Air Force cuts aviation support at public events
As the Air Force braces for potential sequester, leadership has cancelled all aviation support to public events for at least the remainder of the fiscal year and is standing down the Thunderbirds aerial demonstration team to save flying hours to support readiness needs.
Effective today, active-duty, Reserve and Guard units will cease all aviation support to the public. This includes the cancellation of support to all air shows, tradeshows, flyovers (including funerals and military graduations), orientation flights, heritage flights, F-22 demonstration flights and open houses, unless the event includes only local static assets.
Additionally, the Air Force will cancel the Thunderbirds' entire 2013 season beginning April 1.
The Thunderbirds and Heritage Flight crews will complete their certification procedures for safely flying aerial demonstrations in case the budget allows resumption of scheduled events in 2013, but and the Air Force will cease participation in Heritage flights following certification.
The Air Force will reduce flying hours by as much as 18 percent -- approximately 203,000 hours -- and impacts will be felt across the service and directly affect operational and training missions.
Link
Click Click D'oh wrote:That's BS. The entire USAF civilian outreach program, which not only includes the Thunderbirds but all the other USAF promotional programs, only costs $35 Million per year... which may seem a lot, but it's just a drop in the USAF budget.
They could easily have found $35 Million to cut in other places quite easily.
miamiair wrote:This includes the cancellation of support to all air shows, tradeshows, flyovers (including funerals and military graduations), orientation flights, heritage flights, F-22 demonstration flights and open houses, unless the event includes only local static assets.
Click Click D'oh wrote:That's BS. The entire USAF civilian outreach program, which not only includes the Thunderbirds but all the other USAF promotional programs, only costs $35 Million per year... which may seem a lot, but it's just a drop in the USAF budget.
They could easily have found $35 Million to cut in other places quite easily.
halls120 wrote:I'll tell you why they are cutting here. DOD Civilian employees are facing 22 days of unpaid furlough. That is almost a 10 % pay cut for hundreds of thousands of employees.
Holding air shows for civilians when you are cutting pay for civilians is a recipe for workplace disaster.
Click Click D'oh wrote:All of which could also be averted by cancelling a pair of F-35s... a program which should have been killed years ago.
