pilot141

If you guys have AETC experience the job at the 96th might be bearable.

The commute to Del Rio is not. At least, it wasn't for me. I finished up my AF AD time in T-1s at DLF and just switched patches to become a 96th guy. I had a job at AA and life was good.

For the first year, at least, when I lived in domicile (FLL/MIA) for AA. After 9/11 I moved back to TX (DFW) anticipating the furlough and all that got me was a nice double commute. Jumpseat to SAT, rent a car and drive for 3 hours.

Still, it was a reserve job, I still had buds in the squadron and it wasn't too tough. Then FK left as flight Commander and DJ took over. Life for the TRs went downhill quickly. The only guys that stayed were guys already furloughed. I knew my number was up at AA but I bailed anyway - the commute and ass pain just got to be too much.

Before you sign the contract ask some serious questions. Do they want 6 days a month or 18 a quarter? It makes a big difference, since a UPT base doesn't fly on weekends - getting 6 days in one calendar month becomes a challenge.

Anyway, my war stories are from long ago (2000-2002 timeframe) so I'm sure some things have changed (although I'm pretty sure Del Rio is about the same).

Bottom line: it's an easy flying TR job with some good guys, but getting to and from it will make you want to pull your hair out. And when your best entertainment option is Whiskey Sour night at the White Horse Lounge you have officially hit bottom.

jetIP

we have both, guys who live in SA and those who live in DR, or places in between...all over the Hill Country. DR has changed in the last 8-10 years, mucho construction, both commerical and residential. sqdn ops, leadership has stabilized, things have gotten better as program has matured. give Skeet an e-mail at [email protected]. straight shooter, he can give the latest info.

dudemize

Thanks for the info, guys. I would much rather live in San Antonio but after coming home from a week long trip with NJA and then having to drive to DR and spend 2-3 more days away from home doing the reserve thing would suck.

I wasn't sure if guys who actually lived in Del Rio longer term with their families would have a different viewpoint then guys that were there just for UPT.

Slice

For those who move to SA for the gig, I highly advise not to speed through Brackettville and +/- 10 miles either side.

jetIP

I know we have some part time slots. T-6 and T-38. You'd have to e-mail skeet ([email protected]) about the full time (AGR) slots. I just don't know. I do know retirements are beginning to happen. I would assume both TR and AGR alike, but have no idea on timetables. Like I said, I don't work upstairs with the paper pushers who keep up with personnel issues and such. Im a downstairs IP. However, I do know the bonus is available to the AGR's.

blastoff

"Welcome to Hondo. This is God's Country...so don't drive like hell."

jousteagle

For someone in the know...how many days are required per month (I've read 8 per month on the reserve FAQ)? How much would you make (let's say as an O-4) flying the min days per month?

Thanks!

jetIP

Please realize that I am not the expert. I've been here a long time, but as a full timer. I really do work on the line (got a syllabus question?) crank'in out student sorties. I would hate to steer someone wrong, so there is my disclaimer. Just passing along an opportunity that I know is available right now to those who may be interested. For specifics, please e-mail [email protected] .....he can give you the latest and greatest....
now to answer your question...I think its 6 days a month, but there is some "over three month average" deal or something that is taken into account. I don't think airline training counts either. They know how it is. You really would need to ask Skeet. I do know somebody posted on here that AETC dosen't fly on weekends. Not true. We do XC's all the time on weekends. In fact, due to shrinking pots of $, the active would love for us to do many more.
More than happy to do my very best to answer questions, but please realize that I don't do interviews or hire anyone. Don't know the UMD numbers or the commanders favorite color. I do, however, really do enjoy working in the unit, and know there is some opportunity available.

**To the dude who said Skeet had a nasty coffee mug...I still don't think he's washed it....seriously. I swear that thing could make a gyger counter go off.

Tweetdrvr

I was an AGR in the early days of the program. Back then in 99, pre kid, the wife and I enjoyed Del Rio. She was trying to get a GS and we were going to stay, and I was going to commute from there to the civil job. Now, looking at it from the point of view with a five year old, there is no way I would live in Del Rio. The schools are not that great, unless you are going to pay private tuition or do the Ft. Clark thing. We even have an AGR who lives in Uvalde and drives almost 70 miles everyday, so his kid can attend better schools. I think at $3.50 per gallon, I would rather pay private tuition than drive everyday, but H.S. sports are also involved in his decision. The border is only getting worse with the crime in Mexico. It is coming up the river from the south. Nuevo Laredo, and Piedras Negras have already gotten bad, and Acuna is starting to go that way. A Mexican business owner who lived in Del Rio was killed in broad daylight in his driveway six months or so ago, and the drug traffic out on the lake has not slowed down. Eventually, some random act of Mexican drug cartel violence is going to happen in Del Rio and innocent people will get hurt. Things have changed for the worse since 9-11.

