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Air Force Warns: We Could Run Out of Pilots
FP ^ | DECEMBER 26, 2013 | Gordon Lubold

Posted on 12/27/2013 6:48:31 PM PST by MinorityRepublican

The Air Force is flying into gale force winds as commercial airlines start a hiring spree while military aviators struggle with low morale due to cutbacks and idle jets. And the Air Force may see a shortage as pilots vote with their feet.

Over the next year, the commercial airline industry is going to begin hiring tens of thousands of new pilots as aging flyers retire and the industry regains its economic footing. That could put dark clouds in the way of the Air Force's wild blue yonder as it tries to persuade pilots to stay in a service even as top officials worry that pilots don't have enough yoke time.

"If pilots aren't flying in the Air Force because of our readiness issue, we worry that a number of them are going to say, 'I'm flying somewhere else,'" acting Secretary of the Air Force Eric Fanning told Foreign Policy in an interview this month. "If I'm looking at my jet parked on the ramp instead of flying it and I can get a job somewhere else flying, then I'm going to do that. So we are concerned that there is a sort of perfect storm approaching us in terms of flying retention."

(Excerpt) Read more at complex.foreignpolicy.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: ericfanning
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1 posted on 12/27/2013 6:48:31 PM PST by MinorityRepublican
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To: MinorityRepublican

Obama.


2 posted on 12/27/2013 6:49:57 PM PST by Red Steel
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To: MinorityRepublican
low morale due to cutbacks and idle jets.

And the onslaught of faggotry.

3 posted on 12/27/2013 6:50:55 PM PST by TomServo
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To: MinorityRepublican

This is a periodic problem for the Air Force. The same thing happened when I was in. They paid out bonuses back then and that will probably work again although the bonus amount will have to go up substantially from what they’re paying now.


4 posted on 12/27/2013 6:52:08 PM PST by saganite (What happens to taglines? Is there a termination date?)
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To: MinorityRepublican

Is this what happens when you cannot pray for a good landing?


5 posted on 12/27/2013 6:53:07 PM PST by SES1066 (Quality, Speed or Economical - Any 2 of 3 except in government - 1 at best but never #3!)
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To: MinorityRepublican

Call ryan, he can inadvertently stab them in the back but promise to fix it later.


6 posted on 12/27/2013 6:55:39 PM PST by chiefqc
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To: MinorityRepublican

get rid of the pissant that thinks he owns the show and take a new resolve to actually WIN the WAR .....


7 posted on 12/27/2013 6:56:11 PM PST by LeoWindhorse
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To: MinorityRepublican
"I can fly!
I'm a pilot!"


8 posted on 12/27/2013 6:57:42 PM PST by shibumi (Cover it with gas and set it on fire.)
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To: MinorityRepublican

They can recruit illegal aliens since their bosses rolled the red carpet for millions of them...


9 posted on 12/27/2013 7:01:32 PM PST by dragnet2 (Diversion and evasion are tools of deceit)
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To: MinorityRepublican

In 10 years everything will be unmanned.


10 posted on 12/27/2013 7:01:58 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet (A courageous man finds a way, an ordinary man finds an excuse.)
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To: MinorityRepublican
Not certain about the Air Force jet jockeys, but when I was in you had to be a zero to fly a plane. Lots of enlisted men who had flown during WWII were relieved of their planes, simply because they were not of the proper "class".

Us enlisted peons were not worthy of actually flying the aircraft; we were fit only to service it and make it flyable. The "O" -club were the only ones that were allowed to actually pilot the craft, so I actually have no sympathies. Served with many an enlisted man who were certified pilots back in the civilian world, some of whom also came from a family of pilots and also some that were part of a family-owned business of charter aircraft that learned to pilot an aircraft at a young age with hands-on instruction.

The military REMFs mucked this one up long ago.

11 posted on 12/27/2013 7:03:19 PM PST by Utilizer (Bacon A'kbar! - In world today are only peaceful people, and the mooslimbs trying to kill them-)
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To: shibumi

LOL!


12 posted on 12/27/2013 7:04:15 PM PST by ealgeone (obama, border)
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To: MinorityRepublican

It will not get any easier with the cuts we will have to make. Might as well make the leap to robot aircraft as soon as we can.


13 posted on 12/27/2013 7:05:47 PM PST by Vince Ferrer
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To: MinorityRepublican

Flight ROTC Scholarship now = 10 years active duty


14 posted on 12/27/2013 7:07:45 PM PST by 2banana (My common ground with terrorists - they want to die for islam and we want to kill them)
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To: shibumi

Yeah, just lower the standards and you’ll have plenty of pilots. Might as well join the rest of the military.


15 posted on 12/27/2013 7:07:49 PM PST by ltc8k6
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
In 10 years everything will be unmanned.

Drones can be hacked, jammed, EMPed and used against the original owner.

There will always be a need for pilots

16 posted on 12/27/2013 7:09:48 PM PST by 2banana (My common ground with terrorists - they want to die for islam and we want to kill them)
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To: MinorityRepublican

What?? The new gay pilots should be graduating from training by now.


17 posted on 12/27/2013 7:10:26 PM PST by Bryanw92 (Sic semper tyrannis)
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To: 2banana

Want to bet a steak dinner?


18 posted on 12/27/2013 7:10:54 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet (A courageous man finds a way, an ordinary man finds an excuse.)
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To: TomServo

That is the real reason,and low morale, do to those in charge.


19 posted on 12/27/2013 7:12:49 PM PST by easternsky
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To: Utilizer

You make a good point. It takes a lot more than stick, rudder, and throttle to fly a combat aircraft, but the Army has been turning high school grads with some ground experience into WOs to fly their helicopters for decades.

Also, in the computer age, with datalinks and all kinds of command-and-control, the decisions are made on the ground anyway, so you really do need a stick and rudder guy to steer the plane while the JDAMS and other hi-tech weaponry gets released by the computers.

Someone else mentioned the fact that drones can be jammed and hacked, so we can’t go to an all unmanned air force, but using enlisted or WO pilots with plenty of electronic assistance could be feasible.

But, the guys with the stars aren’t giving any of that up! When the missile force was beginning to become the Air Force’s primary leg of the strategic triad, the flyboys went crazy. The AF is all about the pretty boy officer pilots and they aren’t giving that up until the last one quits.


20 posted on 12/27/2013 7:20:25 PM PST by Bryanw92 (Sic semper tyrannis)
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