I got this unsolicited email today and thought it was...uhh, interesting. My only thoughts, increase pay to better than the airlines (shouldnt be hard...)and then you will have instructors again... enjoy.



To Pilots and Instructor Pilots:

This is a letter to help make you aware of the current world situation and at the same time for the selfish purpose of attracting employees that are interested in adding to the improvement of flight training.

We all need the pilot community to know the real situation and hopefully to understand what the ramifications can be.

There is now an extreme shortage of Flight Instructors in this country. The Airlines have been hiring all the warm bodies they can find because of the general shortage of qualified pilots.

The industry needs to recognize the actual status of aviation in this country as well as the rest of the world. The cost of training to become a professional pilot and the ongoing media presentation of the dangers have contributed to turning away potential student pilots. In turn lack of industry contribution to advertising and pay has not given the young person any impetus to become involved.

Whatever the reason one can provide for the situation, it does not change the fact that for the past ten to fifteen years there have been considerably fewer new pilots versus the number of those retiring. A simple study of FAA statistics of the numbers of different ratings obtained and those maintained has shown the day would come when there would no longer be enough pilots for the demand.

An additional factor not shown in the numbers is how many of those pilots obtaining commercial licenses are actually foreigners that are not allowed to work in this country. Since the initial TSA requirement (approx. 5 yrs.) for background checks of foreign Students, there have been over 175,000 applications. Ab-initio students typically are required three checks during their training so there has to be almost 60,000 foreign students included in the FAA numbers. This means there are very few domestic pilots being trained in the country that requires the most!

The day has arrived. Today a new commercial pilot can go directly to an airline or other professional flight position. The demand has taken most of the young instructors from the flight schools leaving a shortage for the training of new pilots.

In the 1960's this situation existed where major airlines were hiring 250 hour pilots. At that time foreign pilots were allowed to come. Today, any foreign pilot is considered a terrorist until proved otherwise but with the immigration system currently in place still not allowed to work in the U.S.!

With a shortage of instructors, there being only older instructors available, there is no way to ever catch up with demand. The numbers just cannot be made to work! There is no way statistically to generate the number of pilots or instructors needed throughout the world without the Airlines participation. The older instructor pilots continue to get older and the new potential instructors no longer stay at the schools. Eventually the Airlines will find it necessary to have their own pilots do ab-initio flight training in order to supply their own needs. Those Airlines that understand this problem and begin doing their own training will be the ones that survive.

Until then a partial but temporary aid will be to encourage more of those without licenses to obtain licenses and those without medicals to become involved in that part of training not requiring the medical.

Re-thinking the way training is done by use of ground instructors teaching the non-flying aircraft operation and procedures.

More emphasis on simulation and simulated flight procedures with thorough drill to allow more efficient and progressive flight training.

Ground schools to emphasize more practical flight and radio procedures in addition to the usual required flight curricula.

Learning to fly and learning what to do with the aircraft differentiated to allow efficient and safe methods of operation.

It is no longer practical for a Flight Instructor to spend more than minimum time with the Student on the ground.

In reality, it is all about money. The time has come when the necessity of having sufficient training to increase the number of new pilots will require compensation to the Instructors sufficient to allow them to afford staying in that profession. The industry will gradually come to that.