hindsight2020

Surplus cockpits?¿..... Isn't the shortage one for 11F people to go cover desk jobs?

Probably some PIT guy finally had enough playing puppet and pushed the envelope of his "stan" character. I hear golfclaps and a Denzel sequel in his future. Joke aside, glad the dudes are ok. A landing you walk away from is a good landing.

Anybody care to bitch about the RCP visibility of the new seat now? Martin baker puts the old seat to shame. Of course we have a built in food processor and rear facing intake that makes the Texan pretty much birdie proof, but the MB setup is great peace of mind on both airframes. One hates to think how the outcome of pre MB -38 ejections would have turned out had they had the good seat. Glad these two made out ok! Martin baker's saving lives like a coast guard helo in The Guardian lol

From a retirement perspective you didn't win.. The opportunity cost to forego retirement income to age 60 (minus the retirement age rollback you may qualify for depending on how much RPA/MPA money you're pulling in the Guard) cannot be recouped by merely attaining a Resevere retirement in the Guard as an O-5. You're also erroneously assuming the Guard will let you hit sanctuary and thus an Active Duty retirement while a Guardsman by doing it like a bum, one manday at a time. You just can't bank on that. From a QOL and job satisfaction perspective, you did win. What you're doing now is exactly what you envisioned doing in Active Duty at the twilight of your career. You're just not getting paid what you would want to while doing it. Oh well, we all live within the scarcity of this life. I wanted to fly fighters, no musical chairs at the time and my college broke ass needed an income. Rule #2 of life and all that jazz. There's worse places to be I suppose. Once again, AD pilots should be well served by assuming their job has a 10 year shelf life. Anything after that is a lifestyle choice between the singular motivation to earn an AD retirement, or doing what they want to do for a living. To bank on doing both concurrently is naive and improbable, about outright poor planning in my book. That social contract went out the window when they booted the 157 O-4s non-continued. In light of that event, today nobody has the ignorance excuse for being punched in the mouth with an involuntary separation from the check o' the month career track. We have a saying back home: "En guerra avisá, no muere gente...". In a scheduled war, nobody dies. It's not suggesting immunity by foresight, but it is suggesting the perils of not exercising foresight due to optimism bias when the information is provided to you otherwise. No one can claim ignorance on this war.

Bingo.....chalk another one up to the supposedly mentally-induced "subjective" differences between the Charlestons and the Cannons of the world. Some of the kool-aid drinkers on here suggested earlier in the thread that assignments are 'what you make of it' i.e. not a matter worthy of making go/nogo decisions over, and that valuations of discomfort regarding location are largely imagined and hardly real or objective. All locations are good and it's only in the mind of the person that things are bad... Yet, EVERY single quitter who wasn't a RIF dude that we've hired on the Reserve side unequivocably 7-day opted over 2 things: 1)PCS location 2)flying vs non-flying. That's it. No bonus or such nonsense. 'It's what you make of it' my ass! I know more people who've walked out of the plantation over a nutpunch PCS than I know passed over separatees. Running outta toes to count here A1.... Hell, Minot and Cannon look like Ford assembly lines. 5 ducks fly the pond for every billet you need to fill. Tell me that's mere happenstance and "just in these people's heads/it's what you make of it"... LOL

a fuckin' nav could have done a better job of rounding out that fat goose than these fucktards did......

Don't know if it's been posted already but here's a hi res of the touchdown path. Gnarly. http://media.zenfs.c...RASH-ASIANA.JPG

You physically can't. You'll time out rank wise and be forced to retire, at which point you'll only be able to apply for a Reserve retirement at age 60 (minus whatever 90 day stint blocks you did as a reservist, which currently allows you to apply for retirement equal number of days earlier than age 60). Furthermore, the Reserves will be very careful in not freely allowing you to accrue orders to put you in sanctuary before you reach said timeout date. Some might require you to sign a statement waiving sanctuary. All that said, it is possible to eek out an AD retirement out of the Reserve component. It's not clean nor generally easy, but it is possible. Worst case scenario, you have a lot better QOL as a senior guy and fly your ass off to your hearts content. It is also a very nice furlough supplemental insurance flight time wise and money wise. I came back today from doing CT with a fellow TR and we were really telling ourselves, fuck this is fun when AD is not involved. It was an honestly enjoyable flight, it was great to feel that way doing this job from time to time. AD makes it impossible to feel this way with any frequency. I love the Reserves, AD Lite notwithstanding.

