What's the betting they will be screaming out for pilots and ramping up recruitment in a couple of years time. Only basing this view on what has happened several times in the past. No consolation to those affected, good luck for the future to those who get the bad news.

The real villain of the piece is Incapability Brown; he treated the military with contempt, sold the gold and spent any money that we could have used to bail out the banks when the smart thing to do was to pay off the national debt. I can't believe he is now making millions from jetting round the world telling people how he saved it, at the expense of attending parliament.

I'm a bit out of touch, but this must be caused by the FTSs pushing out more studes than the OCUs can cope with. I've heard tales of 18mth holdovers. The skill fade for an abo during that period is huge. So, sooner or later, someone has to turn off the tap for a while. When I finished rotary training in '70, I had two days to wait before the OCU started. The present situation will be hard on the youngsters, but has to happen if the basic training machine has been overproducing. Different situation for the fast-pointy-things but there, the number of jets to fly has been cut dramatically, so almost inevitable.

Can someone tell me if the RAF is still training overseas students?

The current move is completely logical given the SDSR outcomes (and the further PR11 effect).

The RAF have been overstating the requirement for a while now and they need to get back in balance for the future requirement. Selection should continue to meet future need and those subsequently trained should look forward to a fully rewarding career on the assumption the "manners" have got their sums right. If the pyramid is the same shape then ones chance of reaching the top should be the same as it was last year (probably better as the RAF has always been over-manned in comparison to the other two Services - not a complaint they just have better manning rules - CMR etc for an over-inflated task).

In truth the RAF should probably have a strength of about 21,000.

Whilst I have lost the ability to be surprised of late, can someone manage it by telling me, in light of all the other news, whether or not the aircrew FRI is continuing?

Desperately sorry for the chaps about to get the bad news, speaking as one who found out his flying days are over just the other day.

Yes GeoAC we are. But what has that got to do with the price of fish?

Is this not a case of the "Bosses " becoming "Yes" men to protect their Pensions??

So it`s ok to train others for money,(as they did in MY day) but not our own??

There may be jobs coming up in airlines for guys with lots of hours fixed wing both jets and multis but for guys on EFT and the rotary guys getting pilot jobs will be nigh on impossible

GeoAC
 

Foreigners still training?

well not exactly - some of the WSO's arbitrarily chopped in Dec10 were RAF - and some were not.

Thinking about that - chopping of WSO students didn't produce anything like the current level of outrage...

anyone would think the wider RAF community only cared about the 2-winged master race:E

CS(one wing only)

Time to take the "Great" from Britain
 

Heard the news on BFBS radio today on the way back from work, had to listen to the next hourly news bulletin, just to confirm that my ears weren't playing tricks with me.....VERY sad news indeed boys & girls :o(

As an ex-Herc bloke, I have seen how hard (most) crew members work during the early months and years of their initial training, and first Sqn tour, and for many it has been a life's ambition to be RAF aircrew, truly tragic....

Incidentally, looking at the "big picture" over the past 2 weeks regarding BFBS news stories alone, I can't help thinking that we may have to "reconsider" using "Great" & "Britain" in the same breath....

- Axe Nimrod (we live on an island FFS!!!)
- Cut back on 24hr helo SAR cover (ditto above...)
- Sail an aircraft carrier for 10yrs without aircraft on board (ditto above...)

You can't make this stuff up????

I have lived outside UK for more than 10 yrs now as a civvy and from a Brit looking in from the outside, it is not a pretty picture believe me!

GeoAC ...my dear chap, I think you'll find they are now "International Partners" ...

...... how's THAT for yuckspeak.....:ugh:

GeoAC I'm not saying it's morally correct. It does, however, allow us to retain at least some options for if things change in the future ie. more students are required* at least these other Air Forces will have been keeping our instructors current and airfields open. Or in certain cases use up some of the already paid for flying hours with at least some return.

The whole thing sucks and I feel for everyone of the students.


* will happen in the future.

LOL! Been trying to get son to play with choppers!!

You mean Choggies etc?? I think we single handedly trained the Malaysian Air Force!! Although they MUST have lost a third of the Hunters at Brawdy on their own!!

Sorry ,High,but I think that we are beyond the point of no return. Whoever posted the "Hang glider" comment isn`t far from the truth.

That is perfectly reasonable. As their training progresses they will improve or
flounder. If the decision was made before Christman the weaker stude would be chopped in due course and the one who might have improved would never know.

As BEagle said elsewhere, only those that have tried realise just how much they effort they put in to succeed.

Bismark, at the risk of biting. You cannot possibly get away with that remark without explaining your reasoning. The rules are universally applied, albeit with a different methodology by each Service. This reduction is a simple pro rata reduction to the changes in front line cockpit numbers. SDSR was not planned for by manning, why should it have been? Anyway by the same logic how overmanned does the RN fixed wing FAA look right now? No doubt they are next.

However you look at it and however one may wish to play with numbers of people or assets, for the first time in living memory, the armed forces are on a budget.

And no more money is available - alien concept I know since 1945 but one with which any individual is familiar with. The bucket runneth dry.

Maybe one Typhoon less and spend the money on people ? Or is that too radical ? Or too late and maybe someone is wishing they had not pushed the numbers of Typhoon too hard ?

GrahamO, could you explain how you fly 100 more pilots on one less Typhoon?