Leaderboard

Yes and No... You are correct that Major airlines are cautious to grow and demanding greater productivity out of their employess by getting better utilization out of reserves, using PBS, and other contract provisions. That's why Delta has only hired 305 in the last 5 years and at times stated that they were overstaffed. 157 out of 305 were flow throughs from Compass and Mesaba. There are still around 400 Compass and Mesaba pilots just waiting on a class date. They all can't flow at once, but with Delta projecting 300 new hires by the end of 2014, 150ish will be flow throughs. In other words, it's going to be highly competitive for the next 3-4 years everywhere except the regionals. This mythical pilot shortage is really just a RJ FO shortage for the next 3-4 years. Having been at a regional for 6 years, I've talked to some of our pilot recruiters who are surprised at the number of former active duty pilots that are applying to regionals because they are not getting the competitive jobs. While there will be a few that are fortunate enough to make a seemless transition to the majors, in the short-term most will face the need for currency and may have to take a RJ FO job. As far as the 1500hr rule, that will only effect the regionals in the next 3-4 years...the good jobs will be competitive for some time to come. Many of the AD pilots I've talked to have a skewed perspective on their civilian job prospects. They don't seem to understand that they are competing against guys that are flying large RJs on major routes that are well adjusted to flying in the 121 environment. The distinct military advantage is not as great as it was in the late 90s when mil pilots were competing against jetstream and beech 1900 pilots. Management at the Legacy carriers are already talking of ways to reduce the cost of senior RJ CAs by offering a guaranteed future at the mainline carrier, which means fewer available seats to mil pilots. Scott Kirby at US Airways believes the way to mitigate a pilot shortage at the regionals is to offer a "low-paid intership" with a timely and guaranteed future seat at mainline. If the economy doesn't get any worse, 2017 will be the year for the beginning of brisk hiring...until then good luck.

You mean theres a tiny paragraph about the tea party at the very end of a long and detailed wiki article about the overall history of the flag? I'm convinced.

Well maybe then in your opinion it would be ok for the Dem-majority Federal Govt to ban any GOP symbolism...or any other political movement. And I agree with the others...govt property is "our" property. Telling people that certain political persuasions aren't allowed flies in the face of our free and open society.

Once you click the submit button you hack starts regardless of when you sign from what I saw. If you ASD was 30 July and you asked the app to be built 3 July you should get the full 225K

Ummmm....doesn't city property belong to its citizens? And sorry, but I don't exactly see this as being a "symbol" of the Tea Party... Actually, that flag was flown by deployed SEAL unit aboard the USS Orion in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea during DESERT STORM. I know how giddy liberals get when they think they're getting the better of some conservatives; but this is ridiculous. Honestly, I wonder why the elected officials of New Rochelle are even addressing this in the first place...is this the most urgent issue they have on their plates?!?

Nobody walks away from a belly-UP landing, dipshits.

Airstaff needs to commit to a course of action, one way or another. Right now they want to straddle the fence: commoditizing the pilot group on one hand (bonus), and paying lip service to the actual practices that they should have been doing for, as CH rightly pointed out, over three decades. The second option is probably more costly, imo. If the commoditization route is chosen, fine: stop pulling the punch then. The bonus is woefully under priced at this point, and it won't come close to slowing the coming problem. But it allows the slide builders to say "look at how much money we've thrown at the problem!". It is well below current market rates for the pilot group as a whole, and only draws, as has been endlessly pointed out in these threads, those who "were going to stay anyway". GC, sorry, but if you want to stick to this gameplan, no, I will not be grateful. If you really want to pay for my comitment, you are going to have to pay the market price. Right now, the ACP doesn't even come close to, say, what we pay dentists. The most dangerous threat to this whole program isn't the Airlines, it's the Pilot that truly understands his/her broader options as they are going into their peak career earning period. The route that I would prefer, but would cost more in some senses, would be for Airstaff and AFPC to, well, do their fucking job. There is just no justification for QOL to suck this badly. The failed manning programs as CH listed. Shiny pennies that do 4+ ops tours while ALOs, white jets, and RPAs are told "sorry, there probably won't be a TX on the other side". Guess what: those marathon ops players are getting out because you've burned them out. Ironically, the folks that were told that their fate was sealed are bailing as well. You have failed to practice the balance and broadening that is so blithely painted within the officer progression pages on AFPC, and now you're reaping what you've sown. Right now, dudes are being non-vol'd to Luke and DM. And at least on the Hawg TX side, guys are going to the notch. TX is the new RPA. Why? Hoss already pointed out one reason: everyone thinks that the boneyard push started in the late 80's is going to finish it's run in the next few years. Another is QOL. Why go back to a jet that is low hanging fruit for stupid shit like sequestration, and 12-14 hour days chasing busy work projects, inspections, and whatever else the WG/CC wants done to secure his star. There isn't even a token attempt to practice time budgeting above the squadron level. If the boss thinks it up, 69 man hours per week are dedicated for the next fiscal quarter just to generate the new slide for the weekly standup. Wanted to take leave? Sorry, another wing exercise just showed up on the schedule (though, in fairness, efforts have been made to curb the old ORI/UCI madness). Do we really need yet another "Dear Boss" letter?

FALSE. It's the only qualifier!

CBM T-1 MC-130 Hurlburt HC-130 DM MC-130 Cannon C-146 Cannon KC-10 McGuire x3 RC-135 T-1 FAIP C-17 Charleston (1 AD, 1 Res) C-130 (Minnesota Guard) C-130 (OH Guard) KC-135 B-ham C-130 (AK Guard x2) 38s had 2x F-16, one or two FAIPs and A F-15E I think

I don't think you can still call that a landing.

Coming up on my 20th year in the AF, I have no real idea of WTF the SECAF actually does. The last one I heard speak was Roach, and all I could do was stand and marvel at the two largest desert flight suits ever made. That were ruthlessly torn apart and reconstructed into this massive tan thing covering Jabba the Hut as he tried to motivate we merry few occupying that small bit of Afghanistan. I was further distracted by the smaller folk getting closer and closer before I realized he was generating his own gravitational field, and starting throwing rescue ropes to help out. Seriously, civilian control, yadda yadda yadda, WTF does the SECAF do?