I’ll spare the details, but apparently there’s a need for engineers with an unusual combination of skills that I possess.  Went to an interview, threw out a salary number, and they said welcome aboard you start the day after You are retired.  It’s a dream job in every possible way except one - the word pilot is missing.  I wasn’t looking for office jobs, but this pays well(better than any pilot job I could get), I know multiple people who work there and everybody loves it, it’s a 20 minute commute, and it’s similar to what I do now (minus the flying) but narrower in scope so an easy transition.  

I probably fly less than every pilot in here, but thinking about not flying at all feels strange.  So I’m still tossing around the guard idea.  New employer is a government contractor so they are super guard-friendly and even give 10 days paid Military leave each year.  Lots of guard options around here - Chinook unit I would do but they are full.  Also c12, Apache, and multiple Blackhawk and Lakota options.  I’m not sold on the guard because it’s still the Army but I also feel strange about not flying.  

Have you considered joining the FAA? Work in GA and it is something different everyday. Great job and benefits! I will be here for many years to come.

Don’t commute if you go airlines. Just don’t.

Know a guy at the FAA, he likes it.  It would require moving and that is not going to happen.  


I would have to, but I could commute easily to multiple hubs(10+ flights per day to each hub available 20 minutes from home).  The wife didn’t like the travel and I also think I would get bored of the airlines after a couple years.  I want to be not working or at most working part time while I’m still relatively young, so the goal of multi-6 figure pay 10-15 years down the road doesn’t really factor in for me.  


To keep flying I’m looking at:

There is an mwr flying club here, I have considered getting my airplane cfi and teaching there.  Most of the students are engineers and scientists who work for dod/nasa/contractors so they’re smart and motivated and the job is pretty laid back.  You can work as much/little as you want on your own schedule.  It doesn’t pay much, but it’s 20 minutes away and I would accumulate free airplane/cfi hours which would be beneficial if I get tired of flying a desk and look for an airplane job down the road.  

I also found a local place that has a fancy helicopter.  They keep it in storage most of the time and bring it out a few times a year for paying work.  They’ve done a couple Hollywood movies and various private and government contract work.  They have been using out of town contract pilots but are looking for a few local people to save money and make logistics easier.  It’s really cool and 20 minutes away, but very part time - only 50 hours flown in 2022.  

The guard…. Still on the fence.  I think it will come down to what aircraft I can fly and the location.  I feel like there’s a strong possibility for a desirable airframe that is relatively close.

If I wear standing in your flight boots, this would be the road I'd walk. The Guard would have to offer F22's... and then you're right back to active duty.

I’m talking Army guard.  I looked into the air guard a couple years ago and I discovered words like “army” and “warrant officer” are a turn off to the Air Force no matter your qualifications.

I'd look again.

Forgive my ignorance, but........

Wouldn't going into the GUARD after retiring from ACTIVE DUTY NEGATE your active duty retirement?

Or, would you keep that and "PLUS UP" your years of service????

Not anymore for warrant officer aviators.
Yes.  

https://www.ar15.com/forums/General/Retired-from-active-duty-and-flying-in-the-guard/147-2613139/

forgive me but as someone who pays far more taxes than the founding fathers ever imagined pays

How much should someone suck fromt the gov't tit?

Every penny earned through service. How is this even a question?

Earned benefits are earned.

As someone else who pays a metric ton of taxes; piss off.

I haven’t read everything yet but I’m a long time Part 91 guy. More than 7,700 hours single pilot. I did Part91 single pilot in PC-12, KA200, CE550B, and CE565. Then DA20 with another pilot. I’m mid 40s now and full time LR45 and don’t think I’ll do single pilot anymore.

I am your neighbor. I see you often at 500 feet and sometimes less.

May 1 was my first day as a civilian again.  Wound up doing an engineering job - a dream job in all ways except it involves no flying.  I’m going to give it a try and see if I’m old enough to tolerate living up the dilbert life again.  Ironically the dilbert life is the reason I joined the military 20 years ago, but I’m older more brittle and have enough war stories to last me until I die so I think it’ll be OK.  If I find myself thinking about stabbing my eyes out with a pencil to get out of work then I’ll just quit and get some flying job.  At least then I won’t wonder what would’ve happened if I hadn’t given the really good paying engineering job a chance.  

