OldAg84,

With 10 years in, you'd most likely be an O-4 or very close to it. As a Major with 10+ years in service using the new 2006 pay tables, base pay is $5,482.20 a month. As a pilot, you will get flight pay, which at 6+ years is an extra $650 a month. BAS (Basic Allowance for Substanance) is $187.49 right now and BAH (Basic Allowance for Housing), which you get if you live off base, varies with location (zip code). For example, BAH where I am right now for an O-4 is $1,299.00 a month with dependents. So, when all is said and done, an O-4 with 10+ is bringing home $7,618.69 a month or $91,424.28 a year before taxes (and BTW, the only thing taxed is base pay and flight pay). Then of course there is the pilot bonus, which gives you $125,000 (taxable) over 5 years if you sign for 5 more after your 10 year commitment is up. As you can see, when it comes to money alone, AD is hard to beat. As a 2Lt right out of commissioning, you're making near $40,000 a year. As an O-2 with a little over 3 years in, being deployed as much as I am (I was tax free 6 out of the last 7 months), I'm bringing home about $5,500 a month with hazardous duty, hardship and family seperation pays, all tax free. Very hard to give that up. It's nice having a pay check on the 1st and 15th of the month and not having to worry about it. As you can see, once you get to that 10 year point, most likely having a family to support, it's hard to seperate and start over. Having to go back to square one in the right seat for a major airline making $35,000 a year on probation and maybe $55,000 from there after (all of which is taxed), can be tough.

The thing you have to understand is that AD is not a flying career. At least to me it's not. Flying is only part of the job and sometimes very little part. When I'm not deployed, I fly maybe 15-20 hours a month tops. The rest of the time I'm flying a desk chair doing paperwork feeling like a secretary and it only gets worse as you make more rank. Once you're an O-4 or O-5, you'll definitely be in the office more than the cockpit on active duty. In my opinion, you can't compare being an airline or corporate pilot to being a pilot in the military, because you're being payed to be an officer, not a pilot. I only get $150 a month for flight pay. That shows you how much flying is worth to the military. I came from a civilian/commercial backround before joining AD. I got into this thinking I would fly more and have a job which revolved more around flying, but unfortunately, it doesn't.