Pilot Shortage

[captain dad]

Today's USAToday:

Raise pilot standard

Matthew Asdel - Oceanside, Calif.
A worldwide pilot shortage has caused the regional airlines to lower hiring standards to a dangerous level ("Airlines turn to retirees to help ease pilot shortage," Today in the Sky, USATODAY.com, Feb. 8).

Rather than lowering experience levels, airlines should follow the basic laws of supply and demand and raise wages.
The Federal Aviation Administration should mandate more experience. A 300-hour pilot may be legal on paper, but I believe he or she lacks the judgment and real-life experience to operate an airliner full of people.
Allowing a pilot to fly who doesn't have many years of experience is analogous to allowing a newly licensed 16-year-old to drive a rig full of explosives.

And the choir sings "AMEN!"

I reality the general public doesn't know, doesn't care or a combination of the two. All they care about is ticket prices and the lack of food to stuff in their faces.

These are the same people that buy EVIAN water and no it's not french.

EVIAN, is Naive spelled backwards.

I agree with you for the most part but, the general public are sheep and sheep don't care.

 

[skyward80]

Publisher:

What you say about the "entry price" into aviation is true to a certain degree. I would like to add that the "entry price" is lasting a LOT longer than it used to. If first year pays sucks at ABC Air, the second year pay should make up for that. However, there are many parts of the aviation industry in which this is not so.

I wonder how long a pilot can be expected to pay this entry price before he jumps ship or ships out to some other part of the world.

Skyward80

 

[pilotyip]

30 hr pilots

Today's USAToday:

Raise pilot standard

Matthew Asdel - Oceanside, Calif.
A worldwide pilot shortage has caused the regional airlines to lower hiring standards to a dangerous level ("Airlines turn to retirees to help ease pilot shortage," Today in the Sky, USATODAY.com, Feb. 8).

Rather than lowering experience levels, airlines should follow the basic laws of supply and demand and raise wages.
The Federal Aviation Administration should mandate more experience. A 300-hour pilot may be legal on paper, but I believe he or she lacks the judgment and real-life experience to operate an airliner full of people.
Allowing a pilot to fly who doesn't have many years of experience is analogous to allowing a newly licensed 16-year-old to drive a rig full of explosives.

If properly screened and trained, 300 hr pilots are very capable. Look at the militray 300 hr pilots are flying C-17's around the world, landing F-18's on carriers, and doing low night missons on goggles in an H-53.

 

[gunfyter]

If properly screened and trained, 300 hr pilots are very capable. Look at the militray 300 hr pilots are flying C-17's around the world, landing F-18's on carriers, and doing low night missons on goggles in an H-53.

Yeah, you wanna tell us how much is spent on recruiting and training that 300 hr pilot who lands on a ship in the F-18? I don't think a regional or 135 freight operator will spend that.

 

[John Glenn]

Heres a laugh for you.

I can only hire you if you have 1200 TT. True its single pilot so I can see why. BUT, we haul boxes in 210s and Baron. No pax, no jet A. OUCH. Oh yeah, MKC runs pay between 30-51K for flying a 210 M-F. Still having a helluva time finding pilots. As a pilot I love the oppurtunities, as a recruiter its killing me, as a pax...

 

[pilotyip]

No shipboard landings

Yeah, you wanna tell us how much is spent on recruiting and training that 300 hr pilot who lands on a ship in the F-18? I don't think a regional or 135 freight operator will spend that.

We can do it a lot cheaper; 5,000' RW in a DA-2O is the goal. It is all 121 training to a written standard, all instructors and check airman train to the same standard from the first day of ground school to the PC in the airplanes. Kinda like the military. These 500-hour guys do a good job moving into the right seat of the DA-20. Then four years later they can apply at NJ.

 

[Publishers]

I actually think the problems we are talking about are more serious in the A&P field. The time to decent pay is so much quicker in the auto business and the demand for more people so acute, it is very hard to get young people to spend the time building a maintenance career. When 9/11 happened, many of the auto companies came to me to help in the recruiting effort for their dealerships.
In a way, what we are paying for now is the 9/11 hangover as there was no one starting a flying career for about 2 years. In addition, we looked at some stats that showed people just learning to fly were diminishing but those that did were more likely to be doing it for a career. I got involved in the business of aviation through the pleasure flying side having learned to fly with no intention of it being a career.

 

[NJA Capt]

When most jobs start at poverty level wages and bad work rule, then that equals a shortage in the job market.

Supply and demand.

If the supply is short, employers raise pay to attract remaining workers or entice them from competitors. Airlines on the other hand just keep looking lower. What next, hall passes for high school seniors?

Pathetic.
4 year degree? Nevermind
2000 hours? Nevermind
ATP or FE written passed? Nevermind

Now it is: Can you spell airplane? You're hired!

PS: yip
Those 300 hr F18 pilots spend about 2 years in school and training before they see a boat. They don't take a 50 hour F18 course and head to Iraq. Mil pilots can get dropped at any time if they don't keep up to snuff. The "academy kids" just keep pumping in cash until they pass. Two TOTALLY different circumstances.

 

[turbinesurgeon]

I actually think the problems we are talking about are more serious in the A&P field. The time to decent pay is so much quicker in the auto business and the demand for more people so acute, it is very hard to get young people to spend the time building a maintenance career. When 9/11 happened, many of the auto companies came to me to help in the recruiting effort for their dealerships.
In a way, what we are paying for now is the 9/11 hangover as there was no one starting a flying career for about 2 years. In addition, we looked at some stats that showed people just learning to fly were diminishing but those that did were more likely to be doing it for a career. I got involved in the business of aviation through the pleasure flying side having learned to fly with no intention of it being a career.

Things are much worse on the A&P side. There is a severe shortage of qualified techs out there and experience is drying up. At some of the places I worked at as a tech I saw a lot of new mechanics that didn't have any experience or even a license! Who wants to work on every holiday, nights, weekends, and sign their lives away in many aircraft logbooks for $15 per hour.

 

[StarHustler]

In a way, what we are paying for now is the 9/11 hangover as there was no one starting a flying career for about 2 years. .

Yahtzee! We have a winner! This is so true, I was a flight instructor when 9/11 hit at a big central Florida Flight school that went under 1.5 years afterward. Prior to 9/11 we had students coming out of our ears, afterward we had to drag them in off the street with an unmarked van! Then, those students that 'stuck it out' with aviation as a career told their friends and family that this was NOT the career it used to be and basically, to stay away. I imagine that 'student starts' are up since then, but we are looking at least for a few more years of pilot drought.