SJF15E

Everyone I have spoken to about this says that the key to making this work is to be UP FRONT with both your Guard/Reserve unit and the airline that hires you. I don't take that to mean you need to bring it up in an interview; but certainly before you get into training it seems you would want to let them know that you will need 3-4 months to do RTU and MQT.

The SWA People Dept person I spoke with at HPA told me that they want you to fly for 4-6 months after IOE without taking military leave so you can get used to the way the company does business. The Guard/Reserve units I have spoken to have not had a problem with this as long as you don't try and go fly trips with your airline while your at the RTU. One unit I spoke with said I would have 12 months to get the training complete after I joined the unit. I thought that was pretty generous.

1Seat 1Engine

I'm not saying that no one has ever used this situation for reasons other that desire to serve their county, but it's reasonable to do a stateside job and take mil leave for it.

This actually happened for example: Squadron is participating in AEF over a 5 month period. Most of the guys are going to the sandbox for 45 day rotations over that time. Command thinks this would be a great time to give us an ORI/UCI, while most of our guys are gone fighting the war. So, we asked some of our part-timers, who weren't going to deploy, to go on orders so that they could cover for ORI/UCI prep while the other guys in the unit were concentrating on getting ready to go to war.

Did these guys "go to war"? No. Did they contribute to the overall effort? No doubt.

L'il J.Seinfeld

FWIW guys have lost the job in the interview at UPS for bringing up the Guard/Reserve. UPS HR asks the question, " First year pay os 33K. Are you prepared for this?" The wrong answer is to say, "I plan on augmenting my first year pay with mil leave."

I agree that there is absolutely nothing wrong with taking mil leave even if it is for training or other non-deployable functions. That's why they wrote USERRA the way they did.

HuronIP

How about just saving a little money before you get out that way you don't have to take MIL leave to supplement your first year pay and you can also avoid screwing over the other pilot’s at your airline? An O-4 pilot in the reserves working 5 days a month (10 drills) which is the minimum commitment in my squadron per month can take home 20-25K a year easily. That should be more than enough to supplement first year pay.

Gunfighter

If your intent is to simply get a line number at a major airline and then take a 5yr AD tour to sidestep the low pay and bad QOL please don't. If you want to be an airline pilot, commit to that decision and suck it up. If you just need a short amount of mil leave for training, go for it.

Garryowen

There are many different situations, some of which have been mentioned above. It's not my intention to just get a number...I agree that there is some commitment that must be made

I thank all for your thoughtful replies . . . keep em coming.

L'il J.Seinfeld

Are you serious? IMO taking mil leave is not "screwing the other pilots". The airline is not the military and your bros at the airline are taking care of themselves first, as they should. The airline is the one screwing people. Why should you blow through life savings to subsidize the ridiculous first year pay?

I made around 80k on active duty when I left the mil as a senior O-3. The 26,000 UPS paid was not enough to keep me in my modest house, without cashing out my IRAs and kids college funds. I chose mil leave and dropped about 40% of my line in order to "trough" with the Reserves. Our Union encourages guys to take as much mil leave as they can get while on probation. It is a legally protected right and one that you should not be ashamed to take.

How is it screwing over fellow pilots anyway? Do some airlines force their pilots to work extra? I say that the respective unions need to take care of it in the contract if guys are being forced to work extra. It's not that way at UPS--although guys on reserve will have a higher chance of being called out if others are on mil leave.

I'll get off the soapbox. But it surprises me that someone would think it's screwing over your peers to take mil leave.

HuronIP

I just don't know how someone could in good faith apply for a job and accept it knowing that as soon as you get it you are going to go volunteer to go back onto active duty to make up for lost wages. I can completely understand if you involuntarily got recalled back to active duty and you didn't have a choice in the matter. This seems like a common thing for guys to do in the airline industry. I just wonder how common of a practice it is in the rest of the business world.

1Seat 1Engine

How about you stop worrying about yourself and think about helping your country.

Airbum

Probably along the same lines of thinking as " hey lets take advantage of our hew hires by paying them less then a liveable wage. Sure we may loss a few to military leave but those with a false sense of obligation will stay and we can pocket that money ourselves!"

The airline makes NO commitment to you beyond your paycheck. Heck, I know of a company who denied the signing bonus to widows whose husbands died before contract was signed.