Originally Posted by
flybynuts
Most of the situations that I have heard about is guys finishing up IOE and a month later activating themselves for a year doing "support/desk" stuff and not really deploying to the sandbox. A lot view it as a tactic to offset the 1st year pay and CA is left without the new body to use and abuse for 12 mos.
Everyone I have spoken to about this says that the key to making this work is to be UP FRONT with both your Guard/Reserve unit and the airline that hires you. I don't take that to mean you need to bring it up in an interview; but certainly before you get into training it seems you would want to let them know that you will need 3-4 months to do RTU and MQT.
The SWA People Dept person I spoke with at HPA told me that they want you to fly for 4-6 months after IOE without taking military leave so you can get used to the way the company does business. The Guard/Reserve units I have spoken to have not had a problem with this as long as you don't try and go fly trips with your airline while your at the RTU. One unit I spoke with said I would have 12 months to get the training complete after I joined the unit. I thought that was pretty generous.