SocialD

Man we fought that for years. Let me guess, he's using the statement about when you PCS to the PLEAD? When I PCS'd home from Luke our comptroller said the same thing. He actually said to me that every other guard unit that gave their guys DLA (12 units that I counted) was wrong and that he was right.... Many of us fought it up to the point where the next step was the IG. Every other base was giving guys their DLA. Finally a new FM took over and agreed with us and they backpayed about 8 of us...with one dude missing the statute of limitations by a few months. The point we emphasized with the new comptroller is that we were staying on orders for almost 2 years for seasoning. Best of luck, I wish I could offer more, but we only got it because a new FM interpreted it differently.

ANG [/thread]

SOS is all about how much work you're willing to put into it. That being said, my SOS comprised of flipping feverishly through quizlet cards for a few hours before taking each of the three tests, while I was deployed...worst few hours of my life! ACSC in-correspondence is making me take a better look at the numbers for O-4 vs O-5 retirement.

Well some of us were saved...there is now a "micro-generation" called Xennials (1977-1983). So I've got that going for me...which is nice, so I can continue to put down Millennials. https://www.sfgate.com/living/article/xennials-millennials-generation-x-definition-age-11250741.php

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/top-us-general-says-no-change-to-military-transgender-policy-until-leaders-issue-guidance/article/2629863

I knew before I even showed up to UPT that I was going to try to be an airline pilot. I didn't announce it to the world, but if asked, I didn't hide it. If they didn't like my answer, fuck'em, my long term goals were none of their business. WRT the best pilots...whatever. All I know is that, as an airline guy, I'm more appropriately compensated in $$$ and time off. The rest, no one cares about but you.

If I were a bettin man, I would guess hydroplaning mixed with winds. There were some wicked downpours/storms rolling through the Dayton area that day. Either way we'll know when the SIB/AIB are released. Glad no-one was seriously hurt. I cant find it now, but there is a video floating around somewhere, showing the jet in two peices on a flatbed. They cut it between the two cockpits.

If you're all about "the fight" then you should probably hang up the g-suit and roll to your nearest Reaper squadron. You're "in the fight" on almost every sortie. Heck you'd probably employ more weapons (against the enemy) doing that than you could ever imagine in a fighter. I still get to fly my 6 sorties/month in my Viper, as a part-timer. Although, it's quickly becoming not worth it. If they actually deployed us to go fight and not sit on our asses on TSP after TSP, I might agree with you. I wouldn't even mind the massive pay cut I take to go on orders. But the only fighting we seem to do anymore is fighting one self (USAF) inflicted road block after another just to get anything done.

Spend your reserve days building a plane that you then get to fly. That's my plan. Tailwheel, doors off, 500 feet, relatively slow, basic panel, flying in and out of grass strips...that's real flying anyway.

Word. To add to Buddy spikes post... Commuting to reserve is SHITTY! It was slightly better at my current employer over my last, but still shitty. Often times you have to show up the day prior, sometimes not make it home the last day. Some blocks, you only have 2 days off between reserve days, which make it worthless to commute home. 12 days a month OFF (at home) would have been amazing. Thankfully there is a bunch of movement right now and most won't have to deal with that for too long. Buddy Spike is right, it's not all rainbows and unicorns. "Work" is a relative term. You will be on call 17ish days a month...how many times you actually go to work is a different story. It's mostly from watching squadron mates schedules who are fairly junior WB FOs. They sit reserve at their house within range of short call. Some months you win and others you lose. However, from watching their schedules and schedules of other junior WB FOs, it can be quite lucrative IF you live in base. I'm just switching to WB FO, so I'll let you know next spring.

Don't commute....live in base (within short call range), bid WB FO asap, profit! And by profit I mean spend lots of time at home. 12 days of actual work, would be a heavy month! Hell, in the winter 12 days in 2-3 months would be a lot. Seriously though...don't commute. Not commuting is like a whole different job.

This! I'm really digging the airline gig and I'm glad I jumped early. However, the above can't be emphasized enough. Right now, if you think you're going to the airlines anyway, the earlier, the better. Being at the front of the wave is a good hedge against any black swan events. In 10 years I might think it's wise to hang on for the pension...time will tell. I was over 10 years away from an AGR retirement so, for me, it was an easy decision to jump. If you're within 5 years, it's a no brainer...the tough spot is the guys between 10 and 15 YOS. Although even if I had been there, I still would have jumped. This year, my total compensation between the two gigs will more than double my O-4 AGR pay (16 yr, w/o dependents) and I'll work about the same. Taxes take a cut of that but I'm still up, plus my rental properties and a good tax man help. Flying with a captain now who was held back in the AF for almost a year. The difference...his buddies were hired into the right seat of the 757 on the A scale and he was hired into second officer on the 727 on the B scale. His buddies have also been WB captains for years while he is still unable to hold WB captain. His (forced) delay has cost him home hundreds of thousands of dollars and untold QOL (wrt to schedules). It's all a crapshoot, goodluck to us all.

