Hey Gents,

I know the RPA pilot is a frowned upon position in the Air Force BUT, I have a board this weekend for ANG. Anyone have any gouge on expected Q&A to help prepare for interview?

Also (and separately) - any major general cons to consider (unrelated to career field) when deciding whether or not to leave ANG for IMA?

Thanks!

Have you read this thread yet?  It's the best gouge out there to prepare for any ANG interview, regardless of MDS.   https://www.flyingsquadron.com/forums/topic/10562-standard-interview-questions/

Also, what do you mean by "leaving ANG for IMA?"  Are you trying to get a guard job that you plan to leave shortly after?  

 

I'm already in the Guard - our mission is dissolving. One opportunity is to cross train into 18x (so thank you for the link) - another opportunity is to cross over into IMA Reserves program for my current AFSC 14N1. Trying to weigh all options.

Haven't been an intel type, so take this fwiw: go 18X, unless you have some other opportunity to be a pilot in the works.  With 18x, I doubt you'll ever worry about where the next paycheck will come from, in your lifetime.  Plenty of opportunity in the world for intel types, but I think advantage goes to RPA.

Depending on what your long term goals are, the 14N career field could offer more opportunity than 18X in my opinion...but read this and decide for yourself...

https://www.airforcetimes.com/story/military/2015/04/21/drone-pilot-compensation/25837209/

Aside from M2's point, the basic math in that article is all messed up.  From the article:

"Right now, for example, an 18X pilot assigned to Creech Air Force Base, Nevada, who is approaching the end of a six year-commitment is typically a captain with seven years of service, who is making about $103,000 per year in base pay, BAH and monthly flight pay, according to the Air Force. Meanwhile, a major with 11 years of service, who is trained to fly manned aircraft but currently flying drones, is making about $107,000 per year at Creech, with BAH amounts averaged."

Assuming BAH/BAS/ACIP are the same, which they likely would be, the difference in basic pay alone for an O3 6+ and an O4 10+ is $14K per year.  Let alone that the major with 11 years who is an 11U vs an 18X is about the get the regular pilot ACP bonus if he/she stays in, which paradoxically still is higher than the RPA bonus available to end-of-commitment 18X RPA pilots.

Who at airforcetimes crunched those numbers?

Edited November 16, 201510 yr by nsplayr
Can't get things to quote with HTML anymore...