I talked to an air national guard recruit and i might understood him wrong but i believe he said the air guard doesnt have a reserve..their reserve is the air force reserve? Whats the difference or can someone explain the difference without abbreviations ha sorry i dont know much military lingo.

 

MUAviator,
You wrote: "By that i meant hopefully fly for the military in general flying anything and my civilian job to be an instructor in pipers or cessnas. Im willing to learn to fly anything"

What I'm trying to explain to you is, if you end up becoming a Military pilot, then instructing in Cessna's as a civilian job doesn't make alot of sense since you will be getting alot of flying time in a complex turbine or jet aircraft which is better "Time" to log as a pilot than instructing in small piston aircraft. Unless of course you have a burning desire to instruct. Its sort of like saying, I play Centerfield for the New York Yankees, but I'll also play centerfield on my little league team on my days off from the Yankees! (No disrespect to General Aviation, I love it and hope to do alot more of it when I can find the time)

 

Basically, there are two reserve components of the AF--the Air National Guard (ANG) and the AF Reserve Command (traditionally known as AF Reserve). The ANG is a unit nominally under the states and the AF Reserve is a command under the Chief of Staff, AF. For you purposes, both will select for commissioning officers and both have pilot training slots. The state ANG nits usually select their own candidates; the Reserve units recommend potential officers to the AFRC UPT Selection Board. You can apply either thru a unit recruiter or direct to the HQ AFRC recruiter in your area. It is best to go thru a unit--you have them as a champion at the Board, you know what plane you will fly and you get to know the unit.

To Vito's point--the last pilot I sent thru UPT in 2004-05 is now a C-5 IP with about 2,500 hours in the jet. You might have seen him fly by Gillette Stadium at the AFC championship game. He also has a full-time instructor job in the C-5. Do you think he needs a CFI job?

GF

 

ohh i understood you wrong the first time, but yea flying jets would be way better than instructing, i just figured instructing when i wasnt flying jets would help, i wouldnt know what other civilian job to do while flying with the military.

 

ok that cleared most of my misunderstanding. And thats awesome I want to be that guy. i guess ill talk to the recruiters and worry about a civilian job later on. do they help you get another job while being a pilot for them? im guessing im going to need a second job to be able to support myself.

 

Since the military isn't a 9-5 job, you very well may find out that you don't have enough time for a second job.

USMCFLYR

 

I used to be a mechanic on KC135Rs and many of the pilots I knew flew for airlines, charter, or corporate civilian companies when they weren't on duty. You will learn to be a very professional pilot if the military teaches you and that will help a lot when interviewing for civilian employment.

Being in the Reserves or Guard will give you a lot more control over your career as well. I been on 4 day trips to Germany and England, a week to the Azores, and around the country for short stints. As a traditional reservist you won't be forced to relocate like active duty does.

Take my information with a grain of salt. I was just the lowly mechanic. :-)

 

I heard that the Guard and Reserve pay for your airline ticket to come to work to do our one weekend a month and two weeks a year. Is this true?

Fake Example: my Reserve unit is in FL and I live in CA where I work at my full time job. Does the Reserve unit pay for my ticket to fly back to FL and back to CA when I do my weekend a month, two weeks a year deal?

 

brian: sounds like an awesome life and fun time.

anyone have any tips in preparing for the reserve- asvab and anything else to help me gain a flight slot?

 

There are prep books for the ASVAB and the pilot tests.GF