ERJF15

When ever you decide to leave, make sure you have everything documented in your medical records. EVERYTHING! You may get some extra cash!

grasshopper

I think this guy has said the most valuable thing here yet. You will most likely have a good idea on the direction the budget will take within the next 6 mos. That retirement isn't guaranteed. The Defense Business Board put forth projections on retirement costs and what they are doing to the budget. Google it for some help in your decision making. If its too tough to let go the guard/reserve can be a good transition. It still comes with its own set of demands and sacrifices. I know dudes thinking of bailing from that situation too. Do what will allow for the most happiness and bill paying. The days of pensions are winding down I'm afraid. Maybe you could stay on active until the end of the year with paperwork ready to go. Don't be the last one out or you'll get stop loss love

F15andMD11

Good point! Stop loss will return w/in the next 5 years.
Good point also. I would like to believe those who are in beyond a certain will be "grandfathered."

fishforfun

Stop loss is coming, unless we just stop flying missions. Either way the AF is behind the 8 ball with the personnel loss on the rated side.

Many great points have been made. Don't stay for the money, the retirement or benefits those can be gone next year. Stay because like people have said you love the job and people. Unfortunately, if that was true you wouldn't be considering leaving. Good luck with whatever you decide.

KC10 FATboy

Not being mean or rude, but 2700 hours is a little short unless most of that is PIC. You might find some companies willing to hire you, but that is going to be tough especially for a foreign carrier where you have no bros hooking you up.

Personally, I would stay in and build time unless you can land a job AND have the ability to bail on Uncle Sam.

There will be a hiring wave, but military folks need to understand that the civilian guys who have been parked at a regional for nearly a decade will have lots of PIC and Total Time. To compete with those bubbas, you will need to network!

okawner

12 yrs is a tough spot. I took the bonus at 12 yrs because I thought I was "over the hump" and could stomach the job easy for 8 more. I wasn't burned out yet. Now approaching 18 yrs and I'm SO ready to retire. In retrospect, taking the bonus worked out because dudes that bailed at that time got hired and then immediately furloughed. My advice, if you have to convince yourself to stay, then it's time to leave.

Pancake

Unable to PM you, so here goes...

I'm also getting out at 13 years (13 years, 8 months). I've spent the last 14 or so months looking at many paths to life after the Air Force, including non-flying corporate jobs, law school, airlines, and ANG/AFRC.

You need no less than 1,000 TPIC hours to be competitive for the major/legacy US airlines. Some airlines will require more.

The airline hiring wave will begin spring 2013, but won't be in full force for another 2-3 years (based on my experience at a recent airline conference). Fed Ex and Alaska (a terrific place to work) are currently hiring. US Airways is hiring from its pool, with seemingly more need for new pilots soon. All pilots I talked to agreed that if you are hired in the front of the wave, you will have a very satisfying airline career (based on the retirement numbers). Like Fatboy said, networking is key. Airline career conferences and AFRC/ANG are great places to network.

Lots of TR, AGR, and ART AFRC/ANG flying opportunities available, especially if you're will to transition to a new airframe. My technique was to "cold call" units and ask for their hiring guy/gal. If you do separate, I strongly recommend PALACE FRONTing into ANG/AFRC (no break in service).

A non-flying corporate job is all but incompatible with ANG/AFRC flying, and will require you to work 50-70 hours per week.

If you want to go to business/law/medical school after separating, go to the highest ranked school you can. The name of the institution on your diploma means everything to landing a good job in that field.

Ultimately, the decision to separate is up to you, not your wife/husband, your commander, or your family. The decision is up to you, because, ultimately, you are responsible for the consequences (good or bad) of it.

I'm optimistic and excited about my life outside of the Active component.

liftr92

Remember the grass isn't greener on the other side of the fence, it just tastes different. I punched out post 9/11 after 7 months of stop loss, with no job lined up. It was what I needed to do to keep the family and I decided that what was I truly wanted. Life seems to take care of the rest.

Network, Network, Network - landed a reserve job and activation paid the bills and sent the kids to the Doctors office with an insurance card, took the first available aviation job which led to a better one a few years down the road and life seems to be pretty good today but I'm prepared for another turn.

Whatever choice you make will probably be the right one as long as you don't lament the past. Not having fun in what you're doing is no way to live. Best of luck (btw when I finally got a job in '05 - it was 5000 TT, over 3500 PIC which included lots of IP and some EP) everyones path in aviation is different but somehow they all seem to work.

