Forbes article on pilots...

[Paradoxus]

I forgot paradox-
did you get your degree in pelican bay or Folsom?
;-)

Riker's actually. Better overall extra-curricular program.

 

[pilotyip]

Anybody with a "basic level of skill" and desire can probably solo or obtain a private license. Takes a little bit more than "basic level of skill" to go beyond that. And I guess that I'm restating what many have already stated then about the college degree thing. Thanks.

not true, it is still a basic level of skill and desire that allows you to get an ATP. Pilots with ACT scores of 19 are getting ATP's, that is a pretty basic skill level. The part is you want to do it and put up with this fickle career.

 

[dillfer]

not true, it is still a basic level of skill and desire that allows you to get an ATP. Pilots with ACT scores of 19 are getting ATP's, that is a pretty basic skill level.

What the hell does ACT scores have to do with anything? I was agreeing with you about college. You don't need a degree to fly an airplane. It's just a way for interviewers to thin out the stack of applicants.

I do disagree with the basic level of skill thing though. I've seen pilots that were excellent stick and rudder guys that couldn't find there way out of a cloud. I've also seen guys that could shoot an approach nuts on every time that can't land in a crosswind. You put just those two things together and I believe that it takes more than just a "basic level of skill" to be a professional pilot. It does the whole profession a dis-service to oversimplify what it takes to become a professional especially in today's cockpit.

 

[pilotyip]

What the hell does ACT scores have to do with anything? I was agreeing with you about college. You don't need a degree to fly an airplane. It's just a way for interviewers to thin out the stack of applicants.

I do disagree with the basic level of skill thing though. I've seen pilots that were excellent stick and rudder guys that couldn't find there way out of a cloud. I've also seen guys that could shoot an approach nuts on every time that can't land in a crosswind. You put just those two things together and I believe that it takes more than just a "basic level of skill" to be a professional pilot. It does the whole profession a dis-service to oversimplify what it takes to become a professional especially in today's cockpit.

yea but these guys still get ATP's, do they get hired by DAL, maybe not now. We give a mini ASVAP type test during our interviews, graded on a standard 9 dev. Pilots who score 6 or better are pretty good employees, pilots who score 4 or below have problems. This test looks for higher levels of basic skills. However many of the lower scores come 121 APT's, so I guess with lower scores they still have that certain level of skill.

 

[IBNAV8R]

Trouble is that the self-important people who sift through apps have that piece of paper - though clearly one is not required to do their job either. Since THEY have one though, anyone who doesn't is somehow less qualified.

 

[pilotyip]

Trouble is that the self-important people who sift through apps have that piece of paper - though clearly one is not required to do their job either. Since THEY have one though, anyone who doesn't is somehow less qualified.

Bingo give that man a cigar.

 

[turn&pull]

A college degree is about becoming educated...not skilled. Flying an airplane is a skill.

The best stick and rudder pilot I have ever flown with was a non-college educated gentleman from Alabama who flew everything under the sun from before he was legal to do it. I watched him do the "Bob Hoover engine out from altitude into the tie-downs" at least a dozen times in several different airplanes without fail. I would tell him he was living on the edge and he would say..."only if you don't know what you're doing."

Since then I have done IOE with 500hr UND "wonders" who flew the EMB145 with ease and then done IOE with a 3500hr BE99 captain who couldn't land an EMB145 to save his life.

I now fly with some excellent pilots who can land on short runways without it seeming like an emergency procedure and yet I fly with guys that wouldn't pass a private pilot check-ride because they don't know how to land in a cross-wind.

The "nuts and bolts" of flying an airliner has nothing to do with a college education. I have one but you wouldn't know it by my grammar or the way I spell...of course you wouldn't know it by most journalists either.

If I had to choose I would take a great stick and rudder pilot over a college education any day of the week and twice on Sunday.

When I talk to kids about this career I tell them to get a degree in something that they enjoy and maybe something they can fall back on.

My 2 cents.

 

[pilotyip]

A college degree is about becoming educated...not skilled. Flying an airplane is a skill.

The best stick and rudder pilot I have ever flown with was a non-college educated gentleman from Alabama who flew everything under the sun from before he was legal to do it. I watched him do the "Bob Hoover engine out from altitude into the tie-downs" at least a dozen times in several different airplanes without fail. I would tell him he was living on the edge and he would say..."only if you don't know what you're doing."

Since then I have done IOE with 500hr UND "wonders" who flew the EMB145 with ease and then done IOE with a 3500hr BE99 captain who couldn't land an EMB145 to save his life.

I now fly with some excellent pilots who can land on short runways without it seeming like an emergency procedure and yet I fly with guys that wouldn't pass a private pilot check-ride because they don't know how to land in a cross-wind.

The "nuts and bolts" of flying an airliner has nothing to do with a college education. I have one but you wouldn't know it by my grammar or the way I spell...of course you wouldn't know it by most journalists either.

If I had to choose I would take a great stick and rudder pilot over a college education any day of the week and twice on Sunday.

When I talk to kids about this career I tell them to get a degree in something that they enjoy and maybe something they can fall back on.

My 2 cents.

Bingo another cigar

 

[dillfer]

When I talk to kids about this career I tell them to get a degree in something that they enjoy and maybe something they can fall back on.

Hah!!! Just like my dad told me. I was too smart to listen though. If I would've been just a little bit smarter I would've majored in anything else.

 

[pilotyip]

here it is

Cite your source.

http://www.taphilo.com/history/WWII/Loss-Figures. after finding it again, I find out I was wrong, I understated the true losses. It turns out it was between 1941 and 1945, and it was over 15,500 fatalities and 6,351 fatal crashes during training.