EvilEagle

Why do you think heavies fly more often than fighters? Not even close. More hours yes, more sorties/fly-days no.

There are ways in both ANG and AFRES for you to get an "active duty" retirement (start getting paid after 20 years retirement). It's somewhat easier for prior AD guys since they already have a big chunk of time that counts towards that before they join the ARC. For the ANG (other than title 5 positions) you have to be in a DSG ("part timer") position. As long as you are flying the mins (likely quite a bit more than one weekend a month), you can continue service until you hit 20 when you will "retire" as a DSG ("Drill Status Guardsman"). You can start drawing that retirement just before you turn 60. You may also have a full-time job: civilian (technician) or military (AGR/ADOS). As a technician you will have a separate retirement fund similar to a 401k; your pay scale is also different (GS scale) - if you are a normal technician you will also be a DSG so when you retire you could retire as both a technician and a DSG. I'm not sure when you can draw a technician retirement. Military full time is just like AD (with potentially a lot less BS than AD). You do 20 or more years in full-time military status, you start getting paid retirement as soon as you retire. Those 20 years don't have to be consecutive. Many people bounce around between pay statuses many times over their career. Hard to wrap your cranium around at first as a dude leaving AD but if you spend some time with some ARC dudes they'll put your mind more at ease. Good luck.

10 year commitment for ANG/AFRES can be done as a DSG ("part timer") it does not need to be 10 full-time years. Pipeline training time and initial seasoning days are USERRA exempt for the ARC, after that your USERRA clock is running.

That would've been epic (the RF bit). Great ideas!

It's unrealistic in the fighter world - and downright impossible as a new guy. Thankfully for us (fighters) you finish the pipeline and get 3 years of full time orders. If a pilot is really good, he/she can handle being a part timer and not become a safety limfac at that point. Each unit is different, but in my experience you just can't make it happen one week a month - too many things going against it.

What Nunya said. One trip a month to your ANG unit is a pipe dream in most communities.

Owning an airplane (bought my first one 11 years ago) is a heartbreaking yet awesome experience. If you have the means, go do it - you only live once. I had a Glasair 1 that I used to fly to work everyday for 2 years. After my Mc-dozen deployment and AD jettison to the ANG, I bought a Bonanza 36 and have had that for 8.5 years. We flew it a ton for a while, then had good years and slow years. My kid is 2 now and she loves flying which is awesome. It's been a total gamechanger for the extended family visits; even before the kid but now it really is. I honestly didn't think I'd ever sell this one. I'm thinking about selling. But just to buy something else. I'm retiring this year and moving back to Idaho next spring and want something a little more back country friendly. 180/185 is the goal, but I'm kicking around all kinds of options. Financially it'll never make sense in the long run; do it because you want to be an airplane family. Drop the cash, don't ever keep track of what it's costing you and go fly every time you feel like it. (My .02 )

Jaysus! I didn't know that tanker alert was title 10. WTFO??? (great deal for you guys - we need that!)

Thanks, i'll try that

Never happened before but this Hilton popup at the bottom of the screen goes right over the bottom of the reply/message container. Unable to click to enter reply. Tried it on Chrome, Edge and IE. Hilton - you are killing me!

I'd say that if we liked your act, those scores wouldn't keep us from interviewing you. Obviously there's room for improvement and for people to have a stronger application than you, but those are good scores. Start rushing the units of your choice and let them tell you if it's good enough. AD: no brainer, you'll get a UPT slot with them. They give'em out like candy. 🙂

It depends on why you are asking. I've seen a few guys get hired somewhere just to get a pilot slot/fighter slot/whatever then bail out on that unit at the first possible chance to move back to their home unit or a different unit. This is highly frowned upon (at least in the fighter community). Know that an ANG unit that sends you to UPT has to release you before you can transfer to another unit. You owe 10 years after UPT so "quitting" then joining another unit isn't a thing unless the losing unit allows it. We are in such a manning crunch these last few years that we have had to deny or seriously delay transfers to other units. We have worked with the members to get them moved as soon as the squadron could sustain it but it's not the same as it was 6 or 7 years ago when people just walked in one day and said "hey man, I'm going to transfer to XXX place. Cya" BL: I highly discourage joining a unit while already planning on a transfer. If you are doing that, be upfront with the unit in order for both sides to manage expectations.

