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CSO’s or any other non-pilot Officers (and plenty of E’s) can do plenty of non-flying jobs and kill it on the outside. Don’t sell yourselves short.

If you guys read through the Green New Deal, you'd know that the pilot hiring wave is about to hit a brick wall, with furloughs all but inevitable. In an unrelated note, Ocasio-Cortez's campaign contributions were released and her largest donor was the Aircrew Crisis Task Force.

This is exactly what I have seen in AFRC the last couple of years. Once guys hit 2nd year airline pay, the reserve job becomes a money loser - if you drop an airline trip for mil duty. If you do your mil job around your airline trips, sure you make that extra reserve money, but most guys would rather just have the time off. Plus, the general ass-pain of the reserve job wears on folks. Little things, like - logging into a computer: Insert CAC, wait 10 to 15 secs for the computer to recognize it. Enter PIN, wait 69 seconds. Here comes the stupid pop up, oh, here is another, and, another. Finally, after 5 minutes, there is the desktop screen, click on Outlook, it opens, updates mailbox, 3 minutes later you can read email, blah, blah, and on and on. Oh yeah! Don’t forget the self aid buddy care, fire extinguisher training, trafficking in human persons, unexploded ordnance, etc, the same exact BS briefings you have sat through over and over and over and....

Shhhhh...we need the to go to staff so we don’t have to!

You don’t have to pay it back. You only have to pay back the unearned portion of what you’ve received. So if you take the lump sum...then you might have a good sized payback. If you didn’t...then you might have a partial year to pay back depending on your bonus anniversary date.

His logbook shows 340 hours of "time". However, he was paid for the equivalent of 850 hours.. So he made 510 hours of credit without actually flying. I have a friend that sits reserve at home on wide bodies. Last year, he worked around 23 days. So he probably logged about 100 hours of actual flying time (probably less). However, he makes a minimum of 75-ish hours a month as a guaranteed minimum, per the contract with his company. So he made around 900 hours of flight pay (credit) last year, while only actually flying 100 hours. There are a lot of permutations and ways to get "credit hours" but hopefully you get the idea. For example, deadheading: when the company needs to send you somewhere to go fly a plane, you are in the back as a passenger on a company ticket,... but you are paid like you actually flew the jet. Two weeks ago, I deadheaded from SFO to Honolulu. Sat in 1st class, worked on my computer, and slept for almost 3 hours. It was almost a 6 hour flight. When we arrived, I got in the cockpit and flew the jet back. That was about a 5 hour flight. So I logged 5 hours of time... but was paid for 11 hours of time for a single day out-and-back. The contract between the pilot and the company is a very important legal document. It defines how you will get paid, and for what. And vacation, number of hours per day guaranteed, reserve rules, et... I know corporate pilots that make bank. Big bank. However, the actual dollars that show up in to your account are only one piece of the puzzle. The contract defines all of those pieces. In the military, I was proud to be the guy at the top of the 30-60-90 day flying time sheet posted in Ops. In the airlines, it's the complete opposite.

Because you’ve been directed to use DTS for hotels and transportation? Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile app

Nope - it’s normal and happens quite regularly. Siiting long call at your airline while logging a Ground Training Period or even sometimes a Flight Training Period is normal if you’re lucky enough to have both your domicile and unit close enough to each other.

Anyone who get passed over, and can swing it, should leave for the ARC to get promoted. Too many silly games and half truths by commanders to stick around that swamp. I think your good deal train is over once that happens, maybe even a year or so before official notice. additionally, any officer can get a great job on the outside, your bullshit OPR and PRF looks really good on a civilian resume, they don’t know any different, at least most of them.

Having just lost nearly everything in hurricane Michael... here’s a few tips for Florida gulf coast homeowners insurance (sidebar): - You are likely underinsured. Rebuilding a house is $150/Sq ft at a minimum. - You are definitely underinsured in additional structures. - Opt in for 50% law and ordinance coverage. The standard is 25% if you do nothing. This extra pot of money will save your ass in several situations. It’s cheap. - Get replacement cost coverage (not actual cash value) for your personal property. It’s a bit more expensive than the L&O bump up to 50%, but worth it. - Read the text of your actual policy...and keep up with year to year changes to it. Pay particular attention to named storm exclusions. You can get different underwriting, riders, separate policies, etc. to fill the holes you find. - When the disaster happens, and it will, step 1 is read your policy again in detail. Welcome to redneck paradise! Stay off my fishing spots.

