The people above adding an arbitrary 51% to the RAF salary to compensate for the pension are living a fallacy. There are very few of us outside that would salary sacrifice 51% to their pension pot; most of the young 'uns are still striving to buy ever-inflating property, which the invisible RAF pension does not help.
No fallacy. Have a read here:
https://assets.publishing.service.go...4_Feb_2015.pdf
The bit you need to read is:
Employer contribution rate payable for the implementation period: 52.4% of pensionable pay for officers and 49.6% for other ranks (equivalent to 50.4% overall)
So it’s not made up, it’s a fact.
Also, that roster you talk about is a killer in my humble opinion. Pretty much every time I want to meet up with any of my airline mates it’s “My roster hasn’t come out yet” or “My roster is out and I can’t swap”. Whereas in the mob you can normally do a deal with the programmer to get what you need - you may have to take a bit of pain, like a night in the Q shed, but it works.
Does the 14 days include standby duties or sims? Also, I’m guessing that is long haul so how many nights away? This is a BA Long Haul pilot explaining their schedule on another forum:
Normally the hours target is between 86 and 90 hrs, and BA dont care how that work is done so long as its all covered, so it could be a 9 day Australia (44hrs), 5 day HKG (24hrs) and a 4 day LAX (20hrs) or 5-6 x 15 hr E Coast trips depending on your seniority
There is no typical month, theoretically you could do a months work in 12 days by doing 4 x 3 day LAS, but if you went to LOS/CAI you'd be away 22 days a month. Luckily for all it doesnt work like that so most end up with a fair mixture.
In terms of time off downroute the furthest 24 hrs LAS and shortest 48 is SFO, nowhere is more than 48 except where frequency or schedule demands it.
To me that doesn’t sound like the grass is greener at all?
