Okay here is the real wake up call at least when you are talking about airlines. It is highly unlikely that you will be picked up for any airline, except a puddle jumper because you won't have a multi-engine rating. If you do that on your own dime you are talking thousands upon thousands of dollars just to get the multi engine rating. In the end you still won't have those hours right out of the gate to flt for the big boys compared to someone that went and did the traditional route (ADAF). Yes, the airlines will be hiring at a significant rate for the next 5-10 years, but remember that many are leaving ADAF to do exactly what you are thinking about...Guard/Reserve and fly airlines. Thus, if they have a choice to take the guy/gal that did 10 yrs ADAF with thousands of hours in flight time and you straight out of UPT (guard/Reserve will send you there) don't you think that the big airline carriers are going to the person with 9 yrs and thousands of hours? thus, that puts you in the puddle hopper and paying for the ATP rating.
Secondly, when it comes to Guard units you will have to apply to each individual unit. Not every unit will always have an opening for an O1. On top of that if you become a puddle hopper for the airlines between the part time guard pay and the low airline pay you will not be making a lot.
~ Many reasons ADAF pilots will stay until retirement is because even when they enter the airlines as a right seater they know that for the 1st 5 years their paycheck is going to be low, and thus they stay until retirement so they can take that AF retirement paycheck and live with the low airline pay.
~~ I am sure airline pay has increased since my closest friend joined SouthWest Airlines, but I remember his starting salary was less than 40K, so let's say it is now at 50K. That was for a major airline carrier. Get hired on by American, and you get American Eagle (their puddle jumper) expect it to be way below that amount. Even with Guard pay, and you owe any student loans, plus a car, and of course a crash pad on top of your home, it is going to be financially tight.
I would strongly suggest you go and LURK on
www.baseops.net they have a guard/Reserve forum, it will be an eye opener on how different the process is, in essence you are guaranteed a certain airframe IF hired. Basically it is a true interview process just like any corporation. Whereas, ADAF there is no interview process once you are in the ROTC program, but no guarantee of anything, EXCEPT, you will owe time, and of course ADAF (AFROTC/OCS route) will require 9 years from winging....10 years in total. Decide to stay and if you decide to take the bonus instead of bolting at 10 yrs you will get about $225K bonus on top of your base pay. It is 50% up front and the remainder will be spread across the commitment years owed for taking the bonus.
Now for AFROTC you have some hurdles too.
1. Summer Field Training
~ You must be selected as a sophomore from the national selection board to attend SFT. If not selected than your chances are incredibly high that they will disenroll you from AFROTC=no commissioning=no UPT
~~ Honestly, 3.0 (tech)/3.3 (non-tech) cgpa, strong AFOQT and PFA you should be fine.
2. Rated board
~ junior year you will again meet a national selection board, but now it is for rated. Your flight time/hours will give you a bump in selection. You will now take the Test Basic Aviation Skills (TBAS). You will be required to rate all 4 rated options from high to low. You might want pilot and they can drop CSO on you.
~~ IOWS you can't be guaranteed that you will get Pilot, but you can be guaranteed that currently via AFROTC you will serve ADAF upon commissioning.
3. UPT...RPAs dropping
~ Yes, you can get Pilot, but with the RPA world losing at a high rate, you don't know if in 5 years from now when you are at UPT HQ AFROTC might do to your class/year what they did this past year...every UPT base, except ENJJPT dropped 2 RPA pilots for the FY of 16. That means even if you get Pilot out of AFROTC, rank at the bottom of your class you will go RPA.
Honestly, my DH served 21 yrs ADAF (F15E WSO) and no way would we have said go the Guard/Reserve path to our DS if he thought that he would do the airlines right off the bat. Here's why:
1. Financially it is impo unrealistic at your age.
~ You are not going to get hired on by any airline just because you have a PPL (pilot license) which already will cost @4-5K on a good day. You would need that multi-engine rating which is insanely expensive. Basically you need to get the ppl, and than your multi-engine rating which means thousands more. On top of that than you have to pay for your Air Transport Pilot quals. More $$$
~~ I can't see how you can do all of those flight hours while in college, none the less pay for college and the flight hours needed unless the folks are well off money wise.
Where do you stand in flight hours currently? Are you close to your PPL? If not, and you want to go that Guard/Reserve path, I would say you are already behind the power curve.
2. Old enough to remember the late 90s. Airlines were hiring left and right. Friends were diving at an insane rate. Guess what happened? Sadly, 9/11/2001.
~ Right now the airlines are hiring again at an insane rate. Why? Simple, due to FAA laws there is an age limit for pilots. Once 9/11 occurred the airlines not only stopped hiring, but laid off/furloughed their pilots. None of them that entered in 2000 expected the airlines to nose-dive, none of them saw 9/11 occurring, but they were laid off or furloughed.
~~ The airlines now have pilots that are ageing out and they need to hire at a high rate. Your problem is that currently the AF bonus acceptance rate is insanely low. They are jumping to the airlines and accepting the fact that there will be lean years. In 5 years from now who knows where the airlines will be from a hiring aspect.
See above regarding puddle jumpers. If the carriers have filled that loss than that leaves you competing against someone like fencer's DSs and my DS. ADAF officers that leave after 10 years with thousands upon thousands of hours in multi engine experience around the world (including hot spots), yours is pay as you go. They can walk at 2023, but can give notice in 2022 to the AF. Again, why should SWA, United, Delta, etc. hire you to be a right seater over you when it is a flat out paycheck/line number.
~ Guard/Reserve is different because their rank will have and impact from a job aspect. Yet, see above...not every unit will have an opening.
I am going to assume you did not get an AFROTC scholarship. Enroll in AFROTC as a freshmen. Next year revisit this issue. Maybe ADAF is not for you, but at that point, be honest and get that multi-engine rating.
Finally the truly dirty little secret in the corporate world, which includes Guard units and airlines...NETWORKING.
~ Let's say you pay for your PPL and ATP, to get that foot in the door for the airlines you will want someone that knows you.
~ Same is true for Guard and Reserve. You want someone to vouch for you if it comes down to 1 opening, and 3 fighting for that slot/ everybody with the same quals.
As unfair as that might seem, that is the truth when it comes to the "real world" employment opportunities...it is not necessarily what you know, but who you know too. Do you have those type of connections to get an interview for either Guard/Reserve and Airlines?
Our very closest friend is a SWA pilot(left seater) and when DS winged, he flat out said ....Can't wait until I see you in a SWA uniform! Another one of our common friends said ...nope he will be in United!
~ DS responded: Can You ALL stop and let me get through C130 school house first! I just winged!
~~ IOWS, because of networking he has commercial pilots that will place their name on the line for him from an employment aspect...and that happened because of ADAF connections.
~~~ NETWORKING