You make it sound so easy...

I’ve met several prior WSO/CSO types that were doing contractor RPA work (sensor operator) either as school house instructors or line fliers. $100k+ jobs

Same. Plus, I took the bonus.

Everyone's gotta make a call on what's best for them and their families -- I certainly don't begrudge anyone deciding to get out or deciding to stay in....but trading information that can strengthen your record, PRF, and chances for promotion on future boards is worthwhile to me and I appreciate the discussion. To those bouncing to greener pastures, fly safe and hook me up with a buddy pass....Cheers!

Sitting wide body reserve, I went for 105 days without flying at 76 hours paid per month although I normally averaged 1 trip per month. This month, I'm working 12 days (4 trips) for 91 hours. Just depends on what you want to do.

Airline pilots aren’t always paid for the hours they actually fly. Some sit reserve and don’t fly, earning “credit hours” for their days on call. It’s very common to have some trips pay based on how long they are i.e. “time away from base” (TAFB). The TAFB is used to calculate a ratio of hours away to hours of pay (called trip rig). At FedEx we use 3.75 to 1. I get one hour of pay for every 3.75 hours I’m gone. This helps to compensate pilots on long layovers that aren’t flying every day or who only fly very short legs each day. If a pilot was only paid for flight hours, his company could build a trip with a 9 hour flight to Paris, a 3-day layover and a 10 hour flight back. 19 hours pay for 5 days of work. With trip rig, that 5 day trip would pay about 35 “credit hours” with 19 hours of actual block (aka flight time). Of course, if actual flight time exceeds trip rig, you get the higher. Regardless of whether an hour is actual flight time or credit, the pay rate for either hour is the same.

340 of actual FAR write-it-in-the-green-logbook aircraft moving flight time. Paid for 850 hours = 510 hours of “soft time” which might be deadhead, premium trip/overtime pay, min day guarantees, reserve pilot guarantees (like a salary for reserve months), etc. Only chumps get paid for just their block time. The real money in the airline world is in getting paid to not fly.

I'm so glad I'm separating and DGAF about promotion stats anymore. Reading this thread makes me want to kick a puppy. Good luck fellas.

I'll be the first to admit that I've been out of touch with UPT for a while (winged in 1989). But, I still think this issue is getting more concern than it needs. I get it - there are some guys who might come back to UPT as instructors that have never flown a T-38. That's what PIT is for. UPT went dual track to focus some of the later training toward follow on heavy or fighter/bomber MDS requirements, but it was more about the fact that the -38 was in dire need of a break. When the dual track pipeline came about, it wasn't about producing fighter wingmen. That's never been the goal of the UPT syllabus. Teaching someone contact flying, basic acro, extended trail and some initial training in Tactical Formation doesn't seem to be the rocket science it's being made out to be. Personally, I'd be more worried about getting the guy proficient in single pilot instrument flying. I had a C-141 pilot as my primary -38 IP. He hadn't touched a -38 in 6 years when he came back to PIT. Somehow he managed to get me reasonably proficient in that aircraft. As an F-15 FTU IP I had to provide way more remedial instrument training than I did worrying about a UP flying tactical. Just my .02 i just re-read this and I’m not sure I gave my IP the credit he deserved with the “somehow he managed” sarcasm. He was good. He chose to fly a 141 and made no secret he wanted to be an airline guy. He may not have flown tactical for a living but that really didn’t matter. I look back and really appreciate his no slack attitude toward instrument skills and precise, smooth flying. Those things he beat into me saved my ass when I was shooting approaches to mins in Europe on a regular basis. That stuff was just as valuable as the other experiences the fighter pilots I flew with in UPT brought. I think my point is, regardless of their background, the IPs teaching our UPT students need to be highly competent. A mix of experience is valuable and nothing in the syllabus is that specific to a particular follow on assignment that a competent pilot can’t learn to teach it.