SocialD

At all 3 of my airlines (1 regional) the only way they could work you on an off day via "junior manning" is if you actually answered your phone. At Delta our JM is called inverse assignment and can be quite a good deal. Same at DAL. It's pretty high though and there are ways around it. Some guys want to get rid of the loopholes but there are so many whores out there I don't see it changing. On the flip side, one of the nice things available to us is the ability to drop your entire schedule. I drop my schedule every month I bid a line because I'm not senior enough to get the trips I want during the initial bid. Then I just pick up trips I like as the month goes along. It's a gamble but I've had 100% success on getting plenty of hours for the month. Doing this generally allows me to fly the same number of days but make quite a bit more. Realize this strategy is subject to good staffing levels which isn't always the case on NB aircraft...almost never a problem on the WB. Way to many variables, and can change wildly based on your fleet within an airline. For example, I was recently able to work 9 days for 74 hours of pay. This is nearly impossible to do on any of our narrow body fleets. I left one legacy for another based strictly on my ability to sit short call at my house (ie...not commute). This is worth so much more than any amount of money. Apply everywhere, take the first offer, then decide. Shack. We've recently had 3 relatively junior guys split to the regionals so they can get their Total time up ASAP. All of them were mid-level Captains or junior majors....we just don't get many hours in the fighters. I just had another friend call me yesterday and ask how to go about starting the process of applying to the airlines (likely a regional due to their low hours). DAL for me because I've already flown regional flying and the 737...putting them together for the rest of my career sounds terrible. Having options in types of flying is key for me...now that I'm flying on a WB, I can't imagine not having this option. It's like an entirely different job.

This. It doesn't hurt you to go this route if you think you'll be anywhere near the limit. Just be cognizant of the pro-rata rule if you already have money in a traditional IRA.

Oh man lol, you reminded me. If nothing else watch from 1+15 to 1+30.

Oh man they actually have guys going through with that? They talked about that here (ANG) a few years back and we all agreed that it's really not enforcable and why would we do that to our own guy's. If seasoning days aren't enough then they should be pushing for more orders...not putting a band-aid on it by giving their bros a paycut.

LOL, perfect...I guess I've personally stopped 6-9 months worth of kickbacks for my base. Well not me, finance and their inability to unfuck themselves and actually pay out my vouchers. Made even more funny by the fact that they had to amend my vouchers to pay for the late fees.

Ya I know, I just meant it seems like he personally gets them based on how he acts. Honestly, I couldn't care less if they get their kickbacks or not...and it's fucked up that this is the real reason for all the threats wrt using your GTC and paying on time.

Nice, I wish we had your FM. I think our FM gets direct kickbacks from citibank based on how militant he is in threatening us about not using your GTC. We had a few guys get to the hotel and their citibank card wouldn't run so they used their personal cards. Since we were out there for 90 days, our stuff was being uploaded every week. Within hours of those guys having their receipts uploaded, he sent a manifesto (maybe a little hyperbole) to our deployed SQ/CC accusing his pilots of fraud and threatening them with UCMJ action (not hyperbole)....didn't even bother ask questions. Of course, this is the same guy who once told me that over 15 other Guard FMs were wrong and he was right in NOT paying us DLA when we PCS'd back to our Guard base.

We, as in my unit (ANG), hired copilots as 12's, but I "heard" that at one point the AFRC was using the GS-11 rate to hire newbies and it was being thrown around the ANG for a bit. Ah gotya. Ya we (ANG) used to hire wingman and Flight leads into GS-12s. Everyone is GS-13 for now...but I can see your assessment happening. I honestly can't imagine asking them to go into a GS-11, that's crazy.

