Guard or Reserve

[asayankee]

I'm looking for some clear cut reasons to back up any opinions. Whats the better option for a 121 guy looking for a part time job that will provide some job security, a purpose, and a new group of friends to have a few beers with after work.

A pilot slot in the Air National Guard or the Reserve?

Thanks for your Posts

 

[frog_flyer]

I think pizza delivery guy is the what you're looking for.

we picked up some pizza a little while ago and the off duty driver was smashed and throwing peanuts at the TV.

 

[Huggyu2]

Go with the one you can get a job with: I'd be surprised if you can get enough job offers to be concerned over which one you should take.
But if you do: location, location, location.

 

[asayankee]

Is it possible to actually get good information on this website?

Are there any serious answers out there?

 

[Frisko]

Like Huggy said, whichever one you can get a slot at. Competition for slots widely varies based on location and airframe.
Then it just comes down to your priorities. What is most important, just some place to hang out and fall back on if the airline job goes south or something more demanding. Differences are more between the individual units themselves than between Guard vs. Reserve.
Just have to visit some units and find out.

 

[hindsight2020]

I think Huggyu2 gave you pretty much as real an answer as you're going to find. It is VERY competitive to get a pilot slot in the Guard/Reserves. You would be in a decent position if you were to actually have multiple pilot slot offers. Meaning, in my humble opinion, chances are ANY of these pilot slots are worth more than your current 121 employment. As a matter of fact, even as a part-timer, you are probably able to pull more money in the Guard/Reserves as a bum/trougher than most 121 employer's junior year payscales, not even a question if we are talking regionals. So, I think that's where you got the sarcastic responses; your current 121 employment would probably be the "complementing" job to the Guard/Reserve job, not the other way around; at least until you get to your "dream" major job, and then it would still see you through the first year payscale. Also, I'm not saying you intended to, but I think it may have been misunderstood from your post that you may think having 121 time under your belt make attaining a Guard/Reserve slot a done deal. It doesn't really.

Now, to answer your question, there is no visible difference in a pilot job in the ANG vs. the AF Reserves. The ANG has a state mission in addition to the federal mission, but from the perspective of a pilot, this is a non-issue. The pay system is the same, the job nature is exactly the same, the drill system is the same. The workload, availability of orders, activation rate is all dependent on tons of things, none of which is whether they are Reserve vs. Guard...for the most part. They are in essence the same.

The application process is a little different in the Reserves, but not much. In the Guard, you apply directly to the unit you wish to work for. IF you get an interview, you go through that and if lucky, or your daddy is the WG/CC (sorry, had to throw that in), you're in. In the Reserves the process is the same as far as applying to individual units and interviewing, but at the end of that step, your application package gets submitted to a National pilot board that is held twice a year, where packages are either approved or dissaproved. For guys who get hired with the unit, their packages are "sponsored" by said unit and sent to the board. 99.9% of sponsored packages are approved. It is in essence a rubber stamp. The other option the Reserves has available is the unsponsored package, in which you send your package directly to the board as an individual civilian under the sponsoring of a regional Reserve officer accessions recruiter. Under this method, you go through all the paperwork hoops as a civilian with the "help" of the recruiter and he/she submits the package to Robins AFB (AFRC HQ). If your package is approved as an unsponsored applicant, you then have to go look for an employer..i.e. a unit. Some people consider the process to be a waste of time because you would still have to pimp up the individual units and get an interview with them, just like the dudes who interviewed and went to the board sponsored. I can tell you it's a lot different going to a unit with all your paperwork approved, it's just like being a free agent. Plus if you were to get hired, you would get put on orders on the spot, as you were already approved. It is the 1% route, but I can vouch for it, as I gained access to the Reserves as an unsponsored guy.

That's the skinny on Guard/Reserves. Good luck on your quest. Oh yeah, and for the most part, Guard Reserve jobs are pretty much ideally set up to work with the airline work schedule, much more so than the 9-5er.

 

[Scrapdog]

I'm looking for some clear cut reasons to back up any opinions. Whats the better option for a 121 guy looking for a part time job that will provide some job security, a purpose, and a new group of friends to have a few beers with after work.

A pilot slot in the Air National Guard or the Reserve?

Thanks for your Posts

Yankee - you're also limited on which units are willing to hire a brand new guy to the military and send him to pilot training in the first place...i.e. a lot of units don't hire brand new pups to begin with, only ones with active duty experience. Not only do you have that working against you, but right now it is extremely competitive just to get in a unit - especially with all the BRAC BS that has moved/downsized units throughout the country.

121 experience will probably not help you out much either. UPT in the military is designed to teach a brand new guy to fly the "military" way, and whether you've got 10,000 hours in a 747 or 10 hours in a 172, you're going to learn a whole new way of flying. In actuality, guys with a lot of civilian time tended to struggle in some ways trying to break their old habit patterns vrs. a brand new guy with no habit patterns set to begin with. In the end, skill and attitude will prevail in making it through the program, the 10,000 prior hours won't mean a thing.

Now, after all the pessimism - I do wish you luck. It's awesome to get to serve your country and fly for the military at the same time (in my opinion the best job in the world).

 

[AdlerDriver]

job security, a purpose, and a new group of friends to have a few beers with after work.

2 out of 3 of these are not generally the reasons I've seen people join the military in my experience.

You could get all these things as a mailman (just don't pi$$ anyone off after a few beers... ya know - the whole "postal" thing..... )

 

[CFIIer]

everything that's been mentioned so far is pretty much true. I know that my unit is actually over staffed with pilots by about 20%. So we definately don't need to be hiring more people. It just makes it hard for the rest of us to make any money bumming.

 

[Scrapdog]

everything that's been mentioned so far is pretty much true. I know that my unit is actually over staffed with pilots by about 20%. So we definately don't need to be hiring more people. It just makes it hard for the rest of us to make any money bumming.

CFIIer - where and what do you fly in the reserves?