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Originally Posted by Adlerdriver
(Post 1729900)
In the end, when you look past the lure of building a great airline resume, getting on at an airline in the next wave and flying fast movers with the bros in the flying club – you’re training to go to war, survive and get your mission done well. These days it shouldn’t be too hard to envision a scenario that has your ANG unit fighting alongside the AD bros somewhere on the planet. Getting ready for that needs to be priority one.
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Originally Posted by Adlerdriver
(Post 1729900)
Back to the ANG recommendations:
Good info from C-130Driver. Having done both AD and ANG, I would concur with the recommendation. However, that’s kind of a loaded recommendation to someone who’s just getting started evaluating their options. A lot depends on the pilot candidate’s goals; the mission of the unit and how they handle the training of their pilots. Obviously, you have to be willing to serve and accept all the potential sacrifices that may require. Beyond that, if your goal is a military cockpit as a full time pilot and you can get hired by an ANG unit, life can be very, very good. My real message is to the guy that wants to eventually end up in an airline cockpit and fly as a traditional (part-time) Guardsman. IMO, achieving those goals in as little time as possible is probably best accomplished in a non-fighter unit. If you really want to fly a fighter, you need to understand that is not going to be a fast track to an airline cockpit. There’s the obvious short sortie duration and slow accumulation of flight time (even though you’re logging PIC time from the get-go while the non-fighter pilot has to take a few years to upgrade to aircraft commander). But, it’s more than just lower flight time accumulation. In addition, accepting the commitment to join a fighter unit is going to result in years of required training and experience before you would have any hope of being able to do that job part time. Most part-time fighter pilots in the ANG have spent 10+ years flying on active duty before joining the Guard and are highly experienced. For a newbie to expect to show up after UPT, fly for a couple of years full time and then go part time as an airline pilot is not realistic. . Any ANG unit that allows that to happen is really doing you and themselves a huge disservice. Even a 10+ year fighter pilot may take a mission or two to get back up on step after being gone for a couple of weeks flying with his airline. Realistically, 6-7 years as a full time ANG fighter pilot would be the absolute minimum most guys would need to be worthy in the jet and ready to possibly go part time. In the end, when you look past the lure of building a great airline resume, getting on at an airline in the next wave and flying fast movers with the bros in the flying club – you’re training to go to war, survive and get your mission done well. These days it shouldn’t be too hard to envision a scenario that has your ANG unit fighting alongside the AD bros somewhere on the planet. Getting ready for that needs to be priority one. |
Originally Posted by Gilligan13
(Post 1729990)
Isn't seasoning for the Guard/Reserve only 2 years for fighters?
Generally speaking, we felt expecting any fighter pilot 2 years out of the FTU to possibly start flying ~6 sorties a month and balancing an airline schedule was bad judgment (his for choosing that and/or ours for allowing it). We staffed traditional slots with experienced AD guys because most of them wanted that. Furloughed guys who came back to full time slowed hiring off the street. Even under normal conditions, it was rare to have more than one Lt (two max) at any time. We never hired a guard baby into a traditional slot if we could avoid it. They were either ART or AGR generally speaking. If that wasn't possible, we would do whatever was necessary (temp tech slots, month to month orders) in order to keep the guy flying full time after official seasoning days expired. |
+1 to what Adlerdriver said. I've been a TR out of UPT (F-100) and seasoning time wasn't enough to get really MR then and it's orders if magnitude more difficult nowadays. Reserves typically have more money for man-days and heavies typically have a peacetime mission to pay for TRs to fly. Now, you might be delivering docs to the Ebola Belt, but it's flying time.
GF |
Originally Posted by Adlerdriver
(Post 1730025)
I can only go off what we did in my unit. Official seasoning days come out of one pot of $$. After those are done you just use another pot. So, for us there was no hard limit (at least in practice).
Generally speaking, we felt expecting any fighter pilot 2 years out of the FTU to possibly start flying ~6 sorties a month and balancing an airline schedule was bad judgment (his for choosing that and/or ours for allowing it). We staffed traditional slots with experienced AD guys because most of them wanted that. Furloughed guys who came back to full time slowed hiring off the street. Even under normal conditions, it was rare to have more than one Lt (two max) at any time. We never hired a guard baby into a traditional slot if we could avoid it. They were either ART or AGR generally speaking. If that wasn't possible, we would do whatever was necessary (temp tech slots, month to month orders) in order to keep the guy flying full time after official seasoning days expired. |
Originally Posted by Gilligan13
(Post 1731339)
So on average how long would you keep someone on seasoning without active duty time?
Milestones that would signal that individual had mastered the aircraft to a point where being a traditional was an option: 4-ship FL minimum (IP better) and some experience in that role, 800-1000 hours in the jet not counting droning CAP time, a subjective sense of that pilot's capabilities from other experienced pilots flying with him. I would say that frames the general attitude of the squadron about this particular issue. Keeping in mind, that's off a pretty small sample. In the a little over 11 years I was there, I can count the number of guard babies we put through UPT on one hand. |
Interesting, were you Guard or Reserve? Seems Guard hires more people off the street.
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If that's aimed at me--Guard baby. I did, as a full time technician, sent about 20 to UPT over the years.
GF |
My ANG unit had a bunch of Guard babies. Between that and Project Season probably half fit that bill. The others? Vietnam vets with years of service.
Join the Guard. Here's the difference - You can, at least years ago, wear your bag to the strip joints and get away with it. During times of shooting it gets you out of having to pay cover charges, free beers, and they throw in free lap dances. Or you could join active duty and wear your scarf. |
Originally Posted by Gilligan13
(Post 1732570)
Interesting, were you Guard or Reserve? Seems Guard hires more people off the street.
If airlines are hiring and leaving AD is a comfortable option for the masses, there is going to be a large supply of experienced drivers looking to fly in the Guard. If not, the unit may HAVE to hire off the street just to keep manning at an appropriate level. Lts are a fun novelty to have around. They provide comic relief, someone for the IPs to train and fill the snacko billet. If you're looking to make your squadron the most effective, lethal force you can, AND you have the option, hiring a two or three tour AD instructor pilot is probably going to be a better choice. That makes for a rank heavy squadron, but unless everyone has designs on being in a senior leadership position, who cares. After the hiring boom of the late 90's, for the next 10 years, we had Majors and LtCols coming out of our ears. |
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