Been in the Guard 18 years with 10 years in the squadron as a pilot. I would say it varies widly by squadron and even from year to year. 9 years ago, I would say our "camraderie" was rather low...today, MUCH higher. The big detractor is that most guys are from the local area (various burbs...with family/friends close) so we're kinda spread out all over the city, the kids are in different school systems and most of the wives have jobs. With that, everyone has their own thing going on and busy lives. Another factor is our average age is higher so most guys have older kids that have them going non-stop...not to mention many of us have other jobs. I don't think we could ever hold a candle to an overseas fighter squadron who mostly live on base and/or in the same neighborhood. That said, I've flown with the same bros for 10 years and they're truly like brothers to me. I wouldn't trade it for anything. Another unique thing about the guard is that many of us are prior-E and many people stay on the base for 30+. Our tightness is expanded grately outside the squadron. Example...when I was a SrA, I had an awesome E-9 who always took great care of us. Fast forward 13 years and I'm the projo for a a two week TDY. That same E-9 is my NCOIC for the trip...what a humbling experience to have that guy call me sir and be my right hand man for the trip. When I walk out to my jet, a buddy from my crew chiefin days is launching me out. When I walk over to the expediter truck, it's my buddy Bill and not just MSgt Snuffy. When we go TDY we ALL party together. We know our crew chiefs, weapons loaders and avionics guys by first name and we know their families. When we want to buy a car we talk to one of our part time AFE guys who manages a local dealership. When I need HVAC stuff done I know a guy in a Mx backshop who has a side business. If we want property management, we have a part time E-9. We even had an enlisted dude recently kill it on Shark Tank and is doing very well for himself. On the flip side, we can be like a small high school...everyone know everything! We're a giant family...sometimes a dysfunctional one, but a family nonetheless.

Wait, you guys hired pilots as GS-11s? I thought going from full time orders to GS-12 was bad enough (which is why I chose a regional over GS-12). Yikes!

This brings up a good topic of when we'll get our schedules for the next month, since we all like to plan our lives. Again this wouldn't be an item that sways my decision on where to go, but good info to know going in. What is FDXs timeline for bidding/results? At DAL our bids close at 1800E on the 11th and must be published by 1800E on the 17th. Generally they're published by the 13th or 14th (FO bid posted ~24 hours after Captains). This month is an outlier in that the Captain schedules weren't published until the 15th and we're still waiting on FOs (16th), and dudes are absolutely losing their minds. Info I got from my UAL/AAL brethren. UAL - Capts are publish NLT 0001 on the 16th and FOs NLT 0001 on the 18th. AAL - Bids close at 1200 on the 13th...schedules published NLT 1200 on the 16th.

Where the "hate" comes from is the fact that most places that have switched to PBS have also given up conflict bidding. Line/conflict bidding is HIGHLY inefficient, which is a good thing for pilots. Some guys also don't like the uncertainty of PBS, whereas with line bidding, even if you don't know which line you'll get, you likely have a good idea of what the line will look like. If I were at a place with line bidding, I wouldn't want to transition to PBS unless conflict bidding stayed. I most definitely wouldn't pick my job based on line vs PBS bidding....and again, what Weed said.

Sounds like the ANG bonus will be released today (or this week). Shortened the big bonus timeline to 2 years but also now required to be on permanent AGR (ie...no temp AGR or ADOS) to get the big bonus, which will likely hamstring many squadrons. I also think they dumped the only 1 big bonus per career bs as well. Until they up the big bonus, allow it for 1 year orders (any order) and allow guys still under their UPT ADSC to get the bonus, it's still a meh for me.

Mostly what Weed said. Line bidding has a packet of pre-built monthly schedules. Then you just rank order the lines and they award them down the list. PBS - you put in your preferences and and the system builds you a line. What weed said about it avoiding conflicts is true, but it is a contractual thing. You most certainly CAN have conflict bidding with PBS but most do not right now based on current contracts. An example my monthly bid looks something like this.... Set condition to min credit Prefer off Saturdays Prefer off 17Jan, 18Jan, 19Jan Avoid if layover in GRU, LOS Avoid if layover >48 hours Avoid if trip length > 6 days Award if HNL limit 1 Award if 4-day if DH day if layover in AMS Award if 3-day if layover in AMS Award if layover in FCO PBS will then start at the top and try to honor every possible line from top to bottom. Even at 90% in my category I can generally build a line within the parameters I ask for...for example in December I was able to build a line that gave me from 20Dec to 31Dec off and gave me the layovers I wanted. Some months are better than others.

