RAF Pilot Retention
Over the (relatively short) life of the RAF there have been a number of ‘critial points,’ at which whole structure is addressed and altered in order to address an issue. The current state of pilot manning is just that, a critical point. Ignoring the new aircraft types we have just taken on, the additional FJ Sqns planned, the ever present draw of the MFTS contract, Russian posturing, Brexit and an increasing need to ‘fly the Union Flag;’ I think the RAF is close to being below critical mass of key enablers. There comes a point where without quality flying instructors, formation leaders, Sqn supervisors and SQEP Officers manning critical staff positions the game quickly turns sour and exponential reductions in capability quickly follow.
Much has been written on this forum citing the various reasons for leaving, and each pilot walking out the door inevitably has a number of reasons to go. The fact is however that flying training is getting increasingly expensive, a Typhoon pilot costs just shy of around 16 Million GBP to train. An F35 pilot will undoubtedly be considerably more. A civilian company would never dream of investing this amount of cash in an employee, have them resign in droves and not address the reasons they are leaving!
The pay of a front line pilot falls woefully short of commercial equivalents. With flying training delays (not the fault of the employee) pilots often don’t attract flying pay until early-mid thirties. At the same time a guy joining a low cost airline would have easily amortized training costs, and is likely to be on track for a short haul command (lets say around 80k a year, fully pensionable?), we pay our pilots around 35k + a small amount of flying pay (I have deliberately steered away from the obvious Middle Eastern employment comparisons). Now let’s consider the length of working day of an ‘average’ FJ pilot; I think you’ll struggle to find a front line operator who doesn’t regularly bounce off the 13 hour aircrew fatigue limit. Then there’s the trivia; it is easier to fly an aircraft into Europe than it is to arrange off-station MT, pilots spending a night away at another base have to pay for the privilege of a dated mess room which would be undoubtedly substandard to any commercial operator, finally we (as the employer) think it totally acceptable to work our guys into the ground with substandard support just because we think they are ‘privileged to fly a fast jet.’ It is a privilege, but it’s bloody hard work and evidently the privilege quickly wears off!
The whole force career structure is broken. A civilian employer would never dream of paying the guy who runs the admin office the same as a guy with 16Million + pounds worth of training who has multiple employment opportunities outside. I greatly value the work done by ground branch Officers, but the fact is that they are not as expensive to train, critical to the operation of the Force, or (and this is the clincher) as employable elsewhere. I have no doubt that it is now time for a specialist pay scale (like medics, and lawyers…. Also very employable outside) for pilots, this could even be type specific – should a Tucano pilot earn the same as an F35 jock? The planned changes to aircrew pay fall horrendously short of addressing the issues and I think we will continue to lose trained pilots at an alarming rate; a rate only to be exasperated when the ’75 pension crowd have moved on!