This! If I show up to the base, I'm getting paid. If I work all day, it's two pay cards. Getting paid has never been in my thought process when deciding whether to take a jet or not. If it's a particularly bad month wrt to mx or wx cnx...well some months you just don't get your sorties.

As has already been stated, I'm sure PA had him wear the hat. But honestly, how is it any less gay than the stupid ass bi-fold hats we wear now? Bring on the the squadron baseball hats!

In my 11F community (same communtity as I referenced above) BMC is 5 sorties/month. Normal RAP is 6/month with some optipns for 3 month look back. Hot pits, tankers and double turns are the name of the game for part timers. 4, maybe 5 days a month, + a 1 week SIM trip/ yr, and occasional TDYs are more than enough. Some months you get RAP, some months not. It's all part of being/dealing with part timers. Most of my squadrons part timers would quit if leadership mandated 7 days a month. That's unsustainable for guys with other jobs, even airline guys...especially when they hit 3rd year or captain pay and take massive pay cuts to drill.

There were major airline furloughs in the early 90s and obviously the early 2000s. Also, there were a few airlines that went away during this timeframe. Lot's of stories of guys going back on AD in the early-mid 90s and not long after 9/11 after being furloughed. The early 2000 furloughs were particularly bad and the military reaped the benefits. The ARC was flooded with guys wanting days & dollars. For 15 years lesdership had free reign to abuse their resources. Now that the pendulum has swung the other way, it seems some leadership is taking a while to recage their brains. I saw a post on Facebook where one fighter squadron is requiring SEVEN (7) days a month from their pilots, with one of them being a no fly/queep day! WTF! I'm not even sure how they have all the paydays to make that happen. I'm guessing they mostly fill their vacancies with AD guys who think it's not a bad deal (I'm sure it's way better than AD). Then they become part timers with other jobs and realize how ridiculous 7 days/month for a part timer is and they look for other ways to finish their 20. Anyway, it seems their leadership is doing just as xaarman says...

I have no doubt that this technology is great and advancing at an amazing pace. I agree that a "drop-in" system is significant, in that it could be much more quickly and cheaply entered into service. It's neat that it can takes commands but how does it do in non-normals? When will you board a passenger aircraft, look left and see this? I think it will be a LONG time, but then again, I was wrong once before. I'm not saying it's not coming, but here are what I see as greater obstacles to the pace at which this stuff is entered. 1. Emotion. Getting the flying public onboard with this is going to be an issue. Probably not a big deal for the younger generation however, not the same with the older generation. Hell, I'm technically a millennial and there is no way you would get me in a driverless uber or car anytime soon. Probably irrational, but I just don't trust it. I figure that buys this another decade or two. Then there are the afterthoughts of the German Wings incident when a single pilot was left to his own devices...maybe they'll install a "what are you doing Dave..." 2. Labor unions. Right now, contracts define who can fly a jet for their company. The Captain and First Officer are clearly defined and even referenced as him (must not have had AF sensitivity training). So the company is going to have to come to the union and ask for this "give." While we can argue how great some unions are, one thing is for sure...they love their dues money! This battle is probably THE ONE thing we could get EVERY pilot and pilot union behind! Imagine if every union pushed this to a strike and planes stopped flying. Airlines have become so big that, if just one of the big 3 didn't turn a wheel, it would cause harm to the economy. Now imagine if DAL/UAL/AAL/AK/JBLU/SWA/UPS/FDX all stopped flying at once! That would cause mass chaos and probably constitute a national emergency. 3. Work Rules. If you expect pilots to fly single pilot with HAL, then expect to pay out the ass for that remaining pilot. I would want the Captain AND First Officer pay rates combined and them some. Hours worked per day would need to come down dramatically (thus causing the need for more pilots). Right now we do trips where you takeoff with the dawn patrol to the west coast and land ~1000-1100. Then you go to the hotel for 12 hours, try to sleep during the day, then fly the redeye back to the east coast that night. No way you could still fly that rotation without another pilot. On some of our fleets, guys fly some incredibly long days, that cause even two man crew to call in fatigued. My gut tells me that many more do NOT call fatigued because they know they have another pilot to back them up. One pilot, even with the aid of HAL, couldn't do the entire trip. Now that I don't have another pilot to help with some of the administrative tasks, I'll need to report to work earlier...more pay! These are just a few of the many examples of lost efficiency that will go against any gains by going single pilot. 4. Automation. While great, is still far from perfect. I've had automatic uploads be completely out to lunch. CPDLC pushes not load properly. I've had the AP aggressively pitch over to 10-13 degrees nose low, in the weather, at the FAF...this was on a jet that had been on the line less than a month old. APs that decide when your 15 knots fast and 5 knots from overspeeding, decided that now is the time to ADD power. As a single seat guy, I walked into the airline gig thinking it was super easy, not sure why you needed two pilots, a few years flying here has changed my mind. While the job isn't necessarily hard for the experienced and properly trained aviator, I can't tell you how many time we've caught each others errors. Pilot error being one of the major causes of accidents...how many accidents were avoided because the other pilot trapped an error...unfortunately we'll never know. To those of you who've never flown in the airlines, I would bet you'd be surprised by the number, if there were a way to compile the data. 5. FAA Regulation. The bureaucratic nightmare that is the "snails pace" FAA is a major slow up in the process. Have you ever tried to get anything done quickly with these guys? Hell, even when they know it's right, it takes them forever and a day to get shit done. When the 737 fleet manager wanted to get a minor issue changed, he invited the FAA inspectors to a sim to prove his point. They agreed with the fleet manager and these guys were the dudes who had to sign it off...it still took years to get the change and even then it was more restrictive than what the fleet manager PROVED was good to go. 6. Politics. We have lots of pilots located within just a few major districts in the US (ORD/ATL/NYC/DFW/LAX/SEA). I suspect the labor unions would also be putting out ads spreading fear of "HAL" which would probably get more people to talk with their representatives. Not to mention more, good paying U.S. jobs lost. If this does start to work it's way in the commercial aviation, where do I see it going? I suspect it will be much like the plan that a RAND study laid out. Cargo carriers, initially flying from coastal cities to coastal cities across the ocean first. Then Cargo across the U.S. into sparsely populated areas. Once it's proven itself to a certain level of safety, only then will the FAA let it come to passenger carriers. This could easily take DECADES. As someone who has 30+ years left until mandatory retirement, this is on my radar scope, but it has a long way to go until I consider it "threat criteria" and ask for a split. However, it's always a good idea to realize the threat is there and have a game plan to deal with it.

