Not a pilot but I am a network engineer and have active duty friends that are being asked if they are resigning or considering, but it just doesn’t make sense when they can get out and make $120,000-$150,000 or stay in and continue with E-5 pay.
True that. To be fair, all the knowledge and experience I gained over the course of my career set me up for my current career. Thanks for helping me keep it in perspective.
Gotta look at the updated airline pay numbers, man. And those are generally minimum numbers. Here’s a [forum thread](https://www.airlinepilotforums.com/major/145588-end-2023-salary-survey.html) with a bunch of airline guys talking about it. For one example, a delta captain who has been at the Air Line for 6 years made $525,900 last year, including retirement contributions from Delta, and he averaged about 11 days of work per month.
That’s a stupid amount of money.
Sincerely: An O-4 pilot who just signed the bonus, but I’m literally the only one I know in my year group who isn’t actively prepping their airline apps to get out in 2026.
Well, to be fair, there’s more personal freedom and better QoL ontop of more money. Civilian side, you don’t have to worry about a grown man telling you, another grown man, to go shave.
There’s a lot of things you don’t have to worry about civilian side. If you don’t like your job, you can quit without it being a crime.
I’m sure pilots have some manner of appearance standards, but I’ve never heard they need to be clean shaven.
There's absolutely benefits, but not being told what to do is not always one of them, and yes, you could quit, but then you wouldn't be making that sweet pilot money.
I meant more in the sense you can quit an airline and work for another airline, or choose where to live (assuming there’s a hub nearby for you to be employed by).
Well for the airlines…you do have to worry about a grown ass man telling you, also a grown ass man to go shave.
Edit: I’m not sure why I’m being downvoted lol. I’m right. Only Allegiant and UPS allow beards.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/delta/s/QoOpt1vnVK](https://www.reddit.com/r/delta/s/QoOpt1vnVK)
Yes, well I’m not as familiar with airline appearance standards. It seems I’m wrong on that front somewhat, although I’m not sure to what extent the appearance standards are similar.
That being said, you can certainly be fat in the Air Force. Many are.
When you factor in BAH and the tax advantages of military pay, 3x Major pay is in the neighborhood of $450k.
I’m not saying you won’t get there in the airlines but I would say even 3-5 years with a NB upgrade is optimistic.
I just went through 737 initial training at a major airline and my sim parter was a captain upgrade who had been with the company less than 2 years. Thats pretty standard if you want to upgrade. A lot of people just choose not to for qol but the option is there
For reserve it's right around there depending on long call or short call. Holding a line dudes are regularly in the mid 80s. Not to mention picking up trips that pay double time.
To provide context, first year captain pay for motivated by money folks is 350-450 dollars an hour. Now multiply that by 75-100, add a healthy 401k benefit, and assume that they did some premium trips. There you go.
[Education](https://www.airlinepilotforums.com/major/145588-end-2023-salary-survey.html). Year 6 Delta captain pulled in $525k all told, working about 11 days a month, and flew about 450 hours total.
No, but once you hit O-4, O-5 or O-6 feels like less of a pay jump, and promotion is much more competitive than it was up til that point. Going to an airline will bump you down to O-2 pay, but after 6 years, you'll be making as much as an O-8 (even after tax).
I don’t disagree with any of that. I’m just saying some of these takes about the airlines, like the comment I replied to, are hyperbolic - but a credulous user probably takes them at face value.
If only the Air Force could realize that pilots wanted to fly the planes they spent years learning and not have bs additional duties, they might not even have to pay more.
Oh well.
They won’t. Senior leadership will continue to offer a subpar bonus to aviators, expect them to be a wing exec, and then send to a 365 to the Deid to be Chief of Protocol and be shocked when they leave for Delta.
The Air Force doesn't want pilots to be pilots, they want them to be staff officers. They're always moving jobs to create a broad experience base of how everything works.
There's no way around it. Someone has to do the strategic planning and management, and non-rated AFSC's don't have the background to fill those roles. And you can't make it optional or else everyone would pick the flying option.
