Wheelsoff

Checks. Had a regional dude in my UPT class going the reserve route, only to fail out of the program on his last checkride in phase 3. Good guy, but surprised he made it that far with his laissez faire attitude. Good luck!

kme9418

I don't know about "unlimited" leave unless your airline just feels like allowing it out of the bottom of their heart. USERRA only protects you for 5 years for voluntary or involuntary service (some exceptions).

U.S. Department of Labor -- Veterans' Employment and Training Service (VETS) -- Fact Sheet 3

EvilEagle

My guard unit hires guys off the street, but you need to rush (visit a few times on drill weekend, keep your mouth in check and be respectful).

I was AD for 12 years - I'd do it again if it was 15 years ago. If I was starting right now I wouldn't do AD unless I couldn't get into an ANG unit. There is a lot to be said for picking your location/airframe and not getting multiple 365-day non-flying deployments. Really not bitter, but the AD has changed. That's why I went to the ANG.

Re: Commuting - HIGHLY recommend living at your guard unit and commuting to your airline gig. I don't know anyone that ended up hacking it the other way around. When you are at mil work you are home (most) nights, when you are at your airline gig you aren't.

Packrat

Very true. I saw an experienced civilian pilot washout of Primary in the Navy because he couldn't get the hang of a rounded visual approach path (required for carrier approaches). He always flew square patterns until it finally got him the boot.

My point is that anyone with flying experience has a leg up over guys like me who had never flown anything until my FAM 1 in a T-28.

Adlerdriver

hmmm....... big maybe on this.
I think it's a mistake to advise anyone that any prior time will make a difference in UPT. Plenty of 0 time guys show up and end up killing the program and being a DG. In fact, since most guys showing up are low/zero time, that's the norm.

On the other hand, we've all heard of high time success and failure stories. The 3000 hour commercial pilot in my class barely made it through the program.

IMO, success in UPT is far more dependent on the individual than anything else. A guy who ends up excelling in the program was probably going to succeed whether he showed up with boocoo time or zero. A zero time guy may have to work harder for the first few months. The further into the program they go, the less benefit any prior time is going to be.

Show up ready to work and assume nothing regarding prior time. If it helps, great but don't expect it to make the program a success or even easy.

Sliceback

Every comm/instr/CFI in my UPT class graduated in the top 20% of the class except for the 1500 hr guy who washed out. Highest time guys took #1 and #3. #2 guy washed out. Nickname was 'Clueless' long before he washed out. Like showing up for formal brief without showering, shaving, or combing his hair. LOL. Nice guy, but marched to a different drummer. Told to do a breakout by mobile and did it going in the wrong direction. Almost had a face to face mid-air with another guy. Luckily the other guy saw him and pulled vertical G's to avoid the noise event. Every other Com/instr/CFI busted their ass and got the assignments they wanted because of their performance.

Prior flying time isn't a given towards UPT performance and if you're unwilling to work and learn the way THEY want the plane flown it will be a long, or
perhaps short, program.

Instrument rating, and some post training work experience(CFI, night cargo, etc) appeared to be the combination that indicated a higher potential for good performance in UPT.

Yazzoo

Right. I am an airline captain, not a middle schooler playing Call of Duty, but boy do I love being spoken down to

Everyone else who is posting legitimate advice, thank you very much. I am a hard worker and if the military wants me to fly their jets a certain way, then that's how I'll do it. Nothing worse than that person in ground school who always goes "well at my last airline, we used to do this"...

The closest ANG unit to me with fighters is the 144th Fighter Wing in Fresno. Does anybody have any contacts there I could speak to and arrange a base visit? I have at least 1.5 weeks off to work with

Sputnik

Guess how much anyone in AF will care about you being AN AIRLINE CAPTAIN and how it will affect how they do or do not talk down to you.

Your flying experience may or may not play into performance success at UPT. In my time teaching a 2500 hour regional guy washed out pretty early. There are plenty of similar stories. There's a right way, there's a wrong way, there's the AF way. Adapt or don't.

As a brand spanking new airline guy I will attest to the fact that despite the similarities inherent in flying planes, there's a world of difference between airline and military flying.

Far as researching units, baseops.net has a forum specific to that very topic. Good luck

USMCFLYR

Yazzoo -

If that was said in the ready room during UPT/Primary - or anywhere else during your hopeful upcoming training - you would be doing exactly what everyone here is warning you about.

It wasn't talking down - it was making sure you knew the action that might be asked of you at some time in the future should you reach the goal you have set for yourself.

Mark Fox (from the MIG USN MiG shootdown during Desert Storm) set every one of my classmates at the Hornet RAG down at the O'club during the first week of our training and gave us each the EXACT same talking too that bedrock passed onto you. He did this because of an experience he had on his carrier where an A-6 pilot suddenly found himself a conscientious objector right before kicking off the air campaign. That guy was way further along towards your hopeful eventual goal than you are right now and still didn't know, or grasp, what was being asked of him.

You see it as a "talking down too". I see it as an early gut check.
I hope you do know what you are getting into. We need good people in those cockpits. Good luck if you continue down this path.

Adlerdriver

Dang it, Yazzoo, you were doing so well......riiiiiight up to about......here:
When I read this I started laughing out loud in my office and my wife came running in thinking I had something good on youtube. Holy crap!, I'd give a thousand bucks to see you say something like that to some of the IP cadre at UPT. Better yet, just throw that out at the squadron bar or in your interview with Fresno.

A regional captain calling himself an "Airline Captain" with no other context reminds me of the hospital scene from "The Hangover":

Stu: “You mind if I look at that, I’m actually a Doctor”
Dr. Valsh: “Yeah, you said that several times last night, but really you’re just a dentist.”