Tyk2525

Okay, here's the deal.

I spent four years in the Marine Infantry. I have an itch for the military and serving our great country.

I currently go to school for Aeronautical Science. I'm working on my flight ratings as we speak. I should graduate by spring of 2019 (I hope, anyways). I plan on going to the regionals shortly after that.

Recently, I had an interest to join the National Guard. They have an infantry unit, so that's what I would do. Upon graduating I would be commissioned.

How do the airlines see active guard members. Both regionals and majors? Do they frown upon it? Obviously drill once per month, and two weeks a summer might conflict with scheduling...or vacation days would have to be used.

Do any of you regional or major guys know of anyone who does this, or could give me some insight if it would work?

Thanks for any info!

Scraggly Heron

Hopefully this will answer your question:

Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve > USERRA > What is USERRA

It's pretty common for airline pilots to also work for the reserves/guard.

rickair7777

Airlines are totally used to it, if not always happy about. Since pilots are interchangeable, it's not painful when we leave (unlike the district sales manager who goes on mil leave at the end of the quarter), they just have to staff more to cover it (which of course they'd rather not).

As you narrow down your job search, you could go on APC and ask about the military reserve climate at the airlines you're interested in. That way you could avoid the few bad apples if you're worried about it.

As long as you're doing reserves, any chance of a flying billet? That would fit better with your career.

rickair7777

The devil is in the details. The actual application of USERRA is based largely on previous case law, since USERRA itself is worded in a vague and general manner, encouraging employers to "push to test" on a regular basis.

The good news for airline pilots is that most of the testing has already been done, you just need to find somebody who knows how it all applies to airlines, specifically the formal seniority list aspect. Maybe the union will have such a person, maybe not.

Bottom Line: You don't have to use vacation, they prefer that you schedule mil leave prior to the schedule bid being processed (1-2 months out, depending on airline), but you can drop as much mil, as often as needed, with short notice if necessary. Unless you just pick the wrong airline, it will be a non-event.

You can also add extra time on the front and back of mil leave for travel and rest. You can google the details, it's some number of hours, but airlines typically only schedule leave in whole-day increments so for most of us that means a 2-day drill weekend will be scheduled as mil leave Fri-Mon. You can try to only drop leave Sat/Sun, but when your flights get delayed and you get back to base at 0300 you're going to miss muster (or show up with no sleep). Also if you commute, there's no way that will work. You can try to bid report/release times which work with the mil schedule, but that's a crapshoot unless you're senior.

Rama

Perhaps look into a flying position in the Guard once you have your degree.