Army Warrant Officer advice please

[Hobit]

What is the difference between flight hours for Warrant vs Officer? I understand both have side jobs.

In my time it was 3:1 for the average active duty unit.

I don't know if this is different now on active duty.

It seems the RLOs get a better percentage in the Guard/Reserves.

 

[AirCobra]

+2 for AirCobra.

My wife gave birth to our daughter while I was 'on orders' and the total bill was $4.25 (for my steak meal). Honest question, what would the average co pay for a 'youngin' be with Blue Cross? What about each maternal 'well being' visit and associated ultra sounds? My daughter was born in a Naval Hospital and my wife, daughter, and I were treated like rock stars. I am definitely no one special, and a Soldier at that yet we received amazing care. My wife and daughter have also continued to received the resulting 'meds' free. Another bene that isn't easy to add.

Think of the 401K deduction per pay check to match the guaranteed retirement annuity.

I paid about $380-400 per month for blue cross blue shield. That is another thing taken for granted by many.

Another nice thing is that my state gives a good tax incentive each year for Guard folks.

I pay over $400 a month from Blue Cross also. Maybe there can be a support group for us or something. Couple of these guys are lucky enough to pay very low amounts or $0 for health insurance but that is not the norm. I would say $200-$300 a month is pretty typical for pilot jobs. Where total compensation rather than just grooss pay really comes into play is for that 18 year old E-1 high school graduate. Most jobs they could get in the civilian world don't even offer benefits of any kind.

The baby thing is a good example. One of our mechanics got out at 24 as an E-5 and took a civilian job at what he thought was higher pay than E-5. He got married and his wife got pregnant. He received some outrageous bill from the hospital for the delivery that he was able to reduce to something like $9,000 on a payment plan. With the monthly payments there went the extra money he was supposed to be making. I am sure this same story is played out every day.

 

[CRJFlyer]

In my opinion the military route is a great decision for a young guy out of HS who doesn't exactly know what he/she wants to do yet... More money than they'd see working at Subway, med. benefits, see different parts of the country/world, and learn some discipline.

In my case I still need to see a paycheck too. I explained to one of our neighbors, we didn't buy a lot of stuff when the going was good, (except a nice truck for myself, and my wife drives a nice car also) but I definitely have the bills of someone who made roughly 100K while working.

 

[CRJFlyer]

Just took the AFAST...scored a 145....definitely a good idea to read through a couple of practice tests beforehand. If you don't have any helicopter knowledge you may really screw yourself by not reviewing.

The usual cyclic/collective questions and other helo questions are things that you wouldn't know without studying. As well as flapping, coning, dissymetry etc...

Other guy in my test appeared to not have prepared very well, I don't believe he did very well. (actually I know he didn't). He had a few fixed wing ratings, probably just out of flight school. But I got the impression he thought he knew more than he really did. Plus he was telling me how bored he was with fixed wing a/c. I never bothered to tell him I've been in jets the past 10 years. So if he's bored with fixed wing having only flown a few hundered hours, he may need to find a new career.

 

[Lynxman]

Good job man you are having such a painless process hope it continues that way. Best of luck.

 

[AirCobra]

Just took the AFAST...scored a 145....definitely a good idea to read through a couple of practice tests beforehand. If you don't have any helicopter knowledge you may really screw yourself by not reviewing.

The usual cyclic/collective questions and other helo questions are things that you wouldn't know without studying. As well as flapping, coning, dissymetry etc...

Other guy in my test appeared to not have prepared very well, I don't believe he did very well. (actually I know he didn't). He had a few fixed wing ratings, probably just out of flight school. But I got the impression he thought he knew more than he really did. Plus he was telling me how bored he was with fixed wing a/c. I never bothered to tell him I've been in jets the past 10 years. So if he's bored with fixed wing having only flown a few hundered hours, he may need to find a new career.

Great Job! Any idea when your interview board will be?

 

[CRJFlyer]

I've got the Flight Phys. next week, and just waiting for a transcript from HS and college, and 2 rec letters still. All should be on the way shortly.

I assume my recruiter will send my packet to Ft. drum immediately after those documents arrive. I don't know how long it takes to schedule the board after that. But I'm guessing I may be able to squeeze into the June review? ( I think they meet once a month) If it doesn't take long for them to review my packet and decide to interview me.

Anybody with experience getting scheduled with the review board lemme know.

 

[AirCobra]

I've got the Flight Phys. next week, and just waiting for a transcript from HS and college, and 2 rec letters still. All should be on the way shortly.

