SocialD

Generally speaking, if there is time, crews get together for dinner and beer at night. On long layovers (30+ hours) I've rented cars and and went sightseeing (Glacier National Park, among others) with the Captain. I was trying to get a 48 hour Paris, to try to get up to Normandy, then that bitch rona showed up and ruined everything. On one trip the Captain reached out to me before the trip started and we set up an whole day on a long Boise layover. We rented a car and went up into the mountains, rented 4-wheelers and had a blast. Ended the day at an awesome brew pub near the hotel. Then there are the slam-clickers...boooo!!!! Back to the general camaraderie part....one of my now good friends was someone from my indoc class. We ran into each other a few years ago and figured out we live like 3 miles from each other. Just had lunch with him today. He flies in the Reserves so we have that other common ground as well. Domestically, I try to keep to 3 day trips max. I'll cook some food to make 2 meals on the road, then I pack fruit, nuts and cliff bars to get through the day. I also take a Black Rifle company pour over kit, grind up some coffee before I leave the house and I make my own coffee each the morning before pickup. Plenty of options out there for flight kit bags that double as a cooler. Internationally, I'd take a meal for the leg over and have the FAs warm it for me. If carry whatever dried food International rules allow. On the return leg, I'd usually either bring leftovers from the layover or hit up a grocery store and buy some stuff for a meal. You can eat relatively healthy on the road it just takes some discipline and a little extra work.

One of the greatest things about the ANG is being in the same place for all 20 years. That said, there are plenty of opportunities to go around, especially in the coming years as the airline hiring ramps up. Our OG receives opportunities all the time for random assignments. There are even more to be found if you seek them out. Not long ago, they were seeking volunteers to go to EUCOM for a 3-year AD assignment just to fill a pilot position (ie...not a staff job/embassy job/etc...). There are other opportunities for 30 day, 90 day, 180 day and 365 day assignments here and there. I was looking at a 180 days to Hickam...then I got my airline job so it didn't pan out. Another thing that is a great option is the State Partnership Program. Basically every state has a partner country or two and we have officers who fills a full time billet in each country as a part of that program. A UPT buddy did this gig in Estonia and absolutely loved it. Our two partner countries would be amazing assignments. I considered applying for it, but again the airlines called. It's mostly a sleepy little assignment with LOTS of opportunity to travel...you just have to wear your blues occasionally. 🤮

What Brabus said above. I'll add to it that I'm guessing nearly every airline has "base housing," or a town/burb where lots of pilots live. I'm sure they have it at multiple bases as well, but an example would be Peachtree City in ATL. Lots of guys say they'd never live in a place like that, while others absolutely love it. If you're not committed to any one location yet, I'd consider not buying (especially in todays ridiculous market) until you get hired at your desired airline. If you start planting roots in one location that isn't a hub, you may just be commuting yourself to a life time of commuting. Just about every major base has great locations and you'll make friends pretty much anywhere...and if you live in base, you'll actually have time to hang out with said newfound friends. lol.

Crazy. Well we'll soon have a guy headed to ROPMA for O-5. He's a one-each great dude, been a part timer most of his career, is a FLT/CC, 4-Ship FL (non-IP), never the head of a shop and he didn't do SOS or ACSC. He however is a very active participate that goes on every squadron TDY/deployment and he can grow a righteous mustache. I guess he'll be our latest trial case to see what happens. I heard of some wild shit happened in the tanker wing in our state, under a different TAG. Dude was Federally recognized as a Lt Col, but not State recognized (I don't know the proper verbiage) because TAG didn't like that he hadn't done SOS or ACSC. SOOOOO, he got paid as a O-5, but had to wear O-4 rank while doing state duties. I could be screwing that up, but I think that's the story. That's what I call two birds, one stone!

Are you in the Reserves or ANG...or is it just that different in the heavy world? Aside from one guy going for O-6, I've seriously never heard of anyone being passed over in the ANG, ever. I've never even heard of people worrying about a DP vs P, or if they'll be passed over or how their OPR looks, even for their O-5 board. You're in the Guard, your job is not necessarily to go out and get every qual known to man, not to have a bunch of additional duties and not to seek out OPR fodder. Your job is to maintain your currencies and be ready to go as needed. That said, I agree with your assessment on going to a ROPMA board...if you have all that fluff, there should be no way you're not promoted at the ROPMA board. You get 4 or 5 years to finish it. I did ACSC over 2 deployments and while on UTAs/AFTPs/other orders while I was a 3-5 year WB FO...sometimes I'd work on it on a rainy overnight in AMS. I did the program you mention (not the old one), where it has like 4 proctored applied sections and 8 unproctored sections. We did have a guy in the squadron (3rd UPS dude) who knocked it out in 6 months...dude was somehow signed up for 2 different proctored course at the same time. I'm definitely not advocating that everyone should do it, but it sure can be done with relative ease while being paid. I most definitely wouldn't be doing it while NOT in some form of pay status.

