571 pilots sign up for 5 more years, $125,000By Bruce Rolfsen - Staff writer
Posted : Thursday Nov 8, 2007 22:28:55 EST
A $25,000 annual bonus looks pretty good.
Slightly more than two-thirds of pilots eligible to sign up in fiscal 2007 cashed in and agreed to stay in the Air Force another five years, according to an Air Force report.
By the end of fiscal 2012, each pilot will have pocketed an extra $125,000.
Sept. 30 was the last day pilots reaching the end of their initial eight-year service commitment could request the bonus. Under current rules, pilots who did not take the bonus during their first year of eligibility cannot request the money in 2008 or later years.
The Air Force had predicted about 50 percent of the 853 eligible pilots, mostly senior captains and new majors, would take the bonus. Instead, 66.9 percent of the pilots — 571 officers to be exact — agreed to stay for five more years.
The pilots with the highest take rate were bomber aviators, with 75.8 agreeing to the bonus.
Rest of article at:
http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2007/11/airforce_pilot_bonus_071108w/