Stanley and Ginseng,
Sorry I've been unavoidably away for a little while.
The PA Supplements are published each year by "Directed Letter". I found the latest version on the Intranet at work before I left, but couldn't find it on the website. I seem to remember I had to go to the Corporate Comms webpage, then look at the archive links to find a link to "2005 pension rates". AP3392 Vol 2 only gives the basic pension values not the supplements.
This years values are:
Pilot
Spec Aircrew £0.707
OF2 (Flt Lt) £1.044
OF3 (Sqn Ldr) £0.705
Navigator
Spec Aircrew £0.523
OF2 £0.860
OF3 £0.521
Rearcrew
Spec Aircrew £0.449
OF2 £0.786
OF3 £0.447
All supplements are per day on the PAS.
My conversations with the Pension Gurus at Glasgow (not the Call Centre folk but the ones who actually seem to know) say that as PA you get either the OF2 or OF3 rate depending on your rank at retirement. As PA you should never get the Spec Aircrew figure - even if you PVR and leave before age 55. Unfortunately, the online calculator seems to use the Spec Aircrew rate for AFPS75.
A Flt Lt PA will retire on the representative Flt Lt Spec Aircrew basic pension plus the OF2 supplement, whereas a Sqn Ldr PA will get the CS Sqn Ldr pension plus the OF3 supplement. However, for those who retire with more than about 25 years reckonable service (i.e. from age 21 for officers) there isn't much between the Spec Aircrew Flt Lt and CS Sqn Ldr pension. The higher rate of supplement can therefore strangely mean that a Flt Lt PA can get more pension than a Sqn Ldr PA. I reckon about £2079 more for a pilot/nav/rearcrew retiring at 55.
Just in case I've made a complete mess of the figures I'll check again when I get back in work next week.
D4R