@tbuc:
in 2015 I co-founded with another friend the 401st TFW. It was a hardcore squadron, following real word standards, training, exams, etc. We used to fly more than 3 missions a week. Just to get an idea, at the end we were able to fly combat mission almost with no comms….very good SOPs we had.
Unfortunately, we closed the 401st due to the lack of interest (4 pilots applied, 3 started training, 2 finished IQT, 1 flew with us). Most people that applied were not willing to learn the plane and our standards.
A problem that we too face in our squadron. Until a few years ago, we used to take off, hit a bridge and land. Almost no briefing and everything was decided on the fly. We wanted to change this and as Blu3wolf mentioned in the opening post, we now try to follow real procedures, based on information we can gather on how the Belgian Air Component operates. In the process of converting to those more realistic operations, a few members no longer agreed with or were unable to (dedicate the time to) adjust to the new way of things and left.
As a result, there has been a time where we had just 2 active pilots, but nowadays, we have approximately 6-8. Not everyone’s up to full speed just yet, but a few of us are able to brief a 2 hour mission in 10 minutes or so, and we will all know exactly what the complete game plan is because we know our SOP and TOP. Once in a while, we get a new application, but more often than not, they too leave once they realize what effort (especially reading and studying) we expect of them.
Luckily, we found a few other squadrons (mainly S-RDAF, 1st Virtual Stingers and 31st VFS) that also appreciate realistic operations, so while we do not have enough pilots to organize bigger missions, we are able to fill the gap with coops. 🙂