Dont like the direction this is going in....

[RP 04]

Aircraft mishaps and fedex mentioned in the same thread, now that's funny...

Thank god they only hire the best, or they would have had numerous hull losses within the past few years...

 

[Max Powers]

Rock is living in his perfect little idealistic military world. The fact is MGMT is more concerned with paying the pilots as little as possible not with their experience level they only get highly experienced pilots because the unions demand high pay and this along with myriad applicants allows them to pick high caliber pilots.

 

[172driver]

I'm not sure why there is even a question about whether pilots with more experience tend to be "safer" than pilots with less. Assuming you have considerable experience in the flying world, this shouldn't be a new revelation to you. Certainly if you have any time instructing, you should be capable of observing the difference between pilots with varying degrees of flying experience. You will note in my first post that I said "typically" when referring to the subject at hand. Of course there will be exceptions to any rule, but actual evidence points out very clearly that flying experience has some very direct ties to mishap causes. And generally, more experience results in better judgement and fewer fatal errors.

True, but as Yip said, we are not talking about GA pilots here. Here are some quotes from the FAA:

Accident statistics for FAR Part 121
airlines show no correlation with pilot experience;
no aircraft involved in an accident since 1976 was
flown by a pilot with 2,500 hours or less of flighttime.
Actual experience in a specific aircraft type
and airline might be more predictive of accident risk.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------


The results of the 2004 study were similar to those reported in the third and fourth empirical studies previously reported to Congress. Overall, accident rate increased with pilot age. The patterns of findings across the three empirical studies are similar – there appears to be a relationship between pilot age and accident rate.


​

 

[Rock]

Rock is living in his perfect little idealistic military world. The fact is MGMT is more concerned with paying the pilots as little as possible not with their experience level they only get highly experienced pilots because the unions demand high pay and this along with myriad applicants allows them to pick high caliber pilots.

I currently fly for FedEx. That is hardly my perfect little idealistic military world (which I'm guessing you know nothing about). And despite reading the rest of your post several times, I have no idea what you are trying to say. Have you been drinking?

 

[Rock]

True, but as Yip said, we are not talking about GA pilots here. Here are some quotes from the FAA:

Accident statistics for FAR Part 121
airlines show no correlation with pilot experience;
no aircraft involved in an accident since 1976 was
flown by a pilot with 2,500 hours or less of flighttime.
Actual experience in a specific aircraft type
and airline might be more predictive of accident risk.


​

Those stats must refer only to the PIC of an accident aircraft. I know for example, that the FO in the recent Pinnacle Airlines accident had less than 1000 hours total time. Clearly, he (and his inexperience) played a major role in that accident. If the FAA only considers the hours of the PIC in those statistics, they become less meaningful as few Captains have less than 2500 hours, yet their hours are the only hours considered in accidents that might be caused by the actions of a much less experienced FO.

 

[flyinboxes]

Next up... cabotage?

Bingo again! Cabotage is already here. Thanks to the fine Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska. Cabotage is now legal in the US for flights in and out of ANC. Air China,3 or 4 days a week, ANC-BNA-ANC. You UPS boys should be aware of this little hidden gem. Its brokered as I understand by UPS logistics. It is 100% cabotage. It is only the beginning. You think competing with low cost pilots within the US is tough wait til you gotta compete with chinese or guatemalan pilots.

 

[Green]

Are there really fed ex and ups pilots out there who think cabotage and foreign ownership will benefit US pilots? Look at the maritime industry where a ship might be owned by a US company, registered in the carribean, and crewed with Russian labor. It all comes down to profit margins and what manager in their right mind would pay some cranky old fed ex captain 260k, plus vacation, plus sick time to do a job that an austrailian/european union expat would happily do for half that on a contract basis?

Reminds me of the untouchable attitude that prevailed at the majors just four short years ago. No matter how profitable your airline is, no airline manager is happy, or even comfortable, paying six figure salaries and multi-million dollar retirements to pilots. Particularly when the prevailing wages outside the us are a fraction of that amount.