Allow me to clarify, what I meant by "retirement" was based on the experience and IR requirements, this taken into consideration with the salary essentially means that its either a vocational position or a senior line pilot who wants to leave the jets/lines, it goes without saying that RFDS is not a easy retirement position in the that sense of the word.
<I certainly know that its some of the best (read challenging) flying to be had anywhere in the world>
those requirements put RFDS firmly outside the reach of anybody who has not already given a decade or so of experience to another career path (within aviation) like the lines, so that given,
you'd be hard pressed to keep a family, a house, et cetera and manage to fly for RFDS, because without a line position you'd not make the minimums, and if you had a line position and a young family, then why risk the jump to RFDS ? You'd be a fool to swap it for the uncertainty of the RFDS, especially at the award rate quoted.
confused ?????????????