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11-04-2013 | 12:01 PM

#64

Adlerdriver

Gets Weekends Off

Joined: Jul 2007

Posts: 4,064

Likes: 37

From: 767 Captain

Quote:

Originally Posted by Montey

Good afternoon Joe,

I am moving to Ohklahoma for school next year. Before my freshman year in their aviation program, and enlist into the ANG.

In the state of Ohklahoma, the ANG pays for your college/university as one of there benefits for serving; "100% tuition waiver". Once I graduate with all my ratings I could become a CFI for the school (still enlisted) and gain my hours towards the minimums. The school (SouthEastern Ohklahoma State University) has an agreement with American Eagle to hire instructors and guarantee them a job.

Get hired by AE and try to work for a year with the airline. Apply to become an officer within the ANG; hopefully the same unit Ive been enlisted at and go to training. Come back with senority at AE and work at the reserves at the same time.

If I were you, I'd try to enlist at your local ANG base. Try to earn your ratings with loans and get a job instructing afterwards with a school that looks at a lot of hours per month so you'll be busy.

If you were to join the ANG you have to be willing to serve for your country and not use it as a "stepping-stone".

Keep at your degree, a non-aviation major could help as a back up plan. (I am double majoring)

Again, Im just 17 years old so I dont know much. Try asking these questions in "career questions." The threads are very helpful and could give you some more information.

Montey,
I don't want to discourage you, so I'm trying to be careful in my response. I’m not saying your plan doesn’t have some merit; however, you may want to get some more opinions. I have a couple of opinions/questions you may want to consider:

Any college aviation program is going to have significant cost associated with it. The ANG is not going to cover all the cost of your aviation training. Maybe you know all the details, but knowing exactly what you will have to pay for such training vs what you can get covered via tuition waiver, GI bill and scholarships will be important.

I think it is safe to say that most of the younger first officers at American Eagle probably hope to work at a major airline someday. Your plan is fine if your ultimate goal is to be senior at American Eagle and stay there. If you eventually want to fly for the military (via ANG or active duty) and work for a major airline, why bother with American Eagle or paying thousands of dollars for ratings you can get for free in UPT?

There are potential pitfalls in trying to succeed in UPT after receiving a significant amount of civilian training and becoming a CFI for the university. The second guy to wash out of my UPT class (after the Army helo pilot) was a civilian trained CFI/CFII with over 3000 hours on mil leave from a regional airline. Frankly, all the time and money you spend getting ratings via the university program is going to be wasted if your plan goes as you say and you attend UPT.

Getting all your ratings, enlisting, getting hired at AE, working for a year or longer, training as an officer and getting selected for UPT all so you can take military leave from AE and return with some seniority seems like a complex plan for not much return. As far as not using the military/ANG as a “stepping stone”, that seems like exactly what you’re trying to do.
Why not pursue a meaningful degree you can use as a backup? Consider ROTC while you’re attending college. If not, enlisting to help pay for school can be a good option and a way to possibly pursue a commission as an ANG officer as well as selection for UPT. If you have other scholarship options, consider those as well, so you can graduate with little debt and be available for officer training ASAP. If you truly don’t want to use the military as a stepping stone, then make officer training and completion of UPT your primary goal. As soon as you’re done with school and the opportunity is available, go to UPT. You’ll spend several years on full time active duty getting all the training competed. You may have the option to get a full time position at your Guard unit after you get back from training. The training you receive will be far superior to anything you can get at a civilian college. Opportunities for civilian aviation jobs will most likely be available at some point in your future, but for now success as a military officer and UPT student should really be your focus if that’s what you want. After you have some experience, you would still have the option to get a job at AE eventually; the only difference is you may not have the extra couple of years of seniority. In the long run, once you’re flying for a major airline – who cares?

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