BEagle
You’re right about house prices. Very base dependent. They’re not cheap anywhere though. 4.5 times your salary on a mortgage doesn’t get you much. And you need a decent deposit and cash for stamp duty (potentially).
I can only speak for the FJ world but I’ll say it before someone else pipes up. It’s not the airlines that are the big draw nowadays. It’s the sunnier climes and jobs flying FJs on tax free salaries that has got everyone talking.
Add in the perfect storm of pension changes, flying pay changes and jobs in the Middle East and I suspect your average FJ pilot of the future will complete two tours and then call it a day around about their 10 year point. A few years in the ME to get a pot of cash to replace the gratuity that was still ten years away, buy a house (or two) and then work on a second career and pension pot elsewhere. They could still only be in their 30’s.
It’s sad and I think it’s a real shame but I’m afraid it’s all of the MODs own doing.
For me it all started when 170 students were made redundant in 2011. It wasn’t just the students that learnt a valuable lesson. All QFIs and current frontline pilots also got the message loud and clear that loyalty had just become a one way street.
There are some (me included) who still feel the overall package is good enough to stay. Just as I mentioned to Sharpend that he needs to empathise with the younger generation, current PAS and senior officers also need to empathise though. The overall experience I’ve had, which financially doesn’t stack up against someone who served twenty years prior to myself, is still better than that on offer currently.
I don’t see a lack of ‘Queen and Country’ loyalty and guys still have the enthusiasm to do the job. They just live in a much harsher reality where the skills they possess as a military pilot present far more lucrative opportunities elsewhere.
As I said, many of us that were serving in 2011 were blinkered enough to think life was rosy until the cull. Those that have joined since were probably never even issued the rose tinted specs.
BV