I assume my recruiter will send my packet to Ft. drum immediately after those documents arrive. I don't know how long it takes to schedule the board after that. But I'm guessing I may be able to squeeze into the June review? ( I think they meet once a month) If it doesn't take long for them to review my packet and decide to interview me.

Anybody with experience getting scheduled with the review board lemme know.

Don't know if you have checked out this site. It has a lot of good info:

http://www.usarec.army.mil/hq/warrant/index.htm

When I did my Marine interview it was conducted by a Major and all he asked was "son do you want to be a Marine?" I said "Sir, yes Sir" and that was about it. The Army I understand is a little more formal. The board will probably have three officers, with at least one who is a Warrant Officer and one who is an Aviator. You can probably get a lot of good info from other applicants or even people who have sat on boards. The interview sheet that the interviewers have to fill out is a DA form. I tried to find a copy but no luck. Maybe there is one on the above link. It will give you some idea of the questions they ask and how the scoring is done.

 

[AirCobra]

CRJ,
Intersting read about Army pay and benefits. I think the military's main problem is that people are not getting out like because of the economy. Once the economy improves for people other than those on Wall Street I think people will be leaving the military at the 20-30% annual rate they used to and it will be back to shortages. I think you will benefit in the short term and even if the military does "cut pay and benefits" it usually comes in the form of smaller pay increrases in January (not actual on your salary), or tinkering with the retirement system like they did in the mid-90's. When they reduced retirement benefits it only applied to people coming in after the retirement system was changed and then they scrapped the whole thing, and returned retirement benefits retroactively back to what they were a few years later.

http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/0...y-benefits-are-skyrocketing-costs-sustainabl/

 

[CRJFlyer]

Flight physical complete. Everything looked good, but still waiting for my blood work to come back.

Will have to wait until Monday since my recruiter office will be closed for the weekend. Kinda sucks having to wait, never have had any blood problems or sickness issues, but still frustrating waiting. Hope that burger and chips the night before doesn't mess anything up! I ate like 14 hrs before the exam, but still curious.

 

[Hobit]

Flight physical complete. Everything looked good, but still waiting for my blood work to come back.

Will have to wait until Monday since my recruiter office will be closed for the weekend.Kinda sucks having to wait, never have had any blood problems or sickness issues, but still frustrating waiting. Hope that burger and chips the night before doesn't mess anything up! I ate like 14 hrs before the exam, but still curious.

Your new hobby will be waiting in the Army.

Not making light of the stress, I know full well the frustration of waiting on USAREC and the WOFT packet process. Mine took 1.5 years to put together.

Stick with it, the payoff will come.

Good Luck!

 

[CRJFlyer]

1.5 years!! I guess I can't feel too bad then..I've been at it about 30 days..And that's because I've had to do each step week by week because of babysitting issues. Probably could have gotten most of it done the first few weeks.

Just waiting on rec. letters and the packet will be done.

 

[psysicx]

What is the difference in retirement pay for WO vs FO?

 

[AirCobra]

Retirement pay for all ranks is based on 20 years of active federal service and your pay grade when you retire, consequently the higher your rank when you retire, the higher your retirement pay. There is a long formula they use to compute your actual retirement pay but rule of thumb for planning purposes if you only do the 20 year minimum it will come out to a little more than 50% of your highest base pay for the last three years. Your retirement pay usually gets adjusted upward each year for COL.

 

[Hobit]

Remember the key point that AirCobra brought up is that retirement is based on BASE pay. No flight pay, BAH, BAS, etc.


RLO's (Regular Line Officer i.e. 1LT, CPT, MAJ...) will make more base pay that CWO's

Look up DFAS and search the Pay Charts

 

[psysicx]

Thanks, didn't realize how much of a difference there was.

 

[psysicx]

Are there other flying assingments for the Army besides instructing?

 

[Hobit]

Are there other flying assingments for the Army besides instructing?

As a Warrant you 'Track' in a specialized field.

The Following are the options:
1. IP (most flying)
2. Maintenance Test Pilot (most work)
3. Safety Officer (most paperwork)
4. Tac Ops Officer (???)

 

[psysicx]

What kind of career progression does the IP track include? If you go the maintenance route what does that include? Thanks.

 

[Hobit]

After being being an IP for a while you go back to Rucker for the 'IE' (Instrument Examiners) course. After that most generally become an 'SP' (Standardization Instructor Pilot) and you are the one that 'Standardizes' the unit. SP's train/evaluate IP's

Maintenance Pilots are Maintenance Managers and manage the units maint activities. They are the ones that also perform the Function Test Flights and usually the Maintenance Operational Checks after maintenance folks fix something. Long hours for little flight time usually.

Both have distinct benefits.