DeeDee Doke/LONDON
The promise of retirement pay and benefits is proving an insufficient lure to keep the US Air Force's pilots in the service for a full 20 years. In 1995, 7% of the service's pilots in their 15th to 17th years opted to leave, a figure which jumped to an alarming 25% in 1998 - thanks to the USAF's high operational demands, a booming US economy, too many non-flying jobs for pilots and airlines eager to recruit.
"This year, it looks like it might be even higher," concedes Col Russ Frasz, the USAF's chief of rated management, of the steady flow of exiting pilots.
USAF personnel officials, however, are crossing their collective fingers that a test retention programme which specifically targets senior pilots gets a "thumbs-up" to continue beyond the current budget year.
Under Phoenix Aviator 20 (PA20), USAF pilots seeking post-military careers with commercial airlines are reimbursed for obtaining the airline transport pilot rating, the flight engineer written test, a Class 1 medical examination and a subscription to an airline employment service. Further, PA20 participants get flying assignments instead of deskbound staff jobs for their last two years of USAF service. USAF arranges interviews for them with their choice of three of the 20 commercial US airlines who have joined the programme.
For the 1999 fiscal year, ending on 30 September, enrollment was open to pilots who joined the service in 1979, 1980 and 1981. Participation ranged from 17% in the 1979 year group to 38% from the 1981 year group and, says PA20 director Lt Col Phil Barbee at Randolph AFB, Texas, from pilots experienced in airframes "pretty much even across the board", from trainers to fighters to heavy transports, In working interview requests for 45 participants eligible to retire this year, 53 interviews have been scheduled, 49 completed, and 27 employment offers resulted from PA20-arranged interviews.
The programme's existence reflects philosophical changes for both the USAF and the airlines. At one time, USAF pilots who left the service early for an airline career found themselves "pariahs", says Richard Horton, a PA20 participant who retired as a lieutenant colonel earlier this year after flying General Dynamics F-111 long-range fighter-bombers, Northrop T-38 trainers and Boeing F-15E fighters for the USAF and was then hired by Northwest Airlines. "Essentially, your flying privileges were removed. You were not made welcome for the remainder of your tour," he says.
At the airlines, the typical USAF retiree pilot in his early to mid-40s after a full 20-year career was previously considered too old, given the USA's compulsory pilot retirement age of 60. "Years ago, we wouldn't talk to anyone over 30 years old," says Plato Rhyne, manager of pilot selection for Delta Air Lines. "It was an industry standard. We wanted the maximum return for our training investment. Fortunately, the industry has gone away from that. We were penalising people who were staying in."
Northwest has hired seven PA20 candidates and has 30 more in its hiring pipeline. One advantage the USAF pilots have in competing for the 400 to 500 slots Northwest fills a year is the number of flying hours they have accrued, typically 3,500 to 5,500h, or "well above the published criteria", says the USAF's Barbee.
As far as the airlines are concerned, a critical element of PA20 is the USAF's policy of putting its senior pilots back in the cockpit for their final tours of duty, giving them "the recency of experience" typically lacking at the end of a full 20 years, says Ted Mallory, Northwest's director of training.
Delta has yet to hire any PA20 pilots because it is has a pool of qualified candidates recruited 18 months ago, but Rhyne says the airlines are "probably more enthusiastic [about PA20] than is the air force. It's a win-win situation". Barbee is optimistic that the USAF's air staff will approve PA20's extension. A decision will be made this autumn.
Source: Flight International
