Is USAF worth it with 50k Student Loans?
03-13-2007, 01:04 PM
#31
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Feb 2007
Position: C-17s / A320
Posts: 149
1seat1engine
you've got a better picture of what it's like than ExAF. After doing a 24hr duty day from Germany - Afghanistan - fuel stop - Germany, one's not really ready to go out and spend out one's per diem. We do it up once or twice per 10 day TDY, but anything past that and you're just worthless.
50-70 hours of flying in 10 days!
you've got a better picture of what it's like than ExAF. After doing a 24hr duty day from Germany - Afghanistan - fuel stop - Germany, one's not really ready to go out and spend out one's per diem. We do it up once or twice per 10 day TDY, but anything past that and you're just worthless.
50-70 hours of flying in 10 days!
03-13-2007, 04:47 PM
#32
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Oct 2005
Posts: 900
As a tanker guy, you may have a little more time to spend your per diem. I spent 10 days in Souda Bay, Crete and the Azores. Flew four 4.5 hour sorties out of 5 days we were at Souda. Pretty much bankers hours during the days we did fly, so just enough time to get back, do dinner and go clubbing, but these kind of trips are few and far in between. One would be mighty frugal not to "live it up" in those conditions. 
The other 150 days I was gone that year were spent in the Sand Box, enjoying my well earned $3.50 a day per diem.
The other 150 days I was gone that year were spent in the Sand Box, enjoying my well earned $3.50 a day per diem.
03-22-2007, 03:35 AM
#33
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Jul 2006
Position: DA-40
Posts: 290
Originally Posted by Seaweed
FNG,
If your dream is to fly for the USAF then don't let paying back your loans stop you. Most of these guys here sound like they've been there and done that so you should be alright financially. Besides, as a new 2LT (I'm figuring you aren't married) you're probably not going to need that $200,000+ house just yet, just some cool bachelor pad for the honeys. Besides, you'll be deployed so much anyway you'll be making a lot of tax free money and per diem, plus, while you're gone your living expenses are essentially nothing since you're not paying for meals, gas, etc. I do caution you however that I wouldn't join the AF for the sole reason of getting hours for an airline job. I agree with 1 Seat that the military is a great way to build those hours, but there should also be some desire to serve your country as well since you may be asked to die for it. By the way, TankerDriver your killing me with that rendition of computer based training du jour. We're getting bombarded by that as well in the Guard and in fact, just last week I was complaining about the same thing. I guess the thing that really gets me wound up is the fact that it takes me about 3 times as long to just get to the right course I'm supposed to take because of the Comm Nazis and their 10000 passwords I'm "supposed" to have memorized than it does for me to "take" the required test and print out that almighty certificate to prove I'm allowed to use the computer to take the courses to begin with!! All right, enough venting now that my blood pressure is elevated yet again!
If your dream is to fly for the USAF then don't let paying back your loans stop you. Most of these guys here sound like they've been there and done that so you should be alright financially. Besides, as a new 2LT (I'm figuring you aren't married) you're probably not going to need that $200,000+ house just yet, just some cool bachelor pad for the honeys. Besides, you'll be deployed so much anyway you'll be making a lot of tax free money and per diem, plus, while you're gone your living expenses are essentially nothing since you're not paying for meals, gas, etc. I do caution you however that I wouldn't join the AF for the sole reason of getting hours for an airline job. I agree with 1 Seat that the military is a great way to build those hours, but there should also be some desire to serve your country as well since you may be asked to die for it. By the way, TankerDriver your killing me with that rendition of computer based training du jour. We're getting bombarded by that as well in the Guard and in fact, just last week I was complaining about the same thing. I guess the thing that really gets me wound up is the fact that it takes me about 3 times as long to just get to the right course I'm supposed to take because of the Comm Nazis and their 10000 passwords I'm "supposed" to have memorized than it does for me to "take" the required test and print out that almighty certificate to prove I'm allowed to use the computer to take the courses to begin with!! All right, enough venting now that my blood pressure is elevated yet again!
But the pay is good. There is a misconception that military flyers are paid crap. Pay could be better for what you guys do, and what the country asks, but it is better than most people think ....
03-22-2007, 03:44 AM
#34
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Jul 2006
Position: DA-40
Posts: 290
Originally Posted by 1Seat 1Engine
I think Fighter Pilot per diem is different than Cargo pilot perdiem.
Fighter Pilot TDY for one week= 3-5 1.5 hour flights and one SOF tour. 7 trips downtown and 3-4 hangovers.
Cargo pilot TDY is=fly really long sortie-go directly into crewrest. Rather/rinse/repeat until TDY is over.
One of my good friends was a 141 pilot and told me that he'd travelled all over the world but rarely had a chance to see anything but base ops and the Q's.
Fighter Pilot TDY for one week= 3-5 1.5 hour flights and one SOF tour. 7 trips downtown and 3-4 hangovers.
Cargo pilot TDY is=fly really long sortie-go directly into crewrest. Rather/rinse/repeat until TDY is over.
One of my good friends was a 141 pilot and told me that he'd travelled all over the world but rarely had a chance to see anything but base ops and the Q's.
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