Longer contract service eyed to address dearth of PAF pilots

The Philippine Air Force may extend the contract of service of its pilots in order to address the dearth of its aviators resulting from pilots leaving the organization to seek bigger pay in commercial airlines. “We are… studying the possibility of increasing the contract of service in terms of the pilots because at present it’s eight years. Perhaps we can increase it to 10 years," Air Force chief Lt. Gen. Oscar Rabena said Sunday. This, even if the number of PAF pilots leaving the service has decreased through the years, Rabena said. The official said only 10 pilots left the service last year, lower compared to the 30 to 50 recorded in the previous years. Rabena said Air Force pilots either resign or retire from service due to lack of PAF aircraft to fly or attractive salaries being offered by commercial airlines. He said they are not going to release a pilot if this would mean that the required number of pilots in a specific unit would be compromised. “It’s important that we maintain the required number of test pilots before we can allow one pilot to leave." At present, officers train for about two years at the PAF Flying School to become pilots. If they leave the service before the current eight-year contract of service, they will have to pay for their education, depending on the number of years left in their contract. Rabena said commercial airliners usually recruit “high-timers" from the Air Forces. “If you say high-timers, these are the test pilots, the instructor pilots. They are not going to get merely co-pilots," he said. Rabena also reported that the Air Force received last week four more SF-260 FH Marchetti trainer planes from Alenia Aermacchi of Italy, through its local partner Aerotech Industries. The four composed the batch of deliveries from the Italian firm that bagged a P622-million supply deal for 18 SF-260 FH aircraft. With the new acquisition, PAF now has a total of 33 trainer planes, including 15 T-41 basic trainers. Air Force spokesman Lt. Col. Miguel Ernesto Okol said this will address the backlog of officers who are waiting in line for actual training to fly an aircraft. Previous reports said the backlog numbers to about 150 to 170 officers. — KBK, GMA News