BDGERJMN

FWIW Navy reserve squadrons and Squadron Augment Units do not hire off the street. To my knowledge only Air Force Reserve and Air National Guard units hire off the street. To be hired by the Navy in a reserve flying capacity you will have had to either done your time in the Navy(or Marine Corps) or Air Force.

cloudkicker1981

Joe

The post above are dead on and sounds like guys with lots of experience! As mentioned above your going to really have to want it to be a fighter pilot. It's not a dig on you about not being sure just warning you UPT is a whole different animal compared to civi flying. Humility, determination, and your fellow classmates are the only thing that will get you through.

I was a civilian regional pilot before joining a guard fighter unit. I made it through but watched bro's with no flight experience do 10x better than I did and dudes with more experience wash out. The best way to make your decision is to be well informed and to do as much research as possible. That being said, you will not regret perusing something you've always wanted to do especially serving your country!

Feel free to fire away with questions on this forum. Don't be afraid of the fear, sarcasm, and ridicule. It comes with the territory.

Montey

Credit to rickair7777 for this post

"1) Get you COMM, ME, CFI, CFII, and MEI and college degree.
2) Work as a CFI until you get enough hours to get a regional job (1000/100)
3) Start working on your guard application
4) Get the regional job, finish training, and fly the line for a year if possible.
5) Begin guard training (2 years)
6) Return to the regional. You should now have enough seniority to be a captain."

Atlas Shrugged

It certainly can be difficult. The best advice I can give, after being in the Guard for the last 19 years in 3 different states, is to drill in your home town. The commute coupled with the airline can be brutal!

I have done it both ways. Trust me. Do it the easy way.

flynutt

Are you saying to live near your Guard/Reserve job? How about living in your domicile and commuting to the part-time job? That way, especially being junior, you can sit reserve from home.

BDGERJMN

The guys in my unit who fly for the airlines all live near their mil flying job. All have said it offers them much more flexibility to drill/fly on off days from their respective airline (e.g. much easier to pick up a flight/sim/duty for pay). My thoughts are if you live in domocile, yes you don't commute but the tradeoff is having to get yourself to your drill location, then hope the reserve command picks up the tab for lodging/transportation etc.

Caution Terrain

You have a guard job, airline, and family. You have to ******* one, kill one, and marry one GO!

I have no mil experience, but after flying regionals I've been pursuing ANG. Do what you want to do. I know I want to fly fighters so I'm going to knock down every FW door in this country. I don't want to be one of the "well I could have but.." dudes that see an overhead break from an airline cockpit.

HoursHore

I do it this way. My unit and airframe are very commuter friendly though. They pick up lodging on idts and utas and a very short bean sheet. It's been a good move for, ESP during the five years of stagnation during the age change. I'd say living in domicile for my airline is equivilant to a 10-15% seniority bump.

rickair7777

As others have said, it's not an apples-to-apples comparison. You do need to have a specific level of motivation to do military service and missions, but that is by no means incompatible with an interest in airlines. The two can complement each other well

The military will take (a lot) more of your time and energy during a period of your life when you have a lot of stamina and hopefully not too many family comittments... they'll also forcibly retire you somewhere between age 42 and 55-ish (unless you reach general or flag rank). The airlines can provide income and QOL later in life, all the way to age 65 so it definitely makes sense to consider both...there's a reason a lot of people do.

As others have said, go guard or USAFR. Join a FW unit that's not already on the chopping block. As long as you get a few good years of quality flying, it won't be the end of the world if your unit goes UAV. You can then switch units or fly UAVs whatever suits you.

Airbum

Yes it was hard to balance both as a fighter pilot and you will spend more time away from home. I planned on around 6-7 days min a month at my unit. This allows for ground school other required events with a few double sortie days.