Anyone have any updates to the thought process for TDART wrt covid-19 and airlines being poots? I'll be getting out of FTU early next year and will be around 1200TT (eligible for R-ATP) but cant help but think its a smart move to take the bait for TDART. I'll be a 1LT at a heavy unit with an associated active unit, if that matters. My alternatives are: going back to my salary engineering job, bumming + flight instructing, or regionals (assuming they are hiring again mid 2021). Seems like any path I take is probably going to be a grind for a while until I get more mil time built up. Any other downsides to TDART not previously mentioned?

Locality pay and bonus seem pretty solid for GS-11 for my area, and I think its probably the best way to posture myself for airlines later on down the line. Advice?

Go Guard. All pilots GS-13

This is a little nuanced, but when the calculation for a FERS retirement looks at your military time, is it just Active Duty (RegAF/MPA/RPA/AT/Contingency/etc.) or do UTAs/IDTs get added to the calculation?

On 7/14/2020 at 8:58 AM, Piper Nick said:

Anyone have any updates to the thought process for TDART wrt covid-19 and airlines being poots? I'll be getting out of FTU early next year and will be around 1200TT (eligible for R-ATP) but cant help but think its a smart move to take the bait for TDART. I'll be a 1LT at a heavy unit with an associated active unit, if that matters. My alternatives are: going back to my salary engineering job, bumming + flight instructing, or regionals (assuming they are hiring again mid 2021). Seems like any path I take is probably going to be a grind for a while until I get more mil time built up. Any other downsides to TDART not previously mentioned?

Locality pay and bonus seem pretty solid for GS-11 for my area, and I think its probably the best way to posture myself for airlines later on down the line. Advice?

Take the T-DART, it's a layup. Back when I was in your shoes, the Lost Decade was in full swing and there was no TDART. It was a grind to trough as an O-2.

New pay tables are great. Pilot bonus is in addition to locality. You're looking at $120-150k /yr from Step 1 - 7.

They'd be real stupid to try to go the other way on the tables due to COVID. This little road bump in airline hiring isn't going to last very long. By the time we know it, it'll be in full swing again.

They'd be real stupid to try to go the other way on the tables due to COVID. This little road bump in airline hiring isn't going to last very long. By the time we know it, it'll be in full swing again.

The first time I saw the proposed new GS-13 pilot pay tables was in 2016 when my OG at the time got a draft from a friend at AFRC and they had been kicking around for a while.

I think they went into effect with the ANG in Dec 2018, two weeks after I resigned the technician position I had held since 2007 to go to the airlines.

So basically it takes over three years to change one table. We lost a lot of pilots to the airlines in that timeframe.

It would take that long or longer to change it back. It won’t turn on a dime.

Remember guys, we are talking about the federal government here.

22 hours ago, ROCK 10 said:

 

Good question, three part answer:

1.  ALL AD time prior to your FERS/ART start date will be calculated to move your SCD (Service Computation Date) to the left - NO IDT is used.

2.  You can/should do a MIL BUYBACK/Deposit to get FERS credit for this time, and it will be added to your FERS longevity for retirement purposes.  In my case, this added 32 months of creditable FERS service at very low $$. 

3.  No AD time will be used after your FERS start date.

Best of luck with your decision, take care.

 

3. Not entirely correct. Should you take any extended tour 6 mos  or greater AD time (i.e. AGR, USERRA and/or LWOP-mil) will count ONLY if you buy it back (for retirement purposes) or pay the equivalent Civ missed FERS deposits.

Buying back time isn't very cost effective for officers. It's great if you were an enlisted troop and you land a GS-12 or 13 job, but for officers it's pretty expensive and with the FERS being such a dismal program these days (it's changed quite a bit in the last 7-8 years with ART's having to contribute 4+% into their FERS pot now instead of .8%). With that and the fact that the longevity of a pilot in an ART job generally being quite low, you're better off forgetting about it and cashing out your FERS pot when you separate the program.

Question for the group,

Would an O-4, 2500 mil time, going to an AFRC unit of a different MDS be hired as a GS-11 or GS-13?

 

Referencing the the AFRC pilot opportunities guidebook, appendix 7 and it looks like Gs-13 but I am looking to confirm.

Thanks all

 

I would think 13, and if they said 11, I’d tell them to GFY and find another unit. 

Question for the group,
Would an O-4, 2500 mil time, going to an AFRC unit of a different MDS be hired as a GS-11 or GS-13?
 
Referencing the the AFRC pilot opportunities guidebook, appendix 7 and it looks like Gs-13 but I am looking to confirm.
Thanks all
 

They also don't have to be hired into Step 1. They can hire into a higher step if your qualifications justify it.

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Not exactly the same but anyone have experience working as a GS pilot after AD retirement? (Not ART). Trying to understand special rate pay vs  locality pay and if you can "buy into" just military academy time towards the FERS retirement. Thanks!

special rate table supersedes locality pay (to wit, it's inclusive of it). As to the second question, don't know since I stopped looking at ARTs decades ago, but gonna go with probably with 'no'. Congrats on the active retirement, looking forward to locking in that eligibility myself here in 33.5 months (not that I'm counting 😄).