Slim career prospects
 

The biggest problem in retaining aircrew is that following the draconian cuts in the military there is no realistic prospects of a career in the military as clearly it is a shrinking industry.

As most aircrew are realistic about this fact the first move once the OCU is finished and they are fully on line is to start on getting the civilian licences so as to be in a position to get a job when the defence cuts axe falls.

It is a sad prospect that even the keenest most pro military pilots who would in the past seen the military as a thirty year career ( and do still want that ) are preparing for the next career only two or three years into the their first career.

While from an aircrew stance this is disappointing from a national point of view it is a disaster as the brightest will have gone to the airlines long before they get a sniff of a staff position leaving the military to be run only by those who's only concept of risk is to make sure that any decision they take is of zero risk to their career, and with no consideration to the good of the service.

I think the licenses as soon as you're off the OCU is confined to possibly just one airfield in the south? Perhaps sweeping generalisations aren't helpful, especially the moronic "the brightest and the best are leaving" - this phrase and it's variations are getting much too much bandwidth on this forum these days, pretty insulting to all those who remain don't you think?

The elephant in the room; I am reliably informed that the Army has 98 Regular SO1 posts at E2 currently gapped. For the life of me I cannot work out what they all do...

TR, while I agree with you that some of the brightest and best do indeed decide to stay, I have peers at airfields including the most northerly one who have completed ATPLs during first tours as well. It's not confined to Brize although I imagine it's much worse there; good old Facebook generally shows me a photo of a shiny new CPL(A)/IR or ATPL about once or twice a month from mates at Benson, Odiham, Marham, Lossie, Leuchars, Waddington.....

Talk Reaction are you one of those staying in perchance?

HE, does that make a difference?

Yes I am still in

cheers! now we know where all the FRI needs targetting then! :ok:

Several years ago I was part of a multidisciplinary team of Light Blue in MB. There were 2 aircre, 2 engineers, ATC, FC, Admin and a Trainer made up this happy band. Then the SO1 posts were deemed 'flying related', principally, it seems, to allow the retention of flying pay. Result? Some pissed off GD Wg Cdrs who weren't going to get a sqn command and some equally pissed off ground branch officers who enjoyed the work but were now no longer allowed to breath the same oxygen and contribute to some very valuable work.

Sadly, a number of Attache slots are still tied to brevets for 'presentational purposes' however Ground branch officers do fill a significant number of them these day. Not that Branch means much when at the Mission, as the locals (once you are outside W Europe) regard all Attaches as spies!

Heard a rumour that one of the key multidisciplinary light blue MB teams may be going FTRS as part of this study! More evidence that the aircrew branch in particular, and the RAF in general, has gone beyond critical mass? :uhoh:

CRITICAL MASS
 

Critical Mass in the context being used in several defence debates means what?

I would have thought implode was a better term to be used as it implies disappearing up your own RRRRs.

You go below a certain figure and the entire system shuts down. Read Haddon Cave if you want a clue.

I do remember a pretty high up individual stating a while back that the RAF's next Haddon-Cave would end any right to self-regulation. I imagine that would be pretty terminal for the MOD as they would actually have to start playing the game and not agree to everything despite the current manning level disaster we have.

MANNING POLICY?
 

Perhaps this is the way that the current manning policy is taking a once-great RAF.....


Utterly ridiculous for the RAF, as reported in the 'squadron uncles' thread, now to need venerable consiglieri to provide an avuncular comfort blanket to the squadron. Or is it that the thrusters either don't care or are simply incapable of looking after their squadrons properly?

I believe it was SDSR 2010 that set a manning limit (let's call it 33,000) for the RAF to achieve by April 2015. It is also my understanding that FTRS posts don't count towards the limit.

Therefore, assuming you can afford the wage bill, it is possible to have an RAF of 70,000 people - 33,000 "regulars" and 37,000 FTRS! I thought this was one of the reasons for the recent (massive?) increase in FTRS posts being created.

Would anyone care to put me straight?

Short of career stream aircrew to fill the necessary staff posts that make the system work? No problem just post those pilots who have just accepted a PA Spine offer into them! They have no flying pay marker so can be used anywhere in the system; a desk officer's Joker card :-) They have to do what you want for the first 5 years but after that...

Biggus, my understanding too. In theory they are in time-limited posts. Equally in theory they were initially aimed at 55 yr JOs which would also be time limited.

A process that appears to be in full swing at my particular ivory tower. The upside is that we have a bunch of very experienced and current aircrew filling key appointments. In even better news these 'individuals' are just that and are proving to be less pliable than those still gripping the slippery pole.

The downside is the emptying of the frontline of very experienced aircrew and that the PAS chaps are not exactly welcoming the unexpected move. A number have already hit the JPA button despite their original desire to stay.

Some would call it 'rebalancing' as we are now triggering PAS PVRs at a similar rate to the career spine - neat trick.

The image of Jenga above has it in one, pulling out the PAS bricks and putting them on top. It can only end one way.

So, I've had a long think over the Christmas break and decided that after nearly 31 years in the Royal Air Force, 2014 is the year that I too shall draw stumps. I wonder how many (if any) others have come up with the same idea. I have always been loyal and I feel bad for leaving yet another gap to be filled. That said, I will be very interested next week to find out if the system and/or my command chain even notice.

What...The...****!!

Biggus, given that I pretty much agree with everything you post, gotta ask why would anybody, in any job, work past their full pension payable point?

It simply cannot be for financial purposes (do the math). Must be something else in play here. Get retired mate....it is awesome!!

PS retirement does not mean not going to work. Retirement means going to work, when, and only when, you want to to.

I don't know, for a PAS bloke on AFPS05 an extra year or 2 could make quite a difference financially.

I guess we have a different view of what this means...

I retired early at 47, not only losing 8 years of increments, but also getting only PVR rates (10% less).

My pension is much, much smaller than my Sqn Ldr peers who have just retired in the past two years. But it is still substantial and I've now had ten years of unearned wonga hitting my bank account each month. I get going the full term if you don't fancy a second career, but going past it and throwing away good boozing, cruising years for the sake of a few more quid (work it out per day spending money...it's the only figure that matters). Sorry, can't get my head round it.