Sallie Mae Doing its Part to Reduce the Glut of Pilots

[Lear70]

I have no issue with thinning the supply, don't get me wrong.

I also would never have spent the kind of money ERAU required, but at least it came with a degree. Any of the state schools with an aviation program with in-state tuition, UND, MTSU, Parks College, etc, are good programs and worthy of government funding.

The $75,000-$125,000 Gulfstream Academies of the world? Just for the licenses you could have obtained at any local flight school and a "chance" at a regional interview? Not so much.

Like I said, I agree with you that the supply needs to dry up. I also agree with many other posters that, as soon as it does, and the airlines feel the supply pinch, their big-money lobbying system will go into full-swing and we'll end up with some equivalent of the MPL and government- and airline-subsidized direct training.

You wanna know the sad part? It'll probably be U.S. pilots working for $25 bucks an hour training these monkeys... Training your own replacement for peanuts. That's how smart the average pilot seems to be the last couple decades... take the job for nothing, work for free, pay for training, just so you can make $17 an hour and call yourself an "airline pilot".

Makes this 3rd generation pilot sick about what this profession has become.

 

[LAFrequentflyer]

ALL ATP now accepts VA / GI Bill - right?

I've also heard good things about prairie air service.

 

[lionflyer]

That's how airlines with their ab inito training make sure you don't leave! LH is a prime example.

Which airlines are these? I'm not familiar with foreign airlines so forgive me please. Who is LH?

 

[Colonel Savage]

Luftwaffe, er, Lufthansa...Sorry, I always get those two mixed up.

 

[hockeypilot44]

4.7% for a 30 year means you have a credit score at or above 800...OR you timed your financing perfectly.

Both.

 

[AceCrackshot]

I have no issue with thinning the supply, don't get me wrong.

I also would never have spent the kind of money ERAU required, but at least it came with a degree. Any of the state schools with an aviation program with in-state tuition, UND, MTSU, Parks College, etc, are good programs and worthy of government funding.

The $75,000-$125,000 Gulfstream Academies of the world? Just for the licenses you could have obtained at any local flight school and a "chance" at a regional interview? Not so much.

Like I said, I agree with you that the supply needs to dry up. I also agree with many other posters that, as soon as it does, and the airlines feel the supply pinch, their big-money lobbying system will go into full-swing and we'll end up with some equivalent of the MPL and government- and airline-subsidized direct training.

You wanna know the sad part? It'll probably be U.S. pilots working for $25 bucks an hour training these monkeys... Training your own replacement for peanuts. That's how smart the average pilot seems to be the last couple decades... take the job for nothing, work for free, pay for training, just so you can make $17 an hour and call yourself an "airline pilot".

Makes this 3rd generation pilot sick about what this profession has become.

Excellent point. Additionally, I agree with your assessment. However, I believe that the airlines, rather than jousting at the FAA windmill for a new license class, or ponying up the money for ab initio, will simply use a "pilot shortage" argument as the driver for irreversable cabotage. They will use "Open Skies" arguments, i.e. Joe Sixpack just flew from Dublin to Chicago on a United flight (operated by Aer Lingus), what's the difference if they now go on to Kansas City, on that same airplane? After all, they got over here safely, didn't they? Ireland and EU are sure to give us cabotage within Ireland and Fifth Freedom rights within Europe, any day now.

The U.S. Government, for 30 years plus, has been more than willing to trade fifth freedoms and route authorities away. While I've been called a conspiracy theorist on this website, I imagine the Government has done what they have done for what seemed like good reasons, at the time.

Either way, without better management able to understand what's at stake, the American Airline Industry is going the way of the American Merchant Fleet. In other words, going from world dominance to practical irrelevance in a span of a generation, mostly due to a combination of bad policy and bad management.

 

[Lear70]

Can't argue that...

 

[jppt2000]

I have no issue with thinning the supply, don't get me wrong.

I also would never have spent the kind of money ERAU required, but at least it came with a degree. Any of the state schools with an aviation program with in-state tuition, UND, MTSU, Parks College, etc, are good programs and worthy of government funding.

The $75,000-$125,000 Gulfstream Academies of the world? Just for the licenses you could have obtained at any local flight school and a "chance" at a regional interview? Not so much.

Like I said, I agree with you that the supply needs to dry up. I also agree with many other posters that, as soon as it does, and the airlines feel the supply pinch, their big-money lobbying system will go into full-swing and we'll end up with some equivalent of the MPL and government- and airline-subsidized direct training.

You wanna know the sad part? It'll probably be U.S. pilots working for $25 bucks an hour training these monkeys... Training your own replacement for peanuts. That's how smart the average pilot seems to be the last couple decades... take the job for nothing, work for free, pay for training, just so you can make $17 an hour and call yourself an "airline pilot".

Makes this 3rd generation pilot sick about what this profession has become.

Maybe those people at the Gulfstream-type academies, don't agree with you, about the "legacy" schools you've pronounced as "good".
IMHO the degree you're talking about was used to weed out thousands of applicants for a few available airline jobs.
I believe the RJ and small jet airliner has completely changed the way pilots' skills are viewed by management, (I don't agree with management, but it is what it is).
Those "good" schools are having a tough time justifying their existence at this time.
Why not get a degree that can ensure you can make a living for your family if you are put out on the street? On the side, take flight training from a mom and pop flying school.

 

[Colonel Savage]

But if you do the mom and pop flight school instead of the Puppy Mill, you don't get the guarenteed access to the interviews at the RJ operators. That's the bait: 1) Get the bank loan (easy credit, easy money) 2) Buy the program 3) Get the guarenteed interview (meaning job).

It made a mockery out of the whole hiring process, and provided a guarenteed stream of cheap labor to fuel the outsourcing.

Now the kids are out of work, can't pay back the loans, and the Glut remains.

 

[hockeypilot44]

But if you do the mom and pop flight school instead of the Puppy Mill, you don't get the guarenteed access to the interviews at the RJ operators. That's the bait: 1) Get the bank loan (easy credit, easy money) 2) Buy the program 3) Get the guarenteed interview (meaning job).

It made a mockery out of the whole hiring process, and provided a guarenteed stream of cheap labor to fuel the outsourcing.

Now the kids are out of work, can't pay back the loans, and the Glut remains.

Their jobs only paid $25,000 - $30,000 to begin with. Even while working, they couldn't pay back the loans. It's sad how flying airplanes has become a minimum wage job with more and more well-paying jobs disappearing every day.