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In the airlines and other civilian jobs... Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network Forums

Great article Prozac. Its quite shameful that CSAF has decided trying to fuck my career options and undo safety legislation is a more palatable option than fixing the easy & dumb reasons folks get out. I'm not even interested in the airlines, it's just bad leadership, and unconscionable.

Bear in mind everyone, this is the same Air Force that dogmatically preaches the core values to us. Then they try and manipulate government regulations in a deliberate attempt to screw over veterans' ability to land jobs after they serve for 10+ years. Integrity first though, right Big Blue? Also, isn't "take care of your people" like the first thing that all AF leadership courses teach? Or is Maslow's hierarchy of needs? This BS shows me my need to get the hell out before the AF invents new ways to screw people over. Where are the leaders?

Speak to the first officer in the finance chain of command. Make an appointment. Bring documentation of all emails, phone calls, and visits, to include names of who you spoke with. Even more helpful if you can cite the AFIs the finance office has violated. Inform the CGO you speak with that your next stop is IG if the issue is not resolved. Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network Forums

For those going cross-country westbound this weekend, Hangar 24 Brewery is having the grand opening of their new Lake Havasu, AZ location. B17 should be there, plus a number of airshow performers hanging out. Good times... especially if you show up in a military aircraft in your flight suit. If you're military and will be there, drop me a note. The beers are aviation-themed, and the artwork on the labels is classic. Even better... the beer is outstanding. https://www.facebook.com/Hangar24Havasu/ https://hangar24brewery.com/index.htm

As you're following the good advice BeerMan provided, don't forget about the Base Fire Marshall (CE) and the fire inspectors in the CE squadron...when you're talking that many people in a two-room TLF, you're probably looking at sofa beds and whatnot, so you might be violating some NFPA egress codes. Just a thought.

It can and is being done by other services and commands. I have a friend from high school who flew Falcon jets in the Coast Guard, he retired after 20+ years and they brought him back as civilian instructor on a two year contract (turned into four years), and now he is at jetblue. AFSOC uses civilian IPs for PC-12 and U-28 training, the Rockhill Group always has openings. Location is of course the issue for UPT bases, but if the pay is high enough I would think the supply demand curve would bring some folks in. I would NOT make the GS types, limits the pay options, cut a contract with room to pay location bonus and try to surge production for a few years until the airline demand goes away...oh wait...it is not going away. Edit - I would not limit the contracts to T-6s, every platform will eventually be short, but the shortage on the fighter side is helping drive the argument right now...don't eat your seed corn sending a bunch of O-3 fighter pilots to teach T-38's. Preserve, season, and grow your combat capability in the CAF with some contract guys in T-38's as well.

If that doesn't work, make it readily apparent to him that a 1 bedroom TLF isn't enough. Baby crying? Take him to the lobby. Kids going crazy for being pent up? I think the lobby would make a great playground. As soon as the manager takes a break, put the baby to sleep in his office and tell him that you consider the hallway to be an "suitable" office for him.

Haha, having visited both Robins and Beale in the last year, all I can say is,...well, at least they're not Del Rio by the Sea. Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network Forums

With that perspective, I feel that much more betrayed by Gold-fiend and his AF cronies. Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network Forums

Below is a post from Albie over at APC. Highly pertinent to this discussion, and , as usual from Albie, spot on: It is not as dumb as you think... Part of the reason pilots are doing so well in contracts now is the pilot shortage has decimated regionals. This move by Goldfein would make the regionals able to hire less experienced and less expensive pilots. This labor shortfall could be significantly reduced by producing more regional pilots sooner, which is his goal in reducing the flight time required for these jobs. If regionals could again hire guys at 250 hours with a commercial, they could fill a lot more right seats...quickly. Until the ATP requirement, young pilots could get a loan for their training and build time for only a short while before being scooped up. There were plenty of pilots in the mid 2000s that would take out a 100k loan to get to that hour mark. Two things stopped that. First--the requirement to have an ATP and 1500 hours. Second, the financial crisis drove a lot of folks out of the loan making business, which funded the "puppy mill" flight schools across Florida and the sunbelt. Many of those schools and programs shrunk or disappeared. 750 hours isn't at easy at 250 and a commercial to acquire, but it is half of what they need now. It is a big cut. If the regionals can start stacking their right seats again, here's some potential ramifications... 1. The bonuses/wage increases we've seen in the regionals might ebb or disappear. The financial barrier for a new pilot to gain 750 hours, while not insignificant, is reduced. So is the time it takes (by 6-18 months) to get those hours as a CFI in those same schools. Those helo transition courses might fade as well... 2. Regionals being better manned will allow some code-share and out-sourced flying to go back downhill to the regionals from mainline. Part of the reason Delta is interested in 100 seaters and bought the 717s from SWA was the lack of reliability and shrinking cost advantage of regional feeders. More pilots to fly those 50/70/90 seaters for less money puts downward pressure on mainline pay and benefits. 3. Once regionals can successfully fill their own schedules, they will again be whipsawed to lower their costs or face losing routes to their regional competitors. The downward pressure on wages when that occurs has already been demonstrated many times since 2002. While it is a tragic story, the fact is one poor regional pilot with a bad training record probably did more to enhance our profession than years of dedicated work and effort by many ALPA volunteers. The Colgan crash put pilot experience and competency into the discussion in the media and in Congress, and also flight time and duty time issues. Subsequent legislation meant to enhance safety like the Part 117 regulations and the 2013 ATP changes not only helped enhance safety, but also gave pilot groups more leverage than they have had in years by shrinking the pool of available labor. What Goldfein hopes to do--as do the RAA and a host of others--is lower the requirements to increase that pool size. In the process, he will take pressure off his manning crisis by not only increasing the of non-military pilots available for airlines, but by potentially reducing our future pay as well. He doesn't just want to keep his pilots--he wants to make the airlines an overall less attractive option. The hero in these stories? The Colgan families. They have never let up in their fight to highlight the issues that affect airline safety. They are on the Hill--even now--quietly walking the office halls wearing their red jackets and adored with a simple button that usually has a picture of the loved one they lost. They are going to need to keep the fight going, along with the help of ALPA and others, if the 1500 hour requirement is to be preserved. https://www.faa.gov/news/press_relea...m?newsId=14838 Congress tightens requirements for airline pilots - latimes

