ryleypav

So, I'm sure someone else will chime in, but ANG is not active duty. You can be put on active duty orders while in the Guard, but that is not primarily how they operate. There is a full time staff at each base to keep the base running, but a majority of the members are traditional guard reservists. Many pilots that I have met in the Guard work for the airlines. The main difference between the ANG and the Reserves, is that the Guard is state operated and the Reserves are federally operated. I dont know much personally about the reserves and their inner workings, but that is the large difference. And as far as the one weekend a month, if you end up being a fighter pilot, no. To stay current and capable, you fly much more than one weekend a month. Heavies, depending on your airframe you may be able to get away with. I dont know how retirement works with either. I'm sure theres lots I missed, but that should be a start.

Dang. Was tossing the idea of flying there myself.

Second what Huggy said. But to add, in my several interviews at a heavy unit, there has usually been someone there that was currently flying for a regional. At 29 you're more apt to get interest from a heavy unit (just my $0.02, which doesn't mean much yet). I see you mentioned being an active duty flight member. Have you considered the guard/reserves? You would most likely be able to keep your regional jet job and return to it once you have gotten through training. Bottom line, if you think its something you want, go for it. Like you said, your time is running out, but you still have time. Get the tests taken and start applying. Its not a short process so you gotta get to gettin'.

In other news, you can now paint your garden boxes that you've installed on your motor boat, while working on your short game in MI now.

Yep that's the one. If I wasn't worried about dealing with an airplane/selling an airplane during pilot training in the next year or so, I'd be buying it. I flew a 120 with a 100hp engine and it was great. Not the roomiest or fanciest planes out there, but they are good cheap flyers.

Doctors take a long time getting paperwork for surgeries holy moly.

I know its a bit off from any 4 seater, but if your looking for something cheap to just putz around in until you can get back to Herk school, C120/140s are extremely cheap to buy/operate. Theres one for sale I saw yesterday that was 22k, metalized wings, 400SMOH and around 3k on the air-frame maybe? Maybe less. No fancy avionics. But I believe it had radios and was ADSB compliant. 85hp engine so it sips fuel. Cant get much cheaper.

So got an update from my recruiter this morning. In MI by the way. He said MEPS is closed until May, but saw me on the schedule still so he was going to call and figure out whats going on exactly.

Going tomorrow morning. They are only open on Tuesdays. Tuesdays are safe from the 'Rona.

As a Michigan resident, I will say, our Governor may over overstepped her bounds. Sure. Not going to argue that point. However, there are many people who just dont bother to read the legislation and spread misinformation to the masses. All of a sudden people are shouting out how its now all of a sudden illegal to buy seeds and have a garden. Turns out, if you actually read things, you can most definitely buy seeds and lawn/garden equipment from a store so long as it isn't over 50,000 sq-ft (i.e. Menards or Lowes where people stand around in the garden section for days on end). So any local hardware store is fine. The use of motorboats seems to be the big point of contention here. While I agree its a touch to far, I get it too. I went flying the other day and there were probably 200+ boats out on the Bay fishing. At that point in time, so long as everyone in the boat was from the same house, you were fine. I know for a fact that many were not following this. On the same note, that is 200+ people going to the gas station and 200+ people going else where to get supplies. I believe that same train of thought is applied to industries like Lawn care, and golf courses here in MI. The activities themselves can be done in isolation, but not the preparation.

You mean witchcraft.

This is one thing I definitely like to stress. You gotta have something to fall back on if aviation doesn't work out. I know that *knock on wood* with my STEM degree, I shouldn't ever have a difficult time getting a job. Student loans suck, so agreed. Get that scholarship money and get as much of it as you can. My biggest regret is not working harder to get more of it.

This. Tailwheel clubs are hard to find. Not an owner yet, but hopefully one day. That and being able to have the luxury to say, "Weather's good, I'm going flying" is enough for me. Dealing with a club takes that away. Which is where I'm at. Thankfully my club is ridiculously cheap and no overnight min, but the freedom of owning cant be beat. Fly-in communities look awesome. They are few and far between here in MI from what I can tell. I'm hoping to get a piece of land and stick a half-mile strip on it when I'm able someday. Hopefully pair it with a nice Stearman or N3N. Gotta have dreams right! I have a buddy who has a Stearman with a grass strip at home and nothing beats turning into the driveway to see a Stearman or the Supercub sitting in the front yard.

