Originally Posted by
gloopy
IDK about that. It may appear that way statistically simply because pretty much everyone these days is either military or a "flight school kid". The "lost decade" destroyed a huge part of the 61 and 121 flight training infrastructure. The GARA legislation from the 90's has largely worn off and the everything bubble fueled by easy credit has caused the entire sector to balloon in price, along with the comical college price bubble. Flight schools should be the same price adjusted only for inflation as they were decades ago and colleges should be a fraction of their costs then, as knowledge has only gotten faster and cheaper. Instead, massive malinvestment by edict has pumped up the costs of so many things that there are fewer gateways into the profession at a much higher price than before.
We're approaching medical school levels of costs of entry. Its hard to do it part 61 with fewer financing opportunities. The remaining flight schools have simply adapted to it while most mom and pops can't.
Its not that they prefer "flight school kids" but rather that is the vast majority of all that's left in the current pipeline.
Agree with this entirely. Back in the late 80's through the 90's, it was the outlier guy or gal that went through Riddle, UND or FSI. The vast majority of the industry was the 10-20 airplane Mom n Pop. Lots of cheap aircraft built in the late 70's that were used, but just getting broken in at 6,000 hours. Every once in a while you got a MnP that got a bit too big and flamed out spectacularly (Bolivar comes to mind).
Those airplanes are now in the 14,000 hour category and are getting used up through attrition. GA dried up in the mid 80s and so there's nothing to replace them. Prices are in orbit. Not a good set up for continued success.