Why not take it a bit further - give all RAAF pilots QF 'ghost ' seniority numbers when they join the RAAF.?
Paying them the same as QF pilots would certainly go a long way to solve the retention issues.
I don't think that would go down well with the QF lads however.
For the same reasons that I as an ex RAAF 707 QFI with 5000 A330 hours and about 1000 on the 777 ( mostly command time), cannot go straight to the top of the QF pile as a DEC in their system, would seem to be much the same as the RAAF not being keen to take QF guys without any military experience into their fold.
The operation is completely different for all the reason the chaps above me espoused. Let alone the legal issues etc.
Yes it could all be done but outsourcing things to commercial operators has been done before not always with success ( ie the Westralia disaster comes to mind).
As an example, during my first few flights with Ansett we taxied in one way to an apron one afternoon and then on the way out had to taxi another way and back track the runway... when I asked the captain why we just didn't go out the way we had just come in an hour earlier he said it was unlit and therefore not usable. Probably right too...but...... to me as a RAAF pilot I would have just used the lights that the aircraft has fitted... I can't see how any obstacles could have 'magically' appeared in an hour... just to illustrate the difference in operational control that exists between the military and civll ops.
It does take some getting used too - in both directions!
fire away lads!!
woodj