Lots of uninformed commentary on here about RAAF culture. I kindly suggest those with no experience of the RAAF should stop maligning the organisation with comments based on little more than second-hand perceptions of a small number of individuals. There may well be a problem at NJS, but let's not forget there are plenty of pilots from the civil aviation world who got into airline management and subsequently made life very hard for others. Do we blame that on "culture"?
Neville said:
The RAAF choose a very small select number of applicants then go on and fail another percentage of those during initial training. This is the culture that these check captains are coming from. Which works in a small organisation with an unlimited budget.
Contrary to popular perception, the RAAF does not have an "unlimited budget". It works within tight budget constraints and, like every other defence organisation, has to fight tooth and nail for any extra allocation within the overall defence budget. The amount that's allocated to pilot training takes historical course washout rates into account. Those who fail the course, generally do so because they haven't reached the standard required at the end of a phase of the course. They would normally receive some remedial training, but there isn't a lot of flex to extend people because the course graduation date is fixed in stone to prevent knock-on delays to training courses at the squadrons.