Bonus Pay/ Flight hours

[NeoCortex]

I have found out that the AF gives you a $25K per year bonus after you've flown for 8 years. Is this true? Does the Navy do the same. Also, what is the average flight time that a Naval Aviator will get?

Thanks,

Ben

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"The noblest fate that a man can endure is to place his own mortal body between his loved home and war's desolation."

 

[bunk22]

The idea of the bonus is to entice aviators to continue in the military. Normally, the bonus is offered at the end of your obligation, which for the Navy is usually 6-8 years after wings. I took the 5-year, $125,000 bonus just recently. A very good friend of mine recently switched from Navy to Air Force and took their $25K for 10 year signing bonus. It will take him right up to retirement.

 

[46Driver]

Nice to know that the Navy gives the same $25k per year bonus to helo bubbas as fixed wing guys, the Marines give the $25k a year only to fixed wing pilots and less than half to helo bubbas.

 

[perchul]

thats gay, I didn't know that. It all seems like a bunch of money none the less

 

[Dupe]

Its not all that much money. At 10 years, you're a new O-4 trying to figure out if you want to stay for 20 or punch out. $25k minus taxes is less than a third of your base pay, and is still peanuts compared to what American Airlines is paying. Sure, as a fairly young person, it seems like alot to us, but the wife and kids can make it burn up faster.

 

[NeoCortex]

So what about the normal flight time? Is it about the same for AF and Navy. Both in Jets?

Ben

===================================
"The noblest fate that a man can endure is to place his own mortal body between his loved home and war's desolation."

 

[46Driver]

For those thinking about the airlines... American, United, etc all took massive pay cuts in their take home checks as well as pensions (for example, USAir's pension went from being about $96k a year to $28k a year)- in addition, they are not hiring now or for the forseeable future. The only ones hiring are the regionals (where pay tops out at roughly $100k a year after 10+ years) and the low cost carriers (Southwest, Jet Blue, AirTran, etc) where pay tops out at the $150k-$200k (after quite a few years). In addition, the competition is intense with all of the furloughed United, USAir, American pilots etc with 5,000 - 10,000 hours trying to get hired.

 

[bunk22]

Originally posted by Dupe
Its not all that much money. At 10 years, you're a new O-4 trying to figure out if you want to stay for 20 or punch out. $25k minus taxes is less than a third of your base pay, and is still peanuts compared to what American Airlines is paying. Sure, as a fairly young person, it seems like alot to us, but the wife and kids can make it burn up faster.

What is your definition of a lot? Usually the more you make, the more you spend, it's all relative. Of course the military will never be able to compare to the airlines as far as top salary goes for their aviators. I only wish it was the mid to late 90's for the airline hiring boom, I would have definitely gone that route. However, a military pilot gets to keep a little bit more of his pay, being that things like BAH is not taxable. Plus free things like health care helps keep save money as well.

 

[wink]

If a guy is an O-4 and takes the bonus, and considering some of the tax free money and other bennies it will take as much as 5 years or more to get back to that pay level if he leaves for the airlines. And that is if you get on with a major carrier. So you must really look 5 more years down the road and consider O-5 pay and the 20 year quaranteed retirement that would be looming then. For the active guys making the decision to punchout or not, it looks bleak for an airline job. Fortunately the pay is pretty good on the active side. For those of you looking down the road, the airline business will look very different that it is today. For now you must consider what was stated above, there are nearly 5000 airline pilots out of work looking for a flying job. And those all have to be recalled to their respective airlines before any hiring is done off the street. As someone that has faced airline bankruptcy and taken a huge pay cut for the hope to stay employed, I say taking the bonus and staying is the tactic of the day.

 

[Dupe]

How many people think that the economy will be the same in a decade that it is now? Nobody in 1991 thought that 1999 would kick ass. Nobody in 1999 thought that 2002 would seriously suck. I guess the lesson is that its important to plan for the future, invest intelligently, and hope that luck's on your side.