N261ND

What is life like in the Air national guard?

Do you have to be part time? can you fly full time?

And what about pay? what does "Basic pay (4 days for working 1 weekend)" mean? Can you live off of the ANG or do you need to have another job on the side?

Basic pay for working part time seems to good to be true. I must be misunderstood?

What is the application process, should I start by talking to a recruiter...where do you start?
Can you join any unit you want or do you get assigned a unit after UPT?

I have a bachelor's degree, my private, and am working on my instrument, and plan on getting my commercial, multi, and CFI as well. Im just considering all of my options.

any advice on flying in the air national guard is appreciated!

Thanks everyone!

rickair7777

You can participate in the guard full time, but generally you would have to start part-time and then apply for full-time, or transfer in from active air force.

Military pay starts with basic pay which is the same for all service personal of a given rank and longevity. This is chump change unless you're a senior officer, but you also get a variety of tax-free allowances, specialty, retention, and hazardous duty pays. This can add up to well over six figures for fixed wing pilots, nuclear submariners, doctors, and SOCOM boyz.

In the reserves, to keep things simple, when you work for a period less than 6-7 days, they simply pay you 2x base pay/day, but no allowances. You can also get pro-rated specialty pays (ie flight pay). This works out so that reserves get fair pay relative to what an active duty person wouyld make. If you go on active duty longer than 7 days you would be paid almost like a full-time person (slightly different allowances).

So to answer your question, no you don't get paid full-time unless you are working full-time!

The best place to start is with the unit you want to join; it's like rushing a fraternity, and can take a couple of years. You get a unit to sponsor you, then you go to UPT (in every case that I know of). You will need to get with a recruiter at some point...but those guys aren't really "recruiters" they have way too many applicants, so they are usually "weeders".

Your education and civilian flying plan sounds ideal. Find the units in your state and get in touch (you generally need to be a resident of the state in question, and they often prefer true local boys vice somebody who just moved there). Be persistent.

Rich

ND mentioned plans to get an instr, commercial, multi...

Do you think ND (and myself for that matter) would be better having the civilian certs prior to joining, or should I put off my civilian flight training (141) and just let the ANG take care of it? If I tried to get in while already having civilian ratings would the guard take time off of my training period or something?

I'm a little concerned that I might not get in and then I'd have resume civilian flight training, and that would make the time I took off from 141 training a waste.

I appreciate everything the more experienced share with the younger guys. Helps us not make the same mistakes and makes decisions a lot easier!

Rich

rickair7777

There are two benefits to doing civilian training prior to joining the military....

1) It makes you more competetive. This is critical if you are coming in off the street, less important if you're at USNA/USAFA.

2) It will give you a leg up on UPT. Unlike civilian training, military training is as much a weeding out process as a training process...and the sooner they can weed you out, the more money they save!


And like you said, you might not get in for a while or at all...stay on the civilian track until until you actually report for military duty. I've known guys start at the ANG from CFI all the way to regional captain.