But, by using skewed numbers, like I work only 3-5 days a month on reserve, you are making incorrect comparisons. We were "out of pocket" one airplane for 4 months, I didn't fly a day in that time. Can I say that's typical? Of course not. Was it nice? If course it was.
The guys that didn't take the recall adjusted once to corporates, were will immersed in airline flying and would have gone back w/o a hitch, so it wasn't a forced decision, entirely a decision based on personal factors. The dry numbers of pay, days worked and so on do not adequately capture the trade-offs.
I mentioned ex-mil for the simple reason ex-mil guys are walking into legacy jobs in large numbers without delay. The friend of mine did it in 3 months. How many RJ pilots are waiting years at low F/O pay working 16-19 days a month commuting?
Here's my example of regrets missed. In '97-ish, I could have left the Reserves as an ART, retired and joined UA. Lots of friends there, some in good places to help. Lots of ex-EA guys, too. I looked at pay, days worked, future, the outrageously good contracts and decided the risks of furlough, lousy UA mgt and labor relations (I'd been on the EA MEC during the ESOP wars at UA and knew the business background) and first year pay wasn't worth it. Sometimes good decisions are about not making bad ones. The UA pilots of those years had a terrible 15 years, despite what looked like great working conditions. Furloughs, sometimes twice, loss of retirement, huge pay cuts, stagnation. I've made 50% more dollars, earned another pension and had a great time doing it.
So, I'm sticking with my experience--make personal decisions on more than numbers, understand there's NO silver bullet, sunk costs are just that-sunk, and no one can predict the future. You play the cards you're dealt.
New guys: you can make any oath in aviation a success; being a T7 captain at 40 is great, but don't count on it. You could wind up a RJ captain at 65; it's all about the fun and the stories. I didn't have the career I wanted, but I've loved the one I had. Including one major airline BK, one mid-air, three corporate jobs and several line and mgt jobs.
Lastly, Don't let superior people judge your life. Some of my best friends are airline captains. I envy them, they envy me.
GF