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Old 02-24-2017, 05:52 AM
  #8  
crewdawg
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Joined APC: Jul 2006
Posts: 5,545
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As always it depends. With PBS (our bidding system) at DAL, for the most part, I can put all my reserve days straight any time during the month. I've put them all at the end of the month and been able to work mil duty on my off days. However, that gets old FAST. The upside is you can usually get a few extra days off due to FAA 30 hour rest requirement. The downside is you're on call block is never ending and you're number 1 to be called until you get down to 3ish days remaining.

In the winter I would get 18ish days off a month, so I would just work my 4 days/month (or more if I wanted) on my off days and still have lots of free time. In the summer months I usually would "only" get 14-15 days off a month so I would usually just pre-post my mil leave and have them adjust my line (ie...less airline pay). When I was on reserve, I would pre-post 2 days, then work the other 2 days on my off time. I'm about to go to the the WB, which I may be lucky enough to have a line relatively quick. With the off time those guys get, I expect to work on my off days.

I'll caveat all the above with the fact that I can sit short call at my house and only live 20 minutes from the squadron. I'm not sure what the 130 requirements are, as a fighter guy, 4 days is extremely tough to pull off...some months I just don't get my sorties. But as merle dixon said, your desire to deal with the extra BS will diminish QUICKLY when you start losing big money to drop mil and show up at the Guard. It takes about 4 pay cards (16yr O-4) from the mil to equal 1 day of 3rd year NB pay. Closer to 6 pay cards when I move over to the WB in a few months. I stay because I still love the flying and I love the camaraderie within the squadron. If I were married and had kids, I'm not sure that would be enough to keep me hanging on.

Best of luck!
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