Pilot Shortage Deepens, USAF is SCREWED.

[SocialD]

1 hour ago, joe1234 said:

You can actually make way more money if you live in base with your domicile and your guard unit. Strategically drop mil leave to clear out your schedule (especially useful if junior) and then pick up efficient premium trips in open time.

Living in base for the airlines and your Guard squadron is about as good as it gets, and has given me lots of extra pay opportunities without doing anything shady.  Even more opportunities to get paid to stay home.  At DAL, doing what you're saying wouldn't really do you any good wrt pay.  However, there are some dudes doing some pretty shady (albeit legal) shit with MLOA to get specific days off they otherwise couldn't have held.  Pretty shitty move, but there is always that 1%.  

[cragspider]

1 hour ago, YoungnDumb said:

Having discussed with a few other IP's, the larger issue at hand is the seemingly casual way leadership wants the students to handle emergencies.  There is a sense that we're sending the students the wrong message when it comes to handling emergencies.  While the actual ELP may/may not help them down the line somewhere, the actual proper handling of the EP is what bothers most of the people I have talked to.  Adding to that is it now tells students to start disregarding boldface.

 

Doing my best.

I always viewed the ELP as an energy management maneuver, which is what it is. It is also a judgment test as well as stick and rudder skills. Sad that they want to take that out. 

[Buddy Spike]

2 hours ago, joe1234 said:

Airplanes.

 

Even if they somehow figured out who I was, it wouldn't matter since I don't even do this. I'm just saying it can be done, and it's legal.

But since your moral compass is strong, my question to you is, is it okay to drop a trip because you don't like a layover or it's hard to commute, as long as you don't pick up a premium trip?

Well at least you've been consistent over the last 10 years.

[brwwg&b]

On ‎3‎/‎12‎/‎2018 at 5:40 PM, YoungnDumb said:

-If going T-38 the stud will do 3 advanced aero rides, 6 advanced form rides, and 4 tac form/2-ship low level sorties.

Maybe at Sheppard. Nowhere else. To do so would mean increasing PIT syllabus to teach everyone who isn't versed in those skills how to do so. Hint: it already got removed from the syllabus years ago because people were washing out of PIT for it. Kinder, gentler...at this rate even the future instructors will just be told to punch out of a plane that has an engine hiccup. YGBSM

Next bright idea will probably be a paper airplane book and then direct to F-22

[hindsight2020]

2 minutes ago, brwwg&b said:

Maybe at Sheppard. Nowhere else. To do so would mean increasing PIT syllabus to teach everyone who isn't versed in those skills how to do so. Hint: it already got removed from the syllabus years ago because people were washing out of PIT for it. Kinder, gentler...at this rate even the future instructors will just be told to punch out of a plane that has an engine hiccup. YGBSM

Next bright idea will probably be a paper airplane book and then direct to F-22

I was in the last class at -6 PIT to have to demonstrate TAC for msn qual. By the time I drove back to DLF , it was nixed from the syllabus and never taught it to T-6 studs. Didn't think there was much to it but your point is noted, T-6 PIT circa 2010 had hella more washouts than the hamburger helper factory they got going on today. I'm a 38 IP these days, so it's a bit easier to tell no slack to someone without getting someone triggered, though it's starting to happen too. I'm afraid they're softening up things here too. But the AF has a production crisis they say, so standards will come down. My conscience is clear though, I document everything, and I'm 100% batting average on students I knew weren't gonna pass the B-course and got sent anyways. 2 of them in the 4 years I've been on this side of the house. One 15C and a 22. Waste of taxpaying dollars, but beats a class A, especially in the latter. I still keep the HUD tapes of the TP stall in the pattern the day I saved his life the first time (I saved his life a second time a month later) as a momento. The AF doesn't listen.

[matmacwc]

If I had a nickel every time I saved a student from a murder/suicide....

[YoungnDumb]

1 hour ago, brwwg&b said:

Maybe at Sheppard. Nowhere else. To do so would mean increasing PIT syllabus to teach everyone who isn't versed in those skills how to do so. Hint: it already got removed from the syllabus years ago because people were washing out of PIT for it. Kinder, gentler...at this rate even the future instructors will just be told to punch out of a plane that has an engine hiccup. YGBSM

Next bright idea will probably be a paper airplane book and then direct to F-22

Except that it is actually happening.  They are thinking of making it an in house upgrade vs a PIT requirement.

