TheNewGazmo

There are justifiable scenarios for everything. We have to do military duty to stay current and juggling two jobs is not always an easy thing to do (none of the non-military people should envy us for it...). As long as you can CYA and prove you were doing duty, not much they can do or say about it, but of course we all know this. The main point being don't be one of those guys on a transcon who says, "Yeah man, I dropped mil leave last week right in the middle of a 6-day stretch of short-call. Bawahahahaha! It worked great!" because you'd probably get the "You're a douche." side-eye from the person next to you.

While I generally agree with this advice, trust me when I say there are plenty of less than ethical (but contractually legal) schemes that non-military pilots pull to enhance their schedule and/or make TONS of cash to not work and they do it without batting an eyelash so don't feel guilty for dropping a day of ML here and there. Just don't abuse it (like dropping it the days before and after Thanksgiving or Christmas day, because they will call your BS).

Aside from the obviously return of travel demand, I am sure the vaccine mandate was something the airlines expected months ago and part of the reason why they ramped up hiring again, knowing that a good number of people may choose to leave over it.

This is what I am familiar with. I guess the AD bonus is paid differently than the ANG/AFRC AvB.

I can confirm this. My flight out of CLT to TPA was delayed almost 2 hrs that night.

Good financial advice going here, but to play devils advocate; having the Guard or Reserves when you need some time off (holidays, birthdays, summer time, etc.) is a nice option. There are different options out there depending on the unit and how valuable you are to them. MPA days, T-AGR, etc. There are lots ways to tactically place an AFTP or RD to make your QOL a little better, especially when you are junior. It (sometimes) is not all about the money. Of course while I say this I am nearing my 20th year of this shite and ready to GTFO....

Isn't this why they pay the bonus out each year AFTER you complete each year of the contract (to avoid pay-backs)?

Same thing happened with the KC-135, but we finally did get carbon brake data. I think it took at least 5-6 years to get though. Hellava difference. For the most part, I think the Air Force cared more about maintenance costs than aircraft performance.

I am pretty sure Small Pox is not a requirement for aircrew these days, mostly because the old Small Pox vaccine we've become intimately familiar with is not being produced anymore.

Definitely must be region dependant. We can barely get our flight docs away from their civilian jobs to fly with us.

Not sure if it's because we're still running reduced schedules, but I just flew two 3-day trips in the last two weeks and every leg was pretty much full. Some of them were completely full with very few non-revs. The airports are still packed. I think "teleworking" is providing some people (especially ones without kids), the opportunity to travel without taking vacation.

They wouldn't. Ironically, Ops (aircrew) has higher percentages of vaccinated people. I would venture to guess somewhere north of 75%.

Yeah, they're going to do that by keeping the right people around working for them as slaves. The Taliban themselves are not going to do any sort of physical labor or do anything that requires something more than a 2nd grade education.

I would say it'd be tough to hold a medical-related job down as any type of DSG aircrew member. Being an aircrew member requires quite a bit of participation.

The retirement blows unless you're dumping at least 10% of your paycheck into your TSP. Other than that, the ART program is a great way for a young pilot to build time for the airlines. The new pilot series GS13 pay scales (changed 1 Jan 2019) are pretty darn decent, even without a formal retention bonus.

Well trying to highlight antivaxxers and anti-maskers is a much juicier story ya know.... Last I checked, my ANG unit was about 47% unvaccinated at the moment, but leadership has a "plan" to "edumacate" people during Oct/Nov UTA's and then start processing separations in December.

It's hard to believe the A-model had less than 57% of the thrust the R-Model has today and that was with water injection (less than 45% without). We've even got old, de-rated CFM's on our KC-135's. The newer models they've got on 737's and the 320 family can put out over 30,000lbs each. The LEAP is over 31,000.

There have been CFM56's that have gone 40,000+ hours without an overhaul. Granted these were -5 and -7's. KC-135's have -2's. Of course, everything -7 and newer, I believe, have generally been FADEC controlled.

Some talk about mask wear....

Interesting. Maybe they hit the bone... didn't even feel my Pfizer. Actually had to look over and see that the dude was done. Then a week later it felt like someone was sticking an ice pick into my arm pit.

It was 6-8 months ago for us in the Guard. They told everyone that if they got a COVID vaccine off base at a local pharmacy to make sure it got into our records. I do know that Walgreens' system talks to ASIMS. Is the DoD mandating the Pfizer shot even for people who've already gotten the J&J? I know quite a few people in my unit who opted for the J&J last Spring. My only concern is that when I got the Pfizer through Walgreens, ASIMS flagged me due for a second one. It just comes up as "COVID-19" so ASIMS may in fact not be smart enough to recognize the difference between the one-shot or the two.

You know the easy way out to a lot of people's hesitation to the new mRNA-type vaccines would be to just get the J&J jab and be done with it. It's an adenovirus vaccine. The technology has been around and been used since the 1970's in many other vaccinations. Get the J&J, get it in your military medical records as having a COVID shot and be done with it.

You are trying to use way too much common sense here. They will not wing him. The pilot shortage is a crisis of the past.