Tweetdrvr

Another question you must answer is, what would you do, if you get RIF'd?

While you think about that one for a second, let's review a little history. In 1991/92 we had the drawdown of all drawdowns. They wanted to take the so called "peace dividend" from the new peaceful world that we were supposed to have now that Reagan's "evil empire" had collapsed.

Here are some of the things they did:
#1 RIF
#2 Voluntary separation bonuses some in form of annuity and some lump sum.
#3 Students in UPT were banked. Up to 1/2 the guys in a class received non flying assignments after graduation, and returned to the cockpit later.
#4 Students in UPT who were not USAFA grads were allowed to graduate and separate to ANG/AFRES units who would take them with no commitment to the AF.

Here is one thing a lot of people may not know about 92. The RIF was going to cut a certain number of people, regardless of how many took early out bonus incentives. Tons of people took bonuses, and they still RIF'd the target numbers from each year group they said they were after. Those who took bonuses to get out did not save one person from being RIF'd.

Here are the things different from the then and now. Last time, they did not target the ARC. A lot of people were able to find a home in the Guard/Reserve. The biggest difference is we were not facing the huge deficit crisis then that we are now. This time around they have already floated cuts to the ARC. If they cut the ARC, there won't be any room to absorb large numbers of people from active duty. The ARC is already doing some force shaping. Majors in my squadron are not being allowed to stay to 24 years, if they have been passed over. As soon as they have 20 good years and time in grade, they are out. My old ANG unit lost 4 planes a few years back and just lost one more. They have some guys who made O-5 without PME being complete. As soon as they get time in grade to retire as O-5s, they are being shown the door. I fully expect sometime in the next year to be told to leave. Traditional Guardsmen/Reserve O-5s without Air War College, no leadership positions in the squadron, and maybe sitting in overgrade positions, who just show up and fly will probably be the first to go, if things get ugly. Compounding the problem to absorb people from the active force is many of these potential RIF folks will already be O-4s. Thanks to the "sell people for F22 parts" program on the early 2000s, the AF once again gutted middle management. People are pinning on Major before they reach the end of their UPT commitments. Good for them on AD, bad for ANG/Reserve units who may not have room on the manning documents for a glut of O-4s. I think some of those folks, who have gotten out in the last year and found a home in the ARC, are going to be in very enviable positions in about a year to 18 months. They already have a position on the manning document of their unit and they will be positioned to capitalize on the age 65 hiring wave.

I am a cynic, but I think what might happen next year could make 92 look like a picnic. Before you say it can't happen to me, "I am too important to get RIF'd," remember when they shake the tree that hard to get rid of the "bad fruit" good fruit is going to get knocked down with it. We had a guy in my bomb squadron who had flown five or ten missions in Desert Storm and dropped live ordinance on bad guys. He had PCS'd to us due to his first base/squadron being shutdown after they got home from the desert, and this was already a programmed cut from an earlier BRAC before the 91 fall of the Soviets. HE GOT RIF'd!! Worst of all, he was a 1LT from the 89 year group. He was RIF eligible and not even eligible for bonus money to separate. This wasn't like today when we've been at war for 20 plus years. Not everyone got to go to the "Storm" and combat time was a rarity in the B-52 world. Half of the B-52 force sat home, sat alert and watched the war on CNN.

So how to prepare for this fiscal cliff of budget sequestration? Get ready to get out. Pay off the toys, or get rid of them now, pay off as much debt as possible, don't incur anymore debt, and build up a cash reserve. Make those ANG/Reserve contacts now. Hometown units love to bring people from active duty. If they already know you are out there and from the local area, then you won't get lost in the pile of applications when everyone is scrambling for positions in a post RIF (ARC got cut too) environment. Get your FAA stuff up to speed--Radio Telephone Operators Permit, ATP, double check your flight records and start reconciling your PIC time. Network with the bros who already are in the ARC and who have already moved on to the civilian world.

Good luck to all who are soon to be in this mess. Let us hope it doesn't happen.

grasshopper

I totally agree tweet. The question is how will the cuts be structured. Will they go after retirements? Medical? All of the above? Either we aren't really planning or the lips are tight. They dropped some hints awhile back on ideas for cuts but politically it was kicked down the road a bit. Congress is going to kick again or something will have to give in Jan.