Originally Posted by
Bellanca
It's not about having to build 1500, as much as the time comes slow and most people are looking at 2-3 years to build the hours, all while making crappy wages, then another year of first year airline pay. There's a lot of people that just can't afford to only make $25k for 3 or 4 years...
The school I instructed at was $250,000 for 4 years plus flight ratings. Rediculous. But even going the FBO route can easily run $50,000 these days, add another $70,000 for a degree from a state school (yes tuition is getting that out of control), and a lot of people just can't afford it.
So as I see it the problem is the arbitrary requirement of the airlines to have a college degree for a career that having one does just about nothing to enhance your skills.
In years gone by you couldn't even think about getting a job at a regional with less than 1500hrs or more just because that's what you had to have to even be compedetive.
This seems to be finally turning into a good time to be a pilot, for the first time I've seen real improvement in wages and companies fighting to get pilots in my nearly 2 decades in aviation. The fact that you have to get alittle experience is a minor bump in the road.