W.G.

I haven't heard of anything specific for more Reserve pay/conditions on the horizon. However it was re-aligned with PAF pay bands last year which saw a pay increase. Maybe that is what you are thinking of.

As for getting into the reserve work...simply pick up the phone and give the Training Flight Commander a call at the unit. I'm sure they would love to hear from you. At the very least I'm sure they would look into if it is worth their effort getting you recurrent on type and up to speed.

If you don't ask you don't get.

By the way it's not all roses and chocolates. Be sure you are prepared to actually work harder to hold onto those skills and procedures that normally come so naturally. As a part timer they seem to ebb away I'm afraid and this combined with working full time on another aircraft type and SOP's can make it a fair bit of work. That being said, it pays well, it's still fun and importantly you are doing an important job for the guys who are still in.

Good luck

Stop whingeing, the RAAF is what it is. If you dont like it leave. We all think we are so damn important but this shortage will pass. It has all happened before and will happen again.

If there is one tip I can give to anyone who wants to listen it is this. Life is a lot more enjoyable if you look at things with a "glass half full" mentality.

Instead of "I am soooo damn important and I dont get paid enough, so I am going to get angry at the RAAF (which doesn't care because it doesn't have feelings) and leave" try this approach "I get paid six figures to do a job which rocks and because of my high quality training I have excellent employment prospects in the comercial world if and when I choose to move on"

Rant over

Suck it up?
 

Is that you Shep? :}

Control Snatch,
Most of us appreciate what the RAAF has given us, and those coming to the end of ROSO have paid their dues and are now making decisions based on their own best interests. It's just professionally frustrating that the RAAF is prepared to let them all walk out the door without a fight. Millions of dollars worth of experience and training walking for the sake of a few dollars, bit of locational stability, whatever. It would be cheaper than ramping up an overloaded training system and lead to higher experience levels at the coal face. Not worth ranting about, but worth a considered response.

Dont leave the RAAF
 

Guys take it from me the airlines are no longer worth working for. I originally (after 9 years in ronnie) joined Ansett. The conditions back then with AN Australian and Q were great.
The problems now are as follows;

Jetstar. Crap pay crap working conditions. ie always on call, no pay for a pax(positioning) leg. Days off can be spent on a lay over. NO LIFE!

VB. Much the same as above.

Q. No promotion at all due to Jetstar taking existing flying and company expansion is through Jetstar.

EK/CX. You have to live in **** holes.

Pornstar and VB you also fly 1000hrs a year(painfull) the hours(24/7) and days you work in all these companies are appalling.
The RAAF looking back is a much better life guys.
Cheers safe flying.

Oh and the worst part is u have to fly with GA legends.:ugh:

Hey control snatch..........

Remember that? Your post that started this thread if I'm not mistaken.
So now those RAAFies that choose to spill their guts on this forum in response to your invitation are "whingers"?
Are you in the RAAF? Because your first post and your last one are somewhat conflicting on that score.

The Australian
Defence structure to meet strategic needs
Cameron Stewart | January 26, 2008

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au...-31477,00.html

Snatchless
 

What classic management speak! When all else fails, or when you don't have an answer the 'leave' line seems to be the favoured 'full stop' managers like to put at the end of the conversation. Why stop whinging? Is the RAAF truly incapable of solving its employees gripes? If you are at that rank level then surely you have an obligation to serve the RAAF which includes the welfare of its employees. So the attitude displayed above is a complete cop out - as usual.

Which is what the RAAF told me every day of my career - you ARE important. Suggest a re-read of basic strategic resource management principles. If this has all happened before and will happen again - what does this say about senior management? They are indifferent? Lack foresight? Can't plan?

I don't think a single RAAF guy/girl I have worked with has not had exactly the same gripes to varying degrees - so there's no big frigging secrets to this whole job satisfaction thing. Too many 2 and 3 bars (and governments) have ignored the problems for too long.

So why should someone leave? Why can't they expect the same professionalism, dedication and support from senior management?

I would hazard to guess that if a return on investment study was done on the RAAF it would show that it has failed miserably due to its policy of 'training' its way out of shortages.

Cooee!!!!!

Potentially yes, it is classic management speak. But at the same time I've lost count of the number of times I've heard "I'm not being paid what I'm worth in this position." If that's true it will be very easy to find a position with the same conditions, increased pay and no reason not to move to the other organisation. The fact management aren't increasing your pay to prevent you from moving to these roles is a clear indication they don't agree with you, you may consider it a cop out, but it's their budget and their choice. Turnover is part of any organisation and they are aware of that, they don't have to keep you happy for life.