I have spent time in all the remaining traditional UPT towns. For single guys who don't do water sports, I think Enid might be a better place than Del Rio. Less than 125 miles to Wichita, Tulsa and OKC, plus having OSU and OU nearby can not hurt. For single guys who like water, hunting and fishing, and have a long term steady girlfriend and aren't hunting for that particular form of game, Del Rio is probably good. Just don't pop the question while until you have an assignment to leave, because it takes a special women to love you enough to live in DRT. If you want water, hunting, fishing, and need to find a woman, Starkville and Tuscaloosa are very close to CBM, and ATL is about 5 hours. MEM, and New Orleans are just a little more of a drive than the 148 miles from Laughlin's gate to the Lackland exit on 90 and that doesn't even get you to the River Walk. For family life, I gotta give the vote to Enid as a good place to be. Good schools, great neighborhoods, not just the reservation, and all close to base. The only thing they don't have to have made it perfect in the eyes of the wife was a Target, but the closest one is 80 miles away down Highway 81 to the Northwest Expressway on the Northwest side of OKC.

Highway 90 is not that bad for a once a month drive. If you can get the pass from the family and arrange your schedule, you can pull the last six days of one month, first six days of the next month, with a CT cross country in the middle on the weekend, fly your CT to where you live, spend the weekend evenings at home, and get 12 days of participation for one trip, and cover 2 months. Then you can disappear for almost 6 weeks and not come back until the last week of the next month.

Min running six days a month means you will accomplish 48 AFTPs at about $175 after tax each for a 16 year O-4 Texas resident. 48 UTA periods for the same pay. And depending on whether you use some travel days on the front and back of your trips or just drive down early in the morning on your first day of duty to arrive at the squadron by 1000L to work an 8 hour day, you will see a minimum of 24 AT/MPA days or a max of 48. A 16 year O-4 Texas resident gets about $220 per AD day after tax. All in all about $16,500 per year for IDT, and add another $5300 to $10,600 in AD pay potential.

If you min run the participation and only do six days a month average, you may not get reimbursed for every trip to DLF, depending on how your schedule works out. We have a pay bundle policy that has been blessed by our JAG as passing the necessary tests of not using MPA/AT for the purposes of paying someone to perform IDTs. If you do two duty days of MPA or AT on the front of your trip, you can then stick around and do as much extra IDT as you want. They will pay you round trip mileage and per diem for the AD days, then they pick up the lodging and you do not get per diem for AFTPs/RUTAs. The group policy is you will show a plan to accomplish all reserve funds, i.e. TPs/UTAs/AT before they will allocate MPA. So in a way, the reserves are helping fund the UPT mission, because you fly a predominance of sorties on reserve pay days. Unfortunately, AETC doesn't have the MPA available to have us all on MPA days for each and every trip to DLF.

If it takes 48 days to accomplish all your AFTP/UTAs at two periods per day, then it takes four days of IDT per month to get them finished, and the only way to get paid for that is to do two MPA on the front, then you have to do six days per month. This is getting difficult, because the AD squadrons are running out of per diem money, so the days of always being able to plan to take a student cross country are about gone. They are trying to accomplish the Nav block (8 rides) via out and backs and cross country will be the exception driven by weather and standard timeline issues. I used to come down on Tuesday as a travel day (paid MPA or AT travel), work Wednesday through Monday and go home. I was only subject to two days of local flag pole, if I see another jacked up TP stall I'm coming across the gap to the front to kill a student, flying, go cross country Fri-Sunday, sit SOF or fly CT on Monday and do my travel voucher and arrange my schedule for the next trip and leave. Meanwhile, they will only let you take a jet for weekend cross country once per half, and you have to have valid CT squares remaining or the AD OPS O may cancel it at the last minute so it doesn't appear to be a "reserve boondoggle" just to get us paid.

After all is done, as Jet IP said, we have a great bunch of people on the reserve side, and I would do anything to help anyone of them, we are tight. This is still a better deal than dealing with the possibility of getting activated or being volun-told to go to the desert. We are not going to be BRAC'd unless they shut down UPT in favor of an all UAV force, which ain't gonna happen in our remaining careers. We don't have chem gear or shots, our currency requirements are minimal, 48 student sorties per year minimum, 20 CT sorties per year minimum, a backseat landing, a night backseat, and a spin every 45 to 90 days depending on event, and accomplish one non precision and one precision approach per month on average, and fly form and low level once every 120 days. The students are still motivated (at least until the UAV drops to T-38s) and are a blast to teach.

Del Rio has gotten better since 2000. Applebees showed up in 01, Chile's followed, Wal-Mart built a new super center, K-Mart is no longer the anchor store at the Plaza del Sol, Wendy's came back to town, there is a Schlotskys and a Jack in the Box, they tore down the old Whataburger and built a new one, and there is a Home Depot on the north end of Avenue F. Don Marcelinos is still not a place to go, Cripple Creek, Wright's Steak house and Avanti's are still open. Crosbys is still in Acuna. The lake is at conservation pool since it's near record low in 98 and again in 01-02. Last year it rained more than ever in the summer and never went over 100 degrees for the whole year.

dudemize

Great post tweetdrvr! Thanks.