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Old 03-04-2017, 03:57 AM
  #15  
AboveAndBeyond
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Joined APC: Sep 2014
Posts: 521
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There are a large number of pilots coming to the airlines that thought they would never fly professionally. Think of them as doctors, lawyers, insurance salesmen, and business owners that have been flying around for 20 years in a little piston airplane and deciding it would be "fun" to be an airline pilot for their last few years of working. I know that we get lots of applications from them. Most have flown less than 100 hours in the last 5 years combined, and 1500 hours in the last 20-25 years of flying.

The problem with these guys is that they do very poorly in training, statistically. As soon as things start getting difficult, and they realize that it is more work than they thought it was going to be, they quit. Then, if they make it through training, they last a couple of months on reserve and quit then. It is not a glamorous job, and they are already set financially, so they quit. Less than 10% make it to their one year anniversary.

There are thousands of pilots with CMEL's or ATP's and current medicals that fall into this category.

The large numbers of current pilots is deceiving.

Like was stated above, anyone that has been around a major flight school in the US recently knows that the majority of the students are foreign nationals that are here to get their training and will leave as soon as they do. They are not able to work in the US, and most already have a job in their country.
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