[Bode]

Except that it is actually happening.  They are thinking of making it an in house upgrade vs a PIT requirement.

For guys who have the experience I think this would be a quick upgrade. Eventually (if it works) it will probably be like AHC or cat check IP where there are a few running around the squadron at any point in time who can fill the billet.

[Herkasaurus]

21 hours ago, hindsight2020 said:

This is the part where regAF guys don't have the full picture when it comes to retention. See, when 19th went to HAF and told them to carve AETC out of the bullshit make-work so-called deployments that the USAF historically and institutionally has used to justify its money-footprint and existence to the Joint Chiefs and the Congress, they scored a win for their fiefdom. But there isn't much understanding around regAF low level circles as to where that pound of flesh was gonna be taken from. As you're finding out, that's coming out of ARC, which you folks commonly know as the AFRC and ANGB Command/Bureau.

Picture this little happy Bob Ross winter scene for a second: You're a regAF dude. You're happy to get paid O-3/4 money with tax free 25% of your check on the 15th and 30th and get free medical, plus 30 days vaction a year you can't use but at least you're banking. Then regAF grinds you to a pulp. You try to hold on to the end of the commitment but say it, I'm out. So you look up the hill to the AFRC/ANG. While you're tripping over yourself to submit that palace chase application to the Dementors at AFPC, 19th is scoring a big win on the QOL by shielding their boys from CENTCOM's rent-seeking combat desk 179s/364s non-flyings' to Bullshitstan. But by the time you get out it's ripe time for AFRC to get hit with the new word of the day: involuntary individual mobs for all TRs. Coincidence? If only. So now here you are, happy wife happy life, never gonna do that again and wham! You get hit with the very tasker you quit Active Duty over in the first place, while the peers you literally left behind in Active Duty are shielded from it. Which is noted, you're going in their place after all. And you potentially lose your CJO at Delta for all your troubles. How you like them apples? Think I'm kidding? Like you said yourself, "not asked, but fvcking handed". Try hiring folks in that environment, plus a double commute. 

So that's what's going on right now in the ARC. Caveat emptor.

That makes perfect sense, not a side of this I’ve paid attention to before to be honest. Whenever all my ANG/AFRC bros deployed I never looked at who was/wasn’t deployed on the AD side. Though between all the Slick units there was always someone out there moving those MRAP tires back and forth to justify their existence. Though your eloquence is much more gooder than mine. 

You mentioned hiring folks in this shit...are there a lot of vacancies in the ARC? I can only assume that’s the case with them approving all these place chase apps. Makes sense to triple the remaining commitment and big blue keeps their grabby paws on them all the while trying to help the manning on that side of the fence. 

[hindsight2020]

1 hour ago, Herkasaurus said:

You mentioned hiring folks in this shit...are there a lot of vacancies in the ARC? I can only assume that’s the case with them approving all these place chase apps. Makes sense to triple the remaining commitment and big blue keeps their grabby paws on them all the while trying to help the manning on that side of the fence. 

TR positions are harder to get than full time these days due to the preference for airline work. Lot of turnover and burnout in the full time cadre, which affects the ability to process the TR needs. The ART hiring is a complete dumpster fire. Nobody that can actually get hired by an airline (or wants to) takes one. Which no offense to the legitimate ART guy who has a family setup where he doesn't need the money or whatever, but what ends up happening in the aggregate is that it attracts the very agents you don't want in unit leadership in the first place. But whatever, whoever wants to get umbraged about that statement be my guest. Go take it up with AFRC, they're the ones with the 55% manning command wide in ART hiring. Dont shoot the messenger type of thing.

AGRs are slightly better but still in historically atrocious low numbers. The airline dudes reeeeally dont want to touch until AFTER they get the airline number, since nobody is gonna release you to curtailment outside 18-24 months from your original contract, so you'd be an idiot to do that if your goal is airlines. The problem is that it has become a real revolving door of people, some who don't give a shit about the job, and TRs suffer. But that's my bias as a career AGR who takes pride in taking care of my TRs and happy to act as kevlar on their behalf with a smile on my face. I just don't appreciate people shitting where I eat, but admittedly that's the 1% that makes the rest of us look bad.

My advice to you, look for non-TFI units if you can help it and damn make sure and ask about involuntary individual mobilizations. Stay the eff away from those two, especially the latter, if you can help it. Good luck.