Basically there is no connection between rated selection and having a graduate degree (maybe a little help if it was a M.S. in Aero Engineering but even then not a lot). However, for selection on an OTS board (basic officer training, not necessarily pilot, or even a rated slot of any kind) , an advanced degree might buy you a slight bump on the OTS board score. Once you are selected for OTS, things that help you get a pilot slot include high score on the PCSM, high score on the AFOQT pilot score, good GPA, technical degrees and work experience, actual flight experience (especially a PPL and additional civilian ratings). However, none of those are pass/fail; some people make it with all of those and some without...the last split I saw (several years ago) half the pilot selects had a PPL or better, and half didn't. As for overall chances, that's virtually impossible to predict because there are so many variables. many of which are somewhat subjective and may vary from board to board depending on what the AF needs at that particular time.

This.

Wait, what?

Back to the main theme of the thread, you are getting distracted, and that plays to their hand. Bottomline, Fingers listened to the problems (like Boomer before him), and decided it was easier to go around the identified problems and ask Congress to take action to make every pilot less marketable. A big GIANT FU to those that serve. I will not address the issues that make you want to leave, I will simply ignore your complaints and take external actions that will make it harder for you to find a job on the outside. Anyone else want to vomit at the hypocrisy? It was the same thing from a former MAJCOM/CC, a guy I used to respect, who said "they will stay out of patriotism and if they don't we will just make more" Good luck with that one...of course he was a Nav.

You guys are missing the point. Nobody is gonna take a paycut to live in DLF. You want those lifers in the sim building to run the flightline? Half can't pass a medical. But you go right ahead. Look, you're not gonna get any takers to come down here to District 12. You're gonna have to incentivize the $$$ in ways that make civilians a non-starter. Once you hit AGR levels of equivalent hard/soft compensation, it's not worth it to the DOD to pay a civilian that. This isn't new. They already tried to make us all ARTs down here. Didn't go anywhere. And I mean nowhere, dead in the water full stop. It was amazing to see how they even had to carve us out DLFers from the conversion. Never seen management have to be so transparent about a concession in my 12 years in this gig. You guys know the muckity mucks are going back to an ART-to-AGR retrofit with tail between their legs right now, right? 55% system-wide manning on the ART side alone. They can't staff it in GOOD locations, let alone the UPT shitholes. This whole thread is moot already. And you guys think the P-cola model of having non-ART/straight-GS GS-12 flying T-1s is gonna get traction in UPT shitholes? LOL Hell, there was a huge exodus in P-cola precisely because they wouldn't give those guys GS-13 with the SSR, only the most hardcore "live in FL over anything" townies remained. And moving UPT on a piecemeal basis to good locations in order to normalize for the inability to pay civilians AGR money and benefits? ROFL. Your god-damned chief of staff is actively lobbying for the regional industry just so he doesn't have to address servicemember non-monetary QOL drivers, and you guys think the DOD is gonna have the impetus to make basing changes? Holy shit you guys are hitting the Petrovskaya a bit hard and early on this one. Good AFSO-21 topic though. Good luck.

Ft Rucker currently does this with SUPT-H. Blue-suiters teach contact/EP/Instruments in the aircraft and in the sim.

Speaking of range fun, got to participate in another night shoot south of San Antonio last weekend. While we were waiting on it to get dark, I decided to dig out the Yugo SKS and launch the M68 practice grenade for everyone's entertainment!

My gut opinion: Senior raters have very few tools to delineate the middle of the pack. The current system is really good at highlighting rock stars, but is pretty bad at providing grainularity in the middle.

Holy shit, you just can't help but act like a fucking idiot, can you.

Being an exec is not the same as being a secretary. If you are an exec and you are only performing duties a secretary would do, then your are doing it wrong. Someone in a position to have an exec usually has a secretary in the first place. If you are an exec doing secretary work, the boss either isn't utilizing you correctly, or doesn't trust you enough to do the job.