Not meeting diversity targets is a sideshow. That Sqn Ldr's 'useless' crack was (as someone said) about white males being no good to his climb up the greasy pole.
It's taking 7 years to train a pilot nowadays- it used to be 3. Officer training used to be 16 weeks, now it's 26. My, 'let's-see-if-we're-going-to-let-you-be-aircrew' training was 5 months, followed by a 3 month OCU onto type. Now it's 13 months followed by a 6 month OCU onto type.
And that's the training time... the pipeline is screwed, so people are sent on holding postings for weeks/months between phases. Of course the training is largely farmed out now, to companies relying on 50 something retirees on good pensions who would work for low pay. They are really retiring now, and there's no-one to replace them. It's a total mess.
It's taking 7 years to train a pilot nowadays- it used to be 3. Officer training used to be 16 weeks, now it's 26. My, 'let's-see-if-we're-going-to-let-you-be-aircrew' training was 5 months, followed by a 3 month OCU onto type. Now it's 13 months followed by a 6 month OCU onto type.
And that's the training time... the pipeline is screwed, so people are sent on holding postings for weeks/months between phases. Of course the training is largely farmed out now, to companies relying on 50 something retirees on good pensions who would work for low pay. They are really retiring now, and there's no-one to replace them. It's a total mess.
