Can anyone tell me what some of the benefits to flying for the actives vs the guard might be, or vise versa? What is the family lifestyle like for both?
It is two different worlds. Do you want to move around an entire career and never set up roots or do you want to live where you want, keep two jobs and leave your "regular" life to deploy every so often.
The helicopters fly the same no matter how you do it so the only question is what you want. The benefits of flying are the last thing to worry about in the comparison.
How much moving around are we talking? What was it that prompted you to leave the Army? What were the best things you liked about the lifestyle? What were the worst? If you have a family, how was it on them?
I'm ex Army reserve, Navy (aviation admin) now Army national Guard I can tell you from my experience. First you have to have a strong wife. Usually your station is 15 month tours, you can bring your family unless its a country and family members are not authorized to go to. Depending on what your making in your civian job is also a factor "count on being away a lot" my dad was Airforce and I can tell you i missed him a whole bunch of times...lol As you know the mission comes first. So if I was you talk to your wife and inform her you may be away from family many times. Now if you get stateside duty station may be a little better yet If im coorrect if your an aviator flight officer or seeking to become one and on active duty you know no matter where your stationed with or with out family you may get orders to any and everywhere Needs of the service. Not going to lie to you i've been on active duty seven years It's going to be hard on the family but if you have a strong wife it works out. So take in account all this and if you have family matters take everything into account.
I fly plenty in the NG. I work in flight ops full time and am always calling my pilots and crew chiefs in to fly external missions. The trouble is this. We have lots of missions but it is still only a part-time job for my crews. They have jobs and familes. So it's tough for the crews to balance their flying with the civilian life. It's easy for me because I work there. For the others, it's a balancing act. Alomost none of my crews have any real trouble meeting their minimums in my state.
that is what I, as a guard bum, was hoping to hear.
I do have a question about RL progression though. How much emphasis is placed on getting a newbie, like me, progressed? Is that something I have to plan, or is there usually a set protocol as far as planning is concerned for knocking that stuff out? Can you get RL2 in one flight?
Getting RL2 in one flight would be unusual for a first assignment pilot. We bring our new arrivals on active duty (ADOS) for 30 days after IERW for RL2 progression. This includes the LAOs and seeing where you are at with the flying and acedemics. You will make it soon enough though and start the progression to RL1. You should have 72 AFTPs to use for this, after the 30 days of active duty (if your state does that).
