Hello,

I am roughly two years from the end of my USAF UPT 10-year commitment. I am an IP (Instructor Pilot) with relatively low hours for my age/time in service (long-term DNIF ~7 months & non-flying assignment). I was enlisted for six years prior to my commission and graduation from UPT. I have ~1500 total hours (~300 PIC/~125 IP). I have 15 years of total time in service and I believe it may be best for me to separate instead of attempting to complete the final three years to retirement after my current commitment is up in 2024.

My questions:

-What opportunities are out there for someone who has 50/50 custody of their child/children? I am not yet divorced and would love to save my marriage but I am not in control of that decision right now. I am proceeding as if I will maintain 50/50 custody.

-Where should I focus my attention (Majors, Regionals, other)? I am location agnostic, for the most part (I'm from Buffalo, NY -- wife is from NW Arkansas). I would love to live in Europe (We are still in Germany as of the time of this writing) but I understand that is not practical given the current unsettled situation.

-Is it even feasible to think I could maintain 50/50 custody as a new airline pilot? For some context, the divorce/custody situation is not amicable, so I do not expect any accommodation/understanding from my wife. It is her desire to remain in Germany (and for me to move back to the US).


I appreciate any input from those in the know. Until a few weeks ago, I never even considered the airlines as an option. Life threw some curveballs and I'm attempting to adjust and adapt. Please feel free to ask questions and I'll be as transparent as possible to help get to some logical answers.


Thanks,

-Tom

Make sure you finish up in the reserves, that's a LOT of retirement points to leave on the table.

Airline scheduling is 100% pure seniority, so there cannot be and is not any schedule accomodation for any reason whatsoever other than sick or short-term emergencies, or longer-term FMLA/disability.

The flip side of that is once you get some seniority, you can call your schedule shots.

Family law has a specific accommodation for pilot schedules... basically the monthly custody schedule will be worked around your work schedule. Ask a lawyer about that, you'll also need to find out the details in whatever state will have jurisdiction. If she's german and the jurisdiction is germany, then all bets are off, you'd have to get local advice.

50/50 might be tough initially, but if you get on with one of the big three or FDX, you should move up in seniority VERY quickly to the point where you can call the shots within 1-2 years depending on base and fleet type. Smaller, lower-paying airplanes (A220, 737) will typically have much better seniority movement than larger airplanes (A350, B777, B767). You don't have guaranteed control of your initial airplane assignment, but in this hiring climate the odds are good that you'll get something that works for you.

SWA guarantees 15 days off/month to all reserves, so there's that. But they have very few retirements so you'd be junior reserve for a loooong time. I would not recommend SWA for someone with your creds for that reason.

UA/AA/DL + FDX. Largest number of retirements, good contracts.

If you have a good mil record (IP sounds good) you should have no problem getting one or probably multiple offers.


50/50 might be tough initially, but you can probably get close to something like that with some seniority.

FDX actually has a pilot base in CGN, better ask in the FDX fourm how junior it is, there are also some restrictions IIRC. I think there's a min obligation and a limit on how long you can stay (but you can go back after resetting the clock in a stateside base).

Sorry about the curveballs, it happens.

Moderator. Could you please delete this thread and allow the poster to change his registration to a board name rather than his actual name?

He can pmail me and I'll change his UN, that will change on all existing posts as well.

Even in other people’s postings that quote his comments? Because he really doesn’t need the guys at the squadron seeing this. Or his commander. Or the guys/gals at Reserve Units he might want to go to. Or the wife’s lawyer.

Sometimes when your life is coming apart, you just make silly mistakes - like posting TMI.

Re-indexing should fix that too. As I've said, the OP can make the request to me or any mod.

Pm sent

Sent from my SM-N960U1 using Tapatalk

Still didn’t fix it in the quoted comments. Why not just delete the whole thread?

Seems like it's fixed now

Yep. And hope everything works out OK for you.