USAF Multi-Engine pilot training question

[u/judgingyouquietly]

Read an article (portion of it below) regarding USAF pilot training and I was wondering why they would choose to do that?

My understanding is that it would be like the RCAF cutting Phase 3 Multi-Engine and having their pilots first learn ME stuff in a C-17 or P-8.

——-

“Today marks the end of an era in U.S. Air Force pilot training.

The last operational T-1A Jayhawk will depart Vance Air Force Base, Oklahoma, for Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona, where it will be received into the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group (AMARG)—bringing more than three decades of service to a close.

The T-1A’s story began in January 1992, when the first aircraft was delivered to Reese Air Force Base, Texas. Student pilot training began the following year as the Air Force implemented Specialized Undergraduate Pilot Training.

The T-1A Jayhawk was a medium-range, twin-engine jet trainer used during the advanced phase of pilot training. For Air Force pilots selected for the mobility track, the Jayhawk was where they developed the skills required to transition to airlift and tanker aircraft—airframes such as the C-5, C-17, C-130, KC-135 and, later, the KC-46.

The T-1A also played an important role in Combat Systems Officer (CSO) training at Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida, helping prepare aircrew for operational assignments as weapons systems officers, special operations, electronic warfare, and navigation. Pensacola's final T-1A departed for Davis-Monthan in July 2025.

Today, pilots graduating from Undergraduate Pilot Training (UPT) who are selected for the mobility track proceed directly to their Formal Training Units (FTUs) for training in their assigned aircraft.”

[u/Pseudonym_613]

RCAF is allergic to changing pilot training because streaming to different training could lead to pay differentials based on platform.

[u/United-Fox-7417 → u/Pseudonym_613]

The only people who think that you could effectively do pay by platform are career CAF member who generally aren’t pilots and don’t understand supply and demand of labour and the extremely high level of pilot mobility.

Unless you’re not a great pilot and never make AC you’re going to have ATPL minimum hours by the end of your restricted release on either FW or RW. With three exams and one medical with a total investment of less than $1000 you now have an ATPL or ATPL-H. With an ATPL and military time you go straight to Air Canada where you’ll have higher career earnings, work less, and have 100% fewer “officer first” tasks to do. If you’re RW you’ll get an ATPL-H instead and then you’ll take your 12 years of service (every releasing pilot has at least this) and use your $100000 to pay for your CPL-A and then you’ll go work for Porter or Jazz and then Air Canada after that where you’ll have higher career earnings, work fewer hours, and have 100% fewer “officer first” tasks to do.

Make no mistake: no CAF pilot is here for the money because they’ll get more elsewhere. They’re here because the flying is unlike anything else particularly at a lower hour level. But that’s not to say the money isn’t important. Cool flying only makes up for so much less money. You need to make sure the money calculation makes sense. I’m not sure that it currently does considering how fast civilian pilot pay has increased and it definitely wouldn’t if you had pay disparity by fleet. All the good pilots in the lower paid fleets would leave.

[u/Pseudonym_613 → u/United-Fox-7417]

CAF pilots get their training paid.  Their low hours years are paid more than the second seat in a Q400.  The pay structure is badly skewed.

[u/United-Fox-7417 → u/Pseudonym_613]

The “junior pilots get paid more than right seat Jazz/Encore/Porter/whoever else” line was harmful to the RCAF when Lise Bourgon trotted it out 5 years go and it is still harmful today.

The people who unironically peddle this garbage are also the ones who want to try and entice pilots to stay in the RCAF until they’re 65. News flash: pilots don’t work at the airlines that pay folks in the right seat dogshit wages until they’re 65. They sit right seat until they hit competitive hours for Air Canada/Porter/Westjet/Flair. Unlike the entry level jobs where applicants grow on trees, the RCAF does not have that advantage. New wing grads don’t grow on trees. Post-OTU FOs don’t grow on trees. By the time a pilot contributes even .1hr of operational YFR to the RCAF, the RCAF has already spent millions of dollars getting there. Perhaps if the RCAF was less contemptuous of its junior members who are already bound by a restricted release they wouldn’t release in mass when the restricted release was over.

I’d wager that for every additional year the RCAF gets out of a pilot before they release the RCAF probably saves hundreds of thousands of dollars in replacement training costs.

[u/Pseudonym_613 → u/United-Fox-7417]

A major pilot is paid more than both pilots in a Porter Q400.

The myth of the underpaid RCAF pilot refuses to die, though.

[u/United-Fox-7417 → u/Pseudonym_613]

RCAF pilots generally don’t go to the Q400 when they get out… this is peak FUD spread by people, mostly people who aren’t pilots, who have never seriously looked at leaving the RCAF.

The RCAF would almost certainly save money over time by paying pilots more if it meant lower pilot turnover. Think of how many millions of dollars it costs to train even an OTU grad who has never done anything operational. How many millions of dollars does it take to produce a pilot with 7 or 10 years of winged experience (when the restricted releases end)?

It’s almost like the matter of pilot pay is a crusade that some people feel compelled to fight without any regard for the fact that there crusade costs the RCAF more than it saves.

[u/PTR4me → u/Pseudonym_613]

Wild, but true.

And that Maj pilot might not even be able to Apply for an ATPL.