A lot of guys are doing this now. The guys I know that work at the mil desks for the airlines think this is the min-run scenario to keep you off the bad-boy list. Getting off probation fully is the brass ring, but getting through consolidation is where most places won't give you the hairy eye-ball. To me that makes no sense at all - if you are out more than a couple of months you have to go back through training. They say training takes 2 years of flying the line to recoup the cost. Not sure why they would "like it" for people to come out for 100 hours then bounce. Oh well, just another thing I don't understand about the airline. FWIW, I did the full year - got off probation in about 8 months (@ DAL it's 400 hours of flying or 1 year on the line). I wanted to be off of probation but I also wanted to know if I'd hate it or not. That way I'd have 5 years of leave to find something better. I ended up not hating it at all. I retire this fall and can't wait to go back.

Agree on the availability date. A bro of mine was getting out, I told him not to dick around with it; he did. Delta called and said "congrats your indoc date is XXX day." "yeah, I was hoping to change that to after YYY day." "If you want to work at Delta, we'll see you on XXX. Goodbye". He flies for AA now.

Sorry, I didn't see that for a few days. Delta

I only flew the line for a year before going on mil leave; and I've been gone for 4 years. HOWEVER, I commuted to NYC from Nola, held pretty much all international on the 767 that whole year and still flew Eagles in the Guard. I will more than likely be a commuter my whole career because I don't want to live anywhere we have a base. It's all what's important to you - I'll commute to wide body FO with good seniority when I go back next year. Will I make more money than the guys in base? Nope. Will I be just as happy because I'm living where I want to live - YEP! Airline job is truly choose your own adventure; which is one thing I love about it.

You are going to need to do well on the tests to be competitive for fighters. GPA isn't awful, but it's not great. Otherwise, not enough info to give you much feedback until you take the tests. Don't wait too long, your age is a factor.

Fair enough. The way you phrased it sounded like you were saying if you aren't credible in the jet you can just go be a commander in the ARC because it won't matter. Just caught me funny. I was a squadron CC in the ANG and looked at the guys that were CC's on AD in my community. From many conversations with them it's a hell of a lot harder to be a CC in the ANG due to all the additional stuff that doesn't automatically happen (orders, recruiting, OTS, pipeline, etc). If you don't have cred you won't get jack done for your guys - which is why you are a commander in the first place.

Why do you think this is the case? Do you think the ARC is such a second string option that you don't need cred to be a commander? C'mon man, you can't be that far under a rock?

http://www.vistosofuneralhome.com/obituary/mathew-mccarty

Pyro and I were in the same IFF class. We've been buds since then. I got to spend some time with him back in April, he knew this day wasn't far off. He was a hell of a dude, I know Sara and the kids are hurting right now; but boy they had a pretty good last year all things considered. I'm so glad they took the time these last few years to make some family memories. Those will pay off for the rest of the kids life. RIP Pyro, you are missed broseph!

That makes a LOT more sense.

This is all lies!!! Of course I only watched the first 5 mins of it, but I know it's bull$#!t because Hacker: 1) Sounds like an adult 2) Hasn't gotten worked up enough to curse at anyone in more than 69 seconds 3) Hasn't done anything illegal yet Clearly this is all made up.

If you've gotten positive words from a unit you definitely want to apply there. If I were you, I'd be all in on that unit. I had a long string of street bikes starting with an FZR600 back in the 90's, GSXRs, 7R, 9R, TL1000, 916, 996, Mille R. All those are gone now and I ride a BMW R1200GSA. Good luck!

IMO you aren't a good candidate for fighters. If you chase this dream you will likely spend a lot of time, money and effort into going around visiting units and they are all going to tell you no thanks. Hate to be the dream crusher but you have stacked too many things against yourself. I highly recommend not putting yourself through the rush process for fighters. If you still want to serve and fly go rush heavy units, much better chance for them. Good luck.