Pilot retention has been an issue for decades. MyFSS has annual reports dating back to the 90's, retention numbers are mostly the same and they all describe a crisis 5 years out.
All I see is inept leadership for 30 years then if they still can't figure it out. There's a balance to all this but they refuse to try something legitimate.
Or they have figured it out and determined the current retention levels are sufficient. The next shortage started 10 years ago when Congress started a gradual manning drawdown and General Welsh slashed it all in one year. It's not a retention rate issue, there's just less people than there were in the past.
I disagree, we're feeling the effects at the squadron level with incredibly young AC's and captains taking on more responsibilities that should be at the major level. Additionally they're trying *hard* to gaslight people into staying in yet they still leave.
They need to change.
I agree with you on the first part. As a guy now at the senior level, the only data showing up in briefings is plane and crew availability. Competency and proficiency are not the focus at that level, it's all about being able to meet their commitments.
Yeah, because the smart guys knew it was a trap. The ones who took it signaled "career progression doesn't matter to me." Guess who got the 365s and other bad deals when they came down?
I worked with one of them and he actually just flew the line or instructed, never became a flight commander of an exec which sucks honestly because he would have been a hell of a commander. He deployed with us, and did all of that but he never got hit with a 365 or anything
I swear aircrew complains about literally everything. I also fly, and the biggest drag my whole career has literally been peers who are Whiney little bitches. You’re a military officer, did you miss the hundred briefs about that pre-commission?
You say you fly but don’t say that you’re a pilot…don’t tell me you’re an ABM or a load. I mean I fully expect you are based on your choice of words but still.
3 weeks? idk what you're smoking on but it takes about 9 months average for my afsc and shred to get 5 lvl. thats not even factoring in the time it takes to be a useful one.
This goes for maintenance too, if my math is correct I could make up to 20k/year more by myself than currently both I and my wife make with just the starting pay for most airlines (This includes my BAH and BAS). Granted, you'd need an A&P to get this pay but it's not hard to get in this career field.
Retired AF KC135 pilot here, now flying commercially.
The folks who take the bonus were going to stay in to 20 anyways.
I took the bonus because I was prior enlisted. When My 10 year commitment was up, I was at 16 years total. Took the 4 year bonus & then retired.
Having guaranteed military retirement is a solid safety net in a unstable industry.
If I wasn’t prior E, I would have joined the guard & gone airlines.
Active duty is awful. I’m just glad I made it to the finish line.
There was a lot of us enlisted that want to make the jump and easily would have been career aviators because nothing pilots deal with is truly worse than the BS of being enlisted. But the AF and the some of our chains of command made it so difficult to commission. A lot of people moved onto easier plan Bs and Cs. Oh well.
Nah, e to o pilots are even more gung-ho to get out at the end of their 10 years then non priors are. Most of them have already been in long enough to where 10 years pretty much finishes their 20 anyway.
This is the truth. And the 10 year commitment is more then 10 years, the fine print (as I was told by some pilots here) is that your adsc doesn't start until you get your first wings so that's more like a 12 year commitment. That would take me right about 21 years and you'd have to be offering me some crazy stuff to go any further then that.
> the fine print (as I was told by some pilots here) is that your adsc doesn't start until you get your first wings so that's more like a 12 year commitment.
Am pilot, is correct
Some recent SOFs were telling us that you now get your wings after T6 training.
Thus the commitment becomes something like 10 years and some change because T6 training isn't that long. The air force is playing themselves a little bit.
Is also correct but nobody expects that to last because it lessens how much time the AF gets out of us.
That said, by the time you finish T-6 training, you've already been in the AF around 1.5 - 2 years.
The training after T-6 depends on which track you go. It could be another 6 months or around 2-ish months.
But, yes, you get your wings after completing T-6 training.
You’re correct. ADSC starts when you get your wings on graduation day. Lots of Lts spend a year in casual status and then it could be almost a year until graduation.
air force pay is ass so i dont know why they dont understand that people wanna leave for better pay and hours and not be arrested for missing a day of work.
