Originally Posted by
rickair7777
That wasn't the purpose, although it may be a consequence. GL and GIA may be done, but I doubt the puppy mills are going anywhere, they'll still be able to suck enough people in. They'll offer CFI jobs to their grads (at least one hour/month guaranteed!) and zero-to-ATP time building programs for the well-heeled. The good news is that while starry-eyed wannabe skygods would instantly sign up for the $180K loan needed to go direct from zero to regional FO, no lender in his right mind would go for that, so the latter option will be available only if daddy can cover down.
Thanks for your responses earlier in the thread to what I'd written. Always appreciate and respect your input.
As for daddy covering down, I went through training with a lot of guys who told me their dad is a Captain for United or Southwest or whoever. It got old quick. Many (not all) had a serious sense of entitlement to the profession and acted like the left seat of a widebody was their birthright. All the while their training, housing, new car, and comfortable lifestyle were being subsidized by Captain Daddy. I also trained foreign students who were selected under the guise of a skills test allegedly open to the public, yet every single one of them seemed to have a father working as a pilot or in management at this airline. It raises an eyebrow.
I'd love to get away from this Ivy League legacy club member mentality and towards a merit based philosophy in all things training/hiring. Obviously if someone (or their daddy) has the money to get their private pilot's license after 100+ hours, that's their right. But without that demographic, the 1500 rule might not even exist. I think we'd also have a sharper, hungrier pilot group.