Smokin

Many ads have been trying to monetize race baiting, like many of our politicians. I have also noted that I haven't seen NBC put up a SINGLE medal count during the prime time that I've had it on after the kids are in bed. Wonder if they think that would be too patriotic. However, I was pleasantly surprised by the Polo ad. It was unapologetically American and overall very counter to the current political direction of our country. Next time I'm buying church clothes, I'm buying a Polo brand.

The AF puts people through Med school on scholarship and they commission with as much student debt as an average military pilot. But those Drs still get their rock star pro pay while the pilot starts out with a laughably low flight pay. If we're making a purely civilian comparison, the average civilian flight university to airline pilot track likely involves a similar investment. Their school may only leave them with half the debt of a Dr, but the pilot gets paid peanuts for the next decade as he builds time and creds for that airline job. I think the career investment and income are more comparable than you let on.

Far enough out that it's not a big deal for you, but let this be a lesson to other dudes about to hit submit on their apps. Be sure that EVERYTHING is correct. A 'fix it' email is good in that it shows they looked at your app, but it also means that they probably didn't actually score it. They also may not get back around to scoring it until they've scored all the other apps in their cue, meaning that a simple omission on your app could cost you hundreds of guys getting hired in front of you. Guys that will be senior to you until they retire. It takes longer than you would think to get the app perfect, practice for your HR interview, and for Delta, study for the test. Good work getting started 2.5 years out.

Please don't. I could have lived my entire life without knowing that is happening and been better off.

While you get paid less selling it back than you would make on terminal, a transition to a DSG position might be one good case for selling leave (assuming taking terminal doesn't make sense) as it will help you build that savings account up for getting a new job and potentially having pay problems, moving expenses, etc.

Don't worry, we'll just grow ourselves out of it. Luckily COVID didn't decrease our 2020 pilot production, absorption, and experience levels... oh wait. Yep, we're hosed.

I'm starting to think that not only will we lose the next big war, but that we'll deserve to lose it...

While you're right that they look great and go with everything, especially a tucked in shirt and braided leather belt slung low to support the beer belly, I wouldn't wear them because I'd hate for someone to think that I'm pretending to be a captain when I'm really just a lowly flip switching FO.

I've never seen a flight attendant after the shuttle dropping us off. I think it is intentional that the FAs usually stay in different hotels in my airline. Domestically, I had dinner or a beer with the captain probably 2/3 of the trips. Eating healthy is very do-able. As has been said, the first day or two you can bring food from home. Other days I have walked to grocery stores and bought food for the next day. The biggest problem with eating healthy is not necessarily the food you eat, but the volume. You go out to dinner three nights in a row. Almost every dinner I've ordered has been far more food than I would have eaten for dinner at home. Chances are you won't be hungry later if you only eat half the burger and fries at the local pub. I am very deliberate when eating on trips and didn't gain a pound the first year. I also always packed running shoes and any layover >12 hours I used a run to explore the local area.

I've been keeping up my disability insurance just in case something happened that would prevent me from passing an FAA physical. Fairly expensive, but airline pilot income for life in the event I get in a car accident or something seems worth it to me.

Exactly. In a just society, she would not only be impeached but also actually spend time behind bars. Her words will likely get people killed. First Amendment doesn't cover this kind of incitement to violence.

Not as important as getting a line number. I was advised by airline guys when I was leaving AD to get a line number ASAP and the 20 years would figure itself out. I thought I was smarter than them and waited until I was over 14 years TAFMs to hit submit on my apps. Turns out I should have listened. With the COVID stuff and exempt orders, I could be on mil leave for 8 years straight, so I could have gotten out right at 12, hired on terminal, and still hit my 20. Be ready to interview with your availability date as the earliest realistic you could show for training on terminal leave.

If you have a job lined up, have built a job transition money buffer, and are otherwise ready, six months is plenty. If you just want out and are pulling the handle while hoping for the best, six months is pretty short if you have a family to feed.

It's ok, just identify as both a male and a female when you fill out your app. Now you're in on both sides of the 50% quota. Actual race and sex discrimination in an attempt to fix perceived race and sex discrimination...