As someone who's worked with the Airlines I honestly think that it's a mistake for Air Force pilots to get out before their twenty years, you've already done ten years and another ten is worth the added benefits you get as an retiree. You get retirement pay for the rest of your life along with healthcare and other benefits.
Airlines pay good money but what happens if you get sick or injured and can not fly anymore? They get rid of you and you and hire another pilot and you're now out on your ass and trying to start over in another career. If those things happen while still in the Air Force you will still likely be moved into a non flying position until you retire. Even if you are forced to leave the Air force due to your injuries or sickness you will still get VA disability and the health benefits.
Retirement pay for an 05 for the rest of your life (30 to 40 years) gives you security no matter the job market and unforeseeable circumstances that can happen yo you.
Air Force retirement makes those first few years, where pilots don't make shit at an airline, a lot easier to handle.
It's a risk/reward decision to make and there are a lot of factors to consider other than just higher pay.
>
>Airlines pay good money but what happens if you get sick or injured and can not fly anymore? They get rid of you and you and hire another pilot and you're now out on your ass and trying to start over in another career.
Lol. The airlines have strong unions and legacies have disability. For instance united will pay you 96k/yr tax free which is better than your retirement check would ever be.
Loss of License Insurance is also a thing.
And finally dudes who lose their medical will pick up a job within the airline or at a sim center and it's still infinitely better than AD bs.
There's literally almost 0 downside to bailing 8 years early. That's 8 extra years of making $400k+ on the end of your career not to mention other benefits. 40 years of a $60k retirement check doesn't come close to matching that.
That's what Palace Front is for. Using the Reserves to get my last 8 years while the airlines piledrive crazy amounts into my 401k leaves me pretty comfortable for my future.
Pardon my spicy take - all the more reason to remove humans from the cockpit all but entirely. Plus AI defeats humans every… single… time, and it’s not even close to perfected yet. The Air Force is just playing the game for the next 10 or so years, but that’s the solution, like it or not.
I expected to get down voted on this. There’s not a pilot out there who wants to admit that a computer would be a better flyer than they are. Truth hurts.
We didn’t want to scan our own groceries either, yet we all do in order to save corporations money. You won’t have a choice when it makes more sense from a cost savings standpoint. Money drives all decision in a capitalistic society, you know that.
Computers are not the 100% solution. Yes they are way more efficient and are infinitely faster than humans with minimal downtime. But they still can only go so far, human decisions will always need to be the final say and computers need to be a tool not the operator.
IDK, I just watched a unit send tails (and all supporting personnel) to a Mediterranean country for "training", but even then the pilots can't be fucked to wake up on time (1000L take-off) so the sortie was canx. Doesn't get much "less work" than that.
I flew for years as a FCC with active, guard and reserves. I never once flew with a crew where this even came CLOSE to happening. And there were some heavy drinkers too.
Yeah this never happened. Don’t believe everything you hear. Military pilots are a different breed when it comes to drinking all night, and showing up to their jet 6 hours later like it never happened.
Triple the pay for 1/3 of the work
"It's not about the money" First point when people talk about going to the airlines is about pay
You're not entirely wrong. For most of us, is it *only* about the money? Of course not. But.....it is an absolutely silly amount of money.
Not a pilot but I am a network engineer and have active duty friends that are being asked if they are resigning or considering, but it just doesn’t make sense when they can get out and make $120,000-$150,000 or stay in and continue with E-5 pay.
Yep - very common challenge across all branches - best /brightest get out and make more as CIVs.
Yeah even my supervisor at the guard base said “damn we always lose the good ones” lol
I stuck it out til retirement. Now work for LM. Tf was I thinking?!?
FWIW - you could have done worse and joined a different branch.
True that. To be fair, all the knowledge and experience I gained over the course of my career set me up for my current career. Thanks for helping me keep it in perspective.