On three separate occasions I have gone 4 months overdue and one time it was so far overdue that they shut down my card. Not once I have I seen at hit on my credit score. One of these times I even had a finance SSgt over the should my entire voucher process and somehow it still got fucked up. I put everything that's reimbursable on the card and nothing that isn't...if it's on the card, it's the governments responsibility (as long as I do my due diligence and submit the voucher on time). Our FM tried to dick swing on this issue and used the threat of a credit hit to try to coerce me into paying the bill. Dude, I paid cash for my last house and car, and have a credit score of 800+...I'll be just fine, do you damn job and pay my card. How fucking hard is this! On another note, it's been over a year and they still haven't unfucked our (part-timer) flight pay. It's pretty humorous to log into mypay and have 7 pay stubs per month, with half of them being $3.33 to catch up my flight pay. I honestly don't even care anymore because it's peanuts, it's more of an ongoing metaphor for how fucked up things have become. In other news, I just checked...Delta got my greenslip paid correctly.

You'll get there some day junior.

This! Another issue that may slowly creep up is the issue of the 5-year USERRA limit. Case and point...we have guys that are at or near the 5 year limit. Now anything orders they wish to do has to be in involuntary status (or less than 30 days), which thanks to the 12301d vs 12304b bullshit, might be less than ideal. Oh well, bring back the part time SQ/CC and OG, that's how it should be anyway!

Not sure why Bird Box is going so viral...I thought it was a pretty shitty movie.

Right...I draw the line at taking out a mistresses. WTF did she ever do but provide happiness and pleasure?!?! To you second point, ease up brah...he was just trying to do us all a solid an prep us for our future careers.

Your numbers are pretty close. Brabus is right about the flight pay, I think the old 650 went to 700 and the old 840 went to 1,000 (could be wrong). If you want to really fine tune your numbers, orders less than 30 days get you BAH type II (might be 30 days or less). At a minimum, as a part time Guard guy I get 111 pay periods a year. 48 UTA, 48 AFTPs and 15 AT days. If you become a technician then you only get 36 AFTPs. How you use your days is something of an art and may vary depending on your squadron. In my squadron we pretty much manage them all ourselves as our leadership let's us use our days how we see fit (within the law). I rarely, if ever, go into work without logging 2 pay cards. If I'm going to the base, I'm going to make a day of it and log 2. There once was rumblings of using 1/day and the part time mafia just LOL'd. AFTPs. 16/qtr max up to 48/yr. Since they're restricted quarterly I always use these up first, even if it's UTA weekend. I generally use the max in each quarter then start using UTAs to fill in the short fall. This usually leaves the 4th quarter of no AFTPs and all UTAs. Obviously that gets balanced out on years where I have a deployment. UTAs can be used anytime in the year, except while on orders. There used to be a WOM that if you were on orders for a month, you lost that months UTAs unless you had already used them. This led guys to using up that months UTAs before the orders started. I don't believe it's actually true, but I still try to use them before any known orders because who knows. AFTPs can be used on TDYs in lieu of orders (with some restrictions), however UTAs generally can't unless there is TAG to TAG approval (never have seen that in 17+ years in the ANG). AT can be used pretty much whenever throughtout the year. I usually use them for one of the many TDYs we may do in a year. That said if it's early in the year and someone else is willing to cough up ST (special training) days, I'll use those if able. That way I'll still have my hip pocket AT days available. Many years you'll see that close to the end of the FY a bunch of AT days show up. There are a few nuances with using more than 15 AT in a year, but nothing big. As an airline guy in a guard fighter squadron, I find it hard to actually use up all the pay periods available due to TDYs, deployments, the airline and actually having a life. Each month I normally work 8 pay periods in 4 days...some months more but no more than 5 days/month unless TDY. If I do get to use all 111 of them, as a major (17 years), I expect about 30K gross (min). That said, due to deployments, TDYs, etc...I've rarely dropped below 50K/yr. 2018 was a 3 month deployment plus a single 2 week TDY and I think I grossed 65k. Best of luck, I've been in the ANG for almost 18 years and I'm still learning about all the pay statuses we have available. With the exception of technician, I've been in pretty much every pay cateogry we have....AT/ST/UTA/AFTP/ADOS/AGR/ADSW. I've deployed overseas with another squadron and have sat alert with other squadrons. Even went TDY with my squadron while on alert orders with another squadron...talk about blowing finances mind!

