gearhog

oh good point

Pilots, burger flippers, journalists, boat captains, retailers, taxi drivers, truck drivers:

Yeah, I think his solution sort of sucks, but I'll give him credit for attempting to address an impending major issue when no one else wants to talk about it. Living in a country 10-20 years from now where tens of millions of people have lost their careers due to automation and have become poor, desperate, and angry because we didn't get in front of it would also suck.

I really don't know what the implications are. I think it's worth noting that the second biggest valued company in the world has decided to lay out some major plans to enter the transportation and logistics industry. For someone looking for a career flying job, there could be some opportunities there. Based on jumpseat conversations, it seems contract for ABX/Atlas/Prime isn't great right now, but there is the potential for very rapid growth. Today, FedEx mgmt dismisses Prime as insignificant. Tomorrow, they'll be telling their employees that they must reduce costs under threat of aggressively growing low-cost competitors. That was a good one. I would have been one of the first to scoff at UBI or the "Freedom Dividend", but Andrew Yang made some great points, and he doesn't seem to be a liberal Democrat. I look forward to hearing him debate in the primaries. I think he's right in if you thought the last 10 years brought some crazy change, the next 10 will be even more interesting. Can't wait for my monthly $1000 check because I've been replaced by a robot.

Some things to consider. Funny how the FedEx VP is completely dismissive at 6:00. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Efs3PyR8iBw

Ha. I don't think anyone is proposing putting physical barriers in the air. However, Area 51 does seem to lack imposing physical barriers. Granted it's probably not worth attempting to go there, but should we secure the border the same way?

Can you provide some examples of highly secure areas that have only alarms and no physical barriers?

You really don't need a reg. You're a commissioned officer. A temp tech position may require specific quals, but you can get up to 30 additional training day orders, state active duty days, temp AGR, and other backfill days. Go to your SQ/CC and tell him you want/need work anywhere on base.

So you're saying he's right in stating the events are likely unrelated, but his reasons for being right are wrong. Don't speculate. But if you do, do it correctly. 🙂

What’s the meaning of the call sign “SiS”? Heard it referenced elsewhere, too.

How does this change things for you tanker guys? In the Guard airlift, we get 120 deployments during our AEF rotation cycle (~2.5-3 years), and we've always been allowed a half-time swapout if we had the crewmembers to do it. The rumor we're getting is no more 60 day swaps to save money. Our next AEF is right around the corner and a lot of our over 20 guys have their finger on the button in case it becomes official.

... what? BADFNZ, as you will find, because it's new and different - it's bad. If your orders say a rental car is authorized, one would think a rental is a rental is a rental. But be prepared to justify it. A Constructed Travel Worksheet Authorization may work. https://www.defensetravel.dod.mil/CnstTvl/CT_Authorization_Instructions.pdf

Why? It's only a problem if you get the call from scheduling in the air on a local low-level route and you have to break out of the formation and terminate the sortie early to make your 2 hour report. That sorta pisses people off. 😄

True, but he asked about the value of doing both from a purely financial perspective. I suppose he could just bid a higher paying seat and fly the full schedule and do the G/R job on the days off. In rare cases, one could sit reserve while logging pay periods at the unit. Yours is a more reasonable perspective because (in most cases), it doesn't make any sense to separate compensation and quality of life in a hypothetical when you can't separate the two in actuality. It seems when many people mention "Quality of Life", they actually mean "Quantity of Time Home". I live a short drive from my Guard unit and commute to my airline job. For me, if my time at home is spoiled by the workload, stress, and frustration of a G/R job that pays less than half, I'll choose to commute a full airline schedule and be a better person spending "quality" time with the family and other interests on my days off. I realize there are some nice G/R gigs where the flying is easy and the stress is low, I'm just not in one of them.

