Since the other thread on the 'current PVR rate' has degenerated in to a slanging match and arguably isn't on the same subject (as retention covers people leaving at Option Points, Exit Points as well as under PVR terms) I'll stick my head above the parapet and give, what I feel, are the answers to your questions. Taking each of your paragraphs in turn:
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!
Agreed, and if the RAF doesn't start to look at this we will descend deeper in what is already a bad situation. I understand 2019 is the biggest pinch point so we're not even there yet.
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!
I'm not a FJ mate, but a ME PAS Flt Lt. I happen to quite like what I do, the aircraft I fly has many esoteric disciplines and having not been on it
that long and as I'm within my PAS RoS, I'm still keen and interested.
That said, I'm 99% leaving when my PAS RoS ends. Why? Pay and Pension.
Pay is not the be all and end all of the equation, especially as said, I like flying military aircraft. I suspect up to a point most of us do. However, as mentioned elsewhere on this forum, the benefits of Service Life have been gradually eroded to almost nothing, such that once the novelty of flying wears off, the only comparison to outside becomes pay. Since we're not paid parity with outside, when there are no extra incentives to stay (and many incentives to leave such as time away, chaotic programming, living in crap accommodation) the decision is easy. In addition, the added uncertainly over future military pensions (is AFPS 15 the last change to our pensions we'll see?) and the rumours of taxing the lump sum, all mean it's easier to take the money and run rather than risk staying in and seeing further reductions.
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!
I recently attended a meeting with some Civil Servants that asked the question on what would keep me in. I stated what I said above ie why are Pilots paid what Adminers are paid? I'm not being precious here, I'm genuinely not, but why do we pay our pilots based on rank and not what they're worth? We don't pay our Doctors and Dentists like that and they hold rank too. In doing so, we will only retain a pilot until the novelty wears off.
At the end of the day, I have to do what's right for me and my family. If the RAF wants to change the way and the amount it pays it's pilots for the better in order to offset the issues of military life, then great. If not, then I and many others will leave. It's a shame, but it's as simple as that.