Shack, one!

 

And realize.....in the ANG (not sure about the RES....but probably the same) There are all kinds of active duty tours all over the planet that a part timer can pick up. 5 years wouldn't be hard to get at all over the rest of your military career with some military leave tossed in... if it is a goal of yours. At the least, your traditional retirement will be very nice. Those 15 years will not be wasted if you leave AD and retire from the reserve component.

 

What's an aim-7....HA, sorry I couldn't help it. Thanks Albie, I always love reading your posts on all the forums and I'm honored you chimed in on mine. I don't know how I'd survive if there was another 9/11, economy crash, but I guess I'd have too. Like all the dudes have commented, I guess when you know it's time, it's time.

Now, here's to giving me another few years on my life and getting hired before I separate.

Cheers.

 

Aim-120s are awesome. But great white dropping off the fuselage station with a resounding thunk, then (almost in slow motion...) lighting off and going out in front of you was a sight to behold. Was on the wing of a guy and we fired together, and watching it arc and turn to make the hit on a subscale was pretty cool....

Another regular poster here did that, but his missile tore the guts out of an F-1 over Mosul. He'll never tell you about it. If it had been me I'd probably have it on my business card and my avatar! (I kid...) 80 pounds of focused frag was awesome, too...for an A/A missile that was damn serious.

 

TSRAGR,

My raw numbers are similar to yours except 3/4 of my TT and all of my IP time was in tweets or T-6A. 660ish hrs in F-15Es. Lots of time in the training business, a short stint as a SEFE and SQ chief of stan eval. My main negative was my last few years were in RPAs, so I expect that none of the legacy airlines and a couple of the other larger airlines will seriously consider me until I get some recency back. 500 recent hrs in anything turbine powered was the number given to me by one LCC chief pilot.

However, skywest seemed just fine with my history/resume and couldn't care less about my RPA time, and Spirit seems to like it as well. Getting my mil comp commercial, CFII, and ATP on my own dime probably didn't hurt either.

So BL, you're could probably get hired quickly by a company that will be very happy to get you, even if its a regional or LCC you fly with for a year or two in order to get enough big airplane time to make your resume/application attractive to whoever you see yourself flying with in the long term.

And who knows... If you are current when you get out and you get some internal recommendations, you might get direct hired straight to your ideal company. It happens. Or you might like the QOL offered by some of the smaller airlines and just stick with them. I have a friend who loves his schedule flying for an LCC and has no plans to jump ship just for a bigger paycheck.

Job fairs - Yes. Very much Yes. Don't need to go to all of them and be realistic about your targeted airlines before you spend 8 hrs in line for an airline that won't hire you anyhow, but if they like you and your 2-minute "tell me about your resume" speech, you could end up on top of the resume pile very quickly. Also, you hear stuff. Like regional hiring teams telling some guys "if you fly for us, you'll probably leave us for a legacy in a year, tops, and we're ok with that because we'd like you to fly for us anyhow". Maybe maybe not, but I think the regionals understand that they're not the long-term career destination for many experienced mil pilots.

Last thing... I saw a post in here somewhere about a young guy who only flew vipers for 300-400 hrs then a regional for a year, and was then hired by united as soon as he had 1500TT. The personal stories go full scale good to bad, can't tell just by looking at hours.

 

Another guy here (USN hornet driver) sick of it and seriously contemplating punching in 18 mos with 15 years.

As a contrarian, I would everyone's 2 cents on my take, please tell me what you think I may not be seeing-

I can punch, go reserves, and (hopefully) get on with a major carrier. If I were lucky enough to get hired by AA for example, in 2018, by the end of 2028 there will have been 8k retirements. Good livin!

OR

In my particular case, I think I can ride out the next 6 years flying the entire time and doing 1 deployment. Retire in 2022 with a pension and tricare and by the end of 2028 still have 5k retirements in the bag.

Given that type of attrition (5k = nearly a 1/3 the workforce at AA) is it crazy to
think that my QOL from a pay / scheduling standpoint would still be pretty good? To put it more simply, it seems being a widebody FO with a decent amount of scheduling options would be possible. Widebody FO pay + pension seems pretty close to Captain pay. Is my logic sound?

Thanks all love the info on this forum!

 

Most of the airline pilots I know that retired from the military first did exactly that... Senior wide body FO vice mid grade/ junior narrow body CA... Amazingly better QOL for what looks to be $35/hr difference.

 

If you want to roll the dice on having 3-4K guys above you vice below you. First rule of airline flying get/take the first seniority number you can, then go from there.

I bailed at 12 years, only thing I miss is boat flying and the ready room. The money wasn't worth the QOL. Given how good times are now, it's hopefully not going to matter. I'll let you know in about 30 years, right now though I don't know how to get by on less than 14 days off a month. No idea how I did 60+ hour work weeks. Not seeing my kids for 8 months of work ups followed by an 8-10 month deployment... F that.

 

Midrats - where are you planning to live? The numbers you posted convert to percentages. Using the later hire date you wouldn't get on the 777/787 at the senior most bases in the 2028(?) exams you used.

The numbers in your example (2028) would have you around 65% of the total list at AA if you stayed on AD and about 45% if got hired after retirement. The difference in your final number at retirement would be thousands! Instead of getting hired at 38-40(?) you'd get hired at 43-45. That's huge at the end. Most of the guys hired while you remain on AD will be younger than you are. You will never pass them. If 4,000 guys get hired in those five years, and 75% are younger, you just added 3,000 numbers to your final retirement number. That's why you want to get hired early on the hiring cycle (bow wave) vs later - you're older and more young guys get ahead of you.
At AA right now a 45 yr old hired today would retire around #1200(SWAG). A 40 yr old retires at #300. That's a 1000 numbers difference very single month bidding for jobs or trips. The guys 100-200 numbers senior to me have been out earning me in recent years by about $50,000/yr.

 

Sliceback,

Planning on the DC area if possible. Totally get what you are saying and I value the feedback. Lets say that I do have 4000 guys ahead of me until the day I retire. IF I remain an FO my entire career, can you tell me what type of QOL I am looking at? I hope I am making sense - it seems to me that retiring #1200 as a Capt would be similar to #5200 as a FO WRT airframe / scheduling. Thoughts?