Pilot Pipeline 

The problem with the pilot shortage isn’t a lack of new pilots, it’s a retention problem. As pilots spend more time in the military, they generally get to fly less and less, which drives them away from the military and pushes them towards other careers like flying for an airline. If you want them to stay, don’t force them into desk jobs!

With Top Gun II coming out I think that’ll help with the initial recruitment.

people don't understand how hard it is to be a good pilot, these guys have to have superior talent and a complete focus to do the job. In the private sector to get someone with extremely specialized skills you pay for it. The military seems to think they can use and abuse pilots, require everything from them, and then pay them a mcdonalds salary and take them away from their family for years at a time. Then you wonder why there is a pilot shortage?? haha its so incredibly obvious. My life goal was to be a military pilot, it quickly became clear to me that I could make 5 times more money in the private sector and still be home by 4 every day. If you want the best professionals this country has to offer, then you have to pay for it.

3:14 I'm gonna appreciate the person who put RGB ram in a government computer.

“The only way to recover from the pilot shortage is to produce more pilots” and let pilots fly for a longer part of their careers. Stop forcing desks onto expert pilots and claiming you need more pilots. They’re retiring because they can’t fly anymore.

bring back warrant officers like the army. keep them flying longer and keep the experience. don't put them at a desk as soon as they are getting good.

Everyone knows the best way to stop an arterial bleed is by solely adding more blood

Maybe if the upper limits of a pilot's career weren't determined when they're a junior captain by whether they're selected for Weapons School or not.

Meanwhile you have folks like me that would gladly give 10 years to fly.

I would proudly put on that uniform and serve my country through flying. I don’t care if that’s F15s or KC-10s. Literally just to serve your country through your aptitude and ability to fly is the best opportunity.

2:55 i just love how the pc in the background has rgb including rgb ram from gskill

“The most critical shortage right now is within the fighter pilot community” Ace combat fans: Hey

“How can I do things better” is what I’m going to start living by, in all areas of life.

*Me: I gonna build the most realistic simulator with my budget* *Also me after two months and the whole budget spent: **1:55*

The (fighter) pilot shortage for the USAF has been perennial self-inflicted gunshot wounds (SIGSW). Why does the USAF want to dumb down training and why ONLY new pilots? In 1979, if a pilot flew past 14 years, (total) the pilot was vastly more experienced & a happy camper, if flying was the first love. If the Air Force can’t see the very many & real options, then they deserve their self-described insanity happening now.

Lifehack for the USAF; “if you want people to do something, make it easy for them.” I sat in a squadron the other day and watched as a senior captain weapons school graduate tried logging into 19 different computers in a planning room. The network was down, but he had work that needed to get done, comm wasn’t open for another hour (it was 8am). I’ve been waiting for two weeks to get paid for my last travel voucher but because The pay mod was broken in DFAS the vouchers wouldn’t process. The videos are cool and all, but you think you could find a way to get DTS and webmail on our EFB’s so we can go to Starbucks and use that internet when the network in the squadron is bent?

I heard only the 20th SOS Sq Commander comment on "retention". This is a completely solvable problem if only institutional resistance were absent. My father was a WW II aviation cadet (yes two yrs college). You could repeat that process and require a degree after the first "gate" is met and before 10-12 years of service time. If the institution could just bend on the notion that everyone must follow a "career track" managed by the folk in San Antonio. There is nothing wrong with those who prefer a complete "aviation" career and no desire to pursue desk jobs that make them more promotable. There is also nothing wrong with a Warrant Officer program. Yeah, I know that the Army does it, so it must be wrong. My father served when it was "brown shoes and hard noses". They saved the world.

Y’all worried about the pilots and forgot about the guys keeping the planes in the air. Pulling 12 hour shifts weeks on end. The crew chiefs and avionics guys working their ass off to keep them flying. But hey I guess us crew chiefs will keep getting shit on

I had a classmate who is an military pilot back in my engineering grad school. Funny guy smart guy. Like him a lot.

Can’t wait to become a pilot in the Air Force. I’m applying for the academy next year

get rid of non flying duties. most pilots leave to go to the airlines bc it payes way better. create a way to retain

This is a fantastic video! wow! thanks

I flew for the AF for 20 years and they didn’t like my innovating and called me a maverick. Face time in the squadron was more important than flyin g skill. They wanted everyone to compete for promotion more than just fly. Hopefully that has changed.

