USAF Out of Ideas
Thread Starter
Joined: Feb 2004
Aviation Qualifications: ATPL
Posts: 3,689
Likes: 118
From: USA
Retention and recruiting are two sides of the same coin: proper size of the USAF pilot group.
Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 5,896
Likes: 1
From: Rockytop, Tennessee, USA
Joined: Aug 2007
Posts: 1,429
Likes: 1
From: Mare Nostrum
Must have been a foreign military. Looking at Megan’s use of English, and referencing Air Force F-18s, my guess is Australia.
Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 5,896
Likes: 1
From: Rockytop, Tennessee, USA
Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 5,896
Likes: 1
From: Rockytop, Tennessee, USA
Thanks again, and I was wrong about decades since the USN gave aviator wings without a four-year degree. It appears that a little over a decade ago a few Chief Warrant Officers were designated with two-year degrees in a short-lived program that was terminated when the world economy tanked and retention improved.
Joined: Mar 2005
Aviation Qualifications: Military
Posts: 6,563
Likes: 953
From: Aus
One point of view, USAF is the only US service I've not worked with, so can't comment.
https://foreignpolicy.com/2017/04/24...ership-crisis/
Counter view.
https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/05/04...ilot-shortage/
https://foreignpolicy.com/2017/04/24...ership-crisis/
Counter view.
https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/05/04...ilot-shortage/
Joined: Dec 2013
Aviation Qualifications: ATP+Mil
Posts: 990
Likes: 554
From: US
Yep, the retention rate is a problem so they have to recruit and train quite a few. They've said they're increasing the training capacity but aren't where they need to be. The quoted numbers are in some of the Air Force Times articles. I think they said they're up to training 1100/year but need to have 1400/yr...or something like that. If I weren't so lazy, I'd go back through the articles and find the quotes.
Retention and recruiting are two sides of the same coin: proper size of the USAF pilot group.
Retention and recruiting are two sides of the same coin: proper size of the USAF pilot group.
Joined: Dec 2013
Aviation Qualifications: ATP+Mil
Posts: 990
Likes: 554
From: US
Not suggesting they be WO's, saying remove the requirement for a degree so they cast a wider net. You don't need a degree to occupy a cockpit, it's jokingly said in airline conversation all you need to know maths wise is your three times table. Young lad I know in the Navy just graduated with his wings, high school education, dux of his course, and given the offer to swap to the Air Force with the promise of F-18 if he does as an inducement, but he wants to fly choppers, so staying Navy. Flown with many a high school educated US Army WO and only one out of the lot I would have torn the wings from, needed to have the fact that Daddy was a Colonel knocked out of him.
Joined: Aug 2007
Posts: 1,429
Likes: 1
From: Mare Nostrum
Not sure where your story came from but it’s wrong. The Navy is not putting non college graduates in flight school. If he has a degree and just got his wings he would have been in the Helo pipeline and is not qualified for fighters. He would need to go through the entire jet pipeline first. Last point is the AirForce does not have any F-18’s.
Thread Starter
Joined: Feb 2004
Aviation Qualifications: ATPL
Posts: 3,689
Likes: 118
From: USA
“Last September, Air Education and Training Command head Lt. Gen. Darryl Roberson said that the Air Force hoped to increase the pilot training pipeline to 1,400 within a few years. But, he warned, even maxing out pilot production capacity at 1,400 wouldn’t be enough, and the Air Force needed to train 1,600 new pilots annually.”
https://www.airforcetimes.com/news/y...vere-shortage/
Thread Starter
Joined: Feb 2004
Aviation Qualifications: ATPL
Posts: 3,689
Likes: 118
From: USA
https://forums.jetcareers.com/forums...ary-pilots.11/
Joined: Aug 2007
Posts: 1,429
Likes: 1
From: Mare Nostrum
