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Old 03-10-2018, 06:13 AM
  #20  
FlyingBulldog
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Joined APC: Dec 2012
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Originally Posted by Ski Bird View Post
I see.

Personally, I would delay the initial school until returning from the deployment (although you certainly wouldn't be required to).

So pretty much, the options are:

1) Accept/schedule the training. Attend sim training, not finish due to deployment/activation, then come back and restart this training as if you hadn't started in the first place.

2) Accept/schedule the training. Attend sim training, finish, then immediately deploy. Upon your return, you pick up where you left off. (It looked like this timeline might have been possible ... but maybe not probable)

3) Inform your employer that you have an upcoming period of active duty that will cause a scheduling conflict, and that you will have to reschedule the training dates until after the activation.

Nothing is outright wrong with any of these, but they each have different pros and cons that will have to be weighed.

Option #1 — This one might come with a little bit of unofficial stink eye from the company. Not a great look for a new guy.

Option #2 — This one sounds like the worst case scenario actually ... it sort of paints you into a corner. Let's say you do complete the initial sim training then bounce (I don't know how long the activation is, but I'm assuming it's at least a few months).

Well, now you come back. You are rusty as heck in the company airframe and get whatever recurrent sim is currently on offer ... then you go into your IOE with a huge — and totally avoidable — gap between the school that qualified you for the seat and the 'if-you-dork-this-part-up-you-are-terminated' line work that will take your training wheels off.

(This all assumes that you are a new guy that actually has to be taught what you are being taught in the ground school. You know your situation better than anyone else. If this ground training / sim event is just a box-checker event ... then it's not as big of a deal.)

Option #3 — This is sort of the best road forward (in my opinion). No unofficial stink-eye for the new guy. No huge gap between training and initial flights.

I bet your guard unit (or reserve unit) can even float you a few days in the run up to the activation. Particularly if making yourself available for this activation will hit you in the wallet.
Thanks for the insight, Ski Bird. That’s some great advice. I’m honestly leaning toward option 2 (and of course giving them proper notification). I’m confident that I can come back from deployment ready to pick back up, especially if I get the couple sims I’m told I’d get to warm back up and have the month of time off (still on orders) to study prior to that. It’s now looking like the timeline for this might be probable actually...
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