Remember the movie X-15? A movie made about an on going active test program! Incredible really! If more knew the really cool futuristic parts of the Airforce,....more would enlist! Flying to SF to heavy equipment operators.

I want in, I'm in 11th grade right now and have wanted to go into the AF since 7 years old. Would love to go the Airforce academy!

Proud of You!!🇺🇸👍❤️💪👏

Retainment is hard considering Delta pays almost 300k for a Captain

Life really is better flying for a major airline, the AF is a good way to get there.

Cool vid love the very end

They are 2k pilots short, Open the MAVNI for the airforce. I will be the first one to join. Its my dream to join the USAF. I love this country. Go USA. Orginially from Nepal. I am ready to sign a 10 year active contract and be on reserve for the rest of my life.

I'm curious to know what caused the pilot shortage to begin. What caused pilots to leave? Were incentives or quality of life not to par? Did retirees know it would stress the pilot numbers? As I've seen top 5th generation F-22 & F-35 instructors teach, these aircraft require far less checklists, technical flight knowledge etc (IF the 22 or 35 is what they fly, as all 4th generation aircraft still require a lot of technical flight training/mastery). A senior F-22 instructor said a Cessna is far harder to fly than a Raptor. So as we train the newest pilots, the learning requirements should minimize as a result of flying more advanced aircraft. As for pilots coming from USAFA, I'd recommend that some of the military pseudo-hazing crap be eliminated in favor of officer leadership & pilot slot training from the earliest possible time.

They should consider a shorter re-commitment term for pilots to be instructors. Like say give them a 2 year contract to work at UPT and then let them out. I'm sure plenty of people would consider something short term like that, and it might help with the shortage of instructors.

Cutting corners ain't the answer the raf have upped pilots salaries which has worked

USAF ROCKS!!! KEEP IT UP 👍

Best job in the world.

Great video

There’s a shortage on the most badass job on the planet? How?

The Air Force is really the best in the world in everything they do....REALLY THE BEST IN THE WORLD...I miss the uniform and I am grateful and blessed to have an opportunity to be one small part of the best in the world!

The issue isnt how fast you are training pilots. The issue is you're inability to retain them. Stop shoving pilots into an office desk the moment they have a sign of being good at flying. It shouldn't be decided whether or not you'll keep flying based on whether you go to Red Flag or not. Let pilots fly more and you'll keep them. They didn't go through years of training to be told they have to instruct people how to fly now.

This is one of the best motivational and educational fighter pilot videos I’ve watched. I have had need to flight a fighter jet for 2years now. How do I make my dream come true? I would love to go to the Air Force Academy.

Thanks

I love US and it's armed forces. From Pakistan 🇵🇰

trust me when I get out of college ill be a pilot.

Then you have people like me who are ready to make this their life I just have to get through school

At 30 and Army Veteran I'm unfortunately too old for this now. Though it was my dream job!

I have no compassion for their shortage. Drawdowns force thousands of pilots, pilot candidates and applicants out of the total force. Then 8-10 years later the Air force whines that they don't have enough pilots. Talk to the hand. and no, the only way to combat the pilot shortage IS NOT to just produce new pilots. they need to focus on retention.

What they don’t tell you is that there is a shortage of experience pilots only (Captains, Majors, and Colonels) not necessarily pilots as a whole. The Airforce isn’t going to allow brand new LT’s fresh out of flight school to fly A10’s, F-35’s, F-22’s, B-1, and B-2 Bombers unless they are top quality (top 10%) during their flight training. Young pilots who are inexperienced are usually flying F-16’s to gain experience and in some cases the F-15’s. However, the production of experience pilots has been fairly slow because when you only average 6-12 hours of flight time a month and 100 hours of paperwork of course it’s going to be hard for the Airforce to retain experience pilots after 10 years of service.

Time to become a pilot

What this basically means is that the military will extend its duty years for pilots so if you want to work for an airlines one day and getting the free flight training route to the military, I would consider something else.

you have to ask the question ,why are they quitting

One day I will be up there

Of course I would see this at the age of 39. If age wasnt a problem I would jump at this opportunity.

I just submitted my application

I wish the Canadian Air Force was doing this...

Tap on the pool of civilian pilots available. Many civilian pilots are Private, Commercial, ATP, instrument....which means less time to train and fill that pool pipeline. If your looking at creative ways, look at the assets right before you. We love our country too. Thank you for your service!!

I’d want a F22 pilot slot.

