Good timing, low hours.

My advice:

Make the jump if your family can survive the pay cut ONLY and ONLY IF you can get a reserve job. The reserve job probably isn't going to afford you a big paycheck with the recent cut backs and the most certain future cut backs. But if you can fly your tail off, you can solve your low flying hours in a year or two.

Momma and the kids are going to hate you if you do the regional only gig and you're gone from home 20-something days a month and barely making enough money to feed and keep the lights on. If you do it, live near your pilot domicile. That way you'll see them more often.

If at all possible, DO NOT spend the VSP money. Bank it. Let it grow. If you stay in the reserves to get a retirement, you'll have to pay it back. But if you invest it and allow it to grow, you will make something off of it. If you plan on using it to survive, you are taking a big chance that in a year from now, you'll be out of money and working for a regional in a much worse financial situation. Also, any number of political and financial issues can cause the pilot hiring to stop temporarily for a year which would be devastating for you stuck at a regional.

Your flying time is low; however, as a FAIP you should have a lot of Instructor time which is a bonus .. UNLESS it is in the T-6 which isn't as desirable. Airlines much prefer multi-engine over single-engine.

Delta doesn't have a PIC requirement. You meet the mins. But I suspect Delta is hiring only those with a lot of experience. You need to find out exactly who is getting hired by who and with what hours. I know friends with double the flying time and experience who have not been called.

Can you get a reserve job at the training command? Continuing to build PIC time / instructor time would be very beneficial.

Stupid question ... what is the timing of the VSP and the potential RIF? Let's assume you stay, how long do you think it would be before you were RIFd? When I went through the VSP fiasco, the VSPers had well up to a year to stay after their VSP award. The RIF never came for my year group. So potentially, you could have a full year or more before you were let go. Depending on what you're flying, a year or two more experience is valuable in your case.

I hope my random thoughts help. I made the jump back in '07 and I haven't looked back. It was scary. But, I didn't have a family to take care of. Good luck.

Wow I did not know that. I knew about paying back the VSP if you earned a retirement, but I did not know about the 6 months of Active rule. That is definitely a game changer.

I was under the impression based off a thread I started awhile back and threads I have read on here that Turbine PIC is Turbine PIC and not to worry about Single vs Multi. It seemed as though Fedex was one of the only ones that distinguished between single and multi. I remember a ton of T-6 guys chiming in saying their time was rock solid for the airlines.

But you bring up a very good point. The RIF will buy me another 4 months on AD which equals more hours, more benefits, less separation pay, but more checks on the 1st and 15th and more time to work things out.

If I could get into a solid Guard/Reserve unit I'd bail in a heartbeat. I'd pick up cans on the side of the road for extra coin if that's what it took to have a taste of freedom. The military can manipulate the rules to their advantage at any time. Flying around for Skywest or Exp Jet will build the time quickly, and perhaps in the ANG or Reserves you can grab a TDY here or there for some extra coin. Here's the deal: When you CAN get hired, you will be available. You won't be stop-lossed, non-current from a non flying tour, and you will have some flexibility. I'd take that blood money (VSP), praise God, and start networking. Dribble it into your budget slowly as you make some belt tightening moves.

And apply to everyone. Get hired anywhere are you are in the game.

I pointed this out to some jr's in my current unit. The delta between VSP and RIF is only 0.25%. I'm not scoffing at $10+ K. But getting RIF'ed will allow you another 4-5 months active duty pay and bennies which should exceed anything you might lose by not VSP'ing. And that's more months racking up hours, hopefully PIC.

However, if you want to punch...there's no guarantee you'll get RIF'ed. If you KNOW you want out, hard to justify passing up VSP.

Tough choice man, work the guard/reserve hard.

FAT,

Do you have any supporting facts to back that up?

I have never heard of ANY body getting the axe for having high SE IP time.

I'm a PIT IP and fly with guys who have been hired/flying or are awaiting their class who well in excess of 3000 hrs of single-engine time (Viper, T-6). I have also reached out to our entire reserve network here at Randolph (over 70 airline guys) and NONE of them state that SE IP time is prefered one way or another over ME IP time.

Bottom line - I don't agree with the statement in bold.

Which airlines do not count your UPT time?

For another frame of reference. I know a 4 ship flight lead, no IP/EP time, w/ ~900 fighter hours, who was picked up by UAL. He did have some regional time and I think his TT was ~2,500. My squadron had 2 guys hired at DAL recently, both young majors, with ~1,800 single seat fighter hours (no civilian time). All three of these guys had STRONG connections. Bottom line, if you meet the mins, it's more about who you know!

You need to dig deep and ask yourself what you want out of your life. Since you're concidering it, I'd get out. Get a good guard/Reserve job, go to a good regional and I'd bet in a year or two you'd be in a good spot to get hired by a major. Good luck.

I took the VSP from the Marine Corps this past fall. I did a mountain of research before I pulled the trigger. If you do greater than 179 days voluntary (ADT/ ADOS) (not sure on exact acronyms) you trigger a payback. Technically you need to take a day off and then can go back on for 179. If you are involuntarily mobilized the time limit goes away. If you look up the 2014 OFFICER VSP MARADMIN in google it lays out some of this. I got the rest from some SMCR guys I know flying Hercs. I go terminal in May and am a rushing fool working the reserve flying piece. I'll start a new thread this summer to lay out anything I pick up in the process. Now I get to wait on a reserve board and the long wait in the application process with the majors. But at least my next moves are on my terms.

how long does it take to separate from AD these days? My palace chase back in 2005 took about 3 months. Go ahead and get all your applications in now with availability dates in the summer. If you get a call by UAL/DAL you likely wont see a class date for at least 6 months anyway. Gets you plenty of time to get approved for VSP/Palace Chase or Front/straight separation with guard or reserve job later in the future. Get your app in now and get in line, and start heavily networking. Patience is important, but start the process now. Good luck to all, I've had my app in with DAL and UAL since 2006, updating monthly for the last 3 years