How's your Wing training budget with the economy?

[KyCAP]

Recently, we were toldby Region staff that CAP-USAF funding levels were drastically reduced and as such, we've fairly closely spent the years training dollars for the entire wing for the entire year already after an upcoming SAREX.   

How are other wings coping with these drastic reductions?

[RiverAux]

Haven't heard anything specific about this year, but we've been having training fund cutbacks for quite some time now. 

[Eclipse]

No word of reductions, last year received more than requested due to high ops tempo.

[KyCAP]

I guess these USAF distributions are quarterly and upcoming Q2 appears to have been chopped based on emails that our wing es/ops staff is seeing from region es/ops staff.

[Stonewall]

That's what is great about being on the ground side.  You don't need a whole bunch of money to walk through the woods.

85% of my SAREX's in 21 years (22 in Feb) have been squadron planned and executed.  Money for fuel came out of our own pockets and other than BK on Sunday of a two-day exercise, it was virtually cost free.

I hear we've got a big joint exercise coming up in the spring so we'll see if there's anything after that.

[RiverAux]

85% of my SAREX's in 21 years (22 in Feb) have been squadron planned and executed.  Money for fuel came out of our own pockets and other than BK on Sunday of a two-day exercise, it was virtually cost free.

Not surprising.  It has been impossible for years in my wing to get any funding for ground team training -- not even van fuel to get some of the units together in the same place. 

[Eclipse]

85% of my SAREX's in 21 years (22 in Feb) have been squadron planned and executed.  Money for fuel came out of our own pockets and other than BK on Sunday of a two-day exercise, it was virtually cost free.

Not surprising.  It has been impossible for years in my wing to get any funding for ground team training -- not even van fuel to get some of the units together in the same place. 

No issues there, here, assuming the mission is planned and submitted as per SOP, and even sometimes not, if, for example, a great weather day comes out of the blue in January, my wing is pretty good about turning around missions and money.

[bosshawk]

In CAWG, the amount of training money seems to be a big, black secret: never to be shared with the membership.  With over 3,000 members and 27 aircraft, you would think that we would have a sizeable budget, but you would never know it by the responses that units get when they plan a SAREX.

As the Director of Counter Drug Operations, I used to have a training budget of over $6k: this year and last, nada.  I compete with all of the Sqs for any training that I try to do.

Go figure???

[Gunner C]

In CAWG, the amount of training money seems to be a big, black secret: never to be shared with the membership.  With over 3,000 members and 27 aircraft, you would think that we would have a sizeable budget, but you would never know it by the responses that units get when they plan a SAREX.

As the Director of Counter Drug Operations, I used to have a training budget of over $6k: this year and last, nada.  I compete with all of the Sqs for any training that I try to do.

Go figure???

In the past couple of years it seems that CD missions have fallen from favor and the money has dried up.  Just my impression?

[Eclipse]

In the past couple of years it seems that CD missions have fallen from favor and the money has dried up.  Just my impression?

Can't speak for CAWG, but what we were told was that the agencies we would normally fly for were using their own people to make up for OT hours lost due to budget issues.

[wingnut55]

expect drastic cuts across the Board in the DOD, we are part of the DOD funding, but on a lower level.

DOOM and GLOOM everywhere

However! we just have to become more efficient with the money we get, the ELT false alarm flights will cease to exist (mostly) so CAP will be hard pressed to justify 350 aircraft, Heck we can't justify 27 in California now, much less find enough willing pilots to spend $1,000 per year to be in CAP.

my Crystal BALL tells me CAP will be luck to survive the next 10 years with 200 aircraft

But if Godzilla wakes up??

[major pain]

Well in NCR everyone is feeling a pintch!!!! CAP-USAF as reduced the budget and Iowa lost their state funding all together but that was due to the leadership and politics over there.

[jimmydeanno]

We haven't had any announcements about budgets being reduced, however, being the stingy New Englanders we are we tend to hoard money normally.

We had a SAREX about 2 weeks ago and it was decided that the GTs wouldn't have any air support (which is fine in my book).  Not sure if it was a cost saving measure or an attempt to see how effective our GTs were.