As I have grown to disect and question my faith, it dawned on me that outside my formal Catholic upbrining, the fundamental driver to my behavior is and continues to be based on the premise of reciprocity. This commonly gets refered to as the Golden Rule. Expanding that notion to humanity at large, it stands rather clearly then that the combination of: 1)fear-of-harm/pain/untimely-death at the hands of other humans, and 2) the self-initiated desire to self-actualize (unexplainable inherent sense of purpose) ..leads one to opt for and favor co-existing behavior in society. Religion is therefore a man-made social custom to formalize that inherent desire to thrive in an environment where absent those precepts of behavior, one would die in an untimely manner at the hands of a stronger neighbor. We're literally proposing coexistence in order to not die at each other's hands so that we get to achieve our sense of purspose, which drives us to think, question, breathe and feel. I do believe in an invisible entity in the sky from the perspective of the relative uniqueness of our condition in a world where no other peer species exist to interact with us at the self-actualizing level. Condition which I haven't witnessed in animals nor those pesky UFOs that never stick around long enough to make themselves indisputable, is what cements my belief in the metaphysical. Other than that, to each their own. I certainly will not use my Christianity to yoke or otherwise prosletize others. Which makes me a pretty bad Christian I suppose...but at the onset I admitted I was a cafeteria catholic so I'm good in my own skin. I do think the more orthodox/literal interpreters of our religious precepts make us Believers look a bit crazy and non-coexistent in the bigger scheme. I wish they weren't the formative voices of the Faith by imposition. In the end I fall back to (1) and (2) for my own morality. That seems to be agreeable to atheists, and all but the most intolerant Believers, alike. The fucked up thing is, this philosophical approach to religion is more likely to piss off the aforementioned Christians than the Atheists...

How much ADSC left? Apply, sure, but man I wouldn't have hinged my ability to take a OTS/UPT class date on daddy letting me off the hook. Unless you're in an AFSC like Knowledge Ops or some other money-wasting internet browsing enlisted career field that they are early voluntary separating, they're gonna hold on to you. AFPC has you by the balls I'm afraid. 100% chance of failure if you don't try, but don't get your hopes up. It sucks to have a go-ahead from a Guard unit and not be able to take their offer.

Correct. The TR bonus is 10K/yr. People are confusing that with the AD/AGR ACP.

Ditto on all the advice above. As a Reserve guy I'll add that homesteading is much more possible in the Guard/Reserves....but you ain't gonna make dick for money. Getting a full-time position in a desirable unit/location is once again a game of odds and legacy/nepotism, hardly what I would hinge the sell-point of 'homesteading' to a spouse who demands such family construct. My advice? Don't get married until after 30. Do the pilot thing as a single dude, and if someone rejoins on ya make sure they're copacetic about what it means to be married to an Active Duty pilot. I.e. the possibility of a lot of moves to crappy locations with poor employment prospects for spouses and frequent and prolonged separations. If they can't handle that construct, they're not right for you. if YOU can't handle that construct for at least a UPT commitment, then the construct [i.e. the Active Duty] is not right for YOU either. It sounds like you're trying to project too far into the future. It's a nice exercise dude but it doesn't work like that. I was an engineering student too, and I had a college girlfriend who had expectations of a "normal" home every night and party with her co-workers on the weekend lifestyle. We divorced quick. I should have broken it off in college in hindsight. Now I have a real spouse, one who accepted and understood the choices and variances of choosing to pursue a life with a full-time military servicemember. But that happened in my 30s where I was already established in my flying career and had gone through several iterations of units and locations. and again, I enjoy a lot more control over my "time away from home" than most Active Duty guys, but if I was doing this stricly part-time, I would have to have a primary career compatible with part-time military service, and let me tell you that is yet another sacrifice and hardship (for another thread). Lastly the airlines. Better ability for you to commute to work while keeping the family in one city where they want to live. Problem? Going civilian route means no money and a potential hung start career in the first 10 years. It also means they get to stay in one place, but you don't get to see them over a normal schedule (normal world schedule= work M-F free on the weekends, normal airline life= work F-T off on Wed, when the rest of the world is at work). So that is not going to be compatible with your little life plan in my honest opinion. Good luck to ya. I respect your desire to draw a reasonable line to a stable family life. You're not going to be able to find that in aggregate in active duty military service. You're going to need a spouse who is dead honest willing to accept a below-median American living construct (crappy locations, separations from family). Otherwise, get a cube job and a hobby that makes you forget how much you hate your day job.

