If onshore want to recruit and retain pilots in the future they will seriously have to look at paying more than what is being offered! There are way fewer guys leaving the forces, and depending on their original joining date with H.M., will not have immediate access to their pensions to boost their pay...there's a huge number of guys reaching 60 soon, offshore is picking up, the airlines are booming, HEMS day VFR ops going into IFR, night, and unsociably hours than before but expecting to pay the same....and for the first time onshore is using types 145/169 that offshore is now using...lots of guys defected already from SAS/Babcock to go offshore doing the wind farm work with unifly/wiking etc as they get a substantial pay increase, and ironically only work day vfr??? Just shows how poorly paid our Hems is!!
Banging my head against a brick wall trying to recruit onshore....with the usual excuses from management but even they acknowledge we are going to have to do something drastic soon, as vacancies being left unfilled for far too long, and it is not going to get any better..
B.