"I now offer to write the draft and send it along with my resume--this cuts the time to usually less than a week. "Hi gr8vu.... what do you mean you offer to write the draft? A draft of a letter of recommendation?

Sound's like you're not a prior mil dude.

I just had a friend ask for an LOR. I replied back that in the last 9 days I had flown two day trips, knocked out 2 online seminars, a three day recurrent training set including 2 sims, a seminar in the midwest and another in Germany AFTER an international trip..... Haven't seen the family yet. (Not looking for pity...nice long Dec and early Jan vacation....) Now I am trying to squeeze in some skiing in the Alps for a couple days before going home in time for a daughter's cheerleader competition.

So---sure...I'll get right on that.

Average widebody captain pulls 200-300 bucks an hour, and a reasonably senior FO at a legacy probably 150-175. To earn that pay, they gotta work long days, drag bags, and cross a lot of time zones. And they miss a lot of time with family in the process.... Ask yourself--if YOU were paying for the service, how much work would you want to pay for? 2-3 hours, or 15 minutes? Help your sponsor out by not burning his valuable time.

If you are at work at your desk, or deployed in the hooch, send your sponsor a *&)& draft. They can tweak it and sign it. If you ask them to build you something from the ground up, it may be a while. It ain't that they don't love you, but folks--its busy out here. Spend an hour less planning the next commander's Christmas party and draft yourself some letters...

Yes--a draft of the recommendation. Some use 99% of it others cut out a line or two and add their own opening/closing. Hard part is keeping them different enough so that the same airline doesn't get the same recommend over and over again. To do this I pull out my logbook and use stories from when I flew with that individual.

I believe your state has your entire driving record, in my case I had to call and pay extra to get it. Online only gave me the last 10 years. And if you have out of state tickets it will be recorded in the state you have your license, don't need to contact each state.

Great advice - thanks!

Exactly the advice I need to hear!

I also have two old speeding tickets (~15 and 20 years ago) but my old state (NC) requires my old license number, which I don't have, to retrieve it. Should I keep digging for the information or not sweat it?

I would suggest continue to gather the data you need, but if you know the approximate date and location, your probably good. Just be forthright.

Agree. I've got 5 speeding tickets from 14+ years ago, none of which show on my state record due to how old they are. I also can't remember many of the details, other than year and rough location. I went ahead and listed all of them on my application anyway (noting that date & details were best estimates). Interviewed this week with DAL, was briefly asked about them during the interview, and moved on. Received a CJO at the end of the day, so obviously not a show-stopper. Bottom line: be up front & honest (and slow down, like I've learned to do !).