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What's wrong with the Air Force?


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2 minutes ago, Air V said:

Current Manned Fixed-Wing Pilot take rate is 35%.

Data is skewed by a close to 50% rate from E-3s and E-8s.

The rest are similar to the C-17 and fighter take rates around 12%.

12%!

And yet, pilots still promote at a lower rate than support officers.

I wonder why they are unwilling to commit to the Air Force.

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1 hour ago, Air V said:

Current Manned Fixed-Wing Pilot take rate is 35%.

Data is skewed by a close to 50% rate from E-3s and E-8s.

The rest are similar to the C-17 and fighter take rates around 12%.

12%!

I’m surprised E-3s and E-8s have such a high take rate. I would think all that 4 engine Boeing time would make them super easy hires to make 2-3x pay for half the work/no deployments. 

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1 hour ago, viper154 said:

I’m surprised E-3s and E-8s have such a high take rate. I would think all that 4 engine Boeing time would make them super easy hires to make 2-3x pay for half the work/no deployments. 

As a former 11R it surprises me too. I never got the sense the ISR community took good care of 11Rs and there was always steep uphill competition against ABMs and 12Rs who had essential mission experience for command opportunities/etc... Maybe that's the key though. Maybe those dudes are happy to just fly. 

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13 hours ago, pawnman said:

What's wrong with the Air Force?  We pass over officers with impeccable combat records and no PT failures in the flying community, but put people like this into SQ/CC jobs in the MXG.

I can't imagine how she will credibly counsel any airmen who fails a PT test under her command.

1000w_q95.jpg

Is there a backstory here?  Has she failed multiple PT tests or something?

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6 hours ago, Air V said:

Current Manned Fixed-Wing Pilot take rate is 35%.

Data is skewed by a close to 50% rate from E-3s and E-8s.

The rest are similar to the C-17 and fighter take rates around 12%.

12%!

12%!!  I have not been at a regular ops unit for some time now, so maybe someone else can chime in, but is this statistic translating into squadrons with only 1st or 2nd assignment captains and then the CC/DO?  

 

Are other MAJCOM A1s also limiting staff assignments similar to what ACC did?

 

So...crisis mode??

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3 hours ago, Jetpilot said:

but is this statistic translating into squadrons with only 1st or 2nd assignment captains and then the CC/DO

Multiple fighter squadrons out there with roughly 2 Lt Cols, 1 Maj, 5 Capt (3 of whom are first assignment) and 15 LTs. The lack of experience in the AD CAF is alarming. 90% of the experience has punched at first opportunity. 

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4 hours ago, Jetpilot said:

So...crisis mode??

On the contrary, there appears to be a blood pact from the top to simply not discuss the pilot shortage anymore.  There’s been little to no publicly distributed news, briefs, or media, for what seems like months.  I’m sure it will fix itself.

Just turn it off and back on again.

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Got a chance to talk to my old sister squadron Commander while he was doing his new-hire orientation ride at my airline. He punched before hitting 20 and told me that during his whole 2 year stint as a commander, he did not PCS a single Major. The Wing Commander called him and the other flying squadron commanders in and was seriously confused why no one was staying in past their Initial UPT commitment. UFB.


Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile app

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4 minutes ago, Duck said:

The Wing Commander called him and the other flying squadron commanders in and was seriously confused why no one was staying in past their Initial UPT commitment.

5C3E3522-3F86-4046-805F-3545F37E5907.thumb.jpeg.c5e15959c38d99379a1481776e65cb62.jpeg

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42 minutes ago, Duck said:

Got a chance to talk to my old sister squadron Commander while he was doing his new-hire orientation ride at my airline. He punched before hitting 20 and told me that during his whole 2 year stint as a commander, he did not PCS a single Major. The Wing Commander called him and the other flying squadron commanders in and was seriously confused why no one was staying in past their Initial UPT commitment. UFB.


Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile app

Going on six years here at Dyess.  Very similar tales...if you didn't get a school slot, you stayed in the FTU.

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Standby for your HAF mandated down day to “address” suicides. I’m waiting for the part where they ask our airmen what’s wrong, then dismiss all the things brought up as whining/complaining.

 

Sounds just like the pilot retention task force. Therefore, my only conclusion is they don’t actually give a shit about any of their people and will just produce more airmen to replace the ones they lose from the big air force perspective. But the appearance of having done something has been accomplished. 

Edited by SurelySerious
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Seems like we now have an "It is what it is" attitude from leadership. You can't maintain a "crisis" mode of thinking indefinitely, and everyone involved in the pilot shortage issue capable of making any sort of a change is probably looking at their next assignment.

Problems have been elevated to Congress with regard to financial incentives. No meaningful response. For quality of life, the bureaucratic inertia is too great to change directions, especially when everyone in the chain has been selected because they say "Yes, Sir! Right away, Sir!" instead of challenging poor policies and directives that are detrimental to their subordinates.

How long can you maintain a pilot shortage before it simply becomes the status quo?

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Curious, it's been a year or two now, but the reduction in ancillary duties...has that actually hit anyone? I'd say every single extra duty that was removed has returned plus maybe one or two extras now (voting officer, records management, CNO, gate guard, DDRP, etc). The only one I was happy to see was PT testing being done in Squadron...but I honestly can't think of a single extra thing that has actually gone away and not come back.

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23 minutes ago, StoleIt said:

Curious, it's been a year or two now, but the reduction in ancillary duties...has that actually hit anyone? I'd say every single extra duty that was removed has returned plus maybe one or two extras now (voting officer, records management, CNO, gate guard, DDRP, etc). The only one I was happy to see was PT testing being done in Squadron...but I honestly can't think of a single extra thing that has actually gone away and not come back.

Records management? Is that a job in a squadron? What do they do?

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47 minutes ago, Majestik Møøse said:

Records management? Is that a job in a squadron? What do they do?

If I were a guessing man, I’d say they manage records...

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9 hours ago, torqued said:

Seems like we now have an "It is what it is" attitude from leadership. You can't maintain a "crisis" mode of thinking indefinitely, and everyone involved in the pilot shortage issue capable of making any sort of a change is probably looking at their next assignment.

Which is also basically the same attitude our national leadership has regarding Afghanistan and our endless wars in the Middle East

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14 hours ago, Majestik Møøse said:

Records management? Is that a job in a squadron? What do they do?

They take training to make sure the network drives are organized and official things saved in the correct structure for federal law accountability purposes.  It is super qweepy, had to deal with that on a deployment 6-9 years ago. When your network drive folders are organized with the numbers and the one where everyone actually saves there working docs is totally separate? Usually why. 

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Actually what really grinds my gears lately is the excessive amount of time & effort it takes the personnel system to process relatively routine functions (like Air Medals for example). 6-9 months to get decorations approved from an O-6 to work through AFCENT and uploaded into your records? UFB. It cost my NCO a promotion on the TSgt board (missed it by 5 points, had 6 points of medals approved but took too long to process, and another 3 points that were “lost”).

Surprisingly, AFPC total force service center was helpful, if you’re willing to wait 45 min to get ahold of someone. Base MPF acts like its some arduous process to do a CMS case for the guy’s supplemental board.

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