care of people on a personal level is extremely important. Keep people happy and they won't leave...it's simple.

How much taxpayer money did we pay RAND to do this, when any staffer- where the real hard work of Air Power happens!- could spend a day or two skimming a decade's worth of posts on this board and AirlinePilotCentral and come to the same conclusion? Laughable. The COAs are a stretch at best. Even RAND admits that. Proficiency advancing prior-121 pilots through UPT? Insert story of former regional guy who failed out of T-6s here. Not to mention, you're going to give them preferential treatment on OTS boards and force ARC units to do the same? Good luck! Forcing ARC units to do LFEs/deployments during winter months when airlines are less busy, and stop having UTAs on the first weekend of the month? LOL. Fix QoL/work rules and you won't have the mass exodus of talent. You wouldn't even have to pay pilots (much) more- just provide QoL/work rules close to on par with a combination of the civil sector and the ARC. Doing so would require some real leadership and some painful acknowledgements on the AF's part that they've ed up. Instead, our management comes up with 13 year ADSCs. That'll fix it!

PM sent.

I am admittedly a little late to the game here. I recently got back from an overseas assignment, extension will not apply to me, and have been searching for a quality place to get my ATP before the deadline. The only opening I could find is ATP Flight School in Richmond, I believe they are also known as allatp. Not only do they have openings but they have a lot of openings. My question is has anyone on here worked with them. A review of the Richmond facility would be ideal, but I would take advice from anyone who has attended any of the other ones. The fact that they have a lot of openings makes me think that maybe people are steering away from them.

Dude, this is ridiculous. You have to learn to google. IRAs/Roth IRAs can be in mutual funds but don't have to be. It's simply a type of account. TSP has a variety of mutual fund-ish options. Read their website. Other companies (Vanguard/TRowe/USAA/Fidelity/etc) offer a variety of funds depending on what you are looking for. Stock funds, bond funds, large cap, small cap, international, lifecycle funds...Go to the libarary or bookstore and get a "investing for dummies" book or something basic along those lines to learn more. Read about asset allocation, fees, dollar cost averaging, risk/reward. Here is your final--and most important--lesson in personal finance for today...never take financial advice from a pilot or from someone on the internet. In this case, you are trying for both.