PSA(unbelievable!!)

[IdRtherBsailing]

awsome, Now if everyone follows the same lead it won't matter. Everyone would benefit. Unfortunately refer to the many posts here. Many guys are willing to who8e themselves out just to fly a shiny new jet.

Good job guys

 

[zman]

Dont worry PSA will wither away and the few big regionals (mesa, chaut, etc) will be there to pick up the slack. You guys are a bunch of fools and like everything else things always change in this industry for the worst in the eyes of the majority of you idiots. Be happy for the jobs you have, I love mesa and i dont mind the 3 years i been here and hopefully i fullfill my aviation career here.

 

[JD2003]

Dont worry PSA will wither away and the few big regionals (mesa, chaut, etc) will be there to pick up the slack. You guys are a bunch of fools and like everything else things always change in this industry for the worst in the eyes of the majority of you idiots. Be happy for the jobs you have, I love mesa and i dont mind the 3 years i been here and hopefully i fullfill my aviation career here.

Ummmmmm....doooosh

 

[rtmcfi]

Great job PSA!! Hopefully you guys at airways can help pull us regionals out of our graveyard spiral. Ignore the trolls. You folks and the awac guys should be proud of yourselves............

 

[jetfo]

For a while, but not too much longer. New starts are way down at flight schools, gas and insurance are obscene now, flight training now costs so much that one would have to be a complete idiot to lay out the kind of money that ERAU and others charge for a 20k a year job that MAY pay 60k after 12 years.

Several things will likely happen in the next few years....First the pilot supply will dry up. 2nd, general aviation will die in this country just as it has in europe(Ever flown over there? It is spooky quiet on the radio even in the middle of the day, only airliners and an occasional corporate jet) This will result in one of two things, either A. the airlines raise the payscales, or B. they continue to find people willing to work for 20k a year as prices on everything else continue to rise, but the quality of the pilots will fall to a dangerous level. Some say it is already there and the only thing protecting the passengers is the automation, in fact we already have a few cases in the NTSB files now that are nothing but inexperienced stupidity......we all know which ones I am talking about.

One of three things will fix it, either the pilots say enough is enough, or the companies realize that pay must be raised, or the US airline industry starts killing enough passengers with inexperienced or substandard minimum wage pilots that the goverment steps in and sets hiring standards or shuts down the bloodiest airlines.

Already one is hard pressed to find a ramper at the regional level that doesn't look and act like a drug dealer (just visit Philly!!) Before long the pilots will be of the same caliber. When you can make 40 to 50 k selling cars, 300k in the mortgage business, 60 to 80k in the IT sector, or 60 to 100k as an engineer, why would a person with the intelligence to do a job like that go through the effort and training required to make a federal poverty level wage? (By the way, most regional F/O's qualify for food stamps if they have a family already.)

In the early days of the jet, we were killing an astounding number of people. Back then training and experience fixed it, now we have the added safety of automation. How long will it be before the stupid factor in the cockpit starts to out do the smart avionics?

Your average pot smoking college kid would laugh at you now if you told him what you made as a regional F/O..........just think what kind of pilots the next generation is going to be if we continue down this path?

Kerosenesnorter:

You are absolutely right, with the exception of your US general aviation forecast, which I hope will remain strong.

 

[ex j-41]

Actually GA in Europe is on the rise. They have changed some regulations and although it is still expensive because of fuel, hanger and user fees, people are back in the pilot seat. Why? Anybody's guess. Small changes in the goverment level can have huge impacts. My prediction is the Pilot supply will very much dry up. This is why the airlines are trying so hard to get labor costs down. If you think Riddle is expensive now, just wait till fuel is $10/gallon. A 172 will burn at least $60/hr gas. Your 250hrs will end up costing $15,000 in fuel alone. Typically fuel cost is 40% of your operating costs. In this case you would have to charge $160/hr for a 172. Now yes this is based on gas being $10/hr. THis might not be far off. Remember 1999? Gas was $1.00/gallon.

 

[KeroseneSnorter]

Kerosenesnorter:

You are absolutely right, with the exception of your US general aviation forecast, which I hope will remain strong.

Me too, but I think that $4+ avgas (and getting higher) combined with the coming user fees will kill it. In europe where gas is 5 to 7 bucks a gallon and user fees abound (ATC,Weather brief etc) GA is almost non existant now. Additionally the insurance companies are already going nuts on GA owners, requiring yearly school for light twins at high $ rates, price for a hanger space is going through the roof (400 to 500 a month at a little airport in a country town)

Costs incurred by a Be-76 owner I know, $4000 a year for insurance. He is ATP, 6 type ratings, owned the airplane for 20 years 3000 hours or so in it, no accidents incidents, $3000 a year for hanger, Gas is running $4.20 or so a gallon(420 bucks for one tank full) parts prices are through the roof, a new ELT battery is in the hundreds now. Annual runs 2k at a cheap place, 600 if he does most of the work himself and gets it inspected by an IA. So far he has avoided the yearly school due to time in type and experience (25000 hours) but he has to argue with the insurance company about every other year to get that removed from the requirements.

$9000 spent yearly without even starting the thing, at 16 gallons an hour even 50 hours a year adds $3300 a year in gas to the cost, up to $12,300 and that does not include any of the proposed user fees or normal maintenance that comes up between annuals. Could park it on the ramp and get rid of a hanger, but then insurance goes up because of "exposure".

Combine that with the fact that in the past professional pilots used to account for a large percentage of GA ownership which we can no longer afford (When was the last time you flew with somebody that owned their own plane?) I have owned two in the past, but the cost just got way too high for the amount of income that my "profession" now pays. Go to your local airport now, not many family rides left, just the few business owners and flight school rental type stuff around much now....and they are decreasing daily. It is taking a three way partnership to even afford something like a cherokee nowadays. It is not uncommon to see tens of thousands in insurance cost for rental airplanes. So rental fleets are getting thin and what is left runs you 120 bucks an hour for a late 90's 172.

No I think GA is probably going to die off to a mere shadow of what it used to be in the next 10 years or so.

 

[PunchTheClown]

Did anyone hear the rumor that PSA is closing its doors on Wednesday? My brothers, friend, sisters girlfriend heard it from Ferris at 31 flavors last night. I guess its pretty serious.

 

[mack82]

Good job guys!!! It might sting a little at first, but I think a lot will agree that this is better for the long run.

 

[LearLove]

Let Mesa fly them!! They have contract talks coming up, and lets hope that once and for all they will find their balls!

I have a new respect for PSA!!! Unbelievable that management would ask them to fly at those rates. I am sure management would have gotten a nice kick back if PSA would agree have agreed to fly the 900's at 50 seat rates.

And just when I thought Doug Parker and US Airways was working on becoming more Labor friendly they go and pull some crap like this! "Hey we want to have you fly nice big shiney RJ's that hold almost twice as many people as the 50 Seaters...... but wait, I want you to fly them for 50 Seat rates... and guess what, you only have till 1 Aug to decide and if you don't we give them away!!!!!! Yepppppie!!

Doug Parker! I have lost a bunch of respect for you!!!!!!!

hey look Wsurf, we agree on something. Best code-a-phone I've listened to in years. 1-800-4jt-sfly

Way to go PSA - bet KH is throwing a fit.