Geehovah, I couldn't agree more!
As far as Pilots go (and I do know that many other loyal servicemen/women have been equally shafted by SDSR, if not more so), the RAF
must come up with an 'equivalence' proposal which can ease transition to civil flying. There are 2 distinct issues here:
1. SDSR
2. EASA part-FCL
The first issue means that many highly talented pilots will be out of a military flying appointment. Any sensible airline of quality will bend over backwards to attract them as they are infinitely better future employees than pilots who have never been aptitude tested. But the second issue is something which the RAF owes to all its pilots to accommodate and which is also a significant recruiting and retention incentive - which, although not crucial right now, most surely will be in a few years' time!
Good luck; I know darn well that pretty well 100% of those chopped at Valley of late are of
much higher quality than I ever was. I just had to know how to keep a Gnat airborne for 50 min without killing myself - you've had vastly more complex mission profiles to cope with.
Interestingly, I heard yesterday that the dumbing down of core skills has now trickled through to CFS. It seems that a large number of skills which
any military pilot used to have are now having to be re-taught to some CFS students. To which I have to say "I told you this would happen!"...
