B727DRVR

So true, Spike!

Recently, I listened to a radio interview with an American IT supervisor for a US-based company, who was laid off and replaced with an Indian H1B recipient making much lower pay! To add insult to injury, they forced the American to train his Indian replacement or risk being terminated and losing benefits. This, I feel, is the greatest threat to American pilots.

As far as the 1500 hour rule, I have to laugh at those who think that 1500 hours is "a lot" of time or "too long". As a geezer, I remember as a student in the late 80's, pilots were getting hired with "the commuter airlines" with as little as 1000 total/100 multi. As the economy went South, Desert Storm pilots flooded the market, and Eastern and Pan Am collapsed, requirement times slowly inched up to 1200/100, 1500/100, 1500/250, 1500/500, 2000/250, 2500/500, and I eventually saw 4000 total/1000 multi for a $1000/mo. crap job flying a Metroliner or Casa 212 or Shorts.

Then, with thousands of pilots on furlough from the military forced drawdowns, furloughs from AA, US Air, America West, Delta, Midway, the regionals, etc., about 90 % of the regionals went to to Pay for Training scam. Pilots, already deep in student loan debt, were forced to pay an additional $18,000-$20,000 for their own Regional Airline training, room, and board for as little as a $16,000/year job. This instantly created a caste system in US Aviation. Gone were the days where a aspiring pilot could cut grass, work at the FBO, and do whatever it took to build flight time and be reasonably assured that you could get a job... Now, only foreigners and the rich kids could aspire to get a regional job because it didn't matter if you had 10,000 hours/5000 multi/1 moon landing/1 shuttle landing, you still couldn't get the job unless you paid the $20,000. You would regularly see the advertisements with the young kid in an airline uniform... "Hi, I,m (substitute your favorite rich kid name... Thad, Biff, Skippy, etc...), my Daddy's rich and got me this job with a regional through the Flight Safety program with only 250 hours". And this environment was rife with scams.... Pilots would show up to a flight school (having deposited $50,000 plus in their flight account), only to find the doors shuttered and their money gone. Pilots would pay for their training and and then airlines would rescind their offers. Or, airlines would put an inordinant amount of pilots in class (each paying $20,000), and then wash out most of them. It was well known that there were these puppy pilot mills that could care less if they brought you on the company or if you failed, as long as you paid the money. Some companies even charged pilots for interviews! The only real winners I saw in the Pay for Training scam were the pilots that paid to get hired with Continental Express and actually got a Continental, and eventually, United seniority number. Things got better, but Pay for Training was still alive and well with Southwest B737 Type requirement. I know so many pilots that spent their last $7500 to get that type rating just to get an interview at SWA. Pay for training was the bane of our industry, and it could come back if we went back to the 250 hour European model.

The current hiring outlook compared to the black days of the past reminds me of the quote.. "These ARE the good old days..."