SocialD

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Highly dependent upon your FM. I could go on for pages about fucked up shit when FM builds an empire. I would be happy if they could just figure out how to get it so everyone on the TDY could get reimbursed for rental car gas on their GTC, they didn't arbitrarily just reject vouchers without querying us, and they didn't seem to fight us on every little thing.

Yup, lots of interesting peeps in the enlisted force in the Guard. I knew one who is a self made millionaire, a few who were legacy airline pilots, one who was doing their residency while still an E-6 and an E-9 whose company easily makes him more than a 4-star. We have some great people doing some pretty awesome things out there.

Hmmmm, ALPA... Nice subliminal messaging.

...at low threat CAS. The bad part is you’ve treated your people so badly that all your experience has left, leaving you to relearn the same lessons over and over…the hard/expensive way. You have active duty OGs begging the Guard to send experienced FLIGHT LEADS (not just IPs), to come help with their upgrades. Yes, this is EXACLY it! Just the other day we were commenting about our diversity (or lack thereof) and how much it’s impacting the tactical prowess of the squadron! DUBYA TEE EFF!!! Yes, yes it is! But please, keep denying the big bonus for 1 year orders, it’s really helping the situation… Also, keep denying us full ACIP even though we, as part timers, maintain the same currencies and fly as much as a full timer/AD guy. Yes, I love “deploying” for over 4 months to go fly TRAINING lines on NON-contingency orders (blue pill 12301D vs red pill 12304B). Made even better by sending me to a location with terrible weather and terrible navaids causing us to cancel more than we fly. Why am I taking this massive pay cut again? SO MUCH MEANING!!! I love the insinuation that I get no meaning from my Delta job. On the contrary I quite enjoy the gig. I get people (to include mil charters) where they want to go and I fly with lots of great people, including lot of former mil guys. On my last trip, at the hotel bar I ran into a buddy from an Afghanistan deployment. We hit the town with both our crews and had a blast. The hotel bar is like a reunion every time I go and is always fun. The crazy part is none of us worry about if we’ll have to fight to get paid properly or if we’ll have to jump through hoop after hoop just to make shit function normally. Then we all get to go home and spend a metric fuck ton of time doing what we want to do with our 18-21 days off per month. Bonus, I also have shit ton more money to do the things I like to do with my awesome amount of free time. I’ll tell you what, I do get some meaning out of all this. Today I get to go give an incentive ride to a top-notch engine troop who is a longtime friend from my enlisted days. This will be the most meaningful thing I’ve done in a long time…and I “deployed” this year. Let’s just hope it doesn’t get ruined by a “higher priority," since the AD technically has TACON (or some kind of CON) of our jets for right now.

Cathy is still there?!?! Place is going to fall apart when she finally retires (I think she's already retired militarily).

As a Maj coming off AD, AGR is a no-brainer and you're right it would highly depend upon the squadron. I'm talking a younger guys who just finished the FLUG in an alert squadron. We have Captains that still have 4 years until their ADSC expires (thus no AGR bonus for a while) who are making 60-70k more as a GS than they would as an AGR. They will work on a Friday (non workday for us) here and there and sit a 3ish alerts a month (AGRs sit 4-7/month). Even with that they only work an extra day or 2 more than most AGRs and sleep in their own beds more than our AGRs (ref...alert). I used to be the biggest hater of technician status. However, the 25% bonus and alert are game changers. If I'm a young guy who thinks they're going to go to the airline anyway I'm going technician, cash is King!

