mb1685

I apologize for how rudimentary these questions are but I would greatly appreciate it if someone could break things down in a simple fashion for me. This post came out to be a lot longer than I expected so I bolded my main concerns in case you don't want to read the entire thing.

I'm a lifelong military aviation enthusiast and I have an interview next month with the New York Air National Guard (the 109AW in Schenectady) to fly C-130s. I am also applying for the Air Force's Active Duty accessions rated board, but those results won't be out until March. I have spoken with a few Guard pilots and tried to do as much research as possible about the Guard pilot lifestyle. The majority of people parade the Guard lifestyle over the Active Duty lifestyle, but I am trying to determine how feasible the Guard life might be for my specific circumstances.

I've read that Guard pilots with non-aviation civilian jobs tend to have a really hard time managing both careers and generally end up only doing the bare minimum Guard requirements, and being a pilot as a civilian career is generally a better fit. It seems that flying for a regional airline (and eventually possibly a major) seems to be the civilian job of choice to complement being a Guard pilot.

1. My first concern is getting qualified to be a regional airline pilot in the first place. I have practically zero flight time right now (12 hours of dual instruction) and I know that I wouldn't have a lot of time built up after UPT and the C-130 FTU and will need to build a lot more time (by flying with the Guard and/or buying my own time and ratings) as well as an ATP certificate before I would meet the minimum requirements (let alone be competitive for a job). Does anyone happen to have a ballpark figure for the number of hours one might accumulate through UPT and the C-130 FTU and figures for what one would need to have a decent chance of getting hired for a regional? And although I know it varies significantly between units and changing budgets, missions, politics, etc., does anyone have an estimate of how often many hours are typically flown each month (non-TDY and non-deployment) in a Guard Airlift Wing?

2. My other concern is about proximity to work. It is my understanding that the airports at which regional airline pilots begin legs are called 'domiciles', but please correct me if I'm wrong or if there's more to it than that. It looks like the nearest domiciles to Schenectady are LGA, EWR, and JFK, which are all around 160-180 miles away. Based on pure mileage, it seems like living roughly halfway between NYC and Schenectady wouldn't be unbearable, but I'm from central Texas and am assuming that traffic will be a nightmare and that paying for parking and public transportation somewhat near the airports is going to be extremely expensive and time consuming. I know that regional airline pilots sometimes rent crash pads and stay in the area for a few days at a time instead of commuting every day, but that sounds like a significantly worse quality of life than being an Active Duty AF pilot, where at least I know I'd get to see my wife and son at the end of every day if I'm not on TDY or deployed. Am I overestimating how much of a sacrifice (in both time and money) this would require?

3. If it sounds like being a regional pilot in this situation wouldn't be a great fit, does anyone have any tips for other jobs (aviation-related or not) that are accommodating for the Guard pilot lifestyle? I guess this question also applies to the period of time that I'll be building hours before being eligible to apply for airline jobs. I have a background in digital marketing.

I am married and have a son and also have quite a lot of debt (although I'm hoping to put a huge dent in the debt during UPT since I'll be on Active Duty orders and will be eligible for SCRA benefits), so financial stability is a big concern for me. I would (at least in theory) love to work my way into a full-time Guard position eventually if the possibility arises, but I know there's no guarantee. And I would like to bum as much as possible, but since my financial situation is pretty urgent having dependents, it seems like a bit of a gamble, especially since my wife will likely need to go back to school for a few years to gain lucrative employment (liberal arts degree and not much experience past entry-level jobs; she got pregnant right after getting her undergrad).

I'm extremely excited about this interview and hope that flying for the Guard is a feasible option for me, but I'm wondering if Active Duty might be a better fit for my specific circumstances. However, if offered the Guard slot, I'd really hate to turn it down not knowing if I'm going to get selected for the Active Duty accessions board (and I'll be 28 in April, so pretty soon I'll be age critical and I imagine I'll have a really hard time applying for either). Could anyone offer any insight regarding the specific concerns I mentioned above and/or any general advice?