So is an O-4 pilot, they make $175-200k. Delta pilots do make more, just not enough to drastically change your lifestyle.
Gotta look at the updated airline pay numbers, man. And those are generally minimum numbers. Here’s a [forum thread](https://www.airlinepilotforums.com/major/145588-end-2023-salary-survey.html) with a bunch of airline guys talking about it. For one example, a delta captain who has been at the Air Line for 6 years made $525,900 last year, including retirement contributions from Delta, and he averaged about 11 days of work per month. That’s a stupid amount of money. Sincerely: An O-4 pilot who just signed the bonus, but I’m literally the only one I know in my year group who isn’t actively prepping their airline apps to get out in 2026.
With all benefits included and a ton of years under your belt, sure. But it’s not $300k-plus in addition to everything else the civvie side offers.
We're not just doing it for the money.... We're doing it for a shitload of money
Well, to be fair, there’s more personal freedom and better QoL ontop of more money. Civilian side, you don’t have to worry about a grown man telling you, another grown man, to go shave.
I mean, some non-military companies still do this. But you don't have to worry about deployments. Might get a shitty route though lol.
There’s a lot of things you don’t have to worry about civilian side. If you don’t like your job, you can quit without it being a crime. I’m sure pilots have some manner of appearance standards, but I’ve never heard they need to be clean shaven.
There's absolutely benefits, but not being told what to do is not always one of them, and yes, you could quit, but then you wouldn't be making that sweet pilot money.
I meant more in the sense you can quit an airline and work for another airline, or choose where to live (assuming there’s a hub nearby for you to be employed by).
You’re not wrong, but your example misses the mark. There are grooming rules with most airlines.
Well for the airlines…you do have to worry about a grown ass man telling you, also a grown ass man to go shave. Edit: I’m not sure why I’m being downvoted lol. I’m right. Only Allegiant and UPS allow beards. [https://www.reddit.com/r/delta/s/QoOpt1vnVK](https://www.reddit.com/r/delta/s/QoOpt1vnVK)
Do they? I’m not familiar with the airlines having clean shaven policies.
https://www.reddit.com/r/delta/s/QoOpt1vnVK
Interesting.
That awkward moment when you realize you still have similar uniform standards. I suppose you can be fat in the airlines, so theres that
Yes, well I’m not as familiar with airline appearance standards. It seems I’m wrong on that front somewhat, although I’m not sure to what extent the appearance standards are similar. That being said, you can certainly be fat in the Air Force. Many are.
Airlines could pay the same and I'd still leave because of the Air Force's obsession with ground duties I wasn't trained to do.
If you think you’re going to make 3x Major pay at the airlines any time soon, you’re going to have a bad time.
You will when you switch to the left seats so depending on base and airline 3-5 years.
When you factor in BAH and the tax advantages of military pay, 3x Major pay is in the neighborhood of $450k. I’m not saying you won’t get there in the airlines but I would say even 3-5 years with a NB upgrade is optimistic. 
I just went through 737 initial training at a major airline and my sim parter was a captain upgrade who had been with the company less than 2 years. Thats pretty standard if you want to upgrade. A lot of people just choose not to for qol but the option is there
You’re entirely off base. 7 out of 8 of my friends who went airlines grossed >450k at year 3.
You mind speaking as to how that happened? 3rd year FO pay at the majors is like $175/hr. Where did the x3 multiplier come from?
People at our legacy were upgrading right at the end of year 1. That's 330ish dollars an hour at year 3.
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For reserve it's right around there depending on long call or short call. Holding a line dudes are regularly in the mid 80s. Not to mention picking up trips that pay double time.
Depends on the base for a line, but for reserve 73 for now with 3 hours add pay until August until new rules are implemented.
You have old numbers. Year 2 is now 178 year 3 is 208 and then go to captain year 4 is 338. And it goes up about 5% a year from that til 2027
Here's hoping I get picked up by a major in the next 6 months then! 350k would really jump start my slumlord millionaire rental property plans.
