Originally Posted by
That Guy 74
That's pretty much exactly what happened with me back in 1999, with the exception that I had been at a regional for about a year when I was hired by my Guard unit. I had to wait until early 2001 (about 2.5 years at the regional at that point) to start training with the military, and then Sept 11th happened, so my airline career didn't work out quite as planned. I did gain a lot of valuable experience at the regional, though, and your line of thinking is a good one.
I would highly recommend going to a regional that has a flow through...that way you have a chance to flow to the mainline carrier. That doesn't restrict you from applying at the other majors/legacy in the mean time. If you want to be a Guard guy and fly for a major, flying at a regional will help bolster your flight time a lot quicker than being a straight Guard bum or taking a technician or AGR gig at the Guard unit.
Word of advice - if you wind up flying for the regional for a while before going on active duty for training, when you show up at UPT, zip your lip and minimize your background/experience. You are there to learn the MILITARY way of aviating. Let your actions speak for you. My flight commander literally had to pull me into his office to finally get the real story about my background (I had about 4,000 hours when I finally reported to UPT) because I did not want to come off as a know-it-all. Hopefully this already occurred to you, but I thought I should mention it just in case.
Lastly, if you see one of your classmates struggling on a subject you are strong in, approach them away from everyone else and offer to go over/tutor them on it. It's never too early to pay it forward and mentor someone if you can.
Best of luck!
Thank you so much for the feedback! And it looks like my situation might be almost identical to yours the way the stock market is going with virus fears.
And yes I plan on going into UPT to learn how to do everything the airforce way. I am always shocked to hear every so often about pilots washing out who have 1000s of hours w/ ATPs, but apparently they were unable to conform to the USAF way of doing things.
And if I am in a position to help I definitely will. This community is awesome, and is completely different than my previous nonflying job in the private sector where no one helped anyone. I have had nothing but great experiences thus far. You guys have literally saved me so much time and effort, and hopefully I can pass that on to others. Thank you!