Aviation Continuation Pay (ACP - The Bonus)

[Boomer6]

My personal gripes and those of bros at a UPT base on why these assignments are hated by some:

- terrible schools around UPT bases for their kids

- little to no jobs available for their spouse in the local area unless they want to use their masters degree to steam milk at Starbucks

- DoD level jobs for their spouse…lol 

- the base itself is shitty

- on base housing agency tries to F you at every turn

- timeline rules all, to hell with trying to make students better, just push them through. One size fits all cookie cutter approach to students that are struggling. 

- a syllabus written by absolute retards

- management that doesn’t have the balls to do what’s best for the students/IPs because though that may be best for the AF, it’s not best for the timeline and thus not best for their careers 

- Oh you left the CAF as a 4E/IP, well have fun trying to get back to the TX as a major, unless you want to go to Korea, holoman, eielson, etc. BTW you’re now behind your peers so good luck catching back up as a major and staying in the CAF if that’s what you want.

There’s so much more but it’s Friday and not worth it to keep typing.

 

[raimius]

1 hour ago, Standby said:

I think most dudes shit talk it because they haven’t actually done it. They’ve heard about it from their buddies friends sisters uncle and perpetuate lies. It’s a daily grind, but a lot of the MWS ancillaries simply don’t exist. There is no pre-deployment WSMR/NAWS/WSEP trip…no flag to participate in…nothing. Sure, you triple turn and fly XC, but you’re smoking crack if you think that keeps you TDY more than an MWS unit.

To take this one step further…I’d wager that 87.69% of the folks who drag XL through the mud couldn’t even find it on the map, let alone have been there. Is Del Rio a garden spot? Not even close. But there are people who complain that the sand in the FL Panhandle was too fine and difficult to wash out of their crusty ass cracks.

@UDEL09I know this is going to sound harsh, but allow me to play you a classical piece on the worlds smallest violin.

It is a grind.  

There are fewer additional duties, but plenty of gradebooks to write, or review prior to the student's 88/89, or a sim to run because the civilian sim IP isn't qual'd to teach some sims, or getting a "good deal" XC where you can sit a day in some random city so you aren't "forced" to take a comp day (because who wouldn't want to double turn student sorties for 11 of 12 days?).   Then, get told you aren't producing enough and also need to take more time for "resiliency" (which is mandatory, but also will likely be scheduled over).

 

Is it the worst thing in the world?  Of course not.  Is it way more pain than it should be?  I'm going to go with yes.  

[DuckHunter]

3 hours ago, Danger41 said:

For those staying AD, why is the UPT enterprise so derided? Predictable schedule, not deployments (mostly), fly a lot. Admittedly locations aren’t great but based on the above, why is UPT viewed so negatively?

Been in for 15 years now, the best job I had thus far was being a UPT Flt/CC.

[Bigred]

On 6/8/2023 at 3:34 PM, Skitzo said:

No more CVs at Hurby soon.


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Just Cannon, OCONUS, and the FTU? Or is there a new CONUS base opening? 

Edited June 10, 2023 by Bigred

[Pooter]

15 hours ago, Danger41 said:

For those staying AD, why is the UPT enterprise so derided? Predictable schedule, not deployments (mostly), fly a lot. Admittedly locations aren’t great but based on the above, why is UPT viewed so negatively?

Location cannot be stressed enough. They're not just not great.. they are in the absolute ass crack of America. And Im not talking about what I've heard, I've been to all the bases and lived at 2 of them.
 

For married folks it's terrible for the spouse and kids. For single folks it's terrible because good luck finding anyone to date other than the #peopleofwalmart locals. 
 

If you're one of those guys who thinks location isn't a big deal or the locations  aren't that bad based on your year and change spent there in UPT 10-15 yrs ago I've got an experiment for you. After work one day sit down with your wife and tell her you got orders to Laughlin. There's nothing you can do, you guys are moving at the end of the summer. See how that conversation goes and then come tell me location isn't a big deal. 

[Standby]

23 minutes ago, Pooter said:

See how that conversation goes and then come tell me location isn't a big deal.

Location isn’t a big deal. Next. 

[artvandelay43201]

56 minutes ago, Standby said:

Location isn’t a big deal. Next. 

Someone likes that Walmart strange

[Standby]

1 hour ago, artvandelay43201 said:

Someone likes that Walmart strange

Pooters challenge was to tell the wife we were going to Laughlin. I did that in 2017. No tears, no whining, no drama.

…I’m not saying I didn’t like the Del Rio Walmart though. 

[di1630]

People complain about the USAF because right now pilots have numerous well paying alternatives.

If the economy goes to hell, the airlines furlough, etc, those same sideline sport b-tcher’s happily resubmit and beg for employment from big blue.

I’ve seen it multiple times in my 23 years.

Right now is unprecedented though. Pilots have a ton of well paying opportunities so it just really comes down to personal priorities (money/family/flying cool jets vs a fat bus etc) and life circumstances.


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[hindsight2020]

So have I. Hell, you want to see Olympic medal level flip flopping, spend a day in a guard reserve unit. I got the lost decade T-shirt, i saw it all from the front row. They make congress sound principled by comparison.

Don't take too long taking out the trash at the squadron, they'll take your AGR and eff your wife in the time it took you to get back in your chair 😆.

