Technician Discussion (aka Wing XP Technician)

[Kenny Powers]

Curious, has the ART program changed much at all from the info provided in this thread?

Any current ARTs care to share the good, the bad, and the ugly?

[Guardian]

The goods. ART bonus. Significant pay increase to the baseline pay. All Guard pilots are GS 13’s. Really good pay especially for a young officer.

Bad’s. Stayed the same. Long time till retirement.

[Hopefulflyer389]

59 minutes ago, Guardian said:

The goods. ART bonus. Significant pay increase to the baseline pay. All Guard pilots are GS 13’s. Really good pay especially for a young officer.

Bad’s. Stayed the same. Long time till retirement.

Where could I find info on the ART bonus?

[Guardian]

I think it depends on the state. But through the respective units

[HeyWatchThis]

On 7/10/2021 at 12:22 PM, Hopefulflyer389 said:

Where could I find info on the ART bonus?

Depends on which bonus you are talking about.  Technically (Reserve side, can't speak for Guard) we have two bonuses going on right now.  

1.  We have a 14% salary bump that gets paid out on each LES.  That's bonus #1 

2.  AFRC a few years ago signed off on an annual pilot retention bonus as well.  It comes out as an announcement on MyPers each year.  This year its $18k per year and you can sign up for it for 1-4 years.  Kicker is AFRC got lazy and copy/pasted the AD bonus verbiage so even though its an "ART" bonus, you have to be past your initial UPT commitment date to get it.....

[Hopefulflyer389]

On 7/20/2021 at 2:33 PM, HeyWatchThis said:

Depends on which bonus you are talking about.  Technically (Reserve side, can't speak for Guard) we have two bonuses going on right now.  

1.  We have a 14% salary bump that gets paid out on each LES.  That's bonus #1 

2.  AFRC a few years ago signed off on an annual pilot retention bonus as well.  It comes out as an announcement on MyPers each year.  This year its $18k per year and you can sign up for it for 1-4 years.  Kicker is AFRC got lazy and copy/pasted the AD bonus verbiage so even though its an "ART" bonus, you have to be past your initial UPT commitment date to get it.....

Thanks. I’m switching to an ART position in about 2 months and and Civilian Personnel appears to be useless on the topics; no surprise there. 

[Kenny Powers]

Are you eligible for Tricare Reserve Select as an ART?

Also, can someone pass the quick rundown on how the retirement works?

Edited July 25, 2021 by Kenny Powers

[Stoker]

18 hours ago, Kenny Powers said:

Are you eligible for Tricare Reserve Select as an ART?

Also, can someone pass the quick rundown on how the retirement works?

No, ARTs are explicitly denied Tricare. You get the standard range of options available to Federal civilian employees.

The retirement is the federal pension. The base calculation is off your highest three years of civil service. Get 1% (1.1% if you retire later) of that amount for each year of creditable service. So if your high three average is $100k and you have ten years of service, your pension is $10k a year. You pay 4.4% of your paycheck for this. You need five years of creditable service to get anything, and that can include military time if you pay a few thousand bucks to "buy it back."

[TheNewGazmo]

The retirement blows unless you're dumping at least 10% of your paycheck into your TSP.  Other than that, the ART program is a great way for a young pilot to build time for the airlines.  The new pilot series GS13 pay scales (changed 1 Jan 2019) are pretty darn decent, even without a formal retention bonus.  

[HeyWatchThis]

On 7/20/2021 at 2:33 PM, HeyWatchThis said:

Depends on which bonus you are talking about.  Technically (Reserve side, can't speak for Guard) we have two bonuses going on right now.  

1.  We have a 14% salary bump that gets paid out on each LES.  That's bonus #1 

2.  AFRC a few years ago signed off on an annual pilot retention bonus as well.  It comes out as an announcement on MyPers each year.  This year its $18k per year and you can sign up for it for 1-4 years.  Kicker is AFRC got lazy and copy/pasted the AD bonus verbiage so even though its an "ART" bonus, you have to be past your initial UPT commitment date to get it.....

Quoting myself because it's coming up on a year since this post and and it relates to bonus #2.  Has anyone heard any info on why (during a pilot shortage still) that AFRC decided to change the ART bonus from 10 YAS to 11 YAS....in essence making guys wait another year before being eligible?

[hindsight2020]

The retirement multiplier is the reason I stayed away as someone not interested in the airlines. The 4.4 bump and lack of tricare elegibility were the cherry on top. They really need to fix that mess of a program. Tons of people on less physically damaging jobs have better federal multipliers, and don't have to worry about meeting medical fitness on part A (TR portion). I was very thankful to have got a line into the AGR (title 10) lifeboat, and be able to move on from the duldrums of the Lost Decade, start a family and thrive.

Agreed on the grooming value for airline aspiring young guys. Best paying " gig " job out there. I went the troughing route, but that worked out better for me as it kept me up to speed on active retirement points until jumping on the full time train.