I am thinking about joining you guys

If I was an American, I will definitely join USAF, lifetime opportunity.

I saw the same problem during the vietnam war. Too much work, not enough crews.

Is that the dcs jf 17 at 2:50?

If I wasn’t too old at 40 I would definitely enlist to become a pilot

this is for US armed force and to the whole world, be lenient to the applicant and see if there any benefit or loss; if there’s loss go back to ur former way if there no loss but benefits then holla at me. From England

bunch of real life bad asses!!!

Meanwhile in the UK - thousands of applicants competing for dozens of slots. HIRE US!!! I'd gladly fly for the USAF or USN.

Navy has the same problem I passed the ASTB and passed the flight portion of the test and met the requirements for Navy OCS but was unqualified because I wear glasses/contacts.

Why is there video of the Cadets wearing their proxy at 1:48?

Extremely hopeful I can get into this school and get a pilot slot.

Any advice for someone who’s thinking about join the military but doesn’t know what branch would be the most rewarding in the long run?

1:08 Tyndall before it was leveled

Is there still a shortage in 2021? I noticed they raised the age from 30 to 33.

Because piloting courses are way too expensive and quite choosy also but that's somewhat understandable.

When the air force uses rgb ram and inked water cooling

Would've loved to see an inside look at Altus and the Heavies track.

I remember listening to reserve pilots who flew commercial aircraft normally.................as a SERE instructor.......but couldn’t wait for the F-16 time! Like kids again,...it all flows back! They love teaching the kids........sorry. Young officers!

I’m in middle school planning to be a usaf pilot

BLUE *in orange*

If I wanna fly Pave Hawks, is the pipeline different?

2:21 “Did I ever tell you what the definition of insanity is?”

Thats Me Daniel South always

in 4 years tell me if they need need pilots because I will be first in line to hop in an f-22 raptor

I might get some serious backlash for this but let's keep it real. The Air Force doesn't care, and neither does any other branch. You are just a number to them. I've experienced waits of 5 months or longer just to get seen for basic AND significant health care needs. My child, who we thought had skin cancer, had to wait 4 months to be seen. Did the Air Force offer any help whatsoever when the constant rotation 12 hour shifts began to show serious health issues? NO! The do more with less attitude is overrated and is what's driving good Airmen out of the service. Maybe the people at the top, should actually tell Congress that we need to do less given the fact that we are burning people out at an unsustainable rate. This problem isn't just the pilots, it's a significant issue on the enlisted side too. I'm close enough to the end that I won't see a change in my time but I would damn sure love to see a change happen for those left in uniform. Don't get wrong, the USAF was the 2nd best decision I ever made and it is an outstanding organization, far better than our sister services in my opinion, but we still have work to do in the quality of life area. The mission is important but if you burn the people out, we won't give a damn about the precious mission. We'll care about rest and vacations and getting out of uniform as quickly as possible. I think the USAF has lost sight of that.

This is one of those situations where it can be unimaginably great or, it can be catastrophically damaging to the strength of the USAF.

“We need people” doesn’t look like it when I go talk to recruiters

1*

how do I join the space force?

Keep pilots flying as you only get better with more flying and it hones skills in every junior pilot leading up the ranks. Warrant officer system does indeed work. Too many desk jobs for pilots that can be done by non flying personnel. Enlisted personnel can do that as aviation flight operations specialist. I know as I served in this field of expertise. Keep pilot pay up with that comparable to outside. Bonuses help too for both pot and weapon systems officer.

What is the Air Force's policy with pilots already trained to the commercial level, both pre CFI, pre ATP, and post ATP?

Maybe they should start decommissioning older planes

How did you ever expand the USAAF in WW2 fifty times over?

did the instructor pilot play far cry 3

"When it takes us a year to produce an aviator, that timeline has to be shrunk" The pipeline for a US Army rotary wing aviator is 18 months and they're suffering a worse need/vacuum of pilots.

It’s so hard to be a pilot with the g forces and everything else God bless 🇺🇸 pilots

what bougt health age

*ehem..... Warrent Officer program.

JUST WAIT IMMA GO IN THREW AFROTC

What’s the deal with the random “BLUE” that pops up in the video? Also some of that footage wasn’t even from the USAF! 😞

Damn

Why can't the colonels and LT COL's fly that are commanders?

👏 👏

Hmm, fly tough schedules in cool planes and be controlled mercilessly for 70k a year or fly boring jets closer to home for an upward of 200k. Hard decisions..