Cubdriver

I do not think he said there were 145,000 atp's who are working, just that they exist, presumably according to some valid source such as the FAA. This is an example of how statistics can be misleading, since you cannot assume that if someone has an atp then they also fly for a living. A very large number of such atp holders appear to exist at the present, whether it be for ego reasons or for the job qualification, perhaps they left the job as a former pilot or they have the cert because flying is cache and you get laid more from having one.

SkyHigh said he was trying to get better statistical information from the FAA in a recent post, and I can vouch that this is a very hard task as I have tried to get specific statistical data from the FAA by email and had a very hard go of it. They do not know or care as much about it as we do.

As far as the gist of this post goes, I admire Mr. Aerospace for writing it and I think he is basically right in what he is saying, but he has applied the statistics a little bit inaccurately. His basic assumption is that there is a shortage of qualified pilots, something I do not agree with, observation being there is a shortage of qualified pilots who will work for less than middle class wages, not a shortage of qualified pilots. As a matter of fact I am a member of the former group and have elected in the last few months to stay in a non-aviation sector of the US economy because the income new pilots achieve is less than a third of what they can get elsewhere in the American economy. I came out of engineering school a year ago and started off at 3... count em three... times the starting pay of a professional pilot. I am an example of someone who would love to fly for a living but will not, simply because the economics and wage offerings are so poor. The pilot supply is glutted with men who will fly for nothing. I would like to ask them in 5 years how it went, not without sarcasm, because I see folly going on in their thinking. I know several such persons who offered $50,000+ worth of training they obtained usually at the expense of their parents, for little more than a chance to play an airline lottery game. I do not have a lot of respect for their actions.