Dostrum - nice post for first time pruner.
Like you and many others I am looking at leaving the RAAF soon. Like you I am a senior QFI having had various training management roles, and have been party to meetings various about QFI shortages etc. I am convinced we are on the verge of major capability shortfalls by the ignorance and inaction of our senior leadership, and our training system will suffer over the next years from lack of experienced FCI/QFIs. Action is needed now to support these guys so they stay on, and to train their own replacements too. The 10 year ROSO will hold some, but resignations are now also starting to flow into DP from ALG/ACG and this will build to a constant flow over some years unless something is done now that holds the supervisory level together.
Personally, my family and I would be significantly better off financially by staying in the RAAF until I reach age 55 on my 10+year flying pay and tapping more of the Mil super scheme (which is exceptionally generous if you stay in long term). We would be financially very happy, and able to retire early. So why not stay on? It has been a deep issue for me because I actually love the spirit of working in the Service and the dedication of its good people.
The main reason is that our family’s future is continuously put at risk by a system that provides no long term plan for us. If we had a long-term future career path (not just job-shifting) that was negotiated jointly with DP, we could stay. But we are continuously put at risk to move to any job and any location, re-setup our lives and go an do whatever. DP staff have tried to address issues like this, and we have stayed on because of good people there to look after us – but that is the people, not policy. Also recently I see little leadership and a lot of pep talk from the very top, and little real decision-making is evident. There is a lack of courage to call shots, do what is right despite the penalty, or take action that disrupts their own careers. Without good leadership, people will not trust their futures to the organisation. Unit commanders are bound up in contracts and administration processes that restricts them from full command. There are messages like “we are a RAAF family”, but I know trainers that are stressed out with the rate of effort in training, suffering stress, and units calling out for more resources to keep up the training effort as dictated, but still the SLT does not act. Arrogance is mixed with silence. I also worry about the accidents of the past that directly related to corporate knowledge decay in training (like B707), and hope our key people can hold it together while the supervision shrinks away. And I worry that once the key trainers leave, we have few ways to regenerate the capability, since the RAAF is much smaller than in the past, is more stretched and fragile. There is no ‘fat’ left.
So now in my middle ages, an opportunity has come up to work for a LCC, on much less salary than I am on now, and will require me to work years longer before we can retire. But by leaving the RAAF we can have the location my family wants, potential fast career progression during worldwide shortage of experience (that appears unprecedented and long term), and the full control of our destiny. My wife will not need to give up the job she struggled to get, my kids education and friendships not be disrupted, and despite expecting to work harder with long hours with a LCC, I won’t feel at all compelled to be at work unless I am flying. Unless the world falls over. So be it
