Looming Pilot Shortage

[Princedietrich]

i vote for the meet and greet to take place at de ja vue in downtown yipsy. no one will complain about the price of beer in there.

Isn't that because they don't sell beer??

 

[Princedietrich]

I drive a wrecked (hit a deer leaving YIP) car that was made in Detroit, and I have Tennessee plates. I fit right in. But then again with gas prices the way they are I have to have a darn good reason to drive anywhere. PilotYip has a Detroit relic for sell right now, and I bet you would never catch any slack for driving that ride either. There are two driving seasons in Michigan, pothole season and ticket season. It seems they use one to pay for the other. That is why I rarely leave my cage, ah hummm, I mean my apartment.

The worst pothole hades I've ever slogged through is the stretch of Pennsylvania Road between Southgate and Middlebelt Road. I was half tempted to look around for the plaque commemorating a lunar landing because the craters made for the right ambience.

I also agree with ticket season. One night going through Taylor I go through a yellow traffic light (well, ok maybe it was starting to turn orange, but it definitely wasn't red yet). I hang a right at the next intersection thinking I'll be led up to Eureka so I can get some pre-freightdawgging show, but I end up in a subdivision loop. Next thing I know I'm getting pulled over, and the cop was about this close to bringing me in for felony evasion because he claimed I was running from him (gun drawn, backup, the works). I had no clue there was a cop back there (was dark and raining, couldn't see anything behind me but headlights). He lets me off with a warning, so I guess he bought the line of BS I fed him.

I barely left my cave either except for work. Besides, there was a K-Mart within walking distance and they sold full strength liquor for cheap, so why go anywhere?

 

[landlover]

Isn't that because they don't sell beer??

yes and who cares with all the "talent" around.

 

[Publishers]

Shortages are now and always have been ones of skill sets and pure numbers of openings worldwide. Mainly there is a perception that the area of the business that (I) am interested in is the only one around or worth being in. It is sort of like going into your tax attorney and saying I only want to count the income from the jobs I liked.
What I have noticed over the years is the incompetency of pilot applicants to pursue jobs, their inability to realize that selling yourself, you are the product, is every bit as important as your skills as an airman. If you are one of those who ask your buddy if UPS is hiring, you are already losing the battle. If you say you applied by punching a button on 350, you have lost. There will never be a big enough shortage for you.
There is always a shortage of skilled aviators who are professional in and out of the cockpit.

 

[Swass]

There is no pilot shortage. There never was. There will not be a pilot shortage.

I think there is a shortage of strictly GA pilots. I'm not including the flow though pilots who go to the mills for the bottom dweller jobs. GA is almost dead due to the ridiculous costs of fuel, insurance, AD's, hangar costs etc. Not many can pony up the cash for lazy Saturday and Sunday flights. New aircraft pricing is insane. What's a new 172 run these days?

 

[atpcliff]

Hi!

Actually, GA sales had their best year EVERY last year. And, 2006 was their best year before 2007. And, I believe that 2005 was also their best year before 2006.

It IS true that SE recip shipments in 2007 were down over 2006, but the jet shipments were up.

This trends nicely with the fact that the top 1% of the richest Americans now own 16% of America's wealth, double what they owned in 1980. You and I are paying much of their fair share of the tax burden!

AMT:
The Alternative Minimum Tax was instituted in 1969 to prevent very wealthy people from paying no income tax. If they were able to find enough loopholes to not pay Income Tax, the AMT would catch them and make them pay their fair share.

We just paid a BUNCH of AMT this year, and we don't even make $150K. What pisses me off, royally, is that there are a number of taxpayers earning $1mill+, who are still paying NO income tax, even with the AMT!

The only acceptable form of Socialism in the U.S. is Socialism for the rich

So, there are more rich guys/gals able to buy bizjets.

ALL the Bizjet makers have a minimum of a 1 year backlog, and many are over a 3 year backlog.

All these new bizjets, added to the MASSIVE numbers of planes ordered by Boeing/Airbus/Bombardier/Embraer, etc. add up to a massive looming pilot shortage.

Of course, you can always point out that America's airlines haven't purchased that may new jets, and try and discount the GLOBAL pilot shortage, but you still have to add in all those Bizjets that the wealthiest Americans are buying.

17,000 new AIRLINE (not counting the Bizjet guys) pilots, every year, will be needed per year through 2020 (Boeing numbers).

cliff
YIP

 

[Swass]

I'm not talking part 91 or 135, I'm talking about light GA. The number of light GA pilots has to be diminishing.

 

[atpcliff]

Hi!

I don't know for sure if the numbers of GA pilots have diminished over the past five years, but I believe they have.

I know FOR SURE that the number of Commercial Pilots and ATPs have diminished, which is exacerbating (making worse) the Looming Pilot Shortage.

cliff
YIP

 

[avbug]

There has never been a pilot shortage, there is not now a pilot shortage, and despite kit darby's best efforts to lie to the up and comming pilot community, there isn't one pending.

That was the battle cry of the recently departed silver state helicopters...get your jobs now, get them while they're hot. Big pilot shortage coming, folks...wrong.

So far as a general aviation pilot shortage...not at all so. What exactly is a general aviation pilot shortage? Not enough private pilots available? We're going to have some kind of crisis because there's nobody to fly private airplanes around, at the risk them them sitting disused?

Yes, it's expensive. Flying has always been expensive. It's becoming disproportionately so now, far exceeding the rate of inflation. So...it's still expensive.

Sport airplanes were the big salvation...but they're excessively expensive, too. There's nothing to be saved...if all the private pilots disappeared out there what we'd have are less people flying for themselves...this isn't a shortage or crisis any more than we see a shortage of marksmen who shoot the .50 BMG cartridge. If someone doesn't elect to keep flying or doesn't want to fly...no problem. No crisis there at all.

In commercial aviation, we have no shortage.

 

[atpcliff]

Hi!

Avbug: If U don't think there's a shortage now, do U think there will ever be one?

It seems to me, if the number of comm/ATP pilots is going DOWN, while the number of aircraft requiring comm/ATP pilots is going UP, that at some point, there will be shortage.

What do U think of that thesis?

cliff
YIP