Lol I can see how that firing went... Dugan: why am I being fired? Brass: You admitted that we fully intend to break a bunch of laws/executive orders. Dugan: well that's exactly what we're doing. Brass:. Well...ya...but that's beside the point. Dugan : ........... Ethics rep: Hey guys, whatcha talking about?

What OSU said, plus here is some info my 26 year TMO buddy passed along. Hunt around on move.mil for any additional information. Attachment K3 is apparently a one stop shop for shipping a car. AFI 24-602 Vol 4 if you really want to nerd out. https://move.mil/sites/default/files/2018-12/dtr_part_iv_app_k_3_0.pdf Enjoy Hawaii!

LOL, so true. I remember and old C-130 guy talking about when he bailed from the ARC after Desert Storm. His view was they the ARC was meant as a "break glass in case of the bear coming over the poles," type scenario. He thought that his squadron getting called up for a "bullshit skirmish in the desert," was crap and figured the paradigm was about to take a major shift...he was right. Well they've figured out dual status Title 10/Title 32 so anything is possible. Yup, we tend to live in our own little world in OPS in the ANG. We're constantly sending various folks out on 179/365s in both our RCP and other RCPs when units can't cough up guys. For the most part we're still filling them with volunteers but that will only last so long. Now that title-5 is ramping up, the pool to pick from is getting smaller and I expect that volunteers will dry up. Welllll....take a look at what was going on with Bama around that time, and who was the leading of the ANG at the time. I think there was more to the story than just a 6 month mob. Also, those guys had the option, although likely not a good option. Talking with a Bama bro, they lost a few guys prior to and after that trip.

This right here! We've already hit the last few guys who had any hope of getting close to an AGR retirement, and some of them aren't even chasing it. We have some who are still under their ADSC who'd likely come back if the could get the bonus. But alas, we can't think outside the container and give bonuses to guys under their ADSC... If there was even a hint of possible 365, leadership wouldn't even have to show guys the door. All they would see is the doors swinging closed as a shit ton of their experience walked right out. Yup! On one of our TSPs we had a pilots only sit down with Welsh...we asked about why we were doing these non-contingency (read: proper fucking). His response, your TAGs asked for it... I have a strong feeling that the INVOLs Eli and Buddy Spike are referencing are the same.

Funny enough, I was just about to edit my post and mention the C-130 Afghan stuff, but I had only seen it happen in the Reserves. Me thinks if you drill down a bit, you may find this more of an offering by your local, senior leadership than a mandated requirement sent down from above. Kinda like when Montgomery was "forced" into a 6 month deployment to Afghanistan... If this happened here, I'll bet that 20-30% would be a fairly low number. We already have a fair number of guys barely hanging on after the last few "deployments" we've had to go fly CT missions half way around the globe. Interesting, I'll have to ping a bro up at NGB...I would be interested to see the numbers, communities and how many were actually volunteers. I'm guessing if it had happened in my community we'd know about it asap as bad news spreads like a wildfire.