 

PS. Im being tongue in cheek, you know i love you 121 folk, blue falcons among you notwithstanding.

Edited June 10, 2023 by hindsight2020

[SocialD]

1 hour ago, di1630 said:

People complain about the USAF because right now pilots have numerous well paying alternatives.

If the economy goes to hell, the airlines furlough, etc, those same sideline sport b-tcher’s happily resubmit and beg for employment from big blue.

I’ve seen it multiple times in my 23 years.

Right now is unprecedented though. Pilots have a ton of well paying opportunities so it just really comes down to personal priorities (money/family/flying cool jets vs a fat bus etc) and life circumstances.

 

1 hour ago, hindsight2020 said:

So have I. Hell, you want to see Olympic medal level flip flopping, spend a day in a guard reserve unit. I got the lost decade T-shirt, i saw it all from the front row. They make congress sound principled by comparison.

Don't take too long taking out the trash at the squadron, they'll take your AGR and eff your wife in the time it took you to get back in your chair 😆.

 

PS. Im being tongue in cheek, you know i love you 121 folk, blue falcons among you notwithstanding.

 

 

What you boys are talking about is something called tolerance.  Just because they go back, doesn't mean anything changes...it still sucks lol.  

 

When rona kicked off, I wasn't too concerned with furlough based on my seniority, but since I wasn't doing anything else at the time, I ran some numbers.  Figured out that I could survive easily just on my part time pay cards, as long as all my tenants payed (they did).  So that was my plan, work 6 days a month.  That's how much I didn't want to go on orders lol.   If I just sat one day of alert/month on top that, I could have easily afforded to keep flying my planes a fair amount. 

[nsplayr]

22 hours ago, Standby said:

But there are people who complain that the sand in the FL Panhandle was too fine and difficult to wash out of their crusty ass cracks.

It gets everywhere…

Edited June 10, 2023 by nsplayr

[BeefBears]

2 hours ago, nsplayr said:

It gets everywhere…

Thats why I like Cannon. Sand is coarser there. Also, the meth head girls don't test my marriage as often. 

[Danger41]

22 hours ago, Bigred said:

Just Cannon, OCONUS, and the FTU? Or is there a new CONUS base opening? 

Hurlburt will still have the depot, but you got it.

[CaptainMorgan]

Location isn’t a big deal. Next. 

Only because your wife was on peopleofWalmart.com when you met, and now even they have standards.


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[Standby]

9 hours ago, CaptainMorgan said:

Only because your wife was on peopleofWalmart.com when you met, and now even they have standards.


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[nsplayr]

RPA specific: the the Guard DSG bonus went up to $30K (from $15K) while the AGR bonus remained the same at $35K.

Makes staying a DSG an even easier decision, you’re barely missing out on any bonus money at all!

For manned it’s up to $50K for AGR.

ANG FY23 AvB Implementation Policy_Final.pdf

Edited June 12, 2023 by nsplayr

[CaptainMorgan]

RPA specific: the the Guard DSG bonus went up to $30K (from $15K) while the AGR bonus remained the same at $35K.
Makes staying a DSG an even easier decision, you’re barely missing out on any bonus money at all!
For manned it’s up to $50K for AGR.
ANG FY23 AvB Implementation Policy_Final.pdf

Don’t you RPA operators have a mIRC chat channel for this?


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[General Chang]

It’s time for the Air Force to cut loose any ideas of retention, drop the bonus to $0, and focus on growing our way forward.  You only need one-two gray beards at the top to run a flying squadron.  The rest can be O-3 and below.  Higher risk?  Sure, a little.  Push people through UPT in 6-months, FTUs in 2 months, double the output, and GROW our AF out of the pilot shortage.  Retention is a useless fight at this point.  Drop the bonus to $0.  We will be just fine.

Edited July 8, 2023 by General Chang

[Swizzle]

3 hours ago, General Chang said:

It’s time for the Air Force to cut loose any ideas of retention, drop the bonus to $0, and focus on growing our way forward.  You only need one-two gray beards at the top to run a flying squadron.  The rest can be O-3 and below.  Higher risk?  Sure, a little.  Push people through UPT in 6-months, FTUs in 2 months, double the output, and GROW our AF out of the pilot shortage.  Retention is a useless fight at this point.  Drop the bonus to $0.  We will be just fine.

How ignorant and souless your viewpoint is...while you're at it just eliminate all programs which virtue-signal people's value and importance. Not saying don't produce as much as you can, but it's a balance AND relationship with the workforce. Under your imperative, just burn all programs down which support retention, so that's adios to what - CDCs, MWR, MFLC, heck why not Doctors. And, oh yeah, how do you like your droid'icas? And how is the darkside of force treating ya?

...people aren't disposable commodities

[Day Man]

don't feed the troll, bro.

[Swizzle]

Somethings are just inhumane

[DirkDiggler]

20 minutes ago, Swizzle said:

Somethings are just inhumane

You know it’s just Bashi’s troll account right?

[Swizzle]

23 minutes ago, DirkDiggler said:

You know it’s just Bashi’s troll account right?

I just couldn't let it slide.  I stopped short of answering all the other baiting-posts Chang made today...

[CaptainMorgan]

You know it’s just Bashi’s troll account right?

I thought Bashi was Bashi’s troll account?


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