Good words, especially if you're in a unit, that for some reason doesn't seem to PV people. It's a sad day in the Guard when you have leaders who don't PV guys even if there are spots and when you have to worry about "showing your airline cards." A question I was asked, and we still ask during UPT interviews is, "we are a part time force and full time jobs aren't always available, what are your plans for full time employment?" The mission of the full timers is to ensure we have a good part time force...part time should be welcomed, not shunned.

Unless you already have your 20, rush a Guard unit, you'll still get that but not all the rest of the full time ass pain. Otherwise bail, every single Captain I've flown with who had recently gotten out, didn't regret it one bit. Most say they missed it for like 2 weeks, then they realized there was a whole other life they now get to live. I absolutely can't wait...have my 20, just another year for my 3 years in grade. Is going overseas, spending more time away from home really worth it to you? I've flown with a few guys who did that stuff and there is NFW I'd be doing that shit. However minuscule, it's honestly just not worth the risk IMHO. You'll make yourself a much better candidate by doing some regional/ACMI flying. I'd apply at the ACMI carriers, Spirit or a regional where you can live in base. In my both of my legacy airline indoc classes, there were former mil guys who had been at a regional...most of them barely finished OE when they received the call. Basically, as soon as they finished their checkride, they updated their resume/checked the 121 box and were immediately called for interviews. I'm convinced that going to a regional is the only reason I got hired so early in 2014. At the time, only shop chiefs/DOs/CC/s, who had 1700+ Viper hours (IP/EP quals) were getting called. Then here I was, a scheduler with 850 in the Viper (1700 TT) and only a 4-ship FL, getting hired by two legacies. A good friend in the squadron was hired circa 2016 at UPS and FDX (and interviewed at another legacy), with basically the same quals as me (lower time Viper driver/NON-IP). We're both convinced the only reason we were called was because we had both gone to a regional. I actually only had a little 100 hours of 121 time...I think checking the box was enough. I wouldn't hesitate to go to Kalitta if they offered an interview.

Time to send them back to the Guard so our MX guys can unfuck them again, then the AD can take them back.

Did anyone really believe he would get a fair trial or impartial jury? Dude was good as guilty before the opening statements started. He'd have been better off fleeing the country. To your second comment, I've already witnessed this happen locally. Quite a few of our part timers are LEOs and many of them are seeking full time employment on base right now. One of them in OPS just took a stripe off to get a position. They all say the same thing, it's getting worse wrt the aggressive interactions and you're just one edited video away from being fired or put in prison. Even before all of this, the stories these guys would tell you were ridiculously eye-opening. They deal with a segment of society that many don't belive exists.

Had it for a hot minute, but dropped it because of our LTD at DAL. 50% of my current earnings is plenty for me for now. Right! In reference to the bonus, you even had a few who smugly proclaimed on a few FB groups that "airlines won't be hiring for years." Meanwhile, guys who were recently on a "no-fly" status just got awarded Captain and guys with 5 years on property were awarded 75/76 Captain. I'd expect for us (DAL) to announce hiring soon as well. What a whacky time in this business. Bottom line, big miscalculation by the AF and .gov.

Damn Jazz, you did better than I would have. I'd have called the OG/CC or WG/CC on their personal cell phone and had the SrA explain his fuckup to them. I wouldn't have wanted an apology from him, as after that phone call it would have been a one way conversation about knowing your job before acting like and idiot (in the face of your partner giving you the correct info). If I had missed my sortie, I'd have walked over to the SFS/CC and had a chat as well. To the topic of the recent shooting, sure she fucked up, but dude would be alive if he hadn't resisted. Let's see, warrant for attempted robbery and carrying a weapon without a permit. Pulled over then begins a struggle with the cops for no apparent reason. She may very well have saved another life had he gotten away and led them on a high speed chase, which it appears he'd have done...ya, not feeling bad for him.

