brabus

I've talked to several bros who have been asked by OG and or WG/CC about not taking bonuses...they all say the general reaction is surprise. In 2019, leadership is still "surprised" a $15-35K bonus isn't worth shit to us.

Wing CC: "Why would you not sign this bonus, you're leaving $35K on the table!" Pilot: "I grossed $35K last month in my other job" Wing CC: "....fuck"

ROTC is definitely your best chance at a pilot slot. I've never met a single regional guy and thought, "I bet that guy had a better time slogging it through the regionals than flying military aircraft all around the world and doing some awesome shit with bros who will be life long friends."

Keep in mind it is not a one-size-fits-all game. Every unit will be different in how they weight certain aspects of a candidate, and for that matter, the same unit will differ between boards based on who's on the board that particular year. Hundreds of people apply for many fighter boards, so every point counts and it behooves everyone to max effort tests, but in the end some boards will care more/less than others on specific scores.

Those are great things, make sure they're are on your app. Bottom line, things like that display you are physically competitive, have experience competing as part of a team, and care about the success of others and not just your own (the volunteer hunter education part helps demonstrate that). Have a plan to find work in a civilian career field post-college, but keep up the Guard job hunt. We also want to know you have an ability to support yourself on the civilian side if/when full time orders aren't available.

Aggressors isn't a retainment tool - no offense to my bros who do that mission, but most fighter pilots aren't clawing at the doors to do it, especially under the current environment. That said, your point of an ARC unit is more appealing because there are fighter pilots who want to stay connected to tac aviation, but only do so not on AD/as a part time gig. The contract side of the house has provided that in a significantly better manner than the ARC could ever do...ever. It will take monumental organizational change (i.e. never going to happen) for the AD to get back to doing a fighter aggressor program like it had in the 70s-80s. So, this is one place where I think contractor work is by far the best direction for this program and we should just shove money at them over the next 20+ years instead of trying to "save" money and completely fucking up the whole thing ourselves (I also say this having zero personal connection to any contract ADAIR).

GPA is awesome, PCSM is great, AFOQT is pretty good...any sports, volunteering, etc? Especially in fighters, most want to see a person who's more than just really good at school, though that part certainly helps your app get a closer look. You're young, so you have plenty of time, which is a great thing. Honestly you'll probably be beat out by guys a few years older who have a more "well rounded" app and maybe a couple years of post-college work experience, but I think that will only hold true for a short while as you mature, get some post-college work experience, etc. Don't be discouraged by this, just expect to not make it on the first try, but keep at it, as I think you have a good shot at getting interviews in the next couple years.

M29s are shit...the block 30 Vipers are better aggressors (capability, safety, reliability, parts availability, etc.) ADAIR needs a major facelift, and it needs to be well beyond our current aggressor fleet or any old Soviet jets sitting around various places in the world.

Each unit is different...matt's is one perspective. The other perspective is visiting gives you and us an opportunity to interact and determine if this is worth going forward on (i.e. official interview). But to Matt's point, this visit should be accompanied by your resume/package (sts), because that absolutely matters and bad enough scores, GPA, etc. can absolutely tank your chances of an interview, no matter how good of a dude you may be in person.

For the next 6-9 years, I don’t think finding a full time position in the ARC will be that hard. When the airlines stop hiring maybe it’ll go back to the old days of having to kill your own mom to get one, but those days are over...for now. At your age, I highly recommend pursuing the ARC...nothing wrong with going fighters in UPT as a guard guy (and I say that as a previous AD guy who didn’t go to ENJJPT and had to compete for 38s and a fighter assignment).

That's how fighters have generally done it since I started flying over 10 years ago. We "spin up" for a deployment X months out, and the rest of the non-spin up/non-deployment time is spent training for the other missions/scenarios.

Agreed that’s a CF, but not the RC of the retention problem. HPOs are leaving in droves as well.

The AF can't incentivize the folks who will command if they stay, that's how fucked they are.

Takes approximately 7-8 years post-bachelors to make a WIC grad, so really it's about the same time to create a patch compared to a MD/surgeon. Probably have spent $20M+ on that guy too by the end of WIC (encompassing his entire flying career thus far). The AF is beyond retarded and will summarily dismiss the recent RAND study because it doesn't support what the AF wants to hear.

Miss that guy. Cheers to you buddy 🍺

Thailand's a hell of a place...

You just used an assuming pronoun, back to green dot training for you.

I hate to admit it, but there's a lot of potential value in robot wingmen. Doesn't mean there's one manned fighter and 50 robots, but if I can take my 4 ship down town with 5 robot wingmen each, well now I only need 4 F-35s to do the work that would have taken 12 F-35s (random numbers to make a point). Still a lot of pitfalls that will have to be overcome by technology, but I think they will...eventually.

Agree with Stitch - starting a local club can be great. In fact, the only con of doing so vs. an AF aero club is you don't have government subsidization, but a non-AF club can win in every other way, from better airplanes to no bullshit red tape. Remember, the best thing the AF does is fuck up something that should be awesome.

Stop talking to this guy, he has no idea what he's talking about.

It probably will take ~10 years to get the hours airlines are looking for if you don't do the regional thing SocialD mentioned. That said, you only have one chance to fly fighters and the rest of your life to fly large aircraft. And that's why I completely disagree with this guy's opinion on what you should fly - lots of fighter pilots in the airlines.

Prioritize your finances to allow for consistent training (at least 2-3 flights per week). Any less of a rate and you’ll spend more time and money over the course of getting your license. Look into student loans specifically for flying if you’re not generating enough money with a side job, internship, etc. I’d say $7-8k should be about right, +/- depending on where you live.

With "standard locality" I'd have to be a step 9 to break even with Maj AGR, even with the 25% bonus. You must be figuring in a hell of a locality pay (which I'm not saying isn't possible, but by definition location dependent). And that doesn't include all the ridiculous asspain that goes along with being a technician that doesn't exist as an AGR. So I'd say you need to be a step 10 to start getting ahead of a Maj AGR...how many O-4s on here who are 13 step 10s? Bottom line, moving to AGR is the right move...the better move is laughing your way to your next fill-in-the-blank airline trip.

Yep. Ha, it’s been draining for quite some time - but this and one other thing pushed me over the edge into sub-zero faith.

At the recent OG council the OGs advocated for max bonus (i.e. $35k for 1 year orders vs. current $15K), A1 concurred on the idea, saying they agreed with the pilot shortage. FM folks were on board. And then A3 says there isn't a pilot shortage and they don't see a need for increasing bonuses to allowed, full amount. Un-fucking-believable...the operations guys (e.g. "us") say there isn't a problem, but even the manpower non-operators are saying there's a problem. Admittedly I generally blamed this stupidity on A1, well turns out it's our own guys backstabbing us. The ironic thing is I said to my OG a few weeks ago how I had lost all faith in the staff to do anything right (referencing another crucial topic)...well, apparently I can lose more than 100% faith.