Been a long time since I was a civilian, but before lunch my first day I was “inprocessed” - pay, benefits, logins, badges, access, etc. completely done in under 3 hours.  Ironically I’m working on a government contract and it took 8 days just to get a government computer and physical access to an unclassified building.  Further access will take a couple weeks to process to which I reply “OK”.  I really like knowing that I can quit any time I want - no more dangling carrots on a stick tempting you to accept another ADSO!  I also really like that it’s just a job and not a way of life - no more midnight phone calls to come to work for unplanned travel, no more work following me home, etc. it feels like my life is mine again!

I found a guard unit 90 minutes away with both helicopters and airplanes, they apparently like me and need pilots.  A bunch of civ/ctr people I used to work with are in the unit and they all say it’s pretty level headed.  Apparently a waiver from HRC is required to do the retired in the guard thing so they submitted that which will take a while.  2 year obligation.  I’m really on the fence about it but have a few months to decide before I have to sign on the dotted line.

Damn (tech)

Congratulations! So is this truly a civilian environment, like BAE? Or are you an "on site" civilian contractor, employed and paid by a civilian company but sitting at a gov. facility surrounded by retired former MIL and full-time govies? Because the former is truly living the civilian life and the latter can be all too much like still being in the military. In the latter case it's fully understandable because that's the only way folks like that know how to do business.

This, sort of.  A couple o5-o6 scattered around but that's it.  Contract specialists, logisticians, acquisition people, "schedulers", "coordinators", and all sorts of non-pilot/non-engineer people.  

Two months in and so far so good.  I don't even think about work when I'm not at work which is awesome.  I bought a toy car and already rebuilt the suspension and am getting ready to do an engine swap.  
Somebody left their ID in a scanner a couple weeks ago.  I restrained myself(barely) from drawing a dick on it with a sharpie because I'd get in trouble for that now.  I'm not sure if that is a good or bad change.

At the end of May I got my final Army pay, my first retirement paycheck, and my first real job paycheck all within one week.  That was pretty awesome!  
The paperwork to do the national guard thing is still at HRC - I'm still undecided but feel like the longer it takes the less likely I will be to do it.  

I'm glad it's going well for you, Morgan!

What is the tuna boat thing? Please explain.

Apparently helicopters are commonly used in tuna fishing.  Live on a boat, fly in the middle of the ocean, port calls in all sorts of great Asian locations.  Commonly done by young single guys for hour building.

I retired the same day as you.  I chose the Air Evac route instead, but I love it.  It’s easy, I like the people I work with and I don’t think about work at all when I’m off.

I do NOT miss the military at all.  I considered the guard thing, but that was before I was a few months into this job.  No way I’d go back to dealing with Army bullshit after almost 25 years.

Getting pension plus paychecks sure is nice, though.

Weren’t you at Campbell?  Where do you work?  A buddy works for air evac and gave me the skinny, His wife is a doctor in the navy so when she’s on a cruise he does the traveling substitute pilot thing for them and he loves it.    They were hiring in tullahoma for the Vanderbilt contract and I was close to doing it, but the commute was 90 minutes which was the deal breaker.  

I’m struggling with the guard thing - it would be easy and when you figure the bump in retirement pay down the road it’s attractive.  I actually don’t mind playing army, but the BS when you’re not playing army I hear is terrible these days.  It’s been over a decade since I’ve been in the real army and I hear it’s gotten a lot less fun since then.  Every day that passes I can tell I’m less likely to do it, especially since it would require driving to Nashville.

The intent is to retain experienced military pilots since the wartime pilots are all retiring.  This program lets pilots still fly cool aircraft and do the mission, while the Army Guard actually gets a free-ish experienced pilot on the books.

Yeah, I was at Campbell.  We still live south of Clarksville.  We decided anything beyond about an hour I would stay at the base for the seven days.  With that in mind, I chose to commute to Blytheville, AR since they offered better pay for that location.  It’s hard to get pilots in some locations.  

I like Air Evac quite a bit and don’t regret the choice to stay RW vs going airlines.  I’ll never make the kind of money they have at the airlines, but I do pretty well where I’m at and it’s my type of flying.

Anyway, I looked at the Tupalo, MS Guard si de they still operate Apaches, but realized that would eat up all of my spare time.  Plus I’m tired of the system.

That’s a serious commute!    I didn’t know pay was different for different locations.  

I talked to Tupelo too, they were clowns but not as bad as Alabama!  I decided the same thing about the guard on top of a flying job that required travel - it would just eat up your off time.  But I have a 9-5 engineer job now and I get paid military leave….