If you're looking for the pay tables. Pilots are paid at the 2181 (aircraft operator) rate. Click here and scroll all the way down to the bottom of the Occupation drop down. Then click on 0558 (0558A = Alaska, 0558H = Hawaii, 0558P = anywhere else NOT CONUS). Historically, wingman/FL started out at GS-12 step 1 and IPs started out at GS-13 step 1. As I mentioned in my previous post, they're now giving brand new flight leads GS-13 step 1 (with a tech bonus). If someone came off active duty with more quals (FAC-A/WO/etc..), and wanted a technician spot, some squadrons have been successful in bringing them in at a much higher step. Not certain, but I think we secured at GS-13 step 6 or 7 for a guy before. Each base/state is different so ymmv. If I remember correctly you moved up in steps via the following...1 year for steps 1-3, 2 years for steps 4-6, 3 years 7-9. That said, there are ways to step dudes up faster, but your leadership has to be willing to do that and there are some limitations on how often it can be done. From what I've seen with the this, is it can vary wildly depending on squadron leadership and state HRO. It used to be that our leadership rarely ever "quick stepped" (not sure of the proper term), but another Viper squadron in the state did it as a standard practice. As a technician you also get 48 UTAs, 36 AFTPs and 15 days of AT orders a year. These pay cards are worth 1/30th of your base pay + flight pay. If your squadron has an alert det you can also work that for some extra pay days. With all these extras, I think our techs are easily able to make an extra 35-50k+ on top of their base GS-13 pay. We do 4 day work weeks so that makes it easier for techs to make extra $$$. Also, our home station alert offers unique opportunities to make extra as well...without ending up like Fresno lol. If I were are young guy under the new retirement system and I could snag a GS-13 early, I would consider that over an AGR. With a step or two, the mil pay, current bonus and double dipping, you could easily be making over 150k as a young Captain. This becomes an easy decision if you plan on going to the airlines soon anyway. I'll take the extra cash now over a few extra retirement points (or whatever they get under the new system) for when I turn 60. If I were a guy coming of AD under the old system then I'd clearly want an AGR. Just remember that the taxman cometh with civ vs mil pay. I should caveat this entire post with the fact that in my 17 years in the ANG, I've been in pretty much every status you can be in BESIDES technician. I have just learned A LOT about it over the years and have seen it work for some.

LOL, I remember hearing about that program when an AFRC buddy said they wanted him to go GS-9. At the same time, the Guard wanted me to go GS-12 step 1 or pound sand, which was a significant pay cut itself...can't imagine what GS-9 was like. So I said fuck it, if I'm going to take a pay cut I'll go to a regional so I can build time faster. Now they're handing out GS-13 (sometimes with a few steps) to brand new flight leads. With the bonus, mil pay and a few alerts here and there, these dudes are pulling in some good cash. Still not worth it to spend a majority of your time behind a desk pissed off that the network is down, yet again, while trying to email off that .xls/.ppt you've been working on all morning...all while flying as much as a part-timers. Last month I made more in a 3 day trip than I would have as an AGR (or GS-13) for an entire month.

Just finished the last episode. I think it has great potential, but I am scratching my nugget on that subplot as well.

Same happened to a random smattering of our big group. They required us to put our hotels on the GTC, and much to my shock and surprise, they jacked up the partial payments. A while later we receive a nastygram from our FM about why we're using out personal cards and how it's in violation of blah blah blah. Apparently, he didn't like our responses because we were told by the boss that we're no longer allowed to reply directly to him. LOL.

Our PTL will likely be a pilot once again...everyone will just laugh at them if they try to make us wear PT gear. Then they'll be assessed at the next roll call for general douchebaggery.

Not true. Nothing worse than showing up to a mandatory drill thinking you're finally going to attack the great queep monster, only to see all the AF systems you need, "down for mx." VPC/Outlook/DTS we're all down last drill...apparently no one in the military works weekends. If the PFT is truly going back to the squadron, I highly doubt I'll ever wear my AF PT gear again.

Imagine the ratings drop if fantasy football went away.

This cost me ~$3,000 on my last 3 month trip overseas. We weren't allowed to go find our own places due to "logical/security" concerns. Would have helped make up for the massive pay cut to go fly CT from an overseas location.