Just another sign of the path our country is on, the Harris administration just filed a friend of the court brief in favor of warrant-less search and seizure. It blows my mind that anyone could read our Constitution and even remotely recognize our current government as being derived from it other than the most basic structure. https://www.wsj.com/articles/supreme-court-considers-police-leeway-without-warrant-11616620768?page=1

That is awesome! How long did the rebuild take you? '66?

I thought the exact same thing when I read that article. I was told the same thing as him. In UPT I was "cocky and talked too much" and in MQT "I wasn't confident enough and never talked". It is amazing that until I read his story, I never realized that my instructors were not providing me valuable feedback to find the middle ground but were, in fact, just being racist.

Do tell... Can't just drop a bomb like this and walk away like nothing happened...

But can they grow their way out of the mishap problem? An aggressive bonus could keep experienced guys around to help train younger pilots which would help prevent some mishaps. Instead, they're going to save their budget dust and produce more pilots with that money to replace those apparently acceptable losses.

"Less than 1 in 100" includes less than 5 in 10000 and also includes zero. Zero is roughly the chance that I think I have of dying of COVID in the next decade. I will eventually get the vaccine for the same reason I get the flu vaccine, which I also think that I currently have a roughly zero percent chance of dying from. The flu and COVID both suck, but I'm way more likely to die from a car accident than either virus, so we need to reasonably evaluate the risks. For the military population, the chance of death from COVID is virtually zero, which makes me think that there is something more going on here. Speaking of which... I cannot think of a public health issue in the history of the world that has been more politicized that this, which is why you see a substantial distrust in the system that developed it. Remember the VP debates when now VP Harris said 'if Donald Trump tells me I should get the vaccine, I won't get the vaccine" and now she is actively advocating that exact same vaccine simply because she is now in power? Zoom out just a little and I think you'll find reluctance to get an experimental vaccine that is being pushed by substantial political motivations for a virus is relatively non-threatening to the military population to be relatively reasonable. The vast majority of deaths have been >65 years old. If this is really not politically motivated, why was a healthy guy like me <40 years old offered the vaccine six weeks prior to my >65 year old parents? Politics in the military sucks worse than COVID; it is reasonable to push back against purely political decisions being forced on the military.

I never thought I'd say the Army is doing something better than the AF, but my Army friends are quarantining in their house before and after the deployment. Why the AF thinks its a good idea to put 18 year old airmen in solitary confinement for two weeks is beyond me.

Plus the guidance that you'll still be expected to quarantine if you are exposed even after the vaccine. And they're still quarantining troops prior to deployments, even with 100% vaccination AND the virus already established at the destination. Tough to think of a better example of the brass doing something that actively hurts the military members and the mission simply so they can say 'look! we're doing something'.

If COVID is so deadly, shouldn't we be giving the vaccine to people that will actually die if they get the virus instead of a group of people that are all generally health and generally cannot have co-morbidity issues? It seems to me that it is extremely irresponsible, to the point of being borderline criminal, to give the vaccine to the military before the general population.

Gas stations may be out, but with anytime there's a chance for bad weather my truck tank gets filled. On a full tank, I'm good for 500 miles, plus the additional many miles I could get if I really needed to by siphoning the gas out of my boat, mower, etc. When I can do that with an electric truck, count me in. Until then, I'll stick to burning dinosaurs.

One thing to think about if the airlines are your primary retirement plan is your aircraft currency. If you are currently flying and have the potential to stay flying without IDE, that would set you up best for the airlines. If you accept IDE and get a non-flying staff job, your recency in any aircraft will be pretty limited. Obviously if you get a flying command or a flying staff, that's another thing entirely. Most of the majors want to see current aircraft hours, so if there is a potential that the IDE could take you out of the jet for the rest of your career (or even the last year of your career), that could significantly affect your airline plans. I know that United has a filter on their apps where they won't even see your app if you have less than 100 hours in the past year. You could be the perfect applicant other than recency and you'll never get the invite. Not trying to talk you out of staying in, just wanted to make sure you were thinking about how your app will look in 4 years if the airlines is your plan. On the other hand, your IDE and potential staff tour could open up some non-airline retirement jobs as well.