Politically Incorrect Statement from a Regional Guy

[Scrapdog]

All I know is that my airline has never had a problem finding pilots. We have high turnover as new FO's gain experience and move to other regionals but we have always had that. The company will simply hire people with lower and lower experience levels but they will not run out of applicants.

You hit the nail on the head...as long as there are 18 year old kids that don't mind earning 15K a year and working 20 days a month, the pay will continue to stink. Why would the industry offer to pay more right? As long as the kid is "legal" and can push a button on an autopilot and throw down the gear handle, why offer higher wages?

 

[fxbat]

A lot of people forget. It was only a few years ago you had to pay to work at most of the regionals. And then you got to fly 30min turns in a turbo-prop

 

[psysicx]

Trusting the pilots up front nowadays is doable but there is no way I would get on an unmanned plane.

 

[ReportCanoa]

A lot of people forget. It was only a few years ago you had to pay to work at most of the regionals. And then you got to fly 30min turns in a turbo-prop

That was in the days of- get the 1000pic and hire with Delta. Now the regionals are a career dead end. The problem with that, is that as the pay and life quality of the job continue to decline, the smart people are going to bail out. Who exactly does that leave to pilot these machines? I'll let you decide.

 

[SoCentralRain]

Look in the mirror

Face it, flying kicks ass. The career sucks. There is no middle ground for someone who loves flying. We are almost forced into this job and once we get here we say, "oh s*it."

Yeah, flying does kick ass.

But the time away from the rest of your life (such things as commuting halfway across the country, chilling on reserve at your glamourous crashpad, lonely studying for recurrent or upgrade on your own time, waiting for the ground stop to be lifted only so you can fly to the outstation and wait for the late hotel van to get 8 hours at the LaQuinta, proping your eyes open through yet another videotape replaying of "The Common Strategy" at company-mandated recurrent or just for the baggage door annunciator to extinguish so you can release the parking brake and ask for push) is what sucks.

I've said it to many of my captains, my f/o's, my family and my non-aviation friends--once all the doors are closed, checklists are run and our nav displays show a meaningful groundspeed, it's a great job. But the rest of it...reread what I typed in the last paragraph and add to it the general instability of the industry and lack of return on investment. If you're 24 years old and you're just starting out in the industry, congrats. Now realize it's going to be this "Groundhog's Day" (the movie) over and over again for the next 36 years.

But please, jumppilot, NO ONE practically "forced you into this job." It was fun (you thought for a while way back in the halcyon days prior to 9/11 when you were instructing hard and drinking hard). It's not any more. At least for many of you. Vote with your feet and get out. Or accept it as being "what it is" and do the best you can.

Which leads me to a point. The person that started this thread spoke of a threat of "inexperienced" pilots filling the coming vacancies for many years as the seasoned among us get out. Perhaps they are inexperienced. But the fact of the matter is WE ALL WERE INEXPERIENCED AT ONE TIME.

Frankly, someone gave us the chance (those PFT outfits excepted). We got hired, studied, worked on developing our skills, asked pertinent questions, observed those wise owls that we flew with and, with a bucket of luck, became who we are today--qualified, "experienced" pilots. We benefitted from a magic combination of chance, fortune and opportunity to become experienced.

A second point: To say we have all the experiences in the world and therefore have nothing else to learn is specious and innaccurate. WE cannot let our collective guards down. Our industry will pay for our lapse in attention and care. Those stripes we wear on our shoulder are rightfully heavy for all the unassuming souls strapped into the aircraft with us. We can't ever afford to forget that.

Are we worth more? Of course. Will we get paid for it? Who knows. Should we try to go to "work" and do the best job we can even though the job might not be what it used to be? That's up to each of us individually to answer. Personal pride and satisfaction is still there, intrinsically, for us to soak up in our souls, just like those sunsets we've viewed from FL370 or those feather-light touchdowns we've eeked out after a hand-flown Cat.1 from time to time. That's where this job kicks ass. That's all there is.

Cheers,

SCR

 

[jumppilot]

Deleted

 

[YourPilotFriend]

Trusting the pilots up front nowadays is doable but there is no way I would get on an unmanned plane.

Why? I think management is clearly competent to make the go/no-go decision. Oh wait.

 

[YourPilotFriend]

Also the airlines have been restructured so that there will never be a pilot labor shortage. That's the real reason you have the regionals, they have a way higher cost of operation, but it still is not as big as a shortage of pilots would be.

 

[StopNTSing]

The talent follows the money. Always has, always will. If the career earnings potential of this profession continues to decline, there will eventually be a bonafied pilot shortage. It will then only be resolved with salary increases.

 

[Regul8r]

WTFO !!! Dude pass the pipe. This thread about AAL recalling has been discussed toooooooo many times.

As far as teaching the youngens to fly, I think it's a great idea. This career has life left in it. It's what you make of it. It's still better than working for a living, as long as you can keep your job.

So I'm going to come over to your home and demolish half of your house. But since you have a cheery, up beat attitude, are you going to tell me that it's better than living in an apartment? After all...it's what you make of it, right?

When is enough enough?


Well, he's kind of had it in for me ever since I accidentally ran over his dog. Actually, replace "accidentally" with "repeatedly," and replace "dog" with "son."

 

[whymeworry?]

While I agree with your sentiment that the decline of our profession will attract less quality over time, let's not bury our head in the sand with resepct to the Comair crash.

These pilots made a tragic mistake, it's just that simple.... unfortunately. It has less to do with experience and qualification than it does have to do with the constant rush our business is in which leads to the compromise in safety and the onset of complacency. I can think of a thousand ways any one of us could make tragic mistakes in this business. Lets wait for the NTSB report and try to learn from their mistakes in order to prevent ourselves from doing the same.

The KLM/ Pan AM crash in Tenrife was the result of some of the most experienced pilots in the world at the time making an error judgement. The Comair pilots had plenty of experience. The problem was more about vigilance (in addition to ATC/ changed taxi proced and other factors) than experience.

 

[michael707767]

If the career earnings potential of this profession continues to decline, there will eventually be a bonafied pilot shortage. It will then only be resolved with salary increases.

there will never be a pilot shortage. What may happen is a shortage of qualified pilots......but there will always be people who want to be pilots. Airlines will just lower their requirements.

 

[Fly2Scuba]

i don't see what is so Politically Incorrect about this.......

More importantly, even it was; who cares. An anynomous online forum is a place to exchange ideas and opinions with much less regard to the formal tight-rope-walking political correctness niceness when discussing matters with our sometimes uptight society in other communication mediums.