U.S. Air Force Capt. Derrick Baker, left and U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Devon Neil perform a preflight inspection of a KC-135R Stratotanker aircraft for a refueling mission over southern Afghanistan, Nov. 6, 2013. Baker, a pilot, is assigned to the 340th Expeditionary Air Refueling Squadron, and Neil, an avionics technician, is assigned to the 340th Aircraft Maintenance Unit. U.S. Air Force photo by Master Sgt. Ben Bloker
Fanning: Air Force Having Trouble Keeping Pilots, And Pay Isn’t The Problem -- Tom Shoop, Defense One
The Air Force is offering big bonuses to keep its pilots in the service, but they’re not taking them because budget constraints are forcing the service to limit both current flying hours and opportunities to fly the next generation of aircraft, acting Air Force Secretary Eric Fanning said Thursday.
Over the summer, the Air Force began offering its pilots payments of $25,000 per year as an incentive to stay on, up to a maximum of $250,000. But “pilots aren’t taking them,” Fanning said at the Defense One Summit in Washington. The main reason is that “we’re going to have flying hour issues for the foreseeable future,” he said, with rolling groundings of two to three months per squadron.
Pilots “want to fly,” Fanning said. And with the airline industry facing a wave of forced retirements of pilots, opportunities for them are opening up in the private sector.
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My Comment: It is hard for the Air Force to compete .... especially when the private sector is willing to give better salaries, better working conditions, stability, and .... more importantly .... having no one shoot at you. Mind you .... driving a bus that flies in the air does not match the excitement of piloting a jet fighter.
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