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Pilot Shortage and The Right Stuff

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gunfyter

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 25, 2002
Posts
3,785
Where is the Yipster ... he called it...

He said he is fearful that if there is a shortage, airlines will hire pilots who are technically qualified but don't have the "right stuff."


"If the industry is stretched pretty thin ... that can result in someone getting into the system that maybe isn't really the right person to be a pilot. Not everybody is supposed to be a pilot," Allen said.

Lee Moak, president of the pilots union, said he doubts a pilot shortage will be felt in the U.S. for about three to five years. If U.S. airlines start hiring pilots in large numbers, he said, pilots now flying for foreign carriers will likely return home. There are currently about 90,000 airline pilots in the U.S. and Canada.


"The cost of getting into flying is very expensive," Davis said. "When I talk to college students, if they're coming out of a 4-year collegiate (aviation) program most of them are $150,000 -to- $160,000 in debt. And that only gives them the qualifications to go be a flight instructor. If you're making $20,000 a year as a flight instructor you're lucky."

A shortage in the U.S. will likely first be felt at regional airlines, which tend fly smaller airliners and hire less-experienced pilots than mainline careers. A typical pilot career path is to get hired as a first officer at a regional airline, get promoted to captain and then get hired by a mainline carrier.
 
We've been hearing this for how many years? I think it actually may materialize this time though. It can only help the fractional segment, I just wish it would have happened sooner for our immediate concerns!
 
The new rules will make it a numbers game, where the right stuff won't matter. Two pilots applying for a F/O job at a 121 air carrier. One from JUS has 1200 hours, two year of around the clock day and night jet flight experience, IFR experience into some of the busiest airports in North America combined with 800 MEL TJ, 150 act IFR, international experience in the DA-20, 121 training, appendix "H" training, and an ATP written, the other has 1501 hours towing banners at Sunny Beach FL, 10 MEL, 1.5 hours actual IFR and an ATP. Who has more experience?, who gets hired? The answers are not the same.

BTW the college degree will be come a preferred as opposed mandatory, where now without a degree it is going in the wastebasket. Just watch.:rolleyes:
 
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"the one who will work for less."

Broke, if you are talking low rent regional, ok. But, at the majors, the pay is already set. Right now, neither would even get a second look at a real airline. When the 1200 hour guy gets 300 more hours and his ATP, no contest.
Helm
 
We've been hearing this for how many years? I think it actually may materialize this time though. It can only help the fractional segment, I just wish it would have happened sooner for our immediate concerns!

I hope it materializes this time.... Here at Netjets we've got some guys with the big jet syndrome....

I hope they get that airline job they're always talking about.. (I wanna move up)
 
The new rules will make it a numbers game, where the right stuff won't matter. Two pilots applying for a F/O job at a 121 air carrier. One from JUS has 1200 hours, two year of around the clock day and night jet flight experience, IFR experience into some of the busiest airports in North America combined with 800 MEL TJ, 150 act IFR, international experience in the DA-20, 121 training, appendix "H" training, and an ATP written, the other has 1501 hours towing banners at Sunny Beach FL, 10 MEL, 1.5 hours actual IFR and an ATP. Who has more experience?, who gets hired? The answers are not the same.

BTW the college degree will be come a preferred as opposed mandatory, where now without a degree it is going in the wastebasket. Just watch.:rolleyes:
Depends on where they're applying. If it's a regional, the 1500 hr banner tower has it. The hiring airline will perceive the JUS guy as a short timer with no return on investment.

I've been on both sides of this argument. In 2004 I interviewed and got hired at Piedmont. Second highest time guy in the class with about 1300 hours, 200 in Lear 24/25s and Sabreliners. In 2010 I interviewed at ASA with 5000 hours, a type, ATP, 3000 hrs in a 121 cockpit and another 500 at NJA. I drove 4 hours to the interview and had a rejection email before I got home. Now my background was not the only driving factor in getting the rejection, but I would bet it played some small part.
 

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