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

Post by richardhod » Wed, Apr 17, 2019, 4:21 PM UTC

nradov wrote: post #33

The Army also has a pilot shortage, but they've done a little better than the Air Force due to allowing warrant officers to fly. Many pilots just want to fly , they don't want to deal with all the other management responsibilities and staff assignments that come with being a commissioned officer. When the Air Force split off from the Army they decided they only wanted commissioned officers as pilots and eliminated WO…

Post by imtringued » Wed, Apr 17, 2019, 4:23 PM UTC

ajmurmann wrote: post #3

sonnyblarney wrote: post #2

This is interesting because the military pilots I know simply love to fly. It's an amazing opportunity to fly amazing kit, and to get tons and tons of airtime. The pay was never that great, and young people in their early 20's shouldn't mind deployments in the midwest or wherever. Also, it's a very aspirational job: "Jet Fighter Pilot". They make video games of that. Every little boy, at some point, considered wantin…

"and young people in their early 20's shouldn't mind deployments in the midwest or wherever." That to me sounds exactly like the kind of thing someone in their early twenties who is ready to head out and see the world would mind. Maybe I'm just projecting?

Post by jl2718 » Wed, Apr 17, 2019, 4:28 PM UTC

NikolaNovak wrote: post #31

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?

Cost of flying F-22 for an hour is reported anywhere between $33k and $70k, with most estimates in the $60k range. Let's assume $50k/hour to be safe - 200 hours of flight time gets you to the $10 million figure on its own, with no other costs accounted for. Pilot still ends up the cheap part of the equation, given ~$200mil+ per airplane cost. Whee - are we having budgetary fun yet :-)

Post by lghh » Wed, Apr 17, 2019, 4:30 PM UTC

imtringued wrote: post #63

ajmurmann wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"and young people in their early 20's shouldn't mind deployments in the midwest or wherever." That to me sounds exactly like the kind of thing someone in their early twenties who is ready to head out and see the world would mind. Maybe I'm just projecting?

The type of person that joins the military doesn't mind deployments. In fact the entire point of becoming a pilot is to fly those damn planes and shoot stuff.

Post by closeparen » Wed, Apr 17, 2019, 4:34 PM UTC

aristophenes wrote: post #10

sonnyblarney wrote: post #2

This is interesting because the military pilots I know simply love to fly. It's an amazing opportunity to fly amazing kit, and to get tons and tons of airtime. The pay was never that great, and young people in their early 20's shouldn't mind deployments in the midwest or wherever. Also, it's a very aspirational job: "Jet Fighter Pilot". They make video games of that. Every little boy, at some point, considered wantin…

That excitement has to last through years of training with crappy hours in crappy locations. Doesn't matter if you are cool fighter pilot if you can't be there for your family, move them out to the desert, don't have any say over when and where you will go for weeks at a time when you aren't deployed, gone for months or a year at a time when you are deployed, move from one crappy location to another every couple of y…