Is this a troll post?
Dude, COVID has wreaked havoc on airline hiring for the immediate future.
However, there are probably easier methods to your path than joining the Marines to ultimately become an airline pilot.
Read the forums.
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The SHOW: Airlines still a "good gig"??
- Thread starter A4sForever
- Start date
Is this a troll post?
Dude, COVID has wreaked havoc on airline hiring for the immediate future.
However, there are probably easier methods to your path than joining the Marines to ultimately become an airline pilot.
Read the forums.
If you want to fly for the Marines then fly for the Marines.
If you want to fly for the Marines and fly for the airlines then fly for the Marines first and the airlines later.
About every ten years or so the airline industry hits a huge speed bump. Military aviation runs on about a twenty year cycle that flips between having too many pilots to being desperately short. Plus or minus a few years on each of these.
If you want to be in the military then Marine Corps aviation is a great way to do it but it's not the only way.
Rsaaronson
New Member
Not a troll post..Obviously the airlines are fucked right now. being that it would take me 3+ years before I would be considered for regionals I want to know what people think. I know it’s anybody’s guess when the airlines will be back to where they were but I’m weighing my options here.
They said that after the telegraph, telephone, fax machine, smart phone, etc. were all invented. Wasn’t true.
https://www.theceomagazine.com/opinion/zoom-business-travel/
https://www.executivetraveller.com/news/harvard-study-says-zoom-won-t-replace-business-travel
https://www.businesstravelnews.com/...-Cant-Supplant-Face-to-Face-Business-Meetings
My buddy is a year 2 FO and pulled in 80K one month. Your arms must be getting strong carrying those wheelbarrows full of cash!
There is no substitute for Uncle Sam’s flying club. You get great flight experience, learn REAL leadership, and will make great friends... With that being said, civilian route can be faster.
Honestly, if I had a time machine and knew what I know now, do you know what I woulda done? I would have attacked both paths in parallel. Get hired at a guard unit and move nearby and start flying with the regionals as soon as I could.
Seniority is EVERYTHING. The guard gives you the flexibility to do your flying thing there on uncle sugar's dime, the regionals gives you travel bennies and, most importantly, 121 experience.
The USMC and USN are going to tell you that you can fly with them, but only if you give them a disassociated tour where you aren't in a cockpit. That loss of currency delays your entry into the airlines. The Guard doesn't play those games. Go fly fun planes, pick up orders when you need to make more scratch than whatever regional is paying, upgrade early at the regional for PIC time, have good health insurance for cheap, earn a retirement pension.
The airlines will hire again in the future. It's on you to be ready when that happens. You are looking at a 10-12 year obligation before you're in that position to even be available if you go the active duty route.
Join the guard, learn to fly as a civilian (and for the guard), do both! Heck, you could go Army Guard and fly both cool aircraft for the army and fixed-wing as a civilian!
100% agree with all comments about the Guard.. I should have included that in my statement! That would be what I would do if choosing again. With that being said, I wouldn’t undo my Navy time, even with it being the War Hoover.
Rsaaronson
New Member
“The USMC and USN are going to tell you that you can fly with them, but only if you give them a disassociated tour where you aren't in a cockpit. “
Big surprise, my OSO didn’t mention anything about that. Can you please elaborate a little?
Big surprise, my OSO didn’t mention anything about that. Can you please elaborate a little?
Some states subsidize a civ fixed wing to Army Guard helo Warrant program. In my state it was Private/Instr and they send you Rucker getting a pass on some academics. Weekend only commitment after wings. The program waxed and waned based on budget, but was a great deal. I actually considered it when I separated from active duty.
When I went to fly school, I was all in knowing Helos was a possibility; but now I look up and think “F That” And Ospreys, oh hell know... If it doesn’t follow the basic laws of aerodynamics.... no way Jose
You'll have to do a tour, sometime after your first flying tour in the fleet, where you go and do something else. For the Debbils, I believe it's called a b-billet and may include things like being in a grunt unit as their air liaison; for squids, it includes such fun gigs as the TAO or shooter on a boat. The timing, as far as the navy is concerned, means you would have to take another set of flying orders on the backside to get current. At the 9 year point, if you take 2 year orders to go be a shooter, you now have to take what turn out to be about 3 year orders on the backside of that to go be a department head (if you screen for it, not a guarantee), to go fly some more and get current again (100 hours in the last year before you apply for the airlines). Now you're at year 14ish of a 20 year career....are you gonna walk away from a pension at that point? Add 6 more years, now.
That could put you firmly on the backside of an airline hiring wave. Forever Junior is not a place to be in the 121 world.
Rsaaronson
New Member
Thank you for the thorough explanation, I’m glad I asked. I will be getting in touch with the ANG to get some more info.
While things have stabilized a bit lately I've known several Guard folks who've ended up on the short end of the stick when their units switched aircraft, sometimes to unmanned, or simply went away in a few cases. Start out flying F-16's, switch to C-21's then end up flying MQ-9's. You can switch units/states but you would be competing against others in the same boat for a diminishing number of spots, not a great scenario if you are too junior or too senior for what the remaining units are looking for.