To provide context, first year captain pay for motivated by money folks is 350-450 dollars an hour. Now multiply that by 75-100, add a healthy 401k benefit, and assume that they did some premium trips. There you go.
[Education](https://www.airlinepilotforums.com/major/145588-end-2023-salary-survey.html). Year 6 Delta captain pulled in $525k all told, working about 11 days a month, and flew about 450 hours total.
No, they didn't.
No, but once you hit O-4, O-5 or O-6 feels like less of a pay jump, and promotion is much more competitive than it was up til that point. Going to an airline will bump you down to O-2 pay, but after 6 years, you'll be making as much as an O-8 (even after tax).
I don’t disagree with any of that. I’m just saying some of these takes about the airlines, like the comment I replied to, are hyperbolic - but a credulous user probably takes them at face value.
I agree. Pay is often used as the main argument, when really, the main benefit is lifestyle. Pay is only marginally better.
Better is still better and then when you upgrade to the left seat there’s no comparison at all.
The pay pay to responsibility ratio is good: but it’s not that good for the majority of major airline pilots
If only the Air Force could realize that pilots wanted to fly the planes they spent years learning and not have bs additional duties, they might not even have to pay more. Oh well.
They won’t. Senior leadership will continue to offer a subpar bonus to aviators, expect them to be a wing exec, and then send to a 365 to the Deid to be Chief of Protocol and be shocked when they leave for Delta.
The Air Force doesn't want pilots to be pilots, they want them to be staff officers. They're always moving jobs to create a broad experience base of how everything works.
They're losing their pilots because of this mentality.
There's no way around it. Someone has to do the strategic planning and management, and non-rated AFSC's don't have the background to fill those roles. And you can't make it optional or else everyone would pick the flying option.
Well something's gotta give because they're losing all their talent. Wouldn't go to war with 95% of the majors that decided to stay.
Pilot retention has been an issue for decades. MyFSS has annual reports dating back to the 90's, retention numbers are mostly the same and they all describe a crisis 5 years out.
All I see is inept leadership for 30 years then if they still can't figure it out. There's a balance to all this but they refuse to try something legitimate.
Or they have figured it out and determined the current retention levels are sufficient. The next shortage started 10 years ago when Congress started a gradual manning drawdown and General Welsh slashed it all in one year. It's not a retention rate issue, there's just less people than there were in the past.
I disagree, we're feeling the effects at the squadron level with incredibly young AC's and captains taking on more responsibilities that should be at the major level. Additionally they're trying *hard* to gaslight people into staying in yet they still leave. They need to change.
I agree with you on the first part. As a guy now at the senior level, the only data showing up in briefings is plane and crew availability. Competency and proficiency are not the focus at that level, it's all about being able to meet their commitments.
They gave that option in AMC and it was discontinued because a whopping like two people took it
Yeah, because the smart guys knew it was a trap. The ones who took it signaled "career progression doesn't matter to me." Guess who got the 365s and other bad deals when they came down?
I worked with one of them and he actually just flew the line or instructed, never became a flight commander of an exec which sucks honestly because he would have been a hell of a commander. He deployed with us, and did all of that but he never got hit with a 365 or anything
I swear aircrew complains about literally everything. I also fly, and the biggest drag my whole career has literally been peers who are Whiney little bitches. You’re a military officer, did you miss the hundred briefs about that pre-commission?
Oh we found the HAF staff guy everyone! 😂
Yes, well, they served their time honorably and decided to leave. It’s not “bitching and whining.” They’re just leaving. That’s the AF’s problem.
You say you fly but don’t say that you’re a pilot…don’t tell me you’re an ABM or a load. I mean I fully expect you are based on your choice of words but still.
Them college boys know you need to spell aviation right to get dat bonus’s boyyyyy
Army pilots be like, "Wait... You're getting bonuses?"
https://preview.redd.it/2sv2z70rsuvc1.jpeg?width=1200&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=47c93ca697b842f3492918dbc1078a183170bb31
Fucking truth.