Probably a few reasons. One, engineers are generally thought of as "smart" people (as a practicing engineer, I can tell you this is most definitely not true) and in general, people think you need to be extremely intelligent to fly an airplane. Not that you dont need to be smart, but simply flying isn't rocket science....unless your an astronaut, then it literally is. Engineers are also problem solvers by trade, which bodes well to flying aircraft in general and in an military environment I would guess as well. Not to toot my own horn, but acquiring and engineering degree not easy. I would say it is difficult for 90% of people that get them. There is a lot of complex information to learn while getting that degree and I think that bodes well to the mindset you need to have going into pilot training. Bottom line, the degree you have doesn't mean you can fly a plane better than the guy next to you, but I think it does influence your train of thought, problem solving methodology, and critical thinking skills. All that said, you still need a good GPA. That is what is important. Cool, you got a degree in particle physics? Well that doesnt mean diddly if you graduated with a 2.5. A 4.0 in basket weaving is better than a low GPA in engineering. To add, I know a A-10 pilot and a F-15C pilot, both have degrees in Crop/Soil science or something like that. So it really doesn't matter.

Just ordered his book. Hopefully its just as good a read as that article.

Looks like I forgot some context. My bad. Not currently a mil flyer. Mostly just speaking out of my ass at the moment/going off of the limited exposure and knowledge of things I have so far. I was picked up by a tanker unit, but still in process for getting the whole shebang going. But its really going to come down to your civ employer and how much well they work with people in the military. You'll want to use your USERRA rights to the fullest, but you dont want to burn bridges at the same time not being there ever, or not getting projects done on time.

I am currently an mechanical engineer (so YMMV) and on my side of things in the mechanical world, if I were needed to leave on trips all of the time, it would be a giant PIA not only for me, but for my team. A lot can happen in engineering in one week. Not always, but it can. And with all the milestones and timing to keep, bouncing the job back and forth from you to the person who covers for you can be difficult. Not impossible, but definitely difficult. For example, right now my team is in the development phase for some new electric power steering program and the thing evolves daily if not by the hour. If I straight up missed a week of work and didn't keep up on emails, I'd be in the dark when I came back. However, if you are in the position where you need to keep up on currencies several times a month/are traditional, I could see it being possible if you lived close to base/work. But, as you said you're computer engineering and I know plenty of people who could straight up work from wherever they sit down so long as they have the hardware necessary to do the job. On the other side of things, I dont know much about ops tempo's and currencies yet so my bit may be irrelevant as well.

Agreed. I doubt they'd hold it against him either. But, the only way to truly get an answer is to as the POC for the board.

In my opinion, it says to email only.Part of this process is being able to follow explicit directions and pay attention to details. So to me, that answers the question right there. You could always just ask them to be sure. Just my $0.02.

Agree with pretty much everything that has been said. Having the PPL should help already. If you haven't, get some feed back from the interviews you already had. Hopefully they will tell you exactly what their thought process was. The unit that hired me gave me feed back and I took it to heart and kept applying. Just keep pushing. I applied to the same unit 4 times over the course of around 3 years and interviewed with them 3 times before they finally hired me. Getting my PPL and being persistent showing I really wanted to be there is what I think finally got me the gig. Rush units and hangout on UTAs if they will let you. Even if its not a "meet and greet" weekend. Some units will let you do that.

Run the adblocker extension in chrome. Shouldn't be an issue with that.

Get that bad boy done asap. Not all unit's require it. But a lot of them "require" if you catch my drift. Or at least they see it as a good indicator that you are passionate about aviation.

Do some searching on here and on the google machine. You should be able to find enough resources to use for practicing for the TBAS, since you plan on retaking it. Additionally, get that PPL finished up. I'm assuming you are close with 39hrs?

Agreed. Once I got to the interviews, they never really asked why any scores were lower than the rest. Like everyone says over and over. Its a whole person concept. One score on the AFOQT isn't going to be the make or break if everything else is solid.

I would follow their instructions as listed. If they wanted a LOR at that point, they would ask for one. Attention to detail is key.