JBueno

What Yaweh said. I had my PPL, but going to IFS and getting a general idea of how the UPT structure works was helpful.

Thanks Scooter. Here's a follow-up on guard/reserve deployment pay: if a member is serving in the combat zone, shouldn't ALL pay received that month be tax free up to the highest enlisted pay plus hostile fire? For example, if I do 6 AFTPs and a few AT days in early October, then get to the Deid on October 25th, shouldn't the income taxes on those AFTPs and AT days be refunded? Trying to find a reference, but all I can find is this from IRS Publication 3 - The Armed Forces Tax Guide. Partial month service is treated as full month of service. If you serve in a combat zone for any part of one or more days during a particular month, you are entitled to a combat pay exclusion for that entire month. Strat airlift guys, I'm looking in your direction.

You guys want to compare SAT scores while you're at it?

When deployed to a combat zone, does anyone simply . . . not have taxes taken out on your LES? I'm a traditional guard bubba deployed for the Nth time. Taxes are always taken out on our LES. They are repaid in the next month's LES. However, that next month's LES has taxes taken out, then reimbursed on the third month's, and so on. I don't know if that's how the system is designed to work, or that's how Guard finance works. Makes it a PITA to double check amounts are correct come W-2 time. May also be a case where every guard franchise unit does it differently.

You're right, I don't. Just passing along what the tour guide told us. But really? No IPs from any follow-on course have observed this thing?

I visited the Austin site a while back. From what we were told, the B-course IPs have been observing from the get-go.

Awesome, sounds like you've got it pretty well figured out!

BLUF: Generally no, you can't do this. You'd have to do a little research into Delta's Summary Plan Description and see which contributions count towards the $18,500 limit. If the 401a contributions count towards, it, you can't do what you've proposed. If they don't count, you should be able to. The $18,500 elective deferral limit applies across both employers. Traditional contributions made from tax-exempt pay do not count towards the $18,500, so you have to be deployed to a combat zone to make contributions above $18,500. Yes, this is the huge upside I was talking about. You have an additional $55,000 of traditional TSP space available. You've used up all your $18,500 limit under 402(g), but traditional contributions from tax exempt pay don't count towards that limit. They count towards the $55,000 limit under 415(c) which is per employer, so you've got another $55,000 available. If you've opted into the BRS the Tetris bricks stack up a little differently against the cap, but the caps are still the same. Just curious; why would you flow money through a 401a to a Roth IRA? Why not just go straight to a Roth IRA? There's no income limit to a backdoor Roth IRA, and it leaves your 401a space available. Also, for the married folks here with stay-at-home spouses, there's $5500 for a non-working spousal IRA. It phases out at That might help a little bit, too.

This is correct (well, $18,500 for 2018) but it's not the entire picture. Under IRC §415(c) there's a $55,000 limit per employer. If you work for an airline and you're in the Guard and Reserve, you have a huge benefit here. For example, if you're at American, the company can put your 401k defined contribution and your profit sharing in, plus any contribution you make. For 2018, the sum of all three is capped at $55,000 and your contribution is capped at $18,500 (the elective deferral limit). Your total out-of-your-own paycheck contributions to the 401k and TSP are capped at the $18,500 elective deferral limit.* Whatever you don't contribute to the $18,500 limit at the airline you can contribute to the TSP. *There's an additional benefit if you're deployed. Under IRC §402(g) the $18,500 limit does not apply to traditional contributions made from tax-exempt pay earned in a combat zone. If you're earning tax-free pay in a combat zone, you can contribute above the $18,500 limit up to the $55,000 limit. If you make $150,000 at Delta in 2018 and deploy as an O-5 in the Guard for a few months, you could do this: 16% 401k $24,000 20% Profitsharing $30,000 Total Delta 401(k) $54,000 Deployed Combat Pay to Traditional TSP $55,000 Total Tax Sheltered Space $109,000. Under USERRA, airline guys on military leave are also eligible for 401k make-up contributions for any 401k contributions you would have been entitled to while you were deployed. Generally that means whatever your pay rate is and your monthly guarantee or bid line average, multiplied by your 401k defined contribution rate. https://www.irs.gov/retirement-plans/retirement-plans-faqs-regarding-userra-and-sscra

I guess my point is this: people are making decisions based on the assumption that if you WANT to get to 20 you WILL get to 20. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. And it's also a decent stop at Mildenhall.

I keep hearing "If your plan is to stay to 20". My plan is great but what about Big Blue's? We're always one waist measurement away from not getting the cliff vesting at 20.

Sweet, they're having open tryouts?! https://entertainment.theonion.com/blue-angels-hold-first-ever-open-tryouts-1819570388

Has anyone had any luck using a CAC reader at home with a Chromebook?

Let's talk about a pure flying track. What's it look like? If a pure flying track was capped at O-3, would guys go for it? For 20 years?

Anyone here used Texas Aviation Academy near Randolph?

Outside of your yard, past 0001, for those in AETC, no? Let's get those 29B's in!

This headline made me laugh, especially coming from the Air Force Times. Congresswoman to Air Force: Put down the tuba, pick up a gun https://www.airforcetimes.com/story/military/2016/03/22/congresswoman-air-force-put-down-tuba-pick-up-gun/82121372/

If you can't make ends meet without that extra $200, you probably don't have the war chest to sue the federal government for changing BAH rates.

I see one gunship fan in a faraway land...check out the blue t-shirt, front and center. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/22/world/middleeast/isis-transforming-into-functioning-state-that-uses-terror-as-tool.html?_r=0

Waiver. If you are guard or reserve and own a house in the location you will be returning to, it is not too difficult to get a waiver since you have a mortgage and will be PCS'ing back. Good question, and good prep for constantly raising your guard/reserve hand at UPT.

If my memory serves me correctly, the plaque at Little Rock mentions it was flown by 1Lt Brian Williams.

I have ever heard any UPT instructors describe any their students using any of the phrases you just used. And I went to UPT with Brian Williams.

For those who have completed the new course in correspondence, how long is it taking?

Here's an interesting look at our general foreign policy. Thought provoking if nothing else. https://www.steynonline.com/6414/helicopters-on-the-roof

I just finished reading A Mig-15 to Freedom, by No Kum-Sok. It's a great book about both flying and freedom.