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Pilot Shortage Deepens, USAF is SCREWED.


ClearedHot

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Recent controversial legislation was pursued by senior USAF officials that would seek to delegate that authority down to the service level.  I would imagine they are near the threshold and should the balloon go up with NK it would be on in an instant.  I would say get out as quickly as possible but I personally think the situation is so bad they would immediately recall folks to active duty.

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Gen Goldfien,

You’re doing a great job. You understand what’s important and have the most combat street cred of any CSAF in the last 20 years. That said, if you let combat capability worth $Billions walk out the door to save $300m annually in bonus money, you’ll destroy our Air Force. None of these slides talk about the cost of a $100k bonus (a pittance) vs the exponentially increased costs of continual experienced pilot backfill production. The bottom line - if you don’t pay us more, you will continue to spend $Billions to solve the airlines’ pilot production problems. You’re making them money. Most of us see staying in the Air Force as the equivalent of paying $Millions in opportunity costs to continue serving. It’s hard to look at the wife and kids and tell them that we’re forgoing all that money and QOL to keep going on adventures. Army vets in Congress pushing back? Joint Staff complaining? They don’t understand the problem. Tell it like it is.

 

Sincerely,

A 2x MWS IP

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22 minutes ago, ClearedHot said:

I would imagine they are near the threshold and should the balloon go up with NK it would be in in an instant. 

Current law already allows for this and I'd think that it would be expected.

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Good luck getting those of us who’ve reached escape velocity to ever come back. They’ll have a hell of a time finding me if they ever come looking. I’ve been out for two years and would never go back (barring an actual shooting war).

IMG_8733.JPG
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12 minutes ago, 17D_guy said:

Those RPA  bonus taker numbers were pretty interesting.  Not as bad as advertised or am I reading something wrong.  I'm not used to such grand slides.

I would wait to see what the numbers for next year are. Those 12/13Us are prior navs/abms that we’re part of the pilot program for 18x career field, and the first lot of the 18 program we’re prior service types. But I could be wrong, I’m in a rather specialized corner of the RPA enterprise that has a lot of high paying contracting jobs. 

 

But hopefuly good news for those of us trying to get back to the cockpit.  

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7 minutes ago, Breckey said:

Looks like the 11H bonus will remain lower than the others. Something to be said about not having a quick path to the airlines or other high paying post-AF flying options.

wait until the word spreads more about the rotary wing transition programs a lot of airlines are offering these days.

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AF is not going to get to $100K bonus any time soon, but seems they could easily offer $50-65K this year since we were just at $50K per year for fighter guys a couple years ago. 

Offer $65K annual bonus without long commitments (1-2 years max) and I think you'd get enough takers to at least stem the bleeding.  It wouldn't reverse the trend but at least it would slow it down and buy AF some time.

The $35K bonus is a joke .

The AF waited too long and missed it's window to fix culture.  Now they  need to throw money at the problem in the short term.  That's what I've put on everyone of of the 4 aircrew retention crisis surveys I've taken in the last month.

 

Edited by Hunter Rose
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AF is not going to get to $100K bonus any time soon, but seems they could easily offer $50-65K this year since we were just at $50K per year for fighter guys a couple years ago. 
Offer $65K annual bonus without long commitments (1-2 years max) and I think you'd get enough takers to at least stem the bleeding.  It wouldn't reverse the trend but at least it would slow it down and buy AF some time.
The $35K bonus is a joke .
The AF waited too long and missed it's window to fix culture.  Now they  need to throw money at the problem in the short term.  That's what I've put on everyone of of the 4 aircrew retention crisis surveys I've taken in the last month.
 

Uh, since when did they ever offer 50? It’s been capped at 25 by Federal Law until a couple years ago, and it’s currently capped at 35.
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4 hours ago, ClearedHot said:

I would say get out as quickly as possible but I personally think the situation is so bad they would immediately recall folks to active duty.

At least those who get out and get hired at a major prior to any Stop Loss will keep getting seniority while the AF fumbles around figuring things out.

Also...I'd be curious as to how the AF would place/employ people coming back from a Stop Loss. They have to realize most of those people are going to do the bare minimum:

1336ic.jpg

Edited by StoleIt
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19 minutes ago, StoleIt said:

At least those who get out and get hired at a major prior to any Stop Loss will keep getting seniority while the AF fumbles around figuring things out.

Also...I'd be curious as to how the AF would place/employ people coming back from a Stop Loss. They have to realize most of those people are going to do the bare minimum:

1336ic.jpg

For the Task Force dedicated to this problem, I would bet it all that people forced back not enjoying life is not even part of the equation. Pilots are just numbers to them and their PowerPoint slides don’t care about your feelings or actual combat power or even winning. 

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