Which ever one allows you to live in base. DAL was only about half way through the contract when the ronas started. So far it had some nice little add-ons here and there (pay above guarantee for unused SC, etc...), but they really hadn't gotten to the meat of the contract. I'd guess you'll see more stuff happening later this year or early next. Possibly early if it's something that will help the recovery efforts. Honestly, I'm hoping it will be mostly work rule related (more than pay rates), which will be mostly boring from outsiders looking in.

I love me some zero comms. Exit the traffic pattern and turn the radio off. Radio batteries die during my run up...no problem, do a clearing turn and blast. Best type of flying there is!

He's not wrong.

Ah ok, you had be confused with the "part-time" in there. My brain doesn't think part time for a guy on a year of orders, but it makes sense now. There was a rumor a few years ago about a true part time (not on orders) bonus. Never believed it would happen but you had me thinking I missed the boat on that. Ya the 15k bonus has been floating around and we have at least one guy on that with alert orders or maybe MPA days we get to train our AD wingmen.

Still? I guess I'm confused...are you saying the ANG has a bonus for just being a part timer/DSG? As in, I just do UTAs/AFTPs and I get a bonus? If we've already had this, then I'm gonna be pretty pissed that I missed out on this.

Wait, there's a part timer bonus now?

Ya man, my bad, I totally misjudged where this thread was headed... You said drunk, I apparently heard "when you're high." 🤣 I'll assess myself appropriately. Ok a serious addition. This song is pretty much my story. Man did I dodge a bullet with that chick! https://youtu.be/9cweBs-tdaA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRkP-rplNjs

Well, you're already automatically assumed to be a sexual predator in waiting, what's another name to the list? CMSAF Wokeness: Hmmm, lots of people are not going along with our narrative. Exec: Ya, lots of people are countering our claims, maybe it's us? CMSAF Wokeness: LOL of course not...it's definitely not us. Time to double down!

I've long since adopted the attitude of just not giving a shit about being forced to attend this type of training, which has done wonders for my stress levels. If they want to pay me $750 to spend a day sitting through this crap, and not working on my flying abilities, then so be it. However, they only get me four or five days/month, and they just burned one on some bullshit. Now I'm down to three or four days to get my six sorties. If I make RAP, cool, if not, well I just don't care...because clearly they don't.

Shit happens, it'll buff out.

I was deployed to a tax free zone, but all of the contributions happened before I was even on those orders (poor planning on my part), so that shouldn't be it. On top of that, TSP only contributed $19,500 into my TSP, and they say that's all they ever received from DFAS. That's good to hear, but it didn't in my case. I guess my trend of being a finance lightning rod continues to haunt me. To old for BRS, but nowhere near 50. That refund form is for when you've actually contributed over $19,500 between multiple 402g type plans (TSP/401k/etc). As in, if I had contributed to $15,000 to my Delta 401k then accidentally let $10,000 into my TSP, and I needed to cut it back to be $19,500 between the two. In this situation I never contributed to my Delta 401k and TSP only ever received $19,500. However, my pay cards shows $24,455 in YTD contributions and box 12 (AA....Roth 401k Contributions) of my W2 reflects that as well. Maybe I got the B team when I call both DFAS and TSP, but noone seems to know where that money went. Thanks for all the words gents. Going to reattack on tomorrow.

Thread revival. Alright, any you carbon based life forms ever have DFAS take too much money for your TSP? If so, how did you get that money back? I was not aware that TSP would just continue taking money from me even after I hit the $19,500 limit. So they pulled $24,500 before I realized WTF was going on and turned it off. Of course, why wouldn't DFAS just stop at $19,500 like ever other fucking company with a 401k/TSP plan? So anyway, now someone has $5k of my money and noone seems to know who actually has it. Some douche canoe at DFAS says TSP has the excess and I need to request a return through them. TSP says they only received $19,500 and they have no fucking clue where the excess contributions would be. So now I'm at a crossroads....and of course DFAS only works M-F until 1700EST. Called at 1655, and in true finance fashion, fuckers were already gone. Along with fixing my fucked up flight pay, I'm sure the new finance system will unfuck situations like this...I was told it is scheduled to be rolled out Jan of 2021... Alright back to my scotch and get the fuck off my lawn!

The closer you get to your 20, the easier it gets to just go ahead and say those things.