[Gazmo]

ARC manning is worse than AD right now and I'm not even talking ART manning. Just manning in general. Why? Mostly the same reasons as our AD counterparts with the added joy of juggling a civilian job that pays more to work less with an ARC job with an AD-esque ops tempo. Lots of AD folks have been using the ANG as a stepping stone to the airlines and once they've gotten comfy on 2 or 3 year FO pay at United or Delta they decide they want to go IRR. Most of our guardsmen who do decide to stay to 20 are pulling the handle right at 20 versus going to 28 years as a Lt Col as many have done in the past. There is no commitment for most of our guardsmen and there is no incentive bonus to stay. Instead, all of the good deals are long gone and we get thrown alternating CENTCOM and PACOM rotations to fill that have a lot of people deploying twice per year in addition to trying to maintain mission ready status at about 1/4 the cost of our AD counterparts.

[Seriously]

11 hours ago, hindsight2020 said:

I was in the last class at -6 PIT to have to demonstrate TAC for msn qual. By the time I drove back to DLF , it was nixed from the syllabus and never taught it to T-6 studs. Didn't think there was much to it but your point is noted, T-6 PIT circa 2010 had hella more washouts than the hamburger helper factory they got going on today. I'm a 38 IP these days, so it's a bit easier to tell no slack to someone without getting someone triggered, though it's starting to happen too. I'm afraid they're softening up things here too. But the AF has a production crisis they say, so standards will come down. My conscience is clear though, I document everything, and I'm 100% batting average on students I knew weren't gonna pass the B-course and got sent anyways. 2 of them in the 4 years I've been on this side of the house. One 15C and a 22. Waste of taxpaying dollars, but beats a class A, especially in the latter. I still keep the HUD tapes of the TP stall in the pattern the day I saved his life the first time (I saved his life a second time a month later) as a momento. The AF doesn't listen.

I had just started PIT when they decided to take tac form out of the syllabus. One of the major driving forces behind it was to reduce washout rates at PIT. 

[ImNotARobot]

ARC manning is worse than AD right now and I'm not even talking ART manning. Just manning in general. Why? Mostly the same reasons as our AD counterparts with the added joy of juggling a civilian job that pays more to work less with an ARC job with an AD-esque ops tempo. Lots of AD folks have been using the ANG as a stepping stone to the airlines and once they've gotten comfy on 2 or 3 year FO pay at United or Delta they decide they want to go IRR. Most of our guardsmen who do decide to stay to 20 are pulling the handle right at 20 versus going to 28 years as a Lt Col as many have done in the past. There is no commitment for most of our guardsmen and there is no incentive bonus to stay. Instead, all of the good deals are long gone and we get thrown alternating CENTCOM and PACOM rotations to fill that have a lot of people deploying twice per year in addition to trying to maintain mission ready status at about 1/4 the cost of our AD counterparts.

Every word above is 100% accurate for my ARC unit as well.

[Buddy Spike]

2 hours ago, Gazmo said:

ARC manning is worse than AD right now and I'm not even talking ART manning. Just manning in general. Why? Mostly the same reasons as our AD counterparts with the added joy of juggling a civilian job that pays more to work less with an ARC job with an AD-esque ops tempo. Lots of AD folks have been using the ANG as a stepping stone to the airlines and once they've gotten comfy on 2 or 3 year FO pay at United or Delta they decide they want to go IRR. Most of our guardsmen who do decide to stay to 20 are pulling the handle right at 20 versus going to 28 years as a Lt Col as many have done in the past. There is no commitment for most of our guardsmen and there is no incentive bonus to stay. Instead, all of the good deals are long gone and we get thrown alternating CENTCOM and PACOM rotations to fill that have a lot of people deploying twice per year in addition to trying to maintain mission ready status at about 1/4 the cost of our AD counterparts.

Can you get points/no pay in the IRR to take you to 20 or are these dudes just quitting and leaving the retirement behind?

[ImNotARobot]

Can you get points/no pay in the IRR to take you to 20 or are these dudes just quitting and leaving the retirement behind?

Yes and yes.

Reference the Cat E (CAP & ALO) thread for the former scenario.

[Buddy Spike]

13 minutes ago, ImNotARobot said:

Yes and yes.

Reference the Cat E (CAP & ALO) thread for the former scenario.

