Ascoteer
What an incredible way to disenfranchise all your senior captains! Plenty of guys still 10 years from pension but past the 7 year mark.
How do you work that out my friend? Let's say there is a very lucky individual who has done IOT, EFT, MELIN, ME and then an OCU in just 3 years (the last youngster that held with me took nearly 6 to do the same!!). So, they leave the OCU at year 3, they get CR in year 4 and are a Co-Pilot for 4 years until year 8 and then get a Captain's course that takes them to year 9. They then take 4 years to become "senior captains" (which is debatable in that timescale) that takes them to year 13 - that is 10 years after OCU. They joined at 21 and so they need to make age 40 years for AFPS15 and at year 13 they will be 34, so they only have 6 years to go to the EDP.
That's only if they finished an OCU after 3 years that they will have 6 years as a "senior captain", however, with all the holds that young pilots have endured since 2010, then the time to EDP as a "senior captain" is likely to be less than 3 years in all reality. Plus, at that point if they choose to leave they could have £43k tax free and an immediate EDP income of £7k, plus at Service Pension Age (currently age 68) this will increase to £19k index linked. If they choose to stay and are promoted or go PAS then that pension will grow and grow.
It's not that bad a deal if they don't listen to the 'old sweats' like us that had it good. Oh, and by the way it's not the "first flying pay cut" when I joined up in late 89 I missed Flying Trg Pay by just 2 months before it was scrapped (in those days it was £1/day if I recall correctly). Also, I missed out by 3 days of the highest tier on what was known as FRI1 in the late 90s. It's been happening for years and is hardly a new phenomenon. Oh, and while I'm at it my start IOT to end FJ OCU took 4 years and my flying pay started after 2 years of starting flying trg - the guys ahead of me by 2 months got the extra £1/day from the day they started flying trg. As for "years deployed" then in my 28 years I have done more than my fair share of Iraq (x2), Bosnia (x2), Falklands (x10), Afghanistan (x3) and countless time away on overseas/deployed trg, staff visits or stuck in the QRA shed - indeed the first year I was married in the mid 90s I was away for a cumulative 9 months, the following year 8 months and then I wasn't married anymore! So again, this is not a new phenomenon that the younger cadre of aircrew have had to endure. These sorts of FRIs and schemes have been around for many, many, years to help remunerate disrupted lifestyles and to combat the lure away of SQEPs from the Service. Dems the breaks...as they say
Personally, I think they have got it about right, but then I will see none of it like others on here.
Best
LJ