Ya...there once was a time that the thought of an LOR worried me.

The posts above are probably the better way to handle this situation...probably best to bring your chain into the loop. As I near my 20, I lean more towards the scorched earth policy. I've just seen way too many great dudes/dudettes get fucked over to care about tact anymore. My fucks to give are dwindling at an astonishing rate. Bergmans method is fairly effective, just be willing to deal with any blowback. Had to employ this method to get a secret CD burnt at a major base in the PACOM AOR. I shit you not, there was only one (1) person on base who had secret burn rights at the time and they didn't want to do shit to help us out. They were not amused, when asked for my classified courier letter, I just pointed at my wings and told them I carry classified every fucking day. They apparently weren't happy with my antics, but thankfully my leadership are some grade A MOFOs, and I never heard anything from it.

Word...

IG Complaint then Don't write, Call your congressman...better yet walk into their office with all the data.

Yes I use uber. No, I would not use an Uber without a driver in the car. You're right, we need to ensure all our contracts say that all planes will be piloted by 2 human pilots (or 3/4 depending on length of flight). If they want us to fly single pilot, our pay would have to more than doubled and our hours worked per day would need to be slashed significantly. I can't see this even starting to happen for a few decades. Have you guys every worked with the FAA? Fuck, we've been trying to get a new arrival into our Guard base, for like 4 or 5 years and we still have no end in sight.

Ha, what do you mean by mindsets are changing for the better? Making the Guard more like AD? That's working out well for AD... Wrt 3-3/3-1... Maybe in your community.

This. You need 1,000 hours of 121 time to be a Captain. I've been at DAL for 2.5 years and still haven't hit 1,000 hours, but I also had an 8 month mil leave in there...and I try to avoid work. nsplayr -- The 11,500 guy was probably a mil/civ guy. VMFA -- DAL no longer does a multiplier on airlineapps, I'm not sure about the others. When I first applied they did something like a .2/sortie multiplier and it actually showed you the updated numbers, that has since been removed. You're right though, it's going to take a bit for the tacair guys to get to that 1,500 hours. I went the to regionals, however I didn't get all that much time...I think just checking the 121 container was enough to propel me into the interview pile (hired ~1,800TT...~850 of that was civilian time). Otherwise, I was just a standard 4-ship flight lead with a mediocre GPA in Aviation... The pay sucks, but you'll most likely not spend much time there. Lots of guys spent < 6 months at a regional.

Congrats on making the switch and getting out of the AD. So is that 7 days a month? WAY too much if you're a true part timer. Depends on the time of year. In the winter months, I can easily get 18-19 days/month off...so I'll just work on off days. Summers in the airline are much busier so I tend to pre-post mil leave. For reference, I live in base for both gigs. They only give us enough pay cards (AFTP/UTA) to do 4 days a month. My AT days are used on one of the many TDYs (WAY too many) we do in the year. If they want more than that, they need to cough up more pay cards. If drill has a no fly day, I generally don't show up...if I do, it's become exponentially harder to get my 6 sorties in the remaining 3 days. Some months I get my sorties, some months I don't...it's a fine line but it's worked so far. I'm just sick of them adding more and more bullshit requirements and expecting us to get it all done in the same amount of time. The 10 pound sock only holds 10 pounds of shit, no matter how hard you try... I'm starting to understand what the old timers meant when they said, you'll know when it's time to get out... Safe to say, your base is not the norm for Guard flying squadrons.