Things are changing rapidly. The cost control measures of the Guard/Res resulting in an increased complexity in getting paid while relying on technology that doesn't work makes it difficult to get paid as often, and as reliably as you could just a couple years ago. I would say it would take some serious spreadsheet calculations, but there has to be a specific number of years of your military service where it does actually make sense to stay in and finish your 20, but it seems that break even point is sliding to the right toward 20 years as the pay disparity between military pay and airline pay widens with each new round of contracts. As Hoss said, the Guard/Res can be a great way to manage your quality of life as well as reap lots of intangibles, but the opportunity cost of dropping mil leave is getting higher and higher while the reward is shrinking. I'm over 20 and recently did the math for my situation. After 20 mil and over 10 airline years, it's not even close to being worth it. I found I'm basically taking a massive hit every year just to fly around the flagpole and have lunch with the bros. I'd estimate if you have less than 15 years of service, it's not worth it to finish out your 20 from a purely financial standpoint depending on airline/unit/etc. If you're between 15-20....?

If it's a Guard or a Reserve unit address the person by their rank once in the conversation, "Good morning, (Colonel, Capt, Chief, Sgt, Amn) Jones." If talking to an officer during the conversation, throw a "sir" in there once, maybe twice, when asked a direct question just to let them know your parents raised you right. Other than that, speak normally and naturally. They're just people and they prefer talking with those who do not seem intimidated or excessively deferential.

Friend of mine spoke with FedEx HR back in Nov about his app which he had some questions about. Lots of C-130 and contract King Air time in the desert. They straight told him he needed heavy jet and 121 time to be competitive. I don't think other airlines are as selective. I've been a career Herc guy AD and Guard. Loved the Herc on AD but I will say that if location isn't a big deal and you want to find the very best combination of an airline career and Guard duties, consider a Guard aircraft that doesn't have a long list of mission currency item requirements.

Guard. Because I wouldn't want to be relocated around the world on a whim working the long hours of indentured servitude during the slow motion collapse of a failing bureaucratic nightmare for 12 years without the ability to also pursue a career that doesn't devalue your intelligence, skills, and self-worth.

It's also important for people to realize there's a large spectrum of opportunities that exist between being a commuter and living in domicile. You don't have to commit to one or the other for your entire career. We have "in-domicile" people that walk 10 minutes to work, ride the train for an hour and a half, drive a couple hundred miles, or sit in bumper to bumper traffic for hours. Some commuters two-hop across country or take a 45 min flight each way. There are people who commute to live on the farm, lakehouse or in the mountains part of the year and sit-reserve in domicile out of a home, condo, apartment, RV part of the year. Some regularly change domiciles just for something different. I can sometimes modify trips to start or end at my commute airport. Families are a the biggest consideration and I've got two years until the kids are in college. I've been a commuter for 10 years and I would do it again without hesitation to live where we wanted. However, I intend intend on keeping our home while living in-domicile part-time elsewhere in the future.

I can't do a decent job explaining it but i'll try. First let me say I have an inclination toward cynicism. Be it innate or just bitterness over organizational failures I've seen in the AF. My bullshit detector for insincere platitudes and pep-talks is always on high gain. I also know that the SWA culture is often derided as a "cultish" by outsiders. It kinda is, but I'm buying it. It all goes back to Herb. He knew most everyone's names, he hugged and even kissed all his employees, dudes included. Yeah I know, sounds gay. He drank, smoked, and threw wild parties. He was serious about cutting through the B.S. and making airplanes fly. His philosophy was "Take care of the employees first, and the customers will come." Herb is gone and SWA is a big airline now with big airline problems. Many aspects of the old SWA culture has dwindled, but a lot of it still exists. I won't go into everything, but there's books written on it and it's Fortune magazine's 11th most admired company in the world, behind #10 FedEx, and I can see why. Here's just a few things. When I walk in the pilot lounge to check in for my trip, I get a hug from the ladies in the base coordinator office. If the Chief or Asst. is walking thru, he'll stop, handshake, crack a joke and visit. I often get hats, pins, cards, and other things in the mail for no good reason. All the company communications emphasize real positives. FAs often bring snacks, we often buy ops agents and gate agents coffee, new Captain upgrades typically serve hot dog lunches in the lounge one day. SWA throws big parties several times a year. The header of every paycheck says "Deposits made possible by your Southwest Customers." Maybe all this exists at other airlines too, I don't know. I just know I like where I'm at and I'm over 10 years in. I could just show up and get a paycheck for flying airplanes, and there are many pilots who do, but it's a heck of a lot more fun if there's an over-arching atmosphere of fun and positivity. And it doesn't feel fake when the company has the numbers to prove it's success. I know that all sounds touchy-feely and it probably doesn't count for much when most people just want to get paid big bucks as quick as possible for working as little as possible. But once you've experienced it, it counts for something.

