Originally Posted by
TransWorld
This shoots holes in the people’s logic that says there will never be a shortage of pilots wanting to fly 121. Look at all these people that are licensed private pilots. If they were offered a job, they all would fly 121. Not true.
The majority of pilots want to fly on Saturday morning as a hobby. Or fly family or friends someplace every few weeks. They enjoy it. But have no desire to be a professional pilot, no matter how much of a carrot is dangled out there. And that is okay.
Right. But we can probably assume the number of people taking up flying as a hobby is relatively constant. If we need 10,000 more ATPs yesterday, 100,000 new hobby pilots aren't going to come running out of the woodwork. That was my whole point about the current system being 'right sized' for the Lost Decade. Just because there's suddenly tons of new CPLs doesn't mean a commensurate number of pipeline or banner towing companies are going to open up. The current industry produces enough pilots to cover attrition in about 2015, not 2022.