PVRs started.....
 

3 Tri-Star pilots have Pvr'd and several Herc guys too.

C-17 guys have quite clearly had enough given the constant tasking.

Many Vc10 mates have spent around 6 weeks 'not on Det' this year to date.

And more cuts yet to happen.

At least there is end in sight in Afghanistan and Libya.....:=

The exodus begins!!

They are the clever ones. Getting out before the rush.

I predict that within 18 months there will be a manning crisis within all three services. Not bums on seats but a complete vacuum of anyone with any experience or competence. All well and good recruiting pilots but if you have no QFIs......................add/delete/annotate for service/trade/arm.

From a manning perspective, it's the perfect storm.

Many are being thrashed to death and don't have time to consider the bigger picture about careers, pensions etc and are fed up of wives, children and loved ones wondering who the strange man trudging in through the front door every few weeks is.

Those that aren't being thrashed quite so hard and do have a shred of spare capacity to consider the broader implications of current life in the services don't like what they see. Political indifference and mouth music, cuts cuts and more cuts (and that's when we're at war .... what will happen whe we are not?) pensions being trashed, potentially significant tax bills if you some how get promotion and the prospect of rejoining the thrashing once their 'respite tout is over.

It's hard to see how we are going to stop this one; not so much a service on the buffet to be sorted with a timely stall recovery, I think the wings are about to fall off.

There will be alot more to come when they have finished with the redundancies fiasco. Many are waiting to see if they can go with the additional cash buffer and are busy organising their lives to go. If that option isn't available, then they will go anyway.

I remember back in the 80s when Thatcher had to give us a 15% pay rise to retain/recruit. I can see that coming again in the nest few years when they realise what they have done to the forces morale and desire to stay in the job.

Heard it all before guys!

It's just the perpetual sine wave, ebbing and flowing. Manning want you to leave, they're trying to reduce numbers.

Yep, it may be the case in 2 or 3 years there are a shortfall of skills, but then there will be FRIs or people who have left will realise that life is not so rosy on the other side and perhaps rejoin. Ebb and Flow, comes and gos.

If you can't take a joke you shouldn't have signed up....

Good luck to all those chosing greener fields.

Maybe, but I'll bet you 50p nobody has got as far as the 'how to turn off the exodus' plan. The difference I can see from years gone by is I don't think money alone is the fix - nor the push factor - it's quality of life which has been the erroded left, right and centre and that's a complicated and subjective mixture that beancounters have never been able to measure and will find very hard to repair.

Cheers! :ok:

Dallas/VinRouge - spot on.

Quality of life has long gone and watching loved ones try to accept that you are forever walking out the door for another unknown period of time has become unbearable.

David Cameron is completely out of touch with the ability of our minimal Armed Forces and he can no longer rely on guys 'giving their all and getting the job done' which has got us through recent years.

I guess those that have had enough will foxtrot oscar...I have my doubts that it will become a deluge, but lets not bicker over it.

However..for those pilots that are going because of quality of life issues have a pop over to the Terms and Conditions forum and/or the Wannabees Forum. It makes for pretty grim reading.

Maybe you leave the mob but do something other than fly for a living...just a thought.

For those that are not pilots...please make sure you have developed some marketable skills sets for when you pull the handle. Unemployment may seem stable at the moment but that is primarily because of the massive increase in part time and minimum wage jobs...decent, well paid jobs are very few and far between.

Quality of life will really suck when your ATM card gets spit out with nae money.....

Or in your case melchett a pen lid. Will you manage to get a job outside? Is there a demand right now for typists?

Former Colleagues,

May I pass on some cheery thoughts in these gloomy times?

BA are recruiting allbeit type rated and BA managed path for the minute.
Virgin are recruiting allbeit a trickle at the moment.
Cathay are recruiting.
Emirates are recruiting.
Jet2 are soon to be recruiting.
Easyjet are allegedly recruiting SFO's soon (Employment Fair banter Cranwell).
Thomson are asking for internal volunteers to set up their recruiting team with an eye to next year.

Worldwide there is a pilot shortage across the Middle East, India, China and the demographics indicate the States are to follow, Delta supposedly have 7000 retiring next year.

For all of you choosing or being forced to leave the indications are that there will be jobs for you in the civil sector.

For all of you staying I hope you will get the aircraft you need and the support you deserve from a Government asking you to perform in the finest traditions of a great Service in increasingly difficult times.

Good luck to you all.

Not that I can type very well, but that's not such an issue when I have people to do my typing for me. However, I suspect that I'll somehow manage to muddle through Really.

Might have to cut down to one bottle of Pol Roger a day though, but needs must when times are tight.

What are you plans Really? I hear things are still quite peachy in the Girl Guides - must explain your sunny disposition and positive outlook on life compared to the reality of life on the ops side of the RAF

I guess it must be tough for you in your air conditioned portakabin flicking elastic bands at your typist all day.

I suppose the real litmus test will come next year when the "pay freeze" is lifted....lets see what happens then?

I remember my father serving in the RAF in the late 70's and getting a massive pay rise when Maggie came into power. Apart from a bit of NI SH action things were fairly quiet......what on earth can you do when everyone is ballbagged from Ops in 2 then 1 theatres for the last 8 years!? No money will solve that!

Anyway, what is the shortest time you can leave the service from a flying job at the moment?

Regards

Ralph

Nah, surely the last guy left who gets to be a Fg Off Chief of the Air Staff wins hands down!:D:D

I think the rush has been noticed - hence the rumours of 18-month PVR times now as an initial way to buy time before manning can find another finger to stick in the dyke (oo-er :p)

TOFO's scary talk is just scary talk.
Many people who leave the services (whatever trade or rank) have a really good set of transferable skills topped by a good work ethic and the stable platform of an ability to turn up to work even when their toes have an annoying itch.

Okay, I left with some CAA A&C Licences, but I never really needed them, moving into management and consultancy quite soon after leaving. I left as a Sgt Rigga. I have no management qualifications and no specialist qualifications yet here I am running my own dept and plans affecting up to 200 engineers and a lot of aircraft.

Remember that its not what you did in the Services that counts towards a lot of jobs - its what you bring to the job that counts.

I think the PM's comments today were disgraceful, and just shows the contempt in which the government hold the armed forces :mad:.. I left the RAF a couple of months ago, I cannot think of any reason I would ever rejoin, and most of the people I worked with are looking for a way out, from LAC to officers.

I saw this sine wave a couple of times in the USAF. Ironically when the AF was trying to get rid of guys the airlines were usually hiring. The good news for the guys that stay is that life can get much better in a hurry when the powers that be finally realize that they don't have enough people to run the show.