Posted on 10/21/2017 11:21:10 AM PDT by be-baw
The pay has begun to improve drastically over the last three years or so, but all that is doing is pulling people up from the lower rungs.
Local service airlines, and low cost freight providers are really just now starting to really feel the shortage.
The lack of entry into the training pipeline has also led to severe shortage in training instructors, as well. Even if you want to fly, trading slots are limited. As soon as an instructor makes the minimum regulated hours needed, they are off to the regionals for a lot more money.
Sometimes that very same day.
Yep. They want an exclusive club. No mere warrant officers or non-degreed enlisted pilots in the AF.
Now that the US finally has a Commander and Chief that a real patriot / military person can support and respect. We haven’t had one of those since Ronald Reagan, and JFK before that.
>>Just goes to show that retiring on half of one’s base pay at 20 years comes with a “condition” - subject to recall to active duty at the convenience of the government.
The Navy calls it the “Fleet Reserve” and they don’t talk about it when they are trying to get you to re-up. But at the end, they make it very clear that the grey ID card has a commitment.
My sister lives about a mile from the runway at Westover AFB.It's a matter of routine for C-5s to fly almost directly over her house while taking off (I've never seen them on a landing approach).Those things are *big*...and *loud*.
A couple of years ago the Blue Angels did a show at Westover and I just happened to visit her a couple of days before the show was to begin (I attended the show as well).While I was visiting they were doing what I assume were practice maneuvers in the area and they were flying full speed (or so it seemed) right over her house.All I can say is *damn*!
Having seen that kind of stuff I'm not gonna badmouth guys who can do it.
we are losing the SOLID foundation of young people...
too many mamby pamby school courses, too many drugs, too many put downs of the values of a strong and robust society...hard work, obedience to parents, following the rules..
being a valedictorian used to mean something...as in, you took the difficult courses and succeeded...
now everything has been dumb downed..
kids that would have worked hard to become doctors now just slid into liberal arts and law school....
I’m waiting for the Army to recall some of us. I’ll go back as an 80 yr old Colonel, hey 80 is the new 50 right?
Air Force officers have not chosen to stay in service because they reject the religious and gender politics currently in vogue in the gay force. Trump has not followed through on his campaign promises to rid the AF of this BS.
I know, I saw that.
Do you think that would stop the spinmeisters?
I also know air force pilots view army pilots as just slightly more competent than retards. Naaah, the army guys are just better for close air support, and they can see the enemy closer than 25,000 ft. up. AF is just jealous, the army had more pilots than all the other services combined during Nam. If they don’t behave they may go back to the army signal corps.
How do Army pilots view the Air Force pukes?
>><<
I doubt if they call them “pukes” and I’m sure there is a mutual respect from both.
Very well said!
How do Army pilots view the Air Force pukes?
<<>>
Another thing: Army Infantry never refers to Air Force ground support pilots as “pukes”.
My BIL spent 20 in the AF flying C-130's.
Retired in '93, dinked around with a couple of airlines and then was in 2009, along with other retired AF pilots, requested to come back in to take over some of the extraneous duties of the active pilots.
He did Control Tower OIC duty at Hickam for 3 years up to mandatory retirement age.
Bumped his '93 O-4 retirement pay to the 2012 O-4 level, sweet deal.
I think that has always been the goal of the Left, to drive away the patriots from the military.
I know ... right? Recall me for just one lousy day ... one month ... four months ... a year, and then retire me again at the current pay scale. I'll make out like a fat rat if they did that.
My son is an ALO - he wanted to be a pilot, but he has some hearing loss at certain frequencies, so he chose another non-desk job. It sounds like they are cutting back or phasing out the pilot-ALO track and focusing on career ALOs.
That was my experience in the Oregon Air National Guard. The only F-15 Pilots I knew had engineering degrees of some sort.
I don’t know any cargo plane pilot types.
I’m sure some weight is given to folks with lots of flying hours already.
Sorry I painted with a broad brush.
The warrent officer remark stands. The Army had green to gold aviation programs for many years. I knew lots of guys that went from crew chiefs and even one cavalry scout (19-D) that are now UH-60 pilots. Lots of Army fixed wing pilots are warrants also.
The AF pilots looking down at Army pilots makes me laugh. I’d put a salty National Guard UH-60 warrant officer pilot against any active AF pilot any day.
Pilot training pipeline is at max capacity right now, but there are some key factors at work that are causing the shortage.
First, the airlines are hiring, and in near-record numbers. This trend is expected to continue, and even with bonus increases for military pilots, the prospect of an airline career is difficult to pass up. In fact, the Air Force recently convened a “summit” with the commercial carriers (at Charleston AFB, SC) to discuss the issue and explore possible solutions. That is unprecedented in my USAF experience, dating back to the early 80s.
Secondly, some of the pilots who would normally move into manned aircraft have wound up (instead) in the UAV community; some as a career broadening move, others as pilots who will fly drones throughout their career. And as you might have guessed, RPV units are facing their own pilot shortage. The Air Force is going “back to the future” in addressing the problem; the service began training enlisted pilots earlier this year and graduated the first class over the summer.
By all accounts, the NCO pilots (drawn from the ranks of enlisted aircrew members) are doing extremely well. However, they are currently limited to UAVs that aren’t armed (i.e., Global Hawk). That will probably change, and the service needs to take a hard look at enlisted pilots for selected manned platforms, and (ideally) bring back the warrant officer ranks. Warrant pilots have been the backbone of Army aviation for decades and could perform a similar role for the Air Force.
But there are limits on how many pilots can be trained. If the pilots being recalled are assigned to the cockpit, they will need requalification in the jet, even if they’ve been away from flying duties for a relatively short time. The length of the re-qual depends on how long they’ve been out of the cockpit—and those recalled pilots will be competing for simulator time, training sorties and instructor hours with new pilots fresh from UPT, and those already on active duty, who are returning to flying status after a staff job.
It would make more sense to recall these pilots and put them behind a desk, as originally proposed. But even that poses challenges. Why would someone who has retired or separated from service and settled into a civilian career return to active duty for a chance to push staff summary sheets and background papers for a couple of years.
No easy solutions...
Excellent comprehensive post. Thank you.
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