For John, BLUF: You can grow up and you can become a pilot, but you can't do both. Nothing to see here; just move along.
Foreign Policy Magazine warns us that the US Air Force is facing a potential pilot shortage as the airlines begin hiring again. If the Air Force, then the other uniformed Services as well.
This is not something new, but one wonders if we couldn't do a better job of planning to smooth this sort of thing out? Or is the smoothing harder than coping with the problem?
Yes Mr Congressman, we do need an excess of pilots now so we have the right number of experienced pilots in seven years.Long term planning is hard.
Regards — Cliff
IMHO, two different worlds that happen to employ a common player. Military aviation is to aviation as military justice is to justice.
ReplyDeleteAt the risk of sounding maudlin, we need extra pilots to fill the cockpits of those who are killed in battle or in accidents, largely brought about by ridiculously lower flying hour programs. Its one thing to own a J3 Cub and only fly it once or twice a month...or even every other month. Its quite another to strap on an F-16 or F-22 and charge off into the blue when the last time you actually flew one was a month ago. In spite of the believable advertising by folks like Flight Safety International, simulators don't REALLY simulate....emulate maybe....lots of buttonology and procedural stuff....but high g forces, DACT, etc doesn't happen in the local sim. You have to actually FLY in order to say you have FLOWN.....on in high performance aircraft.....it is NOT just like riding a bicycle.
I personally don't think long term planning is hard when it comes to fighters and fighter pilots. What is hard is when the civilian leadership (term used advisedly) decides it can ratchet up and down the military forces in order to free (nothing is free) up resources for programs that make them electable. Winning wars,staying free, keeping the dogs at the gate.....those don't get people elected. Two chickens in a every pot, including the pot...and the house to hold the pot...and a car to go get the pot.....NOW we are talking electability.
BTW....the airline hiring rush is a myth of sorts. The third and second level lines have hoards of pilots waiting to upgrade....and they are so used to being paid slave wages that they can be had much more cheaply than an ex-AF pilot.