Originally Posted by Duffman

I see what you're saying, but my point was that there'll be a real bottle neck in a few years to get from 250ish to 1,500 hours. Most CPLs with 121 aspirations would probably prefer to fly pipeline, charter, 135 corporate in a Cirrus, etc, but the majority of jobs available for CPLs are as CFIs, so that's why so many people do it. CFIs typically cobble together their hours from #1-5, but that still requires a lot of people who won't make it to the airlines through what is currently the most popular avenue.

1) I think this number is fixed, regardless of airline demand

2) Same as #1

3) Sadly, this is currently how CFIs get most of their hours. Maybe more airline hopefuls would mean more washouts

4) This is a fixed number and just supplements CFI flying, if you want 1,500 hours in <10 years

5) Same as #4


Maybe the 'standard pathway' of the future will be buy a cheap 152, fly it for 1,000 hours for roughly $70k of gas and half an overhaul, then sell it to the next guy, but I digress. The issue is there won't be a huge change in the demand for CFI jobs. If more CFIs are needed to train new airline hopefuls, then what happens to the trainees when they get their ratings and a dozen of them are competing for the CFI job? Maybe a few fail out, one gets a pipeline job, but what about the other 8 guys?


Like I said, if this were my problem and I had the power to make decisions, I'd be lobbying the FAA for a quicker path to get pilots from CPL to ATP, because it's going to cause a shortage further down the logistics chain.