Yeah but you have to apply and be accepted to those, right?   The Navy Reserve used to (no longer) have a "coloring book" program where you could do IRR/VTU and still earn points (No Cat E equivalent position required)

[ImNotARobot]

Yeah but you have to apply and be accepted to those, right?   The Navy Reserve used to (no longer) have a "coloring book" program where you could do IRR/VTU and still earn points (No Cat E equivalent position required)

Yep, there’s an application process. From what I’ve studied (as a guy that is 1-2 yrs / 1 deployment away from this path)...it’s not necessarily competitive as you would equate with getting into a flying unit.

I had to contact the POC and see what the individual process was for the region I’m considering. From there, it’s a question of paperwork and time. AFRC currently has some type of “stop-loss” type MFR out that states you can’t go from Cat A (a flyer) to Cat E until the next FY. So not technically stop loss, but there is some luck/timing involved with what AFRC policy will be in place when you decide to pull the trigger.

I don’t think guys are getting turned down on the Cat E side for not “qualifying” for a points/no pay scenario. If anyone reading this has that experience, would love to read what happened.

[nunya]

1 hour ago, ImNotARobot said:

I don’t think guys are getting turned down on the Cat E side for not “qualifying” for a points/no pay scenario. If anyone reading this has that experience, would love to read what happened.

Yes and no.  You still have to get hired by a Sq/CC.  He has to like you enough to accept you into his organization.  No, it's not like applying to some primo F-69 guard unit, but still, don't approach it like they can't not hire you.  And yes, guys have been fired from Cat E jobs for getting hired and then being slugs.  

Here's the kicker: Like I wrote in another thread, if you're moving to airline base housing in DFW, ATL, or DEN, then good luck.  They can't have 6 ALOs for one high school, and you may not want to drive 3 hours to the high school they assign you when you have to see a kid in person.  If you're going to commute from somewhere less saturated with airline guys, then there probably is room for you.  

[matmacwc]

All the F-69 ANG units have 5 open ARTS and a few AGR's to fill.

[otsap]

21 hours ago, hindsight2020 said:

I was in the last class at -6 PIT to have to demonstrate TAC for msn qual. By the time I drove back to DLF , it was nixed from the syllabus and never taught it to T-6 studs. Didn't think there was much to it but your point is noted, T-6 PIT circa 2010 had hella more washouts than the hamburger helper factory they got going on today. I'm a 38 IP these days, so it's a bit easier to tell no slack to someone without getting someone triggered, though it's starting to happen too. I'm afraid they're softening up things here too. But the AF has a production crisis they say, so standards will come down. My conscience is clear though, I document everything, and I'm 100% batting average on students I knew weren't gonna pass the B-course and got sent anyways. 2 of them in the 4 years I've been on this side of the house. One 15C and a 22. Waste of taxpaying dollars, but beats a class A, especially in the latter. I still keep the HUD tapes of the TP stall in the pattern the day I saved his life the first time (I saved his life a second time a month later) as a momento. The AF doesn't listen.

You and I were a class, maybe two, apart.  That was a rough summer for airsickness hooks.

10 hours ago, Seriously said:

I had just started PIT when they decided to take tac form out of the syllabus. One of the major driving forces behind it was to reduce washout rates at PIT. 

For some reason tac form turned the T-6 into a flying barany chair.

[Gazmo]

All the F-69 ANG units have 5 open ARTS and a few AGR's to fill.

Last time I checked, there were almost 200 GS-1X jobs on USAJobs for AFRC and ANG/NG. I remember the days there were about 3...

[Danger41]

13 hours ago, Seriously said:

I had just started PIT when they decided to take tac form out of the syllabus. One of the major driving forces behind it was to reduce washout rates at PIT. 

How does a guy wash out of PIT as a minimum 1 tour AF pilot? I’m not a UPT IP but WTF? 

[matmacwc]

56 minutes ago, Danger41 said:

How does a guy wash out of PIT as a minimum 1 tour AF pilot? I’m not a UPT IP but WTF? 

B/C the same people we a surprised graduate SUPT return someday, and it's probably the easiest IP upgrade I've ever been apart of.

[di1630]

How does a guy wash out of PIT as a minimum 1 tour AF pilot? I’m not a UPT IP but WTF? 

Take a dude that was marginal in UPT, throw him in a jet as a co-pilot/autopilot monitor for 3 years then ask him to go back and instruct tac form, aerobatics etc that he probably was never real good at in the first place.

[snoopyeast]

From what I saw at the wing, half the people sent to white jets where fine pilots.   The other half were the people that get passed around from base to base so that they're someone else's problem.  Just the type we want teaching new guys!

Edited March 15, 2018 by snoopyeast