I'm at SWA because that's where I got hired first. Honestly, If I were beginning my airline career, I'm not entirely sure which I'd pick. Because I'm established, I wouldn't consider going anywhere else. The things I like about SWA: Financial fitness. SWA is absolutely killing it, and barring a disaster, I'll likely never need worry about my employment or company growth. Never a bankruptcy or furlough. I'll never need worry about retraining to a different fleet type. New aircraft incoming. The company culture is fantastic. Always within a couple time zones of home. 3 day trips. Line bidding with open time and trip trade/giveaway: I get about as many days off as I want or I can load up my schedule and make some serious cash. A Captain last July worked his schedule to over 400 tfp (approx 340 hours of credit) to make over $90K in one month. An outlier, but possible. The things I think would be nice at Delta would be the opportunity to fly widebody international if I so choose, maybe better commutability to bases. Most times I enjoy 12-18 hour overnights, but would sometimes like a long layover at a nice international destination. As Guardian said, the days you work, you're putting in full days at SWA. Sometimes 4-5 legs a day. Not sure about Delta. The range of earning opportunity is so wide with so many dependent variables at either place that I don't think you can make an accurate generalization about where you can make the most money. I think the average pilot at both places look at their paycheck and think "Not ing bad at all." "Comparison is the thief of joy." - T.R.

If your schedule has 15 days off, those days are yours. Your "reserve" days are considered "days on". For months without vacation, I typically bid to work four 3-day trips per month, Tues thru Thurs. I often work at the ANG in between. On rare occasion, I may feel unfit to fly, so 1 of those trips might get a sick call, and I have a stretch of 9-10 days off to recover. For vacation, I get 4 weeks per year. During the Sept vacation bid, I try to spread those weeks out across the year. This year I have a week in Feb, a week in Jun, and two weeks in Oct. In Feb, I'm taking my wife to the Caribbean for a few days, and South FL for a few days. We have line bidding so I bid trips that touched either side of my Feb vacation. Those trips are dropped with partial pay. I have just under 3 weeks off for 1 week of vacation. I don't really need that much time off in Feb, so I'll pick up additional flying for extra pay. My week in June will easily be three weeks off should I want, and plan on taking 2 weeks for a west coast vacation with the kids. October is my favorite time of year for working around the home/farm, so I bid the first and fourth weeks of vacation and typically pick up one or two desirable 3-4 day trips somewhere in the roughly 6 weeks off. Last year, I spent 15 days in Oct driving around Europe with the entire family, flying standby there and back. On Active duty, I always carried over 30 days of leave balance and always felt pressured (admittedly sometimes self-induced) to not take more than a week at a time due to the weight of all my responsibilities/additional duties. The differences between AD and Airlines in the ability to travel and have stress-free time off is nowhere near a reasonable comparison.

Downloading some more dank memes while sitting on the shitter outta cheer you up.

I had to google "chidi". I'm guessing it's a reference to a broadcast network TV sitcom that you watch? I guess that's still a thing. Anyway, sick burn, bro. 😂