If a large number of guys walk at the same time to these better jobs they'll talk of and management were hoping to keep at least a percentage of them, then management will get a clear picture that they are wrong in the current market and do need to pay more to keep that percentage happy. However if it's just a trickle of guys moving on, then management have hedged their bets in the right direction and keeping the number of staff they want to keep for the price they want to keep them.

For me, it's not a "pay me what I'm worth" issue. Honestly, after a pay raise in May, $117,000 for a FLTLT ain't that bad right?
But when you look at the financial benefits of 10-20 years down the track, where one can quite conceivably earn $200-250K, the RAAF just can't compete. (edit: and a friend who works where I'm about to go, is only away from home 10-14 days a month)
I agree with control snatch to a certain extent. We all do think we are so important. The last time this happened, did our capability fall to the floor? Were we invaded because we had no aircrew? Did planes fall out of the sky from inexperienced pilots? No. The RAAF survived, and they will again. Anyone who thinks anything else.....probably flys jets and wears spurs to mess dinners.......

Unfortunately, my tax dollar is going straight into the hand of a bunch of spec aircrew SQNLDRS who had no intention of ever leaving, in the form of a retention benefit.

these pretzels are making me thirsty

I'm not sure thats what is being reflected on this thread. Guys are departing the fix due to the general conditions, not necessarily the pay.

Clearly the RAAF does agree otherwise they wouldn't have offered retention bonuses to ATC, aircrew and engineers a few times over the past decade.

Sadly yes. You would be hard pressed to find any flying supervisor who isn't concerned about the erosion of experience. Too many holes in the dyke, too few fingers. How many captain hours do you need to become a QFI again? What is it this month?

Blogsey,
The RAAF had a spike in accident rates in the early '90's - in a number of these, especially the 707 accident off East Sale, had 'an erosion of corporate knowledge' following heavy airline recruiting in the late 80's as a contributing factor.

True, invasion of the hordes, end of world etc is unlikely but it is a very serious problem and often the consequences take some time to be felt.

Money isn't everything, but it helps put up with a lot of the negative aspects and probably will tip the scales for many pilots (including myself) to stay when the LCC packages aren't so attractive...

LCC aren't the only ones recruiting, though. Qantas turn around time from application submitting to 1st day testing - less than 1 month.

Getting off topic, but it was 2 QFI's in the 707 right? Back well before they lowered captain hours required for FIC? Anywho, don't want to sound argumentative.....

Two QFIs who'd done full FICs, yes, one demonstrating sequences to the other.
There was a big drain of experience at the time, and it's my understanding and belief that those poor guys and the rest of the crew were, at least in part, set up by them having to step up to the role of 'squadron expert' at an accellerated rate.
Sad losses ... anyway, Blogsey, what I'm getting at is that the large experience exodus at the time was a factor in that crash, to my mind at least.

I met Shep at a BBQ in '87 when I just started flying for a living. He was wingeing to me that QF had just knocked him back " who do they think they are, don't they know it takes 3 days to plan a pig sortie?" I explained (half pissed) that QF would probably frown on taking that long to plan the ML-SY leg. He didn't see the humour in it.

I concur with Blogsey, the money is/was good for a 10yr FLTLT.
It wasn't the money I left for, it was the offer of a ground job and or a promotion for a life of ground jobs and postings to places my other half would have had to leave her 120K plus job for. I wasn't ready for that....at least not for another 10 years!!!!
Having looked at my first roster for my new company....I wonder if its too late to change my mind!
Having said that about the money however, if I behave in 3-4 yrs I could be earning more than a GPCAPT....and I wasn't ever going to get to that rank.
Lived trough the early 90s too when our planes were falling out of the skies and we killed a lot of people. Even though the ADF has been here before I think you would find the people left behind now have even fewer hours then those left behind in the 90s and again from the 80s. How many FLTLT with more than 1500hrs on the line on type? Different attitudes, more safety etc etc hopefully will help but I don't think it will be any safer for awhile.
I hope I'm very, very wrong!!!!!

"the people left behind now have even fewer hours then those left behind in the 90s and again from the 80s."

This sounds like the key point, Oz; to say things are just repeating themselves isn't enough - there's an insidious and incremental worsening of the situation experience-wise, it seems.