Originally Posted by
Albief15
The whole thing is quite cyclic.
I also think everyone realizes that at some point flying is not the ONLY thing in life that matters. I watched a show on the making of porn movies on a layover recently--turns out those dudes and chicks only do 2-3 scenes a day, and sometimes not that many. Why? They are TIRED. So--if getting paid to screw can get tiring, even flying the coolest jet out there (the Raptor) if you are working 12-14 hour duty days covered in additional duties probably has its limits too...
Great post...LMAO. You're right, it's cyclical. The AF doesn't respond to morale or wishes of the crew force. They only look at retention vs needs--and they're slow to react. That leads to paying people to stay and get out one year and then non-vols in large numbers coming this year. I realize that the problem is slightly more complicated than that, but it's close. I think the AF could make changes to save them money and improve the pilot QOL. Pilot manning is currently based on additional duties and filling jobs that don't need to be pilots. Re-do the pilot manning based on 500-750 hrs average from every pilot and cut out the queep for everyone but the top 15% or so that want and need it for leadership etc. Pilots are expensive. You don't see many commercial operators paying pilots to do something other than fly and military pilots generally have much lower flying hours per year. I think it's a win-win.