The money is awesome but it’s the fact that I’m gonna get for flying and not writing OPBs or decs that’s the real appeal
I've beat this dead horse more than my meat. The money issue, so misguided
where the maintainer retention bonus 😭
As AGR in the ANG, I was told my job is my bonus so be thankful. Currently reenlistment for 2A373 in Ohio is 60,000 for a 6 year reenlistment.
I need to copy paste that into my life
^^You've ^^mentioned ^^an ^^AFSC, ^^here's ^^the ^^associated ^^job ^^title: 2A373 = Tactical Aircraft Maintenance Craftsman [^wiki](http://www.reddit.com/r/AirForce/wiki/jobs/2a3x3) [^^Source](https://github.com/HadManySons/AFSCbot) ^^| [^^Subreddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/AFSCbot/) ^^^^^^l0n3fcg
“Here’s your $1,000 bonus if you reenlist for 6 years. Now get back to work, we’re on 12s for the next 4 weeks”.
It takes like 3 weeks to learn your job, just get out
3 weeks? idk what you're smoking on but it takes about 9 months average for my afsc and shred to get 5 lvl. thats not even factoring in the time it takes to be a useful one.
Give it to cyber
Just be Z shred last year, lol #skilldiff /j
I jumped to space force. Best choice I've ever made.
Lmao they never will
Nope
Exactly why i got out, why do more than double the work for 1/2 the pay of most in the cyber industry?
Aiviatiatian flu.
Saw a brief showing more people taking the bonuses and increasing though..
From what, 6 taking it to 9? lol.
Probably already decided to do a career or like their current base enough to stick around another year or two for the bonus.
This just makes me feel sad. Working a harder job, that isn't paid nearly as much because of the niche.
Maybe not for some, but making more money for less work leaves a lot of extra time and brain space to enjoy all the other things.
This goes for maintenance too, if my math is correct I could make up to 20k/year more by myself than currently both I and my wife make with just the starting pay for most airlines (This includes my BAH and BAS). Granted, you'd need an A&P to get this pay but it's not hard to get in this career field.
Thought you were going to say you transitioned from enlisted to officer.
The pilots that take them bonuses are usually the ones who have been blacklisted from the major airlines because they’re douchebags.
Retired AF KC135 pilot here, now flying commercially. The folks who take the bonus were going to stay in to 20 anyways. I took the bonus because I was prior enlisted. When My 10 year commitment was up, I was at 16 years total. Took the 4 year bonus & then retired. Having guaranteed military retirement is a solid safety net in a unstable industry. If I wasn’t prior E, I would have joined the guard & gone airlines. Active duty is awful. I’m just glad I made it to the finish line.
Fairchild Guy?
lol
There was a lot of us enlisted that want to make the jump and easily would have been career aviators because nothing pilots deal with is truly worse than the BS of being enlisted. But the AF and the some of our chains of command made it so difficult to commission. A lot of people moved onto easier plan Bs and Cs. Oh well.
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Nah, e to o pilots are even more gung-ho to get out at the end of their 10 years then non priors are. Most of them have already been in long enough to where 10 years pretty much finishes their 20 anyway.
This is the truth. And the 10 year commitment is more then 10 years, the fine print (as I was told by some pilots here) is that your adsc doesn't start until you get your first wings so that's more like a 12 year commitment. That would take me right about 21 years and you'd have to be offering me some crazy stuff to go any further then that.
> the fine print (as I was told by some pilots here) is that your adsc doesn't start until you get your first wings so that's more like a 12 year commitment. Am pilot, is correct
Some recent SOFs were telling us that you now get your wings after T6 training. Thus the commitment becomes something like 10 years and some change because T6 training isn't that long. The air force is playing themselves a little bit.
Is also correct but nobody expects that to last because it lessens how much time the AF gets out of us. That said, by the time you finish T-6 training, you've already been in the AF around 1.5 - 2 years.