You should have started with that sentence. I don't think it's possible to genuinely "take TAMI-21 in stride". Other than the paycheck, and we know how long that excuse lasts. Unless they let you back in the cockpit, there is no way a young dude would be able to rationalize having his wings clipped at such a young age. At least the old guys have a sore back to appease their feelings on departing the cockpit. TAMI was a huge bait and switch. Last time I checked, non-pilot aircrew didn't have a 12 year commitment and we didn't send loadmasters to UPT to be loadmasters. That probably explains 69% of your hatred for the job. It's not that things got bad, it's that they never got good for you in the first place. I sometimes wonder what it would have been like going AD instead of Reserve, considering the multitde of current and qualified AD dudes that cut in line when the old unit sold us out and went AD Lite....then I remind myself that for my year group, had I gone OTS instead of AFRC, would have put me dead smack in the middle of TAMI, and then things look awesome by comparsion to me again. At least the 90s banked pilots got their jet eventually (some even got paid masters degrees from reputable civilian universities while collecting an O-3 paycheck no less) and flew to their hearts content. TAMI was just a soulsnatch job.

Indeed. --break break --- matmacwc, to fill in the laborious details to the "drag your feet" angle of that answer provided: Basically, the RLA is anachronistic in nature in that it prescribes a set of "status quo measures" meant to deflect a strike and instead directing the grievances through a mediation board (NMB) which is supposed to address the concerns of both parties while still allowing the service, in this case, old ass RAIL, then adding old ass AIRLINES, to continue providing the de facto "utility" (like electric power, utility) of mass transit to the American public in an uninterrupted fashion.Uninterrupted, that was the goal of RLA. The problem arises (surprise fucking surprise -->) when management uses the "interminable" nature of a government appointed mediation process to (surprise fucking surprise #2-->) perennially lock out the labor group from lawfully striking (read 1997 AA Clinton beat down et al), especially when said labor group hasn't had the opportunity to complete an initial labor agreement with management in the first place. In modern practice, a narrow Congressional interpretation of the RLA's status quo provisions, which stems from management (surprise fucking suprise #3 -->) having the paid ear of the agency who legally validates the mediation vehicle, allows management to utilize said legally mandated mediation process to perma-stall the ability of the labor group to strike lawfully in a timely manner, which is the only leverage a bunch of "i dont want to work for a living, i want to fly and park and go home" carbon-copies-of-each-other proletariat pylets have left in an American labor environment that hasn't benefited from a labor shortage of any substance since the last one died in 19-fuckin-70. Clear as mud? Im not an airline guy nor a Navy lawyer, but my newborn did leave me sleepless last night. For my part, I agree with the petition. It is beyond retarded that airline guys are not covered by the NLRA and are still excluded from more mainstream labor movement leverage due to a 70 year old anachronistic exclusion being abused by airline management. Will it pass? Hell Naw!.... Look, the only true leverage in this industry will come the day people quit with their willingness to do that job for free (aka willingness to be a regional FO for 10 years waiting for Baseops Butters to open up the hiring window). The problem is that there's too many disheartened desk jockeys around to ever let the former sentiment die though. Your fellow pilots are your leverage, or more properly, lack thereof. A classic tragedy of the commons. If you want to make money unencumbered by your neighbor's willingness to do something for free, merely because he perceives the activity as fun, you need to either go to dental school or stay at that GS post office job. For me, I'll lick stamps for a livable and comfortable wage (around these parts flying a trainer is viewed akin to licking stamps, it don't bother me...) while I raise my family on it and fly for fun on my own dime, now and in retirement. To each their own. Variety is the spice of life and all that jazz. Hope this helps.

