I’m stoked to be starting my post military career with Delta in a few weeks. Are there any tips, things you wished you’d have known/asked/purchased, or any advice prior to starting indoc/training/etc? Thanks!

 

not specific to delta, but set aside extra cash for taxes at the end of the year. a lot of your mil pay was tax free. Your first year out is probably going to be wonky until you figure it out.

if you’re getting retirement, go into my pay and set up state withholding (if you’re in a tax state). The default takes out federal, but not state. Also, it’s probably not enough federal since it’s only going off that as your only income.

anyhoo…enjoy!

 

Hagar cool 18 pants.
a cut above brooks shirts.
ecco shoes.
luggage works stealth 22” suitor bag.
brightljne b7 pilot bag.
Zipper tie.

listen more than you talk for a while.

 

that last one is worth all of the above…

 

Hoss speaks golden nuggets of wisdom!

 

Why buy a zipper tie when you can just leave the knot in a regular tie for the duration of its life?

 

Never understood the zipper tie crowd. Doesn't look good and the zipper starts to sag... Takes a whole 10 seconds to tie a windsor knot

 

I’m not too far ahead of you from the mil…you’re going to take a massive (but temporary) pay cut, so hope you have some solid cash savings to get you through for a while. Be ready to adjust your family’s spending habits for a while. Tricare is infinitely better than Delta, so make sure that is all squared away (and get the VA stuff done ASAP, don’t miss out on $).

Don’t go crazy buying “airline pilot stuff,” it takes a little bit of time to figure out what works for you; get what you need and then decide what nice-to-haves suit you best. For example, I already had NC Sonys, so I bought a nflight mic for that instead of spending $1k on a new headset (did all of OE with ship headsets…they work just fine despite the naysayers). Turns out that whole setup works awesome and I only have to pack one headset (I wear the Sonys every flight commuting). The only thing I kind of went against my own advice on is buying two “custom” shirts from Crew Outfitters, and those are completely worth it (the DAL ones are garbage).

Oh, and clip on tie all the way…that thing comes off/collar undone the second I get back from my pre-push lav stop. Clips on in 2 sec before I leave the cockpit at end of flight.

 

On the massive pay cut, if this contract is approved (find out in less than a week), new hire pay is around $9K a month and Delta pays for your uniforms and lodging during training. So not “massive” anymore unless you are super senior and somehow are coming over without a retirement.

 

So I know under the current PWA new hires are paid “current” while flight pay is in arrears, leading to the near-zero paycheck most people get as they transition from training pay to flight pay. With the new pay structure in the TA has this issue been eliminated, or will new hires still be paid the old way just at the higher scale?