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New study shows grim outlook for future of Air Force pilot shortage

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Re: New study shows grim outlook for future of Air Force pilot shortage

#51

Post by magduf »

Moru wrote: post #38
mmsimanga wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am guessing when you say "I do" you must have a pretty good idea of the person you are marrying.

Weren't we talking about people in their twenties? Do you people often get married at that age? I thought it was more common to delay marriage and kids to later in the career nowadays?

As the other poster said, women marring into the military tend to be more conservative, and they're generally looking for a financial set-up. They marry the military guy because he has a regular job that's hard to get fired from, usually paid housing, etc., and she won't have to work.

Of course, a huge number of military marriages end in divorce, but then the wife gets a nice payout from that too.

Re: New study shows grim outlook for future of Air Force pilot shortage

#52

Post by magduf »

This story's title here on HN seems to contradict the actual news story. According to the HN title, there is no shortage of AF pilots. It says the outlook is grim for the shortage, not for the number of pilots, so it means that the shortage is probably going to go away.

Re: New study shows grim outlook for future of Air Force pilot shortage

#53

Post by alexhutcheson »

randcraw wrote: post #25

Weirdly, the article says almost nothing about the impact of drones on career pilots, especially their will to reenlist. The focus was fighter jocks, but I doubt most will end up flying commercially -- the skills of flying passengers or freight don't overlap much with dogfights, missile tech, or flying invisible. The article also says nothing about which kinds of pilots are in shortest supply (fighter, heavy, rotary,…

> The focus was fighter jocks, but I doubt most will end up flying commercially -- the skills of flying passengers or freight don't overlap much with dogfights, missile tech, or flying invisible.

My understanding is that the main "skill" commercial airlines are looking for is flight hours - lots and lots of flight hours. The combat-focused skills obviously don't transfer, but an experienced fighter pilot is still very prepared to transition to flying commercial flights if they want to.

Re: New study shows grim outlook for future of Air Force pilot shortage

#54

Post by kevinventullo »

magduf wrote: post #50
chrischattin wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a former Air Force pilot and was going to writeup a long post about my experience. But, this pretty much sums it up. I loved the people, and LOVED the flying. Some of the best times of my life. But, the organizational bloat, bureaucratic BS, and constant deployments just became too much. As you can imagine, it really wears on you to be gone 6 mo's every year risking your life for a counterproductive endless war t…

>risking your life for a counterproductive endless war that the American public barely knows is happening. Yet the American public happily votes for these wars over and over.

As an American voter, I can assure you my choices have always been war or war.

Re: New study shows grim outlook for future of Air Force pilot shortage

#55

Post by thrill »

randcraw wrote: post #25

Weirdly, the article says almost nothing about the impact of drones on career pilots, especially their will to reenlist. The focus was fighter jocks, but I doubt most will end up flying commercially -- the skills of flying passengers or freight don't overlap much with dogfights, missile tech, or flying invisible. The article also says nothing about which kinds of pilots are in shortest supply (fighter, heavy, rotary,…

Probably the majority of fighter pilots end up flying for the airlines once they leave active duty. For one thing, the airlines are just as desperate to find qualified pilots, though that's greatly driven by the ups and downs of the economy.

Re: New study shows grim outlook for future of Air Force pilot shortage

#57

Post by alexhutcheson »

Moru wrote: post #38
mmsimanga wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am guessing when you say "I do" you must have a pretty good idea of the person you are marrying.

Weren't we talking about people in their twenties? Do you people often get married at that age? I thought it was more common to delay marriage and kids to later in the career nowadays?

People in the military tend to marry early, at least partially because there are a bunch of benefits that the military provides to spouses. If you get re-assigned to a base across the country, the military will pay to move your spouse, but not your girlfriend/boyfriend. If you need to be picked up from the base after work, that's a lot easier for a spouse to do (they have an ID) than a girlfriend/boyfriend. You also get a bigger housing stipend, they get medical benefits, etc. If you're in a long-term relationship anyway, there's a big financial benefit to making it "official".

Re: New study shows grim outlook for future of Air Force pilot shortage

#58

Post by raverbashing »

driverdan wrote: post #18

> A recent RAND study found the cost of training a basic qualified fighter pilot ranges from $5.6 million for an F-16 pilot to $10.9 million for an F-22 pilot. Those numbers seem outrageous to me. Why does it cost so much? Are there frequent plane crashes?

One important detail is that not all pilots are going to be fighter pilots (which usually means less expensive trainings).

C17s, KC-135s, A10s, C-130s make up a significant part of the USAF fleet, not to mention the smaller transport/utility craft

Re: New study shows grim outlook for future of Air Force pilot shortage

#59

Post by jl2718 »

alexhutcheson wrote: post #49
alexhutcheson wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Currently, ROTC cadets who are offered a scholarship (not all are), receive: 1) Full tuition and fees OR $10k/year to cover room and board. Cadet chooses. I'd expect at most schools the tuition+fees is worth more, but some cadets have other scholarships that might cover all or part of tuition. 2) $1200/year for textbooks 3) $300-$500/month (depending on year) living stipend

Actually it looks like the Air Force offers scholarships in 3 tiers: https://www.afrotc.com/scholarships/high-school/types/ In addition to the offer I described above, it looks like a "Type 2" scholarship is the same, but with tuition+fees capped at $18k/year, and "Type 3" is the same, but with tuition+fee capped at the in-state rate at a public university.

These tiers are ridiculous. The only reason I am not in the Air Force is that ROTC would not give a type 1 for a two year scholarship to a prior active duty at Harvey Mudd. The remaining cost was too much, so I went elsewhere on academic scholarship.

Re: New study shows grim outlook for future of Air Force pilot shortage

#60

Post by magduf »

kevinventullo wrote: post #54
magduf wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>risking your life for a counterproductive endless war that the American public barely knows is happening. Yet the American public happily votes for these wars over and over.

As an American voter, I can assure you my choices have always been war or war.

There have always been 3rd-party choices on the ballot.
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