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Pilot Shortage

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Unchilled

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 19, 2002
Posts
69
Is there ever going to be a pilot shortage?

I hear about the impending pilot shortage and how airlines are beginning to hire again. Then I come here and see a bunch of pilots on furlough. That irritates me. Where does this BS come from? Is there any truth to it? I hear this stuff on the radio all the time. I have a long way to go before I become employable, but this stuff is still important to me. What do you think?

Thanks.
Unchilled
 
Unchilled said:
Is there ever going to be a pilot shortage?

I hear about the impending pilot shortage and how airlines are beginning to hire again. Then I come here and see a bunch of pilots on furlough. That irritates me. Where does this BS come from? Is there any truth to it? I hear this stuff on the radio all the time. I have a long way to go before I become employable, but this stuff is still important to me. What do you think?

Thanks.
Unchilled

IMHO, there is no pilot shortage, there has never been a pilot shortage and it is highly improbable that there ever will be a pilot shortage.

There are times when more pilots are hired and times when fewer pilots are hired. It runs in cycles and that has always been the case. The supply of pilots has always been greater than the demand for pilots.

Where does the BS come? Advertising hype.
 
Pilot Shortage?

Ha! Ha! Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

Seriously, we'v been hearing about this for years. Haven't seen it yet. No such thing. No shortage of pilots.

Monkeys...now there's a shortage. When was the last time you saw one on a scheduled flight?
 
avbug said:
Pilot Shortage?

Ha! Ha! Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

Seriously, we'v been hearing about this for years. Haven't seen it yet. No such thing. No shortage of pilots.

Monkeys...now there's a shortage. When was the last time you saw one on a scheduled flight?


I know it sounds like a stupid question, and I don't blame you for laughing. Can't blame me for hoping. It sucks this kind of BS is out there though. Unfortunately, flying for a living is all I ever wanted to do, so I'm gonna stick it out either way.
 
Unchilled said:



I know it sounds like a stupid question, and I don't blame you for laughing. Can't blame me for hoping. It sucks this kind of BS is out there though. Unfortunately, flying for a living is all I ever wanted to do, so I'm gonna stick it out either way.

It's NOT a stupid question. There is no such thing as a stupid question in aviation.

If flying for a living is what you want to do, then do it! Stick to your guns and you'll make it, shortage or not.

I don't think it's possible to have a better career than that of a professional pilot! Remember though, I'm prejudiced.

Best wishes to you for the future.
 
There doesn't have to be thousands of jobs out there - just one. Just make sure you get it.
 
Pilot "shortage"

No, sir, there is no pilot shortage. That has to be one of the biggest old wive's tales ever. There has never been a pilot shortage. Don't laugh - there was no pilot shortage when the Wright Flyer first flew nearly 100 years ago. There were two Wright Brothers and one "opening" to fly that airplane. Moreover, neither of them P-F-T'd. Both Orville and Wilbur had extensive experience building and flying gliders before they built and flew the Wright Flyer.

Historians have noted that even years ago there was no pilot shortage. George Hopkins notes in Flying the Line that E.L. Cord, who was an early-day Frank Lorenzo, had no trouble finding pilots to fly for his airline, and for less money than the trunks of the day were paying.

Frankly, I think that it was Kit Darby who spun up the myth of pilot shortage to promote his agenda of driving business to his customers. In 1987, news reports proclaimed a pilot shortage. Forty-thousand pilots would be needed over the next ten years. The source of theose statistics: Kit Darby, as FAPA impressario. A few weeks ago, Parade Magazine in your Sunday paper ran a box from an outfit called Be A Pilot. Be A Pilot said forty-thousand pilots would be needed over the next ten years? Its "source?" Yeppers, Kit Darby, this time as AIR, Inc.! That statement was especially noxious because of all the furloughs. Tell the furloughees there is a pilot shortage!

Don't ever believe that there is a pilot shortage. Some of us found that out the hard way. Just the same, there is no reason not to try for the career, if you're motivated. You'll work plenty hard and sacrifice a lot, but, as was said above, all it takes is one job.
 
Last edited:
Semantics?

First, I think there is not, has never been, and will never be a shortage of pilots for the available jobs. The reason for this is quite simple: The level of experience required for these jobs is extremely variable. So, depending on your definition of "shortage", I can see how some people feel this is true. I do feel that the level of overstaffing will decrease in the coming years, since the rate of retirements will increase. Keep in mind also, that retirements are only one very small factor in determining the available jobs.
 
Unchilled, you can chill out on this one.

I was asking myself about this several years ago. At first, I figured these claims of a "pilot shortage" must be true if I was seeing these ads in "reputable" aviation magazines. I had this idea in my head that the people I didn't know in aviation (magazine publishers, etc) were somehow like the people I did know in aviation: trustworthy beyond reproach.

Wrong-O.

No shortage of pilots, only a shortage of flight students, aeps and upas "members", AIR Inc subscribers, etc.

As always, there is a shortage of good people. We always need more of them.
 
bobbysamd said:
Don't laugh - there was no pilot shortage when the Wright Flyer first flew nearly 100 years ago. There were two Wright Brothers and one "opening" to fly that airplane.

Good one Bobby.:)
 

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