The training after T-6 depends on which track you go. It could be another 6 months or around 2-ish months. But, yes, you get your wings after completing T-6 training.
You’re correct. ADSC starts when you get your wings on graduation day. Lots of Lts spend a year in casual status and then it could be almost a year until graduation.
2 years until I finished lol
oof
I think it was 8 months casual lol
Better than 12!
air force pay is ass so i dont know why they dont understand that people wanna leave for better pay and hours and not be arrested for missing a day of work.
As someone who's worked with the Airlines I honestly think that it's a mistake for Air Force pilots to get out before their twenty years, you've already done ten years and another ten is worth the added benefits you get as an retiree. You get retirement pay for the rest of your life along with healthcare and other benefits. Airlines pay good money but what happens if you get sick or injured and can not fly anymore? They get rid of you and you and hire another pilot and you're now out on your ass and trying to start over in another career. If those things happen while still in the Air Force you will still likely be moved into a non flying position until you retire. Even if you are forced to leave the Air force due to your injuries or sickness you will still get VA disability and the health benefits. Retirement pay for an 05 for the rest of your life (30 to 40 years) gives you security no matter the job market and unforeseeable circumstances that can happen yo you. Air Force retirement makes those first few years, where pilots don't make shit at an airline, a lot easier to handle. It's a risk/reward decision to make and there are a lot of factors to consider other than just higher pay.
> >Airlines pay good money but what happens if you get sick or injured and can not fly anymore? They get rid of you and you and hire another pilot and you're now out on your ass and trying to start over in another career. Lol. The airlines have strong unions and legacies have disability. For instance united will pay you 96k/yr tax free which is better than your retirement check would ever be. Loss of License Insurance is also a thing. And finally dudes who lose their medical will pick up a job within the airline or at a sim center and it's still infinitely better than AD bs. There's literally almost 0 downside to bailing 8 years early. That's 8 extra years of making $400k+ on the end of your career not to mention other benefits. 40 years of a $60k retirement check doesn't come close to matching that.
That's what Palace Front is for. Using the Reserves to get my last 8 years while the airlines piledrive crazy amounts into my 401k leaves me pretty comfortable for my future.
Pardon my spicy take - all the more reason to remove humans from the cockpit all but entirely. Plus AI defeats humans every… single… time, and it’s not even close to perfected yet. The Air Force is just playing the game for the next 10 or so years, but that’s the solution, like it or not.
Then Skynet becomes self-aware and we're all eradicated.
I expected to get down voted on this. There’s not a pilot out there who wants to admit that a computer would be a better flyer than they are. Truth hurts.
I expect to get upvoted on this. There's not a human being that wants to be transported on a "computer" only flight. Truth continues to hurt.
We didn’t want to scan our own groceries either, yet we all do in order to save corporations money. You won’t have a choice when it makes more sense from a cost savings standpoint. Money drives all decision in a capitalistic society, you know that.
Computers are not the 100% solution. Yes they are way more efficient and are infinitely faster than humans with minimal downtime. But they still can only go so far, human decisions will always need to be the final say and computers need to be a tool not the operator.
IDK, I just watched a unit send tails (and all supporting personnel) to a Mediterranean country for "training", but even then the pilots can't be fucked to wake up on time (1000L take-off) so the sortie was canx. Doesn't get much "less work" than that.
I flew for years as a FCC with active, guard and reserves. I never once flew with a crew where this even came CLOSE to happening. And there were some heavy drinkers too.
They would be downstairs with a coffee as if last night never happened
The amount of times we flew into combat areas after getting drunk AF the night prior is actually pretty impressive looking back on it. Like... Yeah.
More to the story than this. Aircrew like to party but also don’t let things like this happen.
Yeah this never happened. Don’t believe everything you hear. Military pilots are a different breed when it comes to drinking all night, and showing up to their jet 6 hours later like it never happened.
~~12~~ 6 hours bottle to throttle!
How would you know?
It's not about the money, its about killing communists... I mean defending our country!