Sweet Joseph on a donkey, the warrior monk thing again. GOOD LUCK! I hear they hang out with Sasquatch....

I thought we established after 15 pages of going in circles that the pilot bonus is no longer and hasn't been for a while, a measuring tape of any relevance to assess and attain parity with airline compensation scales. Ergo, those who stay, stay anyways and the effective volume of people for whom a 18K/yr post tax is the go/no-go for is statistically inconsequential. 18K might have been a lot in 1991, but it isn't now. We've also established that the contract is one-sided and can be rescinded by Blue at any time, which means most members understand that signing the bonus does not give them any more of job security than the free agent that doesn't sign, making the bonus even more irrelevant to these "im staying until they kick me out " types. If they didn't know that, they now know that. So, to wrap it all in, the bonus 'in praesenti' is merely a means for lazy force management incompetent Blue to not have to actively and tactically manage its force, by removing 7-day opt and attrition-via-assignment-cycle dynamics from the members' discretion. Secondly, it's a bread staple Blue "ineffective but VISIBLE" senior leadership token response in order to cover their political rear when they ask them why people are leaving aka 'um, we did offer a bonus, the dynamics are clearly out of our hands'. Welcome back, you're caught up now.

All flight training outfits should be owned by AFRC.....

Damn it. Beat me to it... What a FWA that place is (RND)

Famous last words alright. You do realize your flying days are in your rear view mirror right?

I did that in lieu of Active Duty for the first 4 years of my tenure in AD Lite. It sucks getting paid 60% for the same time and effort, but it's a hell of a lot better QOL vice AD, much better schedule, much more control, and IMO better than sucking buffalo for a nickle a herd as a regional FO commuting to a rsv line making food stamp money. Now, just like doing the regionals long-term, you bum/trough for more than a couple years and yes, it's a bad plan if you have a family. For full disclosure, I put my family life on hold (starting one) until I was sitting in a full time position. I know some who did have families and troughed; I don't envy that shit. The key to success in aviation is: have a really rich wife, or have a really CHEAP wife. But a meager-earning/non-earning wife with a sense of entitlement? (read: most of them) Um, no. Get rid of that one.

Not every week...

I'm not CAP, but the answer to your question is, yes. Refer to CAP's original post and the qualifications are listed for all three airframes (RTF thing bra'.. :D ). As a matter of fact, it's a much easier job to get than T-1 IP. Phase II is NOT the gentleman's course of the house and the manning reflects that... I'll just leave it at that... Call now and we'll throw in a complimentary "I'm a quitter and I like it!" T-6 shaped keychain with your application Seriously though, if you're interested feel free to PM folks like CAP and others on this board who work within the 340th who can give you more direct vectors. Recognize every squadron has their own idiosyncracies and manning situation, so it pays to inquire about and get in touch with the specific UPT location you're interested in.

Thanks. This^^^^

Though it is indignant for the peanut gallery to hear such utterance from booger eating FAIPs and however easy it is to discredit their perspective due to lack of exposure (not their fault mind you), the jist of the argument is about right. I have met plenty of mediocre hands, some outright scary, I've had to seeing-eye help/rescue in the jet who have cleaner FEFs than mine. Being good on test day doesn't mean you're good. It's lowest common denominator fellas. Hands don't really mean shit past a nominal threshold of performance. Which is why FEFs and OPRs aren't reflective of an aviator's net daily skillset. In Blue's defense, the job is designed for all of us to be carbon copies of each other, just like the airlines, so individual differences in mechanical aptitude for flying don't mean one iota nor are recognized or awarded, outside a few niche special flying programs that require overt demonstration of above-average ability in order to get in. As to the rest of the article. Man, those two sound beat down, especially the T-1 chick. Talk about soul-crushing sour grapes. Somebody send these two a "3 rules of life" postcard with rule #1 highlighted in neon yellow. So, other people undeservingly get better deals than you...Um, welcome to Life?? Could be worse, she could be on a RC box watching her nail polish dry (is that comment degrading to women? lol). The power of perspective...

Give the AF some credit, this is the heart of ALL of our labor problems. The concept of employer loyalty is dead. Our employer is no different. Take care of número uno and I don't mean lead buddy.