Air Force Pilots

[Deuce130]

Dave Griffin is not a SEAL. He's a poser wanna be who spouts off about things he has no clue about. His opinion should be taken with a grain of salt.

 

[MalteseX]

A couple of clarifiers are important. Your BAH (Housing Allowance) is entirely dependant upon location. Travis AFB is one of the more expensive locations. For example, at Grand Forks AFB the Housing Allowance for a 2nd Lieutenant is $870/month if you are married or $618/month if you are single. Rates increase with rank/promotion as indicated.

True. I just got tired looking up all the numbers from different parts of the DFAS website.

Bottom line for all those reading this board and wondering about AF pilot pay is that the variable part of your pay is the tax-free BAH, which is otherwise known as a "housing allowance"-- it is variable dependent upon:

a. rank (usually increases with rank, but not always)
b. Dependents--there are 2 rates; single or 'with dependent' (if you are single with no kids, it's lower; however if you have one or more dependents, spouse or kids, it is higher)
c. location (each location has a different rate
d. Living on base--if you take a house on the base; your "rent" is the BAH; in other words, they take it back.

My range during the time I was in the AF was $640 for a low (single 2d Lt, low-cost area) to $2100 (married, Lt Col, high-cost area).

 

[TankerDriver]

I am also sure that you are not going to volunteering to fly a CRJ at a Regional because you did not not get the proper training, or experience to really be a pilot.

Damn skippy on that one... :laugh:

On to money... it is good. How about 9 months of tax free in one year? There happens to be a lot of green in the desert, if you know what I mean. Between hostile fire pay, family separation pay, hardship pay, per diem and not having to pay Fed taxes, it's an extra tax free $1,000 a month while deployed. It's huge. My reported income last year was about $23,000. I really cleared about $55,000, plus benefits. That's probably the equiv to making $80,000+ as a civilian, easily.

 

[frog_flyer]

how do ang deployments go?

you just drop your regular job, life, and everything, and leave for 2 months?

 

[TankerDriver]

frog flyer,

Pretty much, although ANG units don't deploy as much as AD units, at least not in the tanker world. Most of the tanker ANG deployments are 30 day'ers, but we'll get the occasional guard bum who wants to help us out in the desert who comes for 2 months (extra $$ for them). Dropping your job, life and everything is part of the job. On active duty, it's our job to drop life and everything to leave for 2 months! Keep in mind, it is illegal for an employer to terminate you for being activated to deploy in the ANG, so they have to allow you to keep your job.

 

[KCPilot]

Join the Guard or Reserve and DON’T take the technician job if you like to fly! With all of the furlough guys, they need to get paid so they fly while I (the technician) sit at my desk in front if the computer doing BS office work for the Commander! I miss the bum days and with alert in the tanker units, at least in my unit the bums always get paid, which is what it's about!

So to recap be the bum, you get to fly on almost any local/TDY you like and stay out of the office to gain those hours and the pay is bad pay. Don’t be a Technician (ART) unless you’d not like to fly and you like to do all kinds of office work. The ART program is great for those with a lot of hours and mind not flying when the airlines are furloughing and on the flip side fly there butts off when the airlines are hiring. Also as an ART you get to be home almost every night, but you sell your soul as we say for the $$$ All the ARTs I know that are furlough airline guys can’t wait to go back to the airlines, but that seems to be the case for any furloughed airline guy!

 

[DaveGriffin]

Dave Griffin is not a SEAL. He's a poser wanna be who spouts off about things he has no clue about. His opinion should be taken with a grain of salt.

Deuce130;

I don't know what you and your crew were up to behind the curtain on the old E model Blackbirds during training drops, but I always suspected they were drinking beer and/or looking at their gay porn mags.

It really doesn't matter, other than on the night land drops you guys scored about a 75% rate of putting us in the trees rather than the designated DZ. On the water Rubber Duck drops it was easier for you to claim succcess since you could miss the target by 100-800 meters and it really didn't matter other than we had to motor a bit farther.

Even as a shy and retiring new Ens. I soon learned a distaste for the AF attitude at the debriefs where the plane Captain would just shrug his shoulders and not really give a sh*t when we discussed the need for greater accuracy on the spots.

 

[Pistlpetet]

Deuce130;

I don't know what you and your crew were up to behind the curtain on the old E model Blackbirds during training drops, but I always suspected they were drinking beer and/or looking at their gay porn mags.

It really doesn't matter, other than on the night land drops you guys scored about a 75% rate of putting us in the trees rather than the designated DZ. On the water Rubber Duck drops it was easier for you to claim succcess since you could miss the target by 100-800 meters and it really didn't matter in the other than we had to motor a bit farther.

Even as a shy and retiring new Ens. I soon learned a distaste for the AF attitude at the debriefs where the plane Captain would just shrug his shoulders and not really give a sh*t when we discussed the need for greater accuracy on the spots.

Dave, PM me your last name (if it is not Griffin), and buds class number!

 

[135 Guy]

Join a Air National Guard Unit, and leave all that active duty _ull_hit alone. Show up on time fly your mission and go home.

 

[BMD]

I go a couple months without looking at flightinfo and upon my return, I find Griffin running his pie hole just like before. Clown.