Just curious....for those of you flying in both an ANG unit and at an airline, what is life like? How many days off a month do you average?

 

It's going to vary, obviously. Some airlines have a limit to how many days you can mil drop before it starts cutting to to your min guarantee. I've heard of guys working 5 days in a month, and I've heard of guys being on the road for 2 weeks at their Cargo outfit, being home for 3 days, then leaving on an AFRC trip. Few days rest, back to Cargo. Not a terrible life for a single dude with a crappy apartment; but if you're not 'that guy,' your life will suck if you try to pull that off!

 

Lots of variables, like UPTme said. However, I think he misspoke on a couple of points. There is no "limit" to mil days. That's illegal. The airline has to give you the mil days you request.
They definitely don't have to pay you for them, so his point about cutting into guarantee is correct. In fact, most airlines DO NOT pay you for mil days (AA is one exception here. They let you drop up to 4 days and it doesn't affect your pay - pretty sure I have this right. AA guys can jump in if I'm wrong). So, with most situations, any airline trip/R-day you drop is going to mean a pay hit. Obviously you get paid at your ANG unit, so there is some offset.
The way things have been going lately, it's likely your guard pay is higher per day than most mid-low seniority positions at many airlines (unless you're pretty low ranking in the ANG).

So, to answer your question: Depends on the unit. A fighter unit usually needs at least 6 maybe 8 days a month with more on busy months or if you deploy. A cargo or tanker unit may only need a couple of days a month for proficiency or they may need a whole bunch if things are busy. There's a pretty good bit of flexibility in most situations (not always). If you want to work your tail off, you can fly a full airline schedule and then do military on your days off. That would obviously leave you with very few days off (maybe 5 or 6?). You could also drop 75% of you airline schedule and work mil when you would have been at the airline. Then you have the same days off as your civilian buds at the airline. It's kind of up to you (usually).

 

I'm curious of the same question, except replace airline with fractional, or 135 cargo outfit. Any takers?

 

I spent some time working for a charter carrier after my furlough. They wanted to know my mil days before the monthly schedule - then they just built it to avoid my mil.

I think it would be similar with any smaller outfit. You're just going to be more visible and typically those companies aren't manned as heavily. They're going to be more sensitive to schedule disruptions and you probably won't have as much flexibility in schedule changes as you might with a larger airline. They still have to give you the mil days, no changing that. However, depending on the company and how they schedule, you may find it hard to avoid working mil days on your days off. Especially if they ask for your mil days before they publish your schedule.

 

I'm not mil, so this may not be valid. But I've got friends that are ANG/reserve. There's always a common thread that goes along with what you said. If your fortunate to live in base (or close) with your airline job AND your mil job, not to bad at all. Mil drop the airline stuff and replace with with mil flying. No real decrease in QOL as far as time away from home goes. If you live in one base (or close), but need to commute to the other, not as good. If you're commuting to BOTH jobs, uggghhhh.

Like I said, just what they tell me.