Bringing this thread back from the dead. Finance guy, are you still on here? Maybe others have figured out a work around? This is WAY down the list on bitches/gripes/complaints, but something I'm currently dealing with. FG or anyone know why we "must" have to have a car on our orders to be reimbursed for rental car gas? Shouldn't anyone on the TDY be able to be reimbursed w/o wasting man hours on amending orders? Since we lost the ability to blanket "variations authorized" our orders, this has become an ass pain. Inevitably we end up with a 4-ship in a car that needs gas (thanks LTs) and noone has a car on their orders. Sure pay cash and turn over the receipt, but half the time noone has cash anymore. Seems like we're unnecessarily handcuffing/creating more work for ourselves. Hell even planning who gets a rental car is a pain. Has to be a AGR or someone on AT orders only (no split AT/ST, no technician status, no half time AGRs, and no part-timers)? Why can't it just be a single fucking account labeled XXXFW rental car? I'm sure there is a valid reason somewhere, but it makes planning much more of a PITA when we have swapouts, people showing up at different times/locations (flyers vs airline, advon, etc...), and guys going in AGR/Technician/ST/AT/Part time status. In the grand scheme of things nothing major, but seems like this would be an easy way to make TDYs a little less painful. Might not even be an issue for AD types.

Some of the regionals will likely pick you up without an interview. Depending on your previous quals, chances are you'll spend less than a year at one before being picked up at a major/cargo carrier. I was not out of the cockpit, but the majors weren't hiring yet and I needed total time...going to the regional is one of the best things I've ever done. Best of luck! Not sure if it's related but in the last two days, I had a few of my AD buddies (who I thought wouldn't get out) reach out to me about the ANG/Airlines. Sounds like this change to the AFI is making the rounds pretty quickly.

Wait....what, No CCIP!?!?! So no BSA phase anymore? I see what this is...a plan to finally push out the old timers! Next thing you know they'll stop putting guns in jets and make it against regs to practice BFM...missiles are lasers and have a pk of 1. I jest...mostly. I agree that it's not a bad thing to reevaluate our training and look into new ideas, as long as it's for the right reasons. However, putting a 30 hour T-6 pilot in a massively power jet that is the Block-30 (w/o AGCAS) seems like a worse idea than an underpowered Block-42 (w/ AGCAS). Either way, I have faith in the IP cadre down at Kelly...lots of great dudes down there.

The other FO on a recent trip was a reserve IFF guy and talked about this program. He mentioned that it emphasized LOTS of AI/sim time, so maybe 30 hours is correct... If they're willing to put a stud in a Viper after a handful of hours in a T-6, nothing would surprise me.

That's a tough question to answer. At Delta, being able to drop trips is highly dependent upon the staffing in your particular category (Base/plane/seat)...which can change drastically in a years time. When I first started on the 73, I couldn't drop a thing and had to hope for someone to take it off my line. As time when on, staffing improved and trip drops were more prevalent, but not always an option. On the WB I'm on, we are overstaffed so I can drop at my leisure. Also, WB reserves tend to spend A LOT of time at home. Even in one of our busiest months (June), I only went to work 6 days. The other thing WB provides is generally more pay for days gone. Ex....on the NB a 3-day generally pays 15:45 (though they're slowly creeping up), whereas on a WB they're generally closer to 17-19. Next month I have two 3-days that pay 26:10 a piece. I don't even think we have 4 days on the NB that pay 26 hours. My two cents...If you want to make the most amount of money per days worked, look at SWA or get on a long-haul widebody as soon as possible. That said, having flown the 737, I can't imagine having to fly it for the rest of my career... Even at just shy of 6 foot, it's pretty damn uncomfortable. However, it's hard to deny the flexibility of a single plane fleet provides for the pilots, not to mention what they can make per day worked.

I'll always tell my friends that if they live in a city that a particular airline has a major base then go there. If you're going to commute, go to FedEx, for many of the reasons in Robots post. DH's on each end are awesome and amazing for QOL of a commuter. Hopefully you guys never cave to PBS because many of those trips could dry up as PBS is an efficiency machine! Other than that, the worry about dealing with pax is severely overblown by cargo guys. My interaction with pax is limited to seeing them as I walk back to the bunk for my break. When I was on a NB, it was limited to saying goodbye for 5 minutes as I checked out for hotties...unless it was the last leg of the day/trip, then I'm gone at break set! If we ever have issues with one, either the FAs take care of it or we call the cops/a company specialist. Shut the door and surf the interwebs while it's going down. No doubt, there is no shortage of innovation, it's the regulation that moves at a snails pace. Fuck, we've been trying to get a tactical arrival into our base (fairly close to a class b) and you'd think we're trying to restructure the entire arrival/departure corridor of ATL or DFW. 5 years laters, we've made little progress due to bureaucracy. Hell we were told, just trying to lower a MOA below 6k would take 6-9 years of environmental studies/bureaucracy. Ever hear of NextGen? What Hacker said! Companies won't spend shit on technology unless it's guaranteed to save them money. Heck I've been told that our former CEO wouldn't invest in something unless it could pay itself back in 12 months or less. They settled on shitty ass Surfaces (that were terrible) until they were forced to go to iPads due to Jeppesen saying they wouldn't support the surface anymore (at least that's the rumor). If anything, where I see this start to take hold is in long haul ops. 4-pilot crews dropping to 3, and 3 pilot crews dropping to 2. I mean today the only radio call I made from 20 West to 50 west was an SELCAL check...the rest was just bsing with the other guy. Would I want to do it single pilot....no f'n way! Like many things, it's super easy, until it isn't... Honestly this is one of the things that I could see unifying every pilot and every union (ALPA/Teamsters/APA/SWAPA/etc...). Could you imagine every airline and every cargo carrier going on strike at once? I honestly think that would happen, if companies tried to go single pilot. I'm in my early-mid 30s and I'm really not worried about single-pilot/no-pilot ops.

While there are many months that I take full advantage of this, realize that not all airlines have this capability. Even at Delta, your category needs to be staffed properly (enough reserves), or someone willing to take your trips, for you to just drop trips. I think both AAL/UAL have a limits on what you can drop down to...50 hours maybe? I think at UPS someone has to take the trip from your line. That said, I've dropped my entire schedule every month this summer and picked up what trips I wanted. I've even already dropped my entire August schedule. This wasn't always an option on the 73, though I could almost always get rid of a trip or two. DI360....if noone has told you about options other than flying for an airline, there are a decent amount of opportunities out there. Admittedly, you have to live in base for them to be a great deal, but there are lots of jobs that will keep you home almost every night. Assistant chief pilots, duty pilot, sim instructor, project pilot, etc... We have dudes in all of these positions with as low as 2 years on property. Unlike other airlines, our duty pilot (think super SOF) is a FO position...whereas I believe UAL it's a Captain. You'll work more days than the average line pilot, but most are home every night, minus maybe a 2 or 3 day trip every month. Unfortunately for Delta, the majority of them are in ATL, so hopefully you like humidity, waffles house and sweet tea. On the upside, they all pay extremely well. Either way, best of luck finding what you're looking for.

It's going on in ACC as well. At least one Guard fighter squadron has had an AD O-6 as a WG/CC in the last several years.

May - 13 days June - 6 days July - 9 days August - 12 days (I'll likely drop my entire schedule and pick up trips on days I actually want to work. So maybe drop that to 9 days). All for between 13-18k Gross, not including 401k/PS/Per diem. Before my last trip I hadn't actually gone to work in 21 days, without taking a day of vacation (to include all of July 4th week off). If you can sit short call from home, WB reserve is where it's at! I'll caveat this with the fact that Jul & Aug are actual lines and not reserve. Another caveat is that my June/July schedules would reflect more days of work, but that's because of deadhead days that I deviate from and stay home. For example, today I'm getting paid to sit at home...my trip doesn't sign in until 1830 tomorrow at JFK, so I'll just DH over there tomorrow afternoon. Also, I don't have a wife or kids so I don't mind going on trips here and there. Spending a few hours sipping wine at the base of the Acropolis or Pantheon isn't a terrible way to spend a day "working." That said, I spend more of